The image is the important thing. If I as an artist can produce an image that pleases me, I am overjoyed. If anyone else likes it, that is simply incidental... through the process of creating images, a certain percentage of people will like it also, and that is more than enough reward for me. Personally, I believe no one can possibly get as much enjoyment out of the art as I myself, if for no other reason than I intimately know the road that it took to arrive there, a road that wasn't always easy, but was ultimately worthwhile, nevertheless.

Robert Henri said that a person is only an artist when others say that he/she is. I find this to be true. Many thanks to those of you that have 'knighted' me with this honor... it took a long time to arrive, and at great personal expense. I also find that a person is only an artist when they are creating art. Once brush is put down, so is the artist, regardless of how much they might cling to the ideal of being an artist. 

Providing people with something unique, something they can enjoy, something they can be happy with and proud to hang on their wall, is a valid end. It's a wonderful thing to be able to do.

Ultimately, I produce art because I am compelled to do so. A force inside is unstoppable and uncontrollable, it must have it's way. The more I am able to step out of the way of that force, the better the art becomes.

Salvador Dali said: "The most important secret in art is that an angel must guide your brush". Whatever you wish to call it, this guidance must be present.