Imbalance

One of the unfortunate consequences of a life in the arts, and this is true for artists at all levels and in all forms but one, is the disconnect, the imbalance, between act and reaction. That is, the writer is "highest" upon completion of the work but there is no audience for the work then. The origin of post partem depression in the arts is here: the universal silence that greets the completion of the work. Appreciation, if there is any, comes later. By then, if the gap is long enough, the artist may already be at work on something else, the energies of serial monogamy blunting connection to past work. The exception, of course, is the performing artist, who faces the audience in real time and gets to feel the immediate reaction.

This comes to mind because already my video appears to have disappeared into oblivion, two weeks after its completion. It still will be seen and appreciated, of course, but I'll hear little of it, and now I'm moving on to my army novel. Ah, me. What a life.