Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Tyler Boley" <tyler@t...> 
wrote:
do you think it's possible to have artistic career success and 
remain free to progress as an 
> artist? Or is it just an illusion, and always some kind of 
compromise? My observation is that it would take a remarkable 
> individual to remain clearheaded in the middle of success.
> Which is why I make a constant point of remaining 
unsuccessful...
> yeah, that's it...
> Tyler

I never met you, Tyler, but I swear I could almost hear you saying 
that last line above; (but the scene is like one from BarFly -- you 
as Mickey Rourke, sitting on a barstool, with that long cigarette 
ash, the ice klinking around in your glass of cheap scotch, 
smelling like yesterday's clothes, and mumbling this weird 
mantra over and over, "Wegman, Meyerwitz, Sturges, Fink, Mann 
oh Mann, whatta they got that I ain't got...?")

I don't why you're asking me, pal. I'm just a guy. All I try to do is 
live WAY below my means, and keep my overhead very low. That 
keeps me from having to say Yes when I don't want to. Right 
now, I think I'm going a bit overboard; I'm selling my house and 
starting to live in an RV. I own an office building that's an old 
house, and the RV stays there. My goal is to have everything paid 
off and have a good cushion. I want to not be tempted too much 
by creature comforts; I want to hit the road and travel in the US in 
this RV, and keep traveling and shooting internationally. I've 
always known I'd never be successful on any kind of grand level, 
because I'm not wired to play that game. My new mantra is "keep 
it simple", and this NY/DC thing has made me realize that time is 
short, and that it's a sin to waste time.

I'd think it would be tough to find success in one area ("Maybe 
today I'll paint a blue dog...."), and then see the money, but then 
find that it's not providing nourishment for the soul, but it is 
paying the mortgage. I just always try to never get on that squirrel 
cage wheel; because it's tough to get off once it starts spinning.

If there has been anything positive about these last four weeks, 
it's that when I walk by a magazine stand and see yet another 
cheesy celebrity portrait, it just seems so silly. Hopefully we'll get 
back to some degree of "content".