Blog / 2020 / Why I’d Like to Have a Lot of Money

Why I’d like to have a lot of money:

• To give it to artist friends simply because I love what they are doing and I want to support their efforts.
• To be able to give my art to people who really love it, and especially the people who have been buying it for years.
• To travel as if borders don’t exist, make all the art, fix my teeth, and never be stressed about paying for medical care or rent again.

Why I don’t care that I don’t have a lot of money:

• Because I know that what I do all day every day contributes to the good in the world, and, in most jobs, it’s hard to be certain of that.
• Because, in my experience of it and in what I’ve observed among other people, almost no one feels like they have enough money.
• Because we’re all going to die very soon in a global-warming-fueled catastrophe or in a nuclear holocaust at the hands of the thin-skinned fascistically-inclined criminal we currently call POTUS.

I know, I know. You’ll tell me that I should try to have a more positive outlook—that I shouldn’t focus on the negative. But, in a way, this acknowledgment of our imminent doom feels like the most upbeat attitude possible in these troubled times.

There’s an animal quality to the way I am connecting with our mortality at the moment. Gone is the human angst. I feel perfectly at ease with the inevitability of death. It doesn’t make me want to do bad things—I’m not a thin-skinned fascistically-inclined criminal after all. Rather, my very mortal mood makes me want to be more of an artist, because at least when I am making art I feel like I am making a difference in the lives of others.

This insouciant kangaroo was commissioned by a patron through my special deal on Patreon. If you give me $50 per month for six months, I make you a painting on unmounted canvas of an animal of your choosing.

For prints and pretty things of the image, check out my Redbubble shop.