Gramps and Grams loved how I was interested in "everything". (I SO have to condense this so not to ramble),

They both told me in their loving way that they loved my excitement for all things but generalities do not pay well.

How did you choose (or fall into) your specialty? Are you a Scientist with musical aspirations..a Business Person/Dancer?

Shoot! I guess the question is, How do you balance your practical and artistic sides?

I miss my grandparents.

lets just say i had a Good teacher.

in the past my friend?

i live in the now and i enjoy life.





btw, Happy Late V-Day.

I'm unique to most people as in I have nothing but time.
I actually have the luxury of being able to merge my practical side with my artistic side.
Even with my freedom of time, I do have business that needs attention. I tend to focus on the business and get it done and over with so I do have time to explore my artistic nature.

I've learned to adjust my mindset to the actual time on subject.
I stop my business when no progress can be made and let it go till progress can be had.
Its that segregation of here and now that gives me the freedom to pursue my creativity unhampered by worry or anticipation.
I can dedicate myself fully to my creativity.
Its a very simple discipline. Worry about it when worrying will have an impact. Don't worry about it when worrying doesn't matter.

If you have a billing issue and the business offices close at 5pm. It does no good to be upset at 8 pm. There is nothing you can do at this time, so let it go. Deal with it when the offices reopen. Until then, why not enjoy your life in the here and now?
Is there some unwritten rule that says you have to be miserable? Put your life on hold?

I know it sounds strange but that is exactly what some people do.
They maintain their problems even when there is nothing that can be done at that time to fix them. A perpetual misery maintained by their own devices.

Leave it to you, to remind me of the emotional side
Happy Belated Valentines My Friend!

Thank you.
I truly believe you can do it yourself.

I can't really say that I ever did, and I suspect from observation that most people don't actively "balance things."

What happened with me, was that I reached a point where I needed to get work that would pay enough for me to be on my own, and so I tried various jobs until I stumbled into one that paid enough, and that I was good at and enjoyed.

I've read the stories of lots of artists, and most of them seemed to go the same way, save that at some point, they had a lucky situation where their art became profitable.

Or they didn't, and they had a very unpleasant and often short life, and were only truly "successful" after they died. Like Van Gogh.

One possible thing you might look into. Long after I was already doing all the things that I do (pursue history, write poetry song and fiction, and repair machines), I figured out that all of that, stems from the single same mental processes that I enjoy and hunger for.

Perhaps you could take a look at what you enjoy about your artistic side, and if necessary, find a professional adviser who can tell you how those artistic skills and pleasures, might be applied to an income producing field.

In my case, it has all been about gathering information from the world around me, making logical sense of it, and then using that to either "fix" the world, "fix" my emotional experiences, or "fix" machines. The last thing makes me enough money to fund the other two.

I'm very lucky in that I have a job that I really love and pays the bills and I pursue my artistic
interests on the side ( I have no illusions about my talent - I know I could never make $ from art - I do art for fun & to please myself)

I can relate and struggled hard with this myself.

We all want the "do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life"...life.

With creative types like us, it becomes a little more complicated than a musician who practices until their fingers bleed to gain a spot on a symphony.

For the juggling, cat trainer and amateur chef with the amazing scrapbooks, it's not that straight-forward, or all that lucrative. :^p

Most people adjust to a life in a career they can tolerate enough to pay for the life they want to lead, instead of making the life they want to lead pay for the responsibilities and necessities they have to tolerate.

I have found a middle ground in finding a position that, while not exactly my passion, allows me to work near enough to it to keep my passionate side content at my work. When I get home, I can slip happily back into cat training mode.

JK on the cat training. I paint and my middle ground is a job with an art dealer.

Mostly by reacting to experience.



No.


I don't.
I don't really value any "artistic" side of myself.
I've read studies that people didn't really value that trait until after the feminist movement really started gaining traction.
Where women didn't have as many professional opportunities so many went into the "arts."

When that became a desired and valued trait among women, then men started jumping on the bandwagon. You got hippies, and the stereotypical campus d-bag in the baja pullover strumming a guitar expressing himself. You got directors and their student films.

Prior to about 50-80 years ago "artistic" was more of a dirty word you could call people than something people desired others to know about themselves.

Men focused on practical social ideas. Strong, protective, courageous, productive, contributing to society, family man, good worker, loyal, patriotic, practical, handy, smart.
Men just did not use the term "artistic" to describe themselves.
"Artistic" was for beatniks that didn't have jobs and didn't have anything to contribute to society except discontent and angst.

Outside of an investment opportunity I have no way of appreciating art, nor do I pretend I have any ability or desire for "artistic" expression.
So no balance is necessary.


...Or are you "really" asking something more like "in trying to find balance between pursuing individual selfish actualization (independence, security) and fulfilling social demands (community and social group maintenance, social obligations and expectations), how do you vent the stress from that struggle in acceptable ways that may fulfill both?"

Art is ultimately a social tool the individual uses reconciling their social identity with their unique identity. Otherwise it would stay in the mind, never touching a medium of expression.