I found this bookmark from the Wordery Bookstore with this great quote: You can’t buy happiness but you can buy books. Yeah!!!

AND, I thought: You can’t buy happiness but you can buy art. Right?

As an artist, I know that if a certain amount of time goes by and I haven’t been doing my work, I can feel not right. I can feel out of balance. I know I’m off. And when I return, the art pulls me back to center. I feel – well – happier.

And in that state of mind, I create what I create. I’m fed by the activity. That energy must, by association, imbue the work I do..

I have read about artists of varied temperaments, who create work in all sorts of mindsets: rage, despair, curiosity, meditation. In the process of doing the art, the energy can resolve itself. And this resolution is inherent in the art. Great beauty is created. At least in optimal circumstances.

Isn’t that why anyone seeks art? Art of any kind? Always we are searching. In this ever-moving self that we inhabit, we look for clues, for answers, for our way forward. We, well, look for happiness.

In books, yes … and in art.