Fresh Horses
How to create again after a long break.
In two days my family was cut in half. After years of caring for my husband with Alzheimer’s, he was moved into a permanent care home, and the next day I had to bury our older dog.
Though Bill is better cared for than he could be at home and sweet Flurry is finally out [...]
When you just can’t make art
Sometimes you’re too frazzled to think. Responsibilities can rapidly change your priorities, so there’s no time to take care of yourself, let alone make art.
As sole caregiver 24/7 over the many months that my husband was losing himself in Alzheimer’s, I had no time to spare. When I finally did stumble into some free time, [...]
When words wound.
It’s still too tender. Right after you’ve finished spilling your guts in a heartfelt work of art, words to describe it don’t often come easily, if at all. You aren’t finished yet externalizing and integrating your mind and spirit around the new work.
This process can be helped by avoiding words and theory. [...]
Is your success as an artist still possible ?
Let’s get real. What are your chances of successfully making art at this stage in your life ?
If you were a rare prodigy like Picasso, chances are you wouldn’t be reading this. You’d be too busy producing masterpieces to be subscribed to Fresh Horses or exploring different ways of opening to creative expression.
Prodigies [...]
Why working from your heart isn’t enough.
Fifty-eight diverse people came together to sing in our local community choir. About the only thing we had in common was a desire to express ourselves. We differed in most other respects, including musical training which ranged from none at all to professional.
We sounded pretty ragged at the first few rehearsals, fifty-eight [...]
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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 [...]