by Sandra Haynes on 8/26/2010 4:45:20 PM
4 Comments
Hi Friends,
Over the years I have visited with many artists about how they got into the business of art. Some have done nothing else but create art and do it full time, others reached a certain point in their lives where they were able to make the transition from a "real job" to art and a livable wage.
However they got to the point of creation, it has been right for them and they pursue it as the fountain of life.
What would you be doing without art in your life? Could you survive? How well?
For me, I raised a family, mostly on my own, and designed electrical substations for a living. An odd undertaking for someone that knew she would be an artist from the time a pencil was first grasped in very small hands. But a practical solution to the huge undertaking of raising a family.
Now as a person of, ahem, a certain age I realize everything that has gone before has led me to this world of total immersion in creation.
If there could be a perfect world without art, what would you have become? I always thought being a zoo veterinarian would rank right up there for me. Now, I'm not sure who I am without creating art. Creating goes back in my family for generations. Is it just because I was around it that I picked it up? I don't believe that to be true, but rather part of my DNA. I could deny the pull to create, but it is still there.
I have read books stating that art is not who you are. Do you think this is true?
Come to the Edge
he said. They said:
We are afraid. Come
to the edge, he said.
They came. He pushed
them, and they flew.
Giullaume Apollinaire
19th Century writer
Hi Friends,
This is one of my favorite writings and I have contemplated it for years.
Evolution has created a human race that lives and survives with fear as the driving force. It still is.
From the time we are born till the day we die, fear motivates and controls us as individuals and as a society.
To create, is to step off the edge.......to be pushed by your creative muse.
"There are two mistakes one can make
along the road to truth......
Not going all the way, And not starting."
Buddha
After a few years of teaching workshops and now private students, it has been a study in evolution of artistic skills. Some are curious about learning a new medium, while others know the medium they prefer and would like to get more proficient with it. Some are intense in their desire to stay with it and some pursue art as a creative, and more relaxed hobby. All are artists......almost all want to get better.
I get a glimpse of myself in some of their journeys....studying all the art instruction books available, the dvd's put out by some of the nation's best painters, taking workshops. With such varying styles that are breathtaking in their beauty, the biggest challenge finally occurs to each individual.....what style should be adopted? How do you decide? How do you ever get better?
The mantra I would ask each of my students to repeat as needed is, JUST DO IT.
Instruction is nice and will get you down the road faster than trying to "invent the wheel" by yourself, but in the end you must put brush to canvas. There is, and never will be, any substitute. Put down the books, stop studying everything and pick up the brush. Within you is the knowledge. It's just paint and canvas.....the next one isn't going to be the masterpiece, but another step closer to a better painting.
Did you read the book about brushstrokes? About color temperature? Try it out. There is a better way and better results than dabbing at your paintings with a brush. Use longer brushstrokes with a firm hand.
There is a better way than grays for shadows. Try mixing colors for interesting, lively shades of shadows. Look at the colors until you know what a cool and warm color is. If you're having a hard time figuring it out, go back to a good book and look at the color charts. Mix up the colors yourself and put them on a practice canvas. Try out the exercises, don't just look at the pretty pictures. ( A hint here.....don't use student grade paints, the colors are "off", and canvas panels make really good practice surfaces at less than a dollar for an 8x10".)
If you have questions or want to paint with someone, try to make it someone that is further down the road than you are.
Somewhere it has been said that after you paint a thousand canvases, you will know how to paint. Your painting style will also start to emerge. I'm working on that theory and believe it to be true. A lot of what I have painted was pretty much garbage, but it was the best I could do at the time. But guess what? Each one gets better.
Will I stop when I think I'm pretty good? Absolutely not! I will paint until I do my thousand and then decide if I need to do another thousand.
You will make a multitude of mistakes, but they're not fatal....in fact, they are necessary....and there are a lot people out there to cheer you on.
After drooling over so many beautiful autos at a recent car show, perhaps the senses went into overload. Looking at this lovely, perfectly restored vintage Chevy truck, this is what flashed through my mind.
Again this week I'm featuring a blog from Seth Godin ........this has to do with marketing, but it speaks clearly to what holds so many artists from creating some memorable work. And art really is marketing yourself, in a very personal way. I know it has controlled my art too much. Doing what's safe means doing work that pretty much looks like just part of the crowd. But it's safe.
So thank you Seth, the weird mind that lives within is going to get a chance to be heard!
SABOTAGE!
"Just about all sabotage is self-sabotage.
We don't get forced to eat that cookie, we choose to. And so the diet is ended.
