Twenty years ago in Leesburg, I set off on the journey of making my paintings available for sale to the public. I did not think about the economy, even in the shadow of the "Black Monday" crash of 1987 and I did not think about the next twenty years of my life. What I did think about was inspiration and creativity, because without those two things nothing else would matter. Yes, I also thought about acceptance, but even more so, I thought about doing something I love.

1989 was a good year to begin. Linda, my wife to be, owned Leesburg Gallery of Art. Many may not remember, but this was Leesburg's first art gallery, which was first located in a small house on the corner of Loudoun & Church streets and then finally on King street next to China King. In those days many or even most galleries were known for selling limited edition prints by national publishers, not original paintings of the Piedmont region of Virginia. I won't say I was alone back then in doing so, but far more so than today's world of painters seemingly coming from everywhere and painting the region.

In any event, 1989 was a stellar year, but as the economy would have it, 1990 would not be.

Not only did the economy tank that year and not just for a few months, Leesburg's planned construction of its parking garage was about to begin. Many will also not remember downtown Leesburg with only a parking lot where the garage sits today and business owners were treated to the instant evaporation of the majority of downtown parking spaces and heavy construction traffic at what certainly felt like the worst possible time, when it was really needed. Looking back, it may just have been the perfect time, as few were shopping anyway. As a note, only about 15% of all the other commercial shopping and services around Leesburg today even existed back then so downtown's importance was much more significant.

The Gulf War would follow and times were certainly tough, but recalling my thoughts of inspiration and creativity, a few years would pass and a little thing called the "dot-com" era would land smack dab at our region's door step. Supercharged with inspiration and creativity, it was new, it was fresh and money was flying like confetti in Times Square on New Year's day. It was a time of such abundance, that we all must have looked like a two year old finishing off his or her chocolate birthday cake, with sweet icing all over our faces and each little digit of our cocoa compacted hands, oozing in the currency of the rich delight. Topping it off, our brightly colored party hats, slightly tilted on our cute little noggins.

If only we were mature enough to have made a wish before we blew out those two candles.

Prince told us to party like it was 1999 and we did, but the thought of the millennium scared everyone with a computer to death, that fear was not to be justified, it was the wrong fear. The global meltdown would not come from our PCs, but rather the business of PCs now known as the dot-com bubble, "party over" and if that were not enough, 2001 would also bring us 9/11. National tragedy. Surprisingly quick, Wall Street would dust itself off in a patriotic fashion and get back to work. Patriotism maybe what is missing today.

Still, work was slow. Oddly though, 43 days later Apple would introduce us to the iPod. If ever there was a lesson in inspiration and creativity at an all time low, with 150 million of them now sold, it appears this would be it. Odder still, with the world understandably not embracing air travel, I thought the possibility of national tragedy and economic bust might claim a decade of artistic hard work. Instead, would be travelers wanted to stay home and my business as an artist shot up. People found the true meaning of art and embraced it.

Whatever your opinion of the last eight years to present, for me both personally and as an artist, they were years of incredible growth and happiness. Yes, there were ups and downs, but during this time my wife Linda and I traveled, yet I truly fell in love with the beauty of where we live. I learned to not just paint the area, but to paint what truly moves me about a place I call home. I learned things about myself I have lived years to learn. I went from writing poetry to writing stories. I fell in love with the guitar in a way I had never allowed myself to, just to have fun with it and after nearly four decades of motorcycling, found new ways to enjoy them.

A few years ago I entered my 50s and today I kid around by saying, when I was 20, I would see someone 50 and say they look old and now I see someone 75 and I say, boy they look good for their age! Each decade of my life though, has brought along some new dimension to add to the previous ten and my 50s have been no different, as it took my 50s to understand this. Each day is important and not to focus on despair, but to experience the journey. Each of my ten years of life has had its own recession, world turmoil, tragedy, loss of loved ones and endless bad news which is now all the more amplified by endless amounts of exploding media, but as I write this on the tail end of a bitter winter, Linda hollers, "Hey, the daffodils are in bloom out back and the crocus are up out front" and just last night she said "I can hear the peepers!" Signs of spring - rebirth!

Soon we will be outside and away from the bombardment of doom and gloom and the economy's hangover will start to subside. Time has a way about it and if the last 20 years as both an artist and a person has taught me anything, its that you can't live by life's downs, you must live inspired and creatively by life's ups. That's not me looking through rose colored glasses either, it's just knowing that despite the gloom, there will still be babies born, 16th birthdays, weddings and wedding anniversaries, meeting new friends, hobbies, accomplishments, great personal growth and 20 more years of creativity and inspiration.

Make sure you don't miss it!