Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than for October 31, 2016

As I sit here burning late oil, getting custom preorders done and making stock for an event I go to in a few days. In the last four decades I learned a LOT I was never taught on how to make art and also feed myself. The fellow I started to study under gave you one quarter then part of your grade involved going out and selling your art at least once every quarter. You had to sell as well as learn how to make. That was the best gift he gave his students. How to make your living at it. When he left the department and the replacement was art-for-the-sake-of-art, (he sold one piece in 11 years, it was an insurance payout because someone stole the freight trailer it was in) I left too. He would get mad because I would make art to fill the booth and sell instead of weird stuff because it was ‘art’. So here I sit tonight, doing a run of stock and the stuff I wanted to make already packed…. Teaching the dedication, and that it may take years and years… is something we all need more of.