” When all is said and done, the challenges and uncertainties we face as artists might be encompassed by this one question: How do we learn to make art THAT MATTERS? That is assuredly the art we all hope to make, yet actual sightings of such work are rare – today , perhaps, even excessively rare.  After all, it’s not like you can hit Control-P ( that’s P for profound) on your word processor and arbitrarily make it so.  The gods are unimpressed with technology.  To make art is to follow the vein of silver that forms where your concerns touch the concerns of the world. Only when you  align your life with larger worlds is there even the chance that your work will matter.  Art that stands the test of time has always focused on the world’s classical concerns: life, death, love, loss, faith, judgement. What is good? What is true?  What does your art tell us about the way things really are? Or the way they should be ?”

The View from the Studio Door – How Artists Find Their Way in an Uncertain World by Ted Orland