At it's essence, art is an alchemical process. Alchemy is a process of transformation.

As a writer, I find holidays often disturbing, not liberating, in their disruption of tempo, their open-ended time.

The doing of something productive regardless of the outcome is an act of faith. The doing of a small something when a large something is too much for us is perhaps especially an act of faith. Faith means going forward by whatever means we can.

Art is one of the few careers without a mandatory retirement age.

Each of us has an inner dream that we can unfold if we will just have the courage to admit what it is, and the faith to trust our own admission. The admitting is often very difficult.

Perfectionism has nothing to do with getting it right. It has nothing to do with fixing things. It has nothing to do with standards. Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move forward. It is a loop-an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting or making and to lose sight of the whole.

Art opens the closets, airs out the cellars and attics. It brings healing.