Inspiration

Welcome to a quiet corner of The Space Between, a place to pause, breathe, and gather what nourishes the inner life. Here, I’ve collected words, poems, and reflections that illuminate the thresholds we move through as artists, as humans, and as beings continually becoming.

Think of this space as a small sanctuary: part journal, part gallery wall, part whispered reminder that growth often begins in silence.

Work helps prevent one from getting old. I, for one, cannot dream of retiring. Not now or ever. Retire? The word is alien and the idea inconceivable to me. I don’t believe in retirement for anyone in my type of work, not while the spirit remains. My work is my life.

To “retire” means to me to begin to die. The man who works and is never bored is never old. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for age. Each day I am reborn. Each day I must begin again.

Pablo Casals

Crossing

Not all crossings
are marked.

No clear edge
no sign that says
you have left one place
and entered another.

Only a subtle shift

the way the ground feels
slightly unfamiliar
beneath your feet.

And something in you
knows,

even before you can say it:

you are no longer
who you were.

— R.A.

In the Middle

There is a place
where nothing resolves.

Where questions remain open
and answers
do not arrive on time.

It is not failure.

It is not delay.

It is the place
where things

are still becoming.

Most people leave too soon.

— R.A.

Original Reflections

“Every transformation begins long before it looks like one.”

“Your pace is not a flaw; it’s the doorway your life knows how to walk through.”

“The middle is where we grow the roots for who we are becoming.”

“Stillness is not the absence of movement — it’s the space where your next step gathers strength.”

But age is a relative matter. If you continue to work and to absorb the beauty in the world about you, you find that age does not necessarily mean getting old. At least, not in the ordinary sense. I feel many things more intensely than ever before, and for me life grows more fascinating. Pablo Casals

“There is another reality, the genuine one, which we lose sight of. This other reality is always sending us hints, which without art, we can’t receive.”

Pablo Neruda

Never play to the gallery… Always remember that the reason that you initially started working is that there was something inside yourself that you felt that if you could manifest in some way, you would understand more about yourself and how you coexist with the rest of society. I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations — they generally produce their worst work when they do that.

David Bowie

Thresholds & Change

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
Anaïs Nin

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
Charles Darwin

“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone.”
Cynthia Occelli

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning.”
T. S. Eliot

Creativity & Process

“The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction that soars.”
Art & Fear
“A work of art is never finished, only abandoned.”Leonardo da Vinci
“The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.”
Julia Cameron

Becoming & Aging

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”
Carl Jung
“And the time came when the comfort of staying the same became less than the discomfort of change.” (often attributed, but thematically aligned with Anaïs Nin
“Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many.”(attributed to Mark Twain)

Liminal Spaces

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
“Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost.”
Khalil Gibran
“Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness.”
Galway Kinnell