Do all artists struggle with the concept of their art as a commodity? When I started to do art it seemed like I was involved with creating as more of an intellectual struggle – being able to conceptualize a mental image, manifesting a visual idea. It was never with the intention to sell the object created or to please an audience. Yet capitalism and commercialism seem present in many works of art today and most artists are concerned with selling and survival. There are few modern artists who seem pure in concept – Sol Lewitt and Mark Rothko are exceptions that come to mind. I can identify many more artists as brazen commercialists. As a young artist I was obsessed with originality and being able to demonstrate that ideal on paper. However, that idealism was lost with pressures from real life and experience with the art world. Not many gallery owners care about anything except your art as commodity in the art market and how to increase your marketability. These ideals are the antitheses of what my goals were as a young artist. Maybe that points to my failure in life as a working artist. Which by the way I do not regret. It is important to me that my ideals were not compromised by commercialism or viewing my art as a commodity. I have always stood by the rejection of commissions and stubbornness to produce art that are personal pursuits and not those of others. Even allowing for absorbing modern movements and trends without blind adherence to them but only as part of a personal journey in visual art making. I have abandoned visual styles without hesitation when I thought they had exhausted their conceptual stimulus for me without a single thought toward their market viability. I wonder how many artists do that today? How do artists reconcile their visual art struggles with the idea of the things they create as commodities? Is creating art for others a surrender of your credentials as an artist? I would say it is yet many artists today seem perfectly satisfied with that process, their work a commodity in the market of what was once reserved for ideas and ideals.