In my book The Path of Least Resistance, I describe two distinct orientations: Reactive/Responsive and Creative/Generative.

Reactive/Responsive is when circumstances are the driving force in your life. You either react against or respond to the situation. The circumstances, rather than your aspirations and values, are the driving force.  Most of us were raised to be reactive/responsive. In fact, we are told that we have made progress if we move from reacting against to responding to the circumstances. But there is little difference when the circumstances are in control.

The Creative/Generative orientation is vastly different. Here the driving force is not the situation you are in, but your desires, your aspirations, your vision, and your values.

Most artists are in a creative/generative orientation when they make their art.  They organize their actions around the vision they have for the piece they are making.  They compare their vision with the current state of the work, and then they take strategic actions to bring the current state of the work to the desired outcome they envision.

But when it comes to career and business, they fall back into a reactive/responsive orientation.  It doesn’t occur to them to use the very same creative process that is so effective in their art in the rest of their lives.

The great advantage artists have is they have mastered their own creative process – the most successful process for accomplishment in history.  Most non-artists have little understanding of what it takes to bring a creation into being.  But this is the stock in trade of every artist.

Ironically, artists often don’t know what they have.  The creative process may be a result of unconscious competence and innate talent.  They know how to create intuitively, so they are not consciously aware of their own creative process. Yet, all artists strive to grow their talents.  The reason for this is that their artistic vision often outpaces their technique.

This motivates learning, discipline, innovation, creativity, experimentation, and, in the end, what was once only intuitive, becomes both intuitive and conscious awareness of the creative process.

For an artist to move from a reactive/responsive to a generative/creative orientation in his or her life-building process is profound transformation.  Suddenly the division between your artistic life and your personal and professional life is gone.

Everything, including your own life, becomes the subject matter of the creative process: a work in progress.

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If you want to hear more from Robert Fritz, he will be presenting “Your Life as Art” on January 25th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.

Four time, returning smARTist Alumni, Amadea Bailey, tells us exactly why she keeps coming back!

Is your art career sitting on the fence because you are?

Register for the smARTist Telesummit 2010. (It starts in 2 days!)

Your art career will thank you—and that’s a promise!

Have you been listening to the “Art ‘n’ Soul Radio” interviews of the 2010 smARTist Telesummit speakers?

The two artists who co-host the show – Catherine Foster and Sheryl Allen – have been doing a great job!

On Monday, they interviewed two more smARTist keynote speakers:  art-marketing guru Barney Davey, and compassionate organizing expert Jen Hofmann. (You’ll hear me there too, doing the introductions and talking about smARTist.)

Creating a second income stream from the art print market and inspired, compassionate organizing?  Interesting combination – and they made it work beautifully!

You’ll want paper and pencil in hand before you click the audio player and listen!

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There’s even more to come from Jen, Barney, and 9 other art-career experts at the smARTist® Telesummit 2010, January 21 – 29.  It’s the only professional development art-career conference anywhere, online or off.  Give your career the attention it deserves!  http://www.smartist.com

Please enjoy this narration from my brain while I was attempting to work:

Argh! The cat’s driving me crazy! I wonder what’s on Twitter? (opens Twitter)

Argh! Quit farting around! (closes Twitter)

I wonder why those bees are hanging around outside my window…

What’s in my email inbox?

Wait – what was I doing – oh yes…

It’s normal. Bouts of distraction happen. Everyone has different symptoms, but the outcome is the same: you’re busy but not purposeful.

What’s distracting you?  Once you realize what’s pulling you off track, you can manage your experience by removing the attention-grabbers.  For me, it was the sun’s glare, the cat’s repetitious grooming, and open project folders on my desk.

I closed the blinds, moved the cat off my lap, cleared the folders off my desk, and then closed more blinds because the sun moved (well, technically, the earth moved).  And sat down to work.

But even that doesn’t always help.  I got distracted. Again.

And I humbly realized: I can’t bend focus to my will. Even in the clearest, most refreshing spaces, sometimes people still can’t concentrate.

Once upon a time, people moved around. They walked places, moved their bodies for work, rode animals, collected their own food.

