“We need your art, stop messing around and make something,” says Amie McNee. I almost didn’t buy it. YOU need MY art? Ha! I checked the research.
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Gritty, Coarse, Rough and Sweet, Wabi Sabi is Your Perfect Look
One scholar defines wabi sabi as, “...(seeking) beauty in the imperfections found as all things in a constant state of flux, evolve from nothing and devolve back to nothing.” Which leads me to wonder if artists especially are naturally drawn to a wabi sabi simply as a result of our process. Work that’s constantly evolving, becoming, changing, eclipsing and sometimes revealing cracks, fissures and other measures of brokenness, intended or not. Gritty, coarse, rough and sweet.
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The author reworking his drawing Marketman from 1957.
Astounding Talent or a Total Bore? Check Your Childhood Sketchbook
What to make of those kindergarten drawings my mother saved for my 74 year-old self to find? Better yet, what does Luc Tuymans think of his very earliest efforts? Are they evidence of astounding talent to come or a total bore. Check your work. See for yourself.
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Some artist studio heavens I’ve known, loved, hated and sometimes left only reluctantly.
Ten Ways to Artist Studio Heaven: Make Mine Huge and Cheap and Live-in
The hunt for the perfect studio space can be like going on a series of first dates that go on for years. There are shortcuts to the process but most require introspection, honesty and kissing amphibians.
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Yours truly getting a lesson in applying vinyl lettering to glass for my ARTOLOGY 2025 , Beyond Boundaries installation at the Tempe Arizona Post Office.
How I Solved My Very Scary Problem with Girl Speak
I have a problem with women. Just ask any of my ex-wives. I don’t like women telling me what to do, so there I said it. Installing my work for ARTOLOGY: Beyond Boundaries, I’d listen to no one. Too late, for this installation I was actually the honored guest artist. Charged with design decisions only and left to simply observe others install my work. And what a joy that was. Read the full story here
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Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, by David Lynch
Imagination Change Agent, Can Reading Make Your Creative Fire Burn?
Reading certain authors can provide the imagination change agent you’re looking for to make your creative fires burn hot. Try these ten titles on for size. Guaranteed there’s a good fit for you here.
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John Wells, director The Process Museum with Mark Rossi’s mountain lion sculpture
This Fun Museum Is Way More Than A Pricey Crazy Art Orphanage
John Wells estimates he’s adopted about 10,000 “orphans.” He doesn't have an exact number so don't ask him. 10,000 is his best estimate. John owns, runs, curates and is the Process Museum in Tucson, Arizona. His museum is not so much an art orphanage as a well-loved art collection where some work got left behind.
Read MoreMake Some Love, Passionate Artist Journaling Your Way to Your Personal Best
Art journaling has been around a very long time and is practiced across the globe to great effect. There have been some very famous art journalistsand many working in obscurity. The cost to get started can be very low while the payoffs are investment grade. They accrue and compound. And, your 80-year old self just might be able to rekindle some creative juices with those pages some day.
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Sexy Cool Junk Art: Satisfaction for Your Life
Sexy cool junk art can happen anywhere. Just ask the Kenyan villagers who discovered a half ton of space trash in a farmer's field recently. Hey, found objects are the bedrock of sculpture. All those dead Dadaists were really onto something. Get some junk, make some art. Get satisfaction for life. Learn all about it all right here.
Read MoreFun Versus Misunderstood: How Abstract Art Is So Thrilling
Abstract art: fun versus misunderstood? And so thrilling to make, dammit.
Marla Olmstead and Julien Delagrange likely disagree. Delagrange, director of the Contemporary Art Issue (CAI) claims the key to successful abstract art is using uncommon materials in uncommon ways. At four years old Marla was selling her work for five figures and making it on her parents breakfast nook floor using tubes of Liquitex Basics acrylic paint.
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What’s Fair? Grateful Expectations and Outcomes for My Open Studio Tour
I’m never sure what’s fair and what’s not, especially when it comes to my art. I was grateful to have reasonable expectations and outcomes for a recent open studio tour. At 73, with 40 years of making art behind me I think it’s fair to expect 100 plus visitors and sell at least $500 in work. Didn’t happen. I saw about 20 people and sold zero dollars worth of work. And that’s fair.
