The Best is Yet to Come - Art After 65

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The Artist’s House at Giverny 1913 Claude Monet (age 73)

Unlike the majority of working people in this country, there is no mandatory retirement age for artists. This is inspiring. We live outside the normal expectations most people have of their working lives. We love what we do, of course, but, we are accustomed to seeing what we do as having a life-long continuity to it, and that gives us certain advantages over those with “regular” jobs. The young artist just starting out naturally sets short-term goals to start their careers—make a living at art, compete with the best, fame, fortune, and so on. But around mid-life, those ambitions can begin to gradually be replaced with a longer view. And that view is also inspiring. For if we see our work as a life-long process which evolves and gets larger and freer over time, then our goals will be redefined. Enthusiasm for what we might achieve can grow, even as our physical abilities may diminish. And it is enthu…