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A Road Less Traveled - Artist's Pages - Brief Article

Too oftentimes artists tend to take for granted single of the most valuable benefits of being an artist: the creative act itself. We give birth and form to an idea from nothing. Artists ideally create something larger, outside of and longer lasting than our hold mortal lives. Making art is a "greater good" for ourselves and, potentially, for others. When the individual artist experiences a crisis, these view from aboveed benefits become precious.

My life changed forever upon November 22, 1989, simply through my getting into a car for a family visit above the Thanksgiving holiday. For the nearest six years, I spent greatest in quantity of my days flat upon my back in unrelenting pain. I was forced onto disability at the leniency of the Social Security Administration (SSA) as individual of SSA's first experiments with the Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS) program.

When my physical disabilities no longer allowed me to create art at a high horizontal severely limiting my media options, the "Eternal Network" of mail art became my adopted cultural family. Mail art was inclusive and diverse. Anything I created was accepted. Mail art was empowering. My work continued to be exhibited and valued. Mail art was at liberty except for postage costs. Since my savings quickly evaporated as the illness dragged upon I couldnit upset my roll over something extraneous like art. Mail art was political. My righteous anger set focus. Mail art provided anonymity. My avatars allowed me to experiment with novel artistic identities.

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