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Kill Books, Shred Paper; Art is a Passion for Destruction
I’m a collage artist. Love anything from the postwar era. All my vintage texts have whole sections torn out, some are gutted. Going to hell for such ruination. And that’s okay.
The debate over whether or not to ruin books dates from Gutenberg (likely).
Author Susan Orlean authored The Library Book. Orleans confronted her adoration of the printed page by attempting to burn a book. “A book feels like a thing alive in this moment...they take on a kind of human vitality.”
Sheesh, I've been killing books for decades with no apparent karmic cost.
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How To Love Crazy: An Introvert’s Guide to Surviving Hell and Art Openings
"Hi, my name is Lorin and I'm an introvert"
I’ve been to more than a few (well-populated) openings in my career as an artist and I still don’t understand how to do it. Redditors (what do they know) have plenty of suggestions on proper etiquette for openings.
So, I wanted to see if I could do it different, get the real emotional experience, be out of place, out of my mind amid art, artists, collectors and critics. Then, reach out. Fit in, communicate.
And too, it helps if you just pretend they’re all naked.
Read how my experiment in art opening extroversion went and more of my advice for like-afflicted souls
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“Fosters Freeze, Escalon”, 1975; Robert Bechtle
How to Love Art-And Not Be Confused or Dumb, Simple Advice
According to published reports museum goers spend just 30 seconds in front of a painting (reading the wall label?) before moving on. Ouch. Sooo maybe just a quick glance at the actual work?
Bianca Bosker, the author of “Get the Picture,” found a better way. While researching her book about the NYC art scene she heard some simple advice: “just walk up to the piece and try to think of five things that it brings up...either in the work or how it makes you feel.” And oh, 86 the wall label.
I tried this out recently at the Tucson Museum of Art’s “Time Traveler’s” show.
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You Don’t Need Art School, Coaches and Mentors Rock Success
What if you don’t need art school? It’s expensive (an MFA can cost as much as $70k/yr). It may not come with a big payoff but your loans could total as much as $65k. Could coaches and mentors suffice? I never went to art school for a degree so maybe ignore this whole post. Or maybe coaches and mentors rock success like nobody’s business-I’ll use my remaining years to find out.
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But Isn't It All About the Kids? I Absolutely Love Keith Haring
Keith Haring’s devotion to making children smile is apparent throughout the Walker Art Center’s current show. Yet something was missing. Irony abounds in this interaction between myself and the WAC’s staff. Read on for the full story.
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Dad's Snapshots Unchained: Can Baby Boomers Embrace Their Fine Artist?
Baby boomers embrace their fine artist when they recognize the parallel between family snapshots and the work of some very famous photographers. The masters and their curators find brilliance in the snapshot aesthetic.
Check in your attic, your closet, your shed or behind those five boxes of tax returns and check registers (remember them?). There’s a dusty box with the packing tape peeling off and it’s filled with possibilities. Dad’s snapshots want to be unchained, so baby boomers-embrace your fine artist self.
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15 Bits of Trash From My Junk Drawers That Continue to Inspire My Creativity
Here's a 15-item list of my favorite and most inspirational objects. For an artist, inspiration comes from odd and sometimes disturbing crevices of safe keeping. Junk drawer collections are an ever-fecund resource. I built this cabinet, a bank of drawers arranged as a stack between two slabs of mahogany at a workshop at Penland School of Crafts in about 1980. It's stuffed with every oddity imaginable. There’s a pair of well-used green dice, my son’s baby teeth, a miniature button hook, a rusted pair of dissection scissors, bone fragments, birthday candles and more.
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Luck, Talent and Attraction Affirmations
Imagine you're baking a three layer cake of creative success. Should luck, talent and attraction affirmations be your first choice of ingredients for a yummy career as a artist these days? Some experts say so.
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Monetization Versus Creative Self Esteem
BitBoy made a himself quite a deal when monetization versus creative self esteem was the question. He kicked his graphic design career to the curb in exchange for wealth, fame, a Lambo, a wrecked marriage and possible criminal charges. What a plan. Coulda, shoulda made a left turn instead maybe.
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