Fresh Horses
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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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, [...]
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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 [...]
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No Superman energy left to make art ?
You’re overwhelmed with too many demands: a house to clean, kids to raise, a living to earn. Seems there’s always something more important than indulging yourself in making art. A New Yorker cartoon shows Superman, the disguise of his everyday suit stripped off and flung over a deckchair. There he lies on a tropical beach [...]
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Imagination as a blueprint blinds creative intelligence.
My friend, Bill Allen, used to be a school principle in California. One day, he decided to hold the weekly fire drill at recess. To his utter horror, all the kids followed instructions to the letter and ran back into their classrooms, because that’s where the fire drill map started ! You may have been [...]
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How words can 60% impair or 300% enhance perception.
Have you ever talked so much about a work of art you were just starting that you lost most of your enthusiasm before it was even finished? You can stop berating yourself for letting your enthusiasm run away with your juice. It’s all a matter of timing. Salaam is the Arabic word usually translated into [...]
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How impatience can destroy great creations.
“Once I discovered a cocoon in the bark of a tree, just as the butterfly was making a hole in its case and preparing to come out,” confessed a friend. “I waited a while, but it was too long appearing and I was impatient. I bent over and breathed on it to warm it. “I [...]
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Are artists flaky by nature ?
Can you afford to be an artist in this age of global warming, insanely rising gas prices, ever expanding technology, and the constant need to keep on top of your own life’s details in an orderly fashion ? Has art become a frill for the flaky ? I was sideswiped by this prejudice recently: “Of [...]
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