Live the Questions 

Trail to Arcadia, watercolor and ink on paper, 12"x12"

I wanted to mention something I believe is a crucial part of an artist's life. I am not thinking here about exhibitions, galleries, open studios, awards and recognitions (though these are important too), but rather about- questions and doubts. I often find myself in a state of uncertainty about what it is that I am creating; why, how, does it make sense, does it matter in any way...and then I find what helps the most are inspiring works (and words!) by great artists, who surely struggled and wondered and pondered, and continued doing what they were doing...because they really had no other choice.

Here is a beautiful quote from the great Rainer Maria Rilke (from his "Letters to a Young Poet"):

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

I guess I'll now go back to living the questions...