Today, I know a lot of people who sit at desks for a large portion of the day.  Me, for one.  In itself, that’s not such a bad thing.  But for many people that natural, vital movement is gone.

Taking movement breaks is vital to creativity.  Who hasn’t gotten a good idea in the shower? Or out walking?

If you’re distracted, and making adjustments to your space hasn’t helped, move.  Get up and get away from your desk. Do something you like.

You’ll be surprised how much better you’ll concentrate when you get back.

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If you want to hear more from Jennifer Hofmann, she will be presenting “It’s Not as Bad as You Think: Gentle organizing for creative spirits” on January 25th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.

In 1870 Jules Verne published a fictional novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which told the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus.

Eighty-eight years later, in 1958, the real Nautilus made the first voyage under the polar ice pack, traveling more than 1800 miles in just six days and passing directly under the north pole.

But Verne was only traveling in the footsteps of another artist. Nearly four hundred years before Verne wrote his book, artist Leonardo DaVinci had sketched out plans for a submarine.

Around 1563 flemish artist Peter Breugel (he had dropped the “h” from his name in 1559) painted this imaginary picture of the Tower of Babel.

Four hundred years later artist/architect Frank Lloyd Wright turned Breugel’s imaginary concept upside down and made it real when, in 1959, the Guggenheim Museum opened in New York.

How far is the iPhone from the “wrist radio” that artist/cartoonist Chester Gould first drew for Dick Tracy in 1946 and which was updated to a “wrist TV” in 1964 and a “wrist computer” in 1986? Not far!

I know we are not all DaVincis, Breugels, Frank Lloyd Wrights, or Chester Goulds. but I do know that the paintings of Georgia O’Keefe have helped us to comprehend our intimate relationship with plants, that the works of Cindy Sherman have shown us how we each can realize our dreams, and that the etchings of Kathe Kollwitz have helped us to better understand the horrors of war, thus providing motivation for avoiding it.

Each one of us, every time we make a mark, assemble a collage, or carve an image, has the opportunity to model some portion of a better future for humankind. How we use that opportunity is, of course, up to us – but it helps to know that we are part of a larger process and it helps to understand how the creativity of those who have preceded us can guide and inspire our own artistic intentions.

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If you want to hear more from Jonathan Talbot, he will be presenting “Making Passion Your Business” on January 29th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.

Doing Out Does Dreaming

There is a deeply entrenched and equally misguided notion among many visual artists that the creative process is all about inspiration.

While certainly no one will argue being inspired is not valuable, others argue it is an overrated factor when it comes to being a successful artist. One such person is the incomparable Chuck Close.

Chuck Close’s career has been extraordinary by any standards. He has stood as a towering iconic figure on the contemporary art scene for decades. It would be easy for one to think inspiration drives his motivation.

Quite to the contrary, in a talk titled Painting Process / Process Painting for MOMA, he comes straightforward to say otherwise, “Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just get to work.” Click the link below to see him in the short video.

The point Close makes is that more comes doing the work than it does waiting for the muse. This advice goes well beyond being practical for visual artists. It equally applies to any vocation.

I would put it this way: “Doing out does dreaming.” If you have been putting off doing the work while waiting for magical mystical inspiration, you would do well for yourself to heed the words of Chuck Close and just get to work.

Taking action creates consequences that often come in the manner of good things happening in the form of support that comes from unexpected sources.

Do not wait for anything when you can start now!

Watch this video for more about Chuck Close:

Catherine Foster and Sheryl Allen are two artists who co-host a lively Internet radio show called “Art and Soul.”

Last week, they interviewed two of the smARTist® 2010 keynote speakers:  publicity expert Joan Stewart, and art-marketing guru Jonathan Talbot.  (You’ll hear me on there too, doing the introductions!)

I was blown away by the amount of information that was packed into the one-hour program. Joan is always high-energy and full of ideas – and Jon is an inspirational speaker who had lots to say about how you – yes, even you right-brained artists! – can create passion for the business side of your art career.

You’ll want paper and pencil in hand before you click the audio player and listen!

