A seven-course meal was my art creation this week.

I enjoyed preparing and cooking the meal for my friends, a celebration of a birthday, of rent control, of African American presidential candidates. Throwing seven courses together is all about process. And art is very much about process. My art is very much about process. The story arc of life is a process.

Yet, things are still crunching along slowly, and that frustrates me. Reminder: marathon, and you’re discussing life at the water table. Resolution seems to triumph the need for production each day as one solves each problem as it arises. Has Conceptualism taken over or are there just many items left over in the IN box? Both.

I am concerned with my relationship to my art, my product, my reflection of who I am in the work I am doing. The fidelity of me. Am I an artist? What is an artist? What do artists really do? What is art? But, aside from all that, I am looking for a place in between two styles, between realism and objectivism…a union. Or, I’m making a union. I just need more time.

Are artists even important? Is the work the only matter? Who cares about who makes it? This view leads me to believe that we can just outsource all of our ideas to cheap labor, churning out photorealistic Concept pieces and specific objects with artificial “no-meaning.” Yes, the maker is important.