January 29, 2024 - This past November David Palumbo asked "Can we talk about the rough year we're having?" in a post. His concerns—AI, perceptions about the economy, social media, etc.—were thoughtfully raised and discussed, both in the essay and in the subsequent comments. I probably would have added the never-ending political turmoil (both here and abroad) to the list of things causing anxiety, but that's just me. Anyway, as I was reading Dave's post I remembered a scene in Tony Moorman's excellent 2015 documentary Making It in which Jon Foster (and I'm paraphrasing here) says that his students always ask him when it—"it" meaning making meaningful art and having a career doing so—gets easier and Jon's truthful response was, "Never. It never gets easier." Perhaps that's one of the most important things artists, regardless of age, should always…