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If you liked that, you’ll get even more from Joan, Jon, and 9 other art-career experts at the smARTist® Telesummit 2010, January 21 – 29.  It’s the only professional development art-career conference anywhere, online or off.  Give your career the attention it deserves!  All the details are here.

There are so many missed opportunities to promote on Facebook!

I’m frequently asked by my clients to explain the ROI on social networking.  My answer is always the same: “How much time would you like to spend?”

It’s really very simple:  the more you put into it, the higher your rate of return. That’s true for anything in life, be it business or personal.

I ask my clients to spend five minutes a day on Twitter. Look through the tweets that are showing. Retweet someone else. Post a tip. Don’t be too promotional.

Next comes Facebook!

If you’ve set it up correctly, Twitter feeds directly to your status on your Facebook home page. Take another five minutes to check your status feed every day. Comment on others’ feeds. Offer tips and advice. Again, don’t be overtly promotional.

Always remember to be conversational and polite. Engage others.

Facebook can appear to be confusing and hard to follow, but once you know your way around, it’s very user friendly.

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If you want to hear more from Christine Buffaloe, she will be presenting “Beyond Beginners: Selling More Art on Facebook” on January 27th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.

The Creative Voice is infinitely more powerful than the Critical Voice.

If your Critical Voice is overwhelmingly loud, that may be hard to absorb.

But our intuitive center is always urging us toward healthy new risk, like a lighthouse beacon calling us to reach our full potential. And when creativity calls, we had best surrender, or experience far worse anxiety in the refusal.

Listen more clearly to your Creative Voice, truly listen. Then trust it enough to act upon it. When you act, your creative power emerges organically. You grow closer to yourself, your creative potential, and who you’re meant to be.

Then recognize that at its core the Critical Voice contains something essential to creativity:  the power to assess, to review, to re-arrange and improve. Before it went astray, the Critical Voice was the Helpful Editor.

Fighting with it won’t help.  Trying to get rid of it won’t help. Instead, embrace it, hear it, get underneath its bullying jabs. When you do, you recover its positive attributes and reposition it in its true role as a servant to the Creative Voice and your creative process.

This is a joyful discovery. Time and again, clients are amazed by the power of their Critical Voice, repositioned as a Helpful Editor, to inspire, enhance, transform, empower, and deepen their creative process.

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If you want to hear more from Barbara Bowen, she will be presenting “Bring it on! How Resistance Can Wake Up Your Creative Process” on January 29th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.

In all the hundreds of questions I’ve been asked about writing press releases, no one has ever asked the most important one:  “How do I research and use keywords in my press releases so the search engines can find them and bring targeted traffic to the release, and then, to my website?”

Most press release writers have only a vague understanding of how to use keywords. They think a tantalizing headline, scrumptious sub-head, enticing copy, kick-butt quote, and even a call to action will pull traffic and convert to sales.

Problem is, if  their press releases don’t include the keywords people are typing into Google when they want a problem solved, no one will ever find their releases.

5 tips for optimizing press releases

1. Before you write, do keyword research to learn what words or phrases relate to your news, industry or brand.  Wordtracker and Google’s Wonder Wheel help simplify and arrange search results.
2. Identify from one to three different but related keyword phrases to use, and include them within your release.
3. If your business serves a local area, use regional keywords.  For example: “Los Angeles photography studio.”
4. Don’t assume you must use your company name in the headline.  That’s one of the first places the search engines look for keywords.  People searching for the type of product or service you sell won’t type your company name into the search engines.  Use the keywords they’d use, based on your research.
5. Use keywords in the first paragraph of your press release.

Using keywords in press releases might feel strange at first.  But the more you practice using keywords, the easier it becomes. And the more skilled you become at using keywords, the easier it is for people to find your release.

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If you want to hear more from Joan Stewart, she will be presenting “Ezines, Bios & Blogs:The Top 3 Writing Problems That Stop Artists Cold…and How to Solve Them!” on January 27th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.

It’s a wonderful feeling to be in the south of France with a group of students watching me give a painting demonstration.

