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Learning and Thinking Aloud
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Urban Sunrise, 9 x 9″ Acrylics & Ink “But the artist who is more interested in creating deeply than in ridding herself of anxiety will refuse to know too soon.” – Eric Maisel In his fascinating book, Fearless Creating, Eric Maisel talks about the necessity for the artist to invite in and deal appropriately with…
Crimson Angel, 9 x 11″ Acrylic “If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.” – Joseph Campbell How oddly reassuring. As artists we all struggle with knowing if we’re on the right path. There are usually obstacles looming ahead of us on that path – bumps we stumble over, forks we…
Tropical Deconstruction, 6 x 6″ monoprint “As artists our job is to keep the faith and help humankind to remember beauty and thus the promise of happiness. Our work defends hope, the most precious homeland for any soul.” – Todd Plough I love everything about this quote. It says that what artists do matters. That…
“The thing made is a work of art made by art, but not itself art. The art remains in the artist and is the knowledge by which things are made.” – Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy It’s an intriguing thought to view art as not the work itself but the means by which the work is created.…
“Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.” – Miles Davis It’s all too easy to play what’s there – to take another photograph, paint a painting, write a story, compose a song, much like the ones you’ve done before. There are lots of reasons to do so – creating a consistent body of work,…
“There isn’t any method of improvement inherent in abstract painting. There is no challenge.” – Daniel E. Greene As you might expect, I don’t agree at all with the sentiment expressed above. I find it interesting that a prominent artist would make such a statement – Daniel Greene is one of the most respected portrait…
“Specialization is for insects.” – Robert Anson Heinlein I’ll admit it, I’ve got an art problem. My art-making interest far exceeds my capacity to make art. It’s mostly a lack of time – I have a full time job, not to mention two teenagers, a couple of mothers to care for – you get the…
“We are not interested in the unusual, but in the usual seen unusually.” – Beaumont Newhall I have noticed a difference over time between many paintings and photography. Many successful paintings have been created of subjects that are pretty boring. They are scenes that a good photographer would never even bother with. The composition can…
“It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.” – W. Somerset Maugham I couldn’t resist this quote when I saw it as it is a perfect continuation of the discussion in my last post that started…
“Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.” – Goethe An interesting hierarchy. I agree with the first part – knowing means there are fewer possibilities, and possibility is what keeps our interest. Some people may believe knowing is supreme, but as an artist, I think it leads to stagnation. The second…
Study Journal: 