Words of encouragement

Here's an e-mail excerpt from Brian Elerding, an actor and writer of the film "Autodoc." We had a fun discussion about life and art (which mimicked his screenplay) after his movie had its "soft" premiere at the Mammoth Film Festival last year. Check out the website: http://www.thedrivecollective.com/

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Hey Lesley! I took a look at the blog and I'm really so happy to hear that you've done it! I especially like the Burgess quote...very appropriate.

There really should be more of that going on everywhere. Sometimes I wonder if there should be no money in art at all, and it's something that we all just DO. That it's such a part of our culture that we all become storytellers. We come from storytelling cultures that handed down our histories through generations...why not bring it back? Why do we have to be CONSUMERS of culture, rather than CREATORS?

The two things that I've been passionate about in my life are activism and art. The toughest part of doing either is realizing that both are things that I believe people ought to do for free. But then, of course, I go and try to get paid for it. I've been fortunate enough to be in a few commercials and TV shows in the last year. There are a couple I'm not super proud of, but then I'm also not embarassed by any. It's a fine line to walk between crass commercialism and seeking a "career" in art, but so far I've been able to walk with pretty good confidence. Being able to do things like turning down commercials for moral reasons gives me at least the illusion that I'm in control of my career.