If you keep an eye out, practically every day brings another reminder that an artistic career is a results-based business. Rules, expectations, and consensus all too often shift based on final outcomes rather than creative  merit or a sound process. 

And yet the game isn't ENTIRELY Russian roulette, either. It's more like craps or blackjack: Anyone playing can make certain moves to try to tilt the odds closer to even than they would otherwise be. The question, as always, is how.

I was reminded of all of this yesterday, when I listened to Marion Maneker's latest Artelligence podcast, this time with vaunted collector (and sometimes dealer) Stavros Merjos.