Immersed in a field of bright yellow, painting sunflowers, I could feel my value to the students.   And I felt part of a long line of painters who painted outdoors, painted sunflowers, painted in the south of France.

I felt involved in an extremely worthwhile activity, honoring beauty and nature.  I experienced a complexity of emotions running between a time-honored simplicity of looking at a flower and the very nurturing of one’s soul.

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If you want to hear more from Sharon Pitts, she will be presenting “Travel With Your Talent: Giving Workshops Abroad” on January 28th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.

So, call me a nerd:  I’ve been studying the brain recently, because it has such a profound impact on how you concentrate (or not), and how you organize your stuff.

Turns out there are specific neurons in your brain that process the edges of objects. Sounds crazy, but my guess is that this edge-noticing ability helped our ancestors track prey and predators.

You’re not hunting buffalo or running from an angry mastodon, but this is relevant to organizing your studio.

Take a look around.  You’ll find object edges everywhere.  Your computer screen has them.  Papers have them. Books, files, pens, all your art supplies – you name it.

It stands to reason that the more edges your brain has to process, the more likely you are to feel overwhelmed.  All those edges!

When you lump stuff together into piles, you give your edge-processing neurons a break.  And you feel less overwhelmed.  How cool is that?

The trouble starts when you can’t find what you need in your lumps.

But you can create helpful lumps – lumps that allow your brain to process fewer edges and allow you to find what you need.

You can use things like stair-step vertical files and wall-mounted file organizers to create helpful lumps.  Or file bins – preferably without lids so you can see what’s in there.  Trays and baskets lump together sets of art supplies.

Do you have a bunch of random things that make your brain process edges?

Play with putting them into helpful lumps and see what happens.  You may be surprised!

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If you want to hear more from Jennifer Hofmann, she will be presenting “It’s Not as Bad as You Think: Gentle organizing for creative spirits” on January 25th at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Click here for all the details.

Two artists, Catherine Foster and Sheryl Allen, have an Internet Radio Show called “Art and Soul.”

Last week, they asked Jason Horejs, one of smARTist’s 2010 Keynote Speakers, to come on the show…and they asked me to introduce him.

Well, Jason is a hot ticket, folks! Not only is he a successful gallery owner, he’s now the author of a book that has sold out of 2 printings in less than 6 months.

He’s knowledgeable and lots of fun to listen to. If you want info on getting into galleries, this is the man who can tell you from the inside out!

Grab a notebook and then click the audio player below.

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If you liked this, you’ll get even more from Jason and his 10 colleagues at smARTist Telesummit 2010 -  January 21-29th – the only professional development, art career conference for visual artists, online or off where your art career gets all the attention for 7 days!  All the details are here!

For those deeply involved with the creative process, discipline is like a dose of castor oil.  We force it down in an attempt to fuel our creativity and reach our goals.

Why does discipline so often fail us? Why does it bring on a tangle of conflict, stress, and guilt that hinders flow and stops creativity in its tracks?

Discipline is often applied in opposition to resistance. When you oppose resistance, you create tension and perfectionism.  You get mired in expectations and focused on outcomes, and miss the joy of creating in the moment. Then the discipline that was intended to bring mastery and success just brings discontent and fatigue.

I use the word “willingness” to describe a new approach. With patience, you can cultivate willingness – and in a state of willingness, your tensions loosen and your creative joy increases.

When resistance sets in, choose to call upon the awareness mind.  This inner eye simply observes resistance non-judgmentally, creating a soft container for it.  Like meditation in motion, the awareness mind accepts resistance without struggle.

Ironically, acceptance of resistance loosens it.  Push nothing away; gently shift your focus back to the task at hand, while allowing the resistance to dissolve.

As you practice this process, resistance floats off more easily and more often. It no longer devolves into a demon thwarting your creative endeavors. Conflict, life stress, and guilt fade. Goal setting in your creative process becomes easier. Resistance is replaced by more calm and the experience of flow.

If you stay loyal to this practice, one day you’ll notice that the discipline associated with goal-setting in your creative process has become willingness.