Fresh Horses
When your art-making suffers a forced break.
There was no question of any art-making after freak snow storms left us without power for 5 days and nights. House-bound, cold, and in the dark, keeping myself and my family warm and fed nipped any creative urges in the bud.
At first it was fun.
It was almost an adventure, like pioneering, or candle-lit dinner [...]
Are beliefs limiting your options ?
I found this gorgeous, 8 inch amanita muscaria mushroom, a perfect speciman in bright reddish orange, like a glowing light in a dark ditch.
The clash of its attractive colour with its deadly poisonous effect was puzzling at first. How could the vibrant colour warn people to stay away yet be so beautiful at the [...]
Never enough time to make art ?
How can you find the creative space to make art, with a thousand and one things that need doing ? It seems like there are always more pressing obligations on your time, and that art, which is often seen as an “indulgence”, should come last.
“A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting,” [...]
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Is your art growing tired ?
Of course you’ve been expressing yourself in your art adequately; that’s how you got where you are. If it seems like you’re starting to repeat yourself too often, and fewer people are drawn to your work any more, you might wonder how to reinvent yourself.
“Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and [...]
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Trying too hard for that masterpiece ?
Have you tried and tried to make art that pulses with life, only to end up time and again with mediocre results ? If you just can’t seem to get beyond the ordinary, you may have all but given up on that elusive work that brings your special light into the world.
You may have [...]
Frozen by the white canvas?
Her mouth was dry and her hands were shaking as Jenna headed for the podium. Though she was a master on the subject of art marketing, facing her first large audience, the footlights seemed blinding.
Does this remind you of setting up a flawless white canvas or paper? You might have had a concept of what [...]
Just want the techniques ?
“Forget the touchy-feely woo-woo spiritual stuff, just tell me how to make art !” declares a beginning artist. The strange thing is, the same person who thinks this, knows deep in their heart that emotional responses are directly related to the expression of deep feelings in their art.
I know, because I’ve watched lots of people [...]
How do you solve a problem like rejection ?
Putting your art out for peer review or the scrutiny of the public can be really nerve wracking. Up the fear another notch by submitting it to a juried show or for gallery approval. Aside from the stomach wrench of outing your art, the experience of being rejected really bites.
Then, oh boy, let the second [...]
Are you held captive by others’ expectations?
When I first moved in with my present husband Bill 35 years ago, I found a new job on a US military base. As graphic illustrator, I was to make signs for military exercises, and I was given a mechanical “lettera set” for making them.
Though it meant I could be with my new man, after [...]
Will one surprising success stop you in your tracks ?
One painting a friend made almost by accident, moves her profoundly. Since then, none of her paintings even come close. After completing a milestone work, have you ever thought you’d lost your way, unable to produce an encore?
British scientist, Alexander Fleming was working on diseases caused by bacteria. One day in 1922 he happened to [...]