A gallery isn’t the only place art counts. A sidewalk chalk drawing that makes a kid smile is doing its job.

Value gets confused with validation. Galleries, stages and feeds are distribution systems, not the thing that makes work real, and plenty of art does its entire job in one afternoon in front of two people. If a piece reached somebody and changed their minute, it worked. Waiting for an official venue to confirm that is how a lot of people stop making anything.

Make something this week that has nowhere to go: chalk, a card for one person, a song for a room. Notice that the satisfaction does not depend on anyone else seeing it. Keep one such thing in your routine.