Future Perfect Now #163
The days are valuable. What is the best way to spend each of them? Spend! An interesting word. Do we spend our days like money? Do we deplete the bank account? Maybe with interest we re-stock and add back days. So it is important to be interested in each day. And I am. Very interested. In fact, my interest in each day is a bit of an obsession. Maybe, that way, I get to live for ever. As an artist, I hope that I invest lives with interest—after spending some money, but not necessarily—so maybe I am perpetuating that process of life elongation for others too. I am very fortunate that the accumulation of interest fills the days that I spend here. I don’t know how the numbers stack up and when interest exceeds spend, but I do know that a full life of love and creativity creates a store of personal riches and, of course, interest is paid on the capital, so I may be winning there. No matter. Maybe I am irresponsible, but I do spend more and more days in reckless abandon, enjoying them for whatever they are and whatever they bring. And that fills my heart and mind with the best things in life, and the added interest is, to me, the cherry on the cake. But I was never cut out to be an accountant. Checks and balances were never my interest, ironically. For what is the point of waking each day, other than to live it to its fullest, as extraordinary as each one is.
About this image
The accountant: Coloured inks on paper 18 x 24 inches
I drew this after I had read this excerpt to Olga. We lay in bed and she asked me what picture it inspired. I cannot account for the state of my brain, but the first thing I thought of was a naked man, standing standing on one leg, looking through binoculars. So, I drew the accountant, since I mentioned one in the excerpt, as if standing on our visionary terrace wall at our house by the sea.