creative tension

I have a shelf with 28 years worth of journals on it. (The shelf is full)

It's over 50 books. Sometimes I wonder about my life work, other times I know it was not really a choice, it was what I had to do. In a month an artist rep is taking some of my work to a trade show in New York. This feels like a nice validation after years of work. I wonder what will happen? and I also wonder why do I need that thing that happens to feel like I have accomplished something?

I'll let you know.

"I don’t know how you reconcile the two sides of the creative spectrum (idea generation and production), but I know that it never goes away.

If you are an artist, you have to learn to live in this tension. You have to keep releasing your work into the world, and it has to be good. If it’s excellent, and nobody sees it, it doesn’t count. If it’s on display for the world to see, but ordinary, it’s irrelevant.

The path to compelling work lies somewhere in between the two extremes of genius-but-invisible and ordinary-but-in-your face.  Only the artist knows the true balance; only she can find the harmony. This is the person with the taste and passion to make meaningful work. She’s the ones with enough gumption to create change."
--Jeff Goins
http://goinswriter.com/world-needs-artists/