BUSINESS AND FRIENDSHIP

The first part of this Blog, or letter, was written over than two years ago. I've neglected it for a long while, but God has granted me manother couple of years of life since then, and I've some additional thoughts to put down. It's going to include quite a few pictures as I go along, so be prepared for them, as they're more than nostalgic for each of us.

Of course, by now, I'm sure that you've seen the Videos. If not, let me know and I'll put them up again. They're especially marked so that only you and I can view them.

When I was writing about your start in business, it brought to mind the words in a poem, one of mine (TO SOAR WITH THE EAGLES), of course, that describe all too well your start in the art business:

True ambition is like an eagle in flight,
He challenges, he soars, with seeming delight,
The fiercer the wind, the stronger he flies,
He's the master competitor high in the skies.

That's just the first verse. You've read it before, but this will again bring it to mind. It describes you, but also a number of other people that I know. Business people, like you and me, ordinary people who started off with an idea, ambition, and the energy and will to carry it through. It's never easy, the day to day struggles, the worries, dealing with personnel, and making sales. Buying and selling; it goes on endlessly as long as one remains in business.

And business has to do with money. Business relationships often develop into strong friendships. There's always a danger when money and friendship is involved, but that's always a part of life and a part of business; it cannot be avoided. It is a narror line that friends must tread carefully, like a performer in a tight-rope balancing act, without a net strung below.

You started off your business in the same manner that I did, vastly under-capitalized. I went through all of it in those early years, starting in 1958, so I know full well what, why and how it happens. Yet, there is a certain point in every business when it begins to function in a normal manner and if handled right, it should have sufficient capital behind it to become a strong entity in its' field. That's America. That's what you've done. It is my opinion that you have influenced the art business in Carmel more than any other dealer, and you have changed the course in the lives of many artists.

Sufficient capital and you have a successful business. With sufficient capital you expand. That's also America. You know how to do it, and you never had any doubts that your plans for expansion would be successful. There's the second verse to my poem, which covers it succinctly:

He's but a speck in the sky, his wings near inert,
With the sharpest of eyes, he's always alert,
It takes vision to know when opportunity's in sight,
And the courage to move when the timing is right.

Then there are your friends. Do you outgrow them, find that in your new social strata that old friendships are no longer viable? That obligations you have no longer apply? But,at this point we come back to the second verse of the poem, TOMORROW:

For there are no certaintities along life's way,
Of happiness, friends, nor a life in good health,
You're not assured of a single day,
No matter how great your power and wealth.

Friendship? I have some lines someone else wrote on that and I'll have to find them and put them in tomorrow night's letter. In the meantime, I'll search for those pictures I mentioned above and put them in one of these days so tht you can consider them. We should sit and contemplate friendship now and then and what it means to us.

Stan Chevrin and his wife, Stephanie. Another great guy, a dealer and artist's agent who helped a good many artists along the way, traveled many longely mailes across the country marketing their work.