Your work will speak for itself, in the final analysis. If you can get the job done at 76, then you'll be way ahead of the 27-year-old who, for lack of realistic ability or discipline or fire, doesn't perform. The galleries and agents come after the work is there, so focus on that.
I'm 54 and I decided a couple of months ago that I wanted to learn how to play the trumpet, and play well enough to join a high-caliber community band. I practice two hours a day, before and after the day job, and it's going very well, better than I'd hoped -- I play almost as well as a fifth-grader now! After the 20 years it would take to reach a minimum level of mastery, to really "own" the instrument, I'd be about your age now and my best performances would likely be behind me. With such a late start, I'll not likely ever play lead or really get into the high register with any skill, but somebody's gotta be in those second and third chairs to do the yeoman service, and it might as well be me.
Just last weekend I assisted with an art exhibition in which a top prize -- which included a month's exhibition at a high-visibility local gallery -- was won by a man who has AIDS, degenerative brain disease which is robbing him of motor skills, and is confined to a wheelchair. The artwork was judged anonymously, without any personal knowledge about the artists, so this was no charity award. It was recognition of his desire to create art, despite all the reasons why it was "too late for him, anyway."
Do what your heart tells you to do, without thought to the agents and accountants, or to age. A passion discovered late in life is no less valid than one developed in youth. When you have that first exhibition, I'll come play some solo ballads and old standards for background. Nothing too fancy, though. I'm not as young as I used to be.
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Hybrid Mode
