Ebbie,

No, haha, no... Hey, I was a kid and I thought everyone was like me... The fact I c ould draw better din't mean anything because I was only developin' skills... Skills and art are world's apart... I can teach anyone to draw but...

And in saying that it wasn't until my 30's for me to understand what being an artist was all about didn't mean that I waited until my 30's to be an artist... By then I had long ago graduated from VCU's "Painting and Printmaking" department, had had a couple one man's shows and was selling work... I also had a written hundreds of songs and poems...

But what I hadn't done, which reading Castanada helped, was organize my thoughts into what you have called the "artists temperament", or spirit, soul, psychic, mind, etc...

As fit artists being "washed up"... This is impossible... It is like saying that a left handed person is loosing his/her left-handedness... Okay, it's true that some artists "produce" less or produce stuff that is less "acceptable" but this should not be confused with the one being an artist... There are no retired artrits... Just those who have quit sharing their "shit" with others...

Bobert