Communicating Arts - Main Web SiteLast week was summer.
This one, fall.
I have accounting to do and business to drum in the photography department--there's always much to do, too much as a matter of fact, and I find it more and more difficult to pare away necessary distractions.
Anne and I have been asking this year how tightly we might focus our energies on a project or two (but no more) and not lose the value represented by having our hands in so many other things. She's chasing web work; I would just as soon see her piling up pages of well wrought children's fiction. Anne has long been a fan of the late Madelaine Lengle, and this is her chance to stake her claim on a slice or two of the universal experience as fractured through the kalaedescope that is her own writerly mind.
Why not?
Why not now?
This is a lifestyle issue for most people and usually indicated or expressed by a want of "balance" in living, but for artists who, whether they like it or not, are engaged in manufacturing, the questions "what" and "how much, how well" haunt each day.
We either get our pages done or we don't.
The same goes for new songs, photographs, stories--everything invented.
This summer has had its distractions--love and spirits--also its books and magazines, quite a few "open mics" (I am singing again), also "pony rides" (our Mustang adventures) and pictures out of the garden and from walks plus a good many meals in restaurants and not a few great ones at home.
We've seen a good selection of movies here as well, from My Fair Lady to Lord of War to Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, and with many thanks to Netflix, there's always another DVD on deck.
Life has always its conflicts and heartaches, but in retrospect, this past summer has been a very good one for us.
Correspondence and Permissions: James S. Oppenheim
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