Artists Don't Stop

I read this article (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/nyregion/discovered-at-64-a-brooklyn-artist-takes-his-place.html?nl=nyregion&emc=edit_ur_20130605&_r=0) the other day, and found it inspirational. It's a brief profile of a 64-year old artist, Rafael Leonardo Black, who was recently "discovered."

For thirty years - "day after day, year by year, he labored like a monk [on his art]," while making his living "as a typist in a law firm, a salesman at Gimbels and then Macy’s, and as a secretary in a school. Most recently, he has worked mornings as a part-time receptionist in a hospital."

“I never expected to be able to make a living at it, but I’ve always done it since — well, I guess, since I’ve known my self.”
-Rafael Leonardo Black

"What I do is read and make my pictures. To rip off Max Ernst, you keep one eye on what’s going on outside, and one eye focused inside. Then you make things that say something to both.”
-Rafael Leonardo Black 

Well past the usual age of discovery for an emerging artist, Mr. Black notes that he is not news to himself.

“People who become what are called artists don’t stop,” he said. “There’s a saying: ‘Everybody writes poems at 15; real poets write them at 50.’ ” 

To writing poetry or  reading and making pictures or whatever it is that you do at 50, 60, 70...as long as you live. To not stopping.