I shall start off by saying that I'm a full-time artist. In my life, I have a few good friends surrounding me and many acquaintances. One topic that often comes up in discussions is my life as an artist and the details of how I make it work.
Their number one question: "How can you plan a budget when you don't know if it will be a week or a YEAR until your next paycheck!?"
It is always a difficult question to answer, even to myself. How DO I make 2 month's worth of money last 5? How can I budget? How do I handle an $10,000 paycheck knowing it could be a month until I get paid again-- or 5 years. . .
A closely related question is, "How can we as your friends just sit back and watch as you navigate this financially insane career of yours? You could lose everything!"
After years of failed attempts of explaining it all, a metaphor came to mind while watching a documentary called MAN ON WIRE. This film is about a tightrope walker who back in 1974 strung a wire between the World Trade Center towers and danced on it for more than 2 hours.
The metaphor works for me. As Philippe Petit, the walker of the film stepped out onto a wire 1,400 feet off the ground, all his friends could do were hold their breaths and watch. They had done everything the could... they helped him set up; they made sure what they could do was done; but in the end, the all held their breaths and watched.
This will be communications from my tightrope. Sometimes the wind is strong and I teeter on the brink. At other times, the wire slackens and I rock back and forth - keeping my balance the whole time. What is the option? There is NO OPTION. To lose my balance means a short flight straight down, and I refuse to accept that.
I stare forward into the worried faces of my friends on either side of my wire; I know I can't look down because looking down will cause the vertigo that's been the downfall of so many other wire walkers before me.
A breeze --my muse-- gently pushes me forward.
- James
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