Marketing self-sabotage is fascinating to watch and understand. Consider the college application: it's primarily an opportunity for teenagers who aren't sure of where they want to go to undercut their chances by exposing their uncertainty. The lizard brain, the voice in the back of the head that wants security and safety--it's not eager to go to a college that might be 'too hard' or 'too good'. The easy thing to do is to scale back the effort, not do what works, but do what feels right instead.
Or consider the way we resist opportunities to lead, to connect, to do work that matters. We don't resist because we're not capable of it... we resist because if our marketing fails, if we don't get the job or earn the trust, then we're off the hook. No promises made, which means no promises to keep.
We know more than enough about marketing now. We know how to craft a story that will spread, we know how to find and lead tribes. The thing we have trouble with is making the commitment to do it even when it's frightening and difficult."
This newest Scratchboard Etching really isn't weird, but still outside what I would "normally" do. I hope you enjoy it!
Joy Ride(c) Scratchboard Etching 10x8"
So now with renewed conviction, more promises will be made, more chances will be jumped on, and I'm not afraid of failing either, because there are always more ideas......
Keep Coloring Outside the Lines,
Sandra
(ps.....check out the other Scratchboard Etchings and Oils on my web site....click here Sandra Haynes.)
The following was lifted from the daily blog of Seth Godin.
"The only problems you have left are the perfect ones. The imperfect ones, the ones with a clearly evident solution, well, if they were important, you've solved them already.
It's the perfect problems that keep us stuck.
Perfect because they have constraints, unbendable constraints, constraints that keep us trapped. I hate my job, I need this job, there's no way to quit, to get a promotion or to get a new boss, no way to move, my family is in town, etc.
We're human, that's what we do--we erect boundaries, constraints we can't ease, and we get trapped.
Or perhaps it's your product or service or brand. Our factory is only organized to make X, but the market doesn't want X as much, or there is regulation, or a new competitor is now offering X at half the price and the board won't do anything, etc.
There's no way to solve the perfect problem because every solution involves breaking an unbreakable constraint.
And there's your solution.
The way to solve the perfect problem is to make it imperfect. Don't just bend one of the constraints, eliminate it. Shut down the factory. Walk away from the job. Change your product completely. Ignore the board.
If the only alternative is slow and painful failure, the way to get unstuck is to blow up a constraint, deal with the pain and then run forward. Fast."
If you are not familiar with Seth's writing, I would urge you to take a look.....if you do follow him, you are aware of his ability to see through all the smoke and get to the point.
Much of what he writes can be applied to artists and the daily struggles we all face. If what you're doing isn't working, then don't keep doing the same things. This applies to anything in your life.
Coming soon in my art life will be the publishing of my coffee table book of Wildlife Scratchboard Etchings. I expect it to be finished, proofed and ready for market in about a month. My first! So I'm excited about the venture. It is a compilation of animals in Scratchboard Etchings along with some stories about the unique individuals I have had the privilege to meet.
It will be available from me directly by email or through my web site at Sandra Haynes, through Amazon and other venues to be announced. A limited time 20% coupon will be available....combined with a good price, it will make a nice gift for the holidays that are on the horizon or for any occasion.
With pre-orders already in hand, the pressure is on! Click on my name above to go to my web site and see what wildlife in Scratchboard Etchings looks like.
Where to begin......this has been a bizarre time in the art world here in the Northwest. A major cornerstone show in the western states is now toast. The auction that mostly was the main event in this venerable old show is history and looks like the display part of the show will not survive either. I'm purposely not mentioning the name just yet, but believe me, when word gets out to the public, it will be greeted with a great deal of surprise.
Another long running, main event show is on the verge of collapse....also un-named at this time, but will be greatly missed by public and artists. Both shows can blame the economy, which did play a part, but mismanagement is also a factor. Neither realized that dinosaur attitudes mixed with a dose of above-it-all arrogance is not enough to keep even long established shows afloat anymore.
And that, in a snapshot, is what is happening here in this corner of the world. Reports from many other good artists are attesting to larger crowds at the outdoor festivals, but sales are still not there in any kind of breathtaking quantities.
My Scratchboard Etching workshops have proven to be a hard sell to the public that has very little familiarity with this type of art. In a curious turn of events, I am finding that booking private students may work much more to my advantage. I can hold the workshop in my own home with one or two people at a time and tailor the lesson to either the scratchboard instructions I already have or custom prepare a lesson in a subject requested by the student. Yes, it means more work for me (and I have to be on my toes to keep ahead of my students), but I can see this developing into something that apparently is filling a need. And I don't have to travel!!!
