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Art as investment is something we need to consider and we often feel guilty about it.

I have found most of my inspiration as an artist and lately as a collector in reading biographies. This led me to realize that every career has an age-level at which a person can be expected to "peak": very young for athletes, middle-age for bankers and teachers, etc.

Art is unique in that many of the great artists did not "peak" until after age 50, or even posthumously, and often we think they "struggled" but in reality, it is the natural curve.

When I realized this, I stopped worrying so much.

So then another direction to look is at the meaning of the art itself: can it really be appreciated by the people of its' own time? I think that investors are wise to look at the art of the generation that is just passing. There is a surge of connection and a kind of clearing-out of the wheat from the chaff that comes as the last veterans of a great war or the last leaders and stars of a great era are passing on.

Some things will endure and become valuable subjects of the auctions while others drop into the footnotes of the catalogues.

The excitement is in picking which ones.