“Artist Entrepreneur” is a an oxymoron…if you are real artist you are not an entrepreneur. A business person can be creative but he is not an artist.
Gallery owners and consultants seem to think it is all about them and the artist is only there to pay the rent and give him/her a comission.

It is time artists were acknowledge for creating visuals that help transcend this bleak and brutal world because they communicate with their souls, not yet jaded by the marketplace. Even Jesus threw out the moneychangers from the temples, due to that activity being incompatible with spiritual life. Art should be given a chance to thrive in a space similar to a temple, where spirit and creativity combine to produce an inspiration for the people. Instead it is all about making artists into moneychangers.

And if not, then at least let them be useful as community activists with what they create, so moneychangers in our our society are telling artists what to create, soul be damn! The clinck of coins is music to the ears of all the art administrators in Canada, who are making a living dictating to the artists and bullying them into paths they normally would not go on but for the fact they have to eat.
​
A sorry state of affairs I say…when help for artists is conditional on them becoming business tycoons and community developers, with no time for soul searching which is what art is really about. Then when their souls dry up from internal tears over the years what is left? Kitsch of course, what else can they produce in that diminished capacity!

There is no way to escape the natural aging process. Older women have often been accused of witchcraft, especially because of some features that they have due to aging.

These include: red eyes; wrinkled faces; living alone; and maybe even the keeping of pets such as cats, which are said to be animals used by a witch for witchcraft purposes. The media is also to blame since it fuels and perpetuates untruths about women. Even television programs point to the fact that there is something wrong with older women. Taking cartoons for example, one will always get the sense that witchcraft is practiced by old women living alone, making evil spells and potions. Wizards (old men) are on the other hand sweet and powerful beings doing good in the world. Sexually, men are seen as more attractive longer than women. Even the taking of Viagra is no longer perceived as an option but a necessity for older men.

Today getting old is not only a disease, it is a taboo. Aging is a word that conveys fear and a threat of social rejection. An aging body may be perceived as deteriorated, having no social worth. Cosmetic companies and cosmetic surgeons through the media are making millions perpetuating the myth that to be a valuable member of society you have to fight the aging process by buying their products. Aging is increasingly deprived of value, although with a milder slope for men in comparison to women, and for the rich in comparison to the poor. The taboo is therefore associated with social discrimination.
​
Aging reminds us of death, the biggest taboo of all, and the older you are the closer to death you are perceived to be in our materialistic society. Which is nonsense, because the fact is that people of all ages die. Our fear of death makes us fearful of aging as well and repulsed by the whole process. Our society sees beauty only of the flesh and does not look beyond, to the beauty of a wise wrinkled face of an elder, ripe with experience, detached humour and wisdom. After all it is the ripe fruit that is juicy and sweet, and not the sour, green unripe fruit of youth.

Someone just said to me. "Who is to judge what is good art.'"

And I responded with, "I think the answer is clear...bonafide artists with education and people who have studied art for a long time...there is a trend now that anybody is an artist and if it pleases someone that is enough...it isn't...art is a profession and should be respected as such...I have 30+ years painting and doing art behind me as well as a degree so I think what i observe might have some value..."

Please note...drawing perfect eyelashes does not make a work great...the eyes need to have life, warmth and light in them.. Adding a tear under a dead eye does not mean your work is showing sorrow. Don't bother copying perfect eyes from photographs, instead make your lines and shapes dance on the canvas.

It was YEARS after my college degree, and graduate studies that I was finally ready to even call myself an artist. I always referred to myself as a "student of the arts". I had such respect for the title of "artist" that it took me many years of intense work and study before I felt I could assume that crown which i held sacred. Many people these days slap that lable to themselves like a 3 cent postage stamp....

People write to me saying art is subjective, meaning what you like....but is that really true? I think not. Take those technically almost correct works done on black velvet of cowboys...some people might call that good art because it appeals to them. It isn't great art however, not even fine art in any sense of the word.
​
I feel good art is a combination of talent, perseverence, education and feeling. It has to come from the mind, heart and soul of an artist and connect with the heart, mind and soul of the viewer, touch the emotions in some way. I also feel that art history is part of an artist's education.

Please notice the sensitivity of his pieces. The initial abstract artists (e.g.Kandinsky) were saying volumes with their art...and later like everything else in life that works in cycles, abstract art deteriorated to mad splashes of decorative wallpaper meaningless kitsch...it was easy and sellable.

And now? As a reaction, people are enamoured with photographic realism or poster/cartoon art. They have not realized yet that art is an intuitive, sensitive process of unveiling emotions and deep unconscious thoughts that only that individual artist has access to...not Star Trek or Wonder Woman technically correct with a little spoof on religion added to it...