Branching Out

    Being an emerging artist in this day and age, not to mention in this economy, is a tough one.  Each day, I think of ways to "branch out" and expand my art as well as my exposure.  It is sometimes daunting, often time-consuming and always brain-racking.
   The best way that I have been able to imagine this, which helps put some things in perspective for me, is to imagine myself and my glass career as a tree.  In the beginning, I was a little sapling, with maybe just a couple of leaves which represented my very naive and limited experience with the craft.  Over time, my tree grew and started to branch out in different directions.  Now that I have been in the art for a while, I have many branches with many leaves.  There are even some fruits beginning to sprout.
   The question is:  Which branch or branches do you take, and at what time?  I have many "branches" which I am eager to follow, but which to take now and which later?  There are some that aren't achievable now because of lack of equipment, materials, etc., so those are easy to avoid.  But which branch is the right one for me at this moment?  Which one might bare ripe fruit?  And, if a particular branch is avoided at this time, will the ripe fruit at the end of that branch be rotten and spoiled by the time I reach it?
   Here's to hoping that all of us, sooner rather than later, reach that fruit baring branch!