There is a point in an artist's life, if lucky, when the force of everything learned comes into sharp focus. This occurs early or later, but in that time a masterpiece is created, maybe several. Then the forces scatter again, to take another lifetime to converge. If an artist can focus their forces and create a masterpiece in the allotted time, then immortality is possible. This is the game. The irony is that immortality is not for the artist to know.
My creative forces came into consciousness in Chicago some 17,000 days ago and my one chagrin may be that the sum of those days and the ones I may be promised won't add up to a single masterwork. There are no regrets for taking up the quest, the joy is the journey and that's the way it ought to be.
Ira Harmon
