It’s been a mixed year for all of us I believe with worldwide political upheaval, financial worries, a seeming rash of celebrity deaths and quite probably our own personal demons to deal with.

It goes to show that fame and fortune are not necessarily all they are cracked up to be and yet so many of us still strive to attain this goal, whatever it is.  If we as artists became fabulously rich would we stop creating?  I don’t think so, we see most celebrities who appear to have achieved their goal and yet they keep working, keep producing and continue to create.  So money and fame are not the object.

What does fame and fortune bring?  Is it the necessary affirmation that what we create is beautiful to others, partly yes I think so.  This alone doesn’t however seem to bring satisfaction as so many of these famous or infamous people succumb to drug and alcohol abuse leading to troubled lives and sadly eventual early and often tragic demise.

Is this need for constant and yet unfulfilled affirmation of our abilities the sole realm of creatives.  I don’t believe so, there are many out there who are not artistically creative who also seem to suffer from a need to enhance their lives with mind altering substances thus possibly adding to existences full of turmoil. Whilst all around us there are those not seeking artistic recognition, just trying to get on with the daily struggle of life whose lives are full of uninvited disturbance and difficulty who continue to cope many most admirably on a daily basis.

So it seems that just part of the human psyche for some will include these difficulties.  I wonder though has anyone done a study on the proportion of people who suffer with these difficulties that come from creative backgrounds versus more ordinary backgrounds.  I hesitate to say ordinary because I don’t actually believe that anyone is ordinary, we are all very individual, everyone has their story just some seem to cope better than others.

Whatever your leanings I hope your/our 2017 is a good one, that we manage this year each with our own share of happiness and serenity and should trouble come knocking at our door that we have friends to support us through difficult times.

I wish you all the best for 2017.