The last few months has been like walking into a major tornado......some of the old ideas have been blown out of the water. Perhaps I'm approaching the eye of the storm, but I know there will be many more changes still ahead. I've always been a proponent of thinking outside the box, but lately I don't know even where the box is.......I do know this doesn't look like Kansas anymore.
In the last few months, the trying out of several shows new to me here in the Northwest has met with notably less than success. It's been awhile since I have found myself in that position, and it's always a humbling experience. Two almost in a row is downright painful. But the worst of the back to back weekends are behind me now.
So now that the schedule has some breathing room in it, instead of the frantic, driving for miles, lunatic pace that it has been lately, I find myself in a major letdown......you know, sort of the depression after a really great party. Even if this party hasn't been all that great, at least it's been interesting.
Oh, I won't be wasting away with nothing to do.....it's just going to take some analyzing to sort through the good, the bad and the ugly. There are still Wildlife and Western shows, Wildlife Scratchboard Etching workshops, private students, commission work and producing new art pieces that will take up any slack time. And not forgetting doing up some brochures or other reach-out-and-touch-someone-reminders-that-I'm-still-alive mailers, too.
The latest in the auto memorabilia works is this little beauty......
"Hell" (c) 8x10" Scratchboard Etching
The product of a warped imagination, the title for this one fairly leaped at me while viewing the photo. The destruction of this vintage racing Porsche came about when it hit the tire safety wall at 100+ miles per hour.
A project on the board right now is a book of Wildlife in Scratchboard Etchings. The book will be an art book loaded with images and a few stories about some of the animals in it, all at a very affordable price for gift giving to the animal and/or art lovers on your holiday shopping list. (Technically I didn't mention the C word yet.) It will be available later this summer.
Happy Summer to you all....keep coloring outside the lines,
It's been a busy few weeks.....with a show, usually profitable, that bombed for me rather seriously, it has taken awhile to recover from the shock.
Now this wasn't my first rodeo, so I'm aware that as an artist you have to take the bad with the good occasionally, but I had relaxed into what had always been a profitable show for me. It's easy to blame it on the economy, but a few artists were doing well. After mulling it over, no good reason has come to light.
It has become an expensive show to do....not only high booth fees, but 3 auctions in 3 days has drawn the dwindling crowd, that has to pay a hefty fee to get through the auction door and a buyers premium, out of the booths of the artists. The auctions prices across the board have fallen to record lows and are now no longer a good venue for selling art, unless you enjoy getting a very small fraction of your usual selling price.
So what to do?
Well, go to another show, of course!
This one was a startling contrast to the long-running, but failing show......into it's 4th year, it charges no entry fee at all! Located in a small town just south of the other show, it sets up artists in outdoor and indoor locations on the central core downtown streets and in businesses. The streets are blocked off and has food vendors and live, recognized singers and musicians and activities for everyone in a family.
With an artist's reception and quick finish and auction on Friday night and then 2 days of showtime, I found it to be exciting and very refreshing. The committee that puts on the show made it clear that it's a show for the artists and were incredible to work with.
How do they keep it running? All they asked for was 50% of the take on the quick finish and a donated piece of art, voluntary, to be auctioned off as a fundraiser at a later date. 60 good artists showed up for this wonder of a show, and I made a nice profit....not huge, but nice.
Where's the idiot within? Alive and well right here, thank you. The profits were used to buy a binding machine and supplies to print up instruction books for my workshops.....the light bill isn't getting paid this month, but the show(s) must go on! Professional looking workbooks are another step closer to where I want to be.....and I'm in this for the long haul.
Many of the other blogs I read, and including mine, all maintain that diversifying your market is wise in the current economic climate. Sort of like a diversified stock portfolio.....if one stock tanks, hopefully there are others still keeping the boat afloat.
My recent venture into automotive memorabilia is now an avenue worth pursuing. The contacts I have in the auto world are responding with enthusiasm and supplying reference photos from across the United States.
I don't know how sales will be yet, but I also wonder why I didn't think of this sooner. The short answer is the concentration that has been put into learning how to paint landscapes and the research and work on the wildlife has kept my mind from even considering anything else.
What's the difference now? Haven't a clue, except for an insistent urge to render in scratchboard an innocent little gas pump a few short weeks ago.
Here is the latest.....a Cadillac that resides in North Carolina awaiting restoration......
"Retro Queen" 10x8" scratchboard etching
Along with teaching workshops, private students, commissions, and art shows, this auto memorabilia will round out a diverse program. Is this being too busy? Not as long as I love what I'm doing and still able to do it all well.
A continued thank you to the legions of wonderful people that stand behind me in so many ways....I am grateful.
