The five panel members…

as far afield from each other as Molly Gordon in Seattle, Guillermo Cuellar in New England, Nancy Marmalejo and Lucia Cappacionne in Southern California, and artist Shirley Williams in Ontario, Canada…

…seemed to be flowing from an interconnected river of knowledge as they responded to the questions that came straight from this year’s smARTist participants. 

I found the panel’s answers to be practical in their collective wisdom, that only when we…build a foundation of clarity are we able to pursue our dreams successfully.

Here are a few of the questions they answered today

• What are the essentials in getting clear? Is it all a matter of knowing more about the business of art? 
• How do you know when a plan or opportunity is the right one for you?  How do you differentiate between an intuition and a fear reaction to an opportunity?
•  There seems to be a trend developing in the US galleries to “buy local”.  Is this a good time for artists outside the US to consider entering the US market? 
• What are some tips for staying centered and motivated in these strange economic times?
• What advice do you have for artists struggling with consistency?  Is consistency even important?
•  I wonder what ideas the panel has for addressing the current recession and whether they see any opportunities for fine artists to grow their businesses right now and in the next few years. 

Would you like to hear their answers?

It’s really not too late. Since we record everything and load the sessions onto the website to hear at your convenience, you can register right now for the smARTist Telesummit 2009 and miss nothing!

smARTist only stops at Your Station once a year. 

So, just Click Here to register before the train leaves.

You will get the 2 Panel Days, plus 11 Keynote Presentations – all for less than the price of a weekend workshop (where you only get 1 Presenter!)

And since the Telesummit comes with a  60-Day-No-Questions-Asked-Back-to-the-Future guarantee, there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving your art career the strategies and information you need to succeed.

As one artist told me about smARTist last year:
I was so afraid of spending the money with the economy declining, 
(I am my only support) but I did it and I am just so pleased. 
I am absolutely LOVING the smARTist Telesummit. 
 
I am getting so many ideas as I listen to the lessons in my car, and at home, 
until it all really sinks in. Thank you so much. It was money really well spent! 
-Cherie Grampp

Come join us…the party has just begun!

Just Click Here to register and you’ll get access to today’s Panel recording right away!

Pencils

This week I invite you to visit my studio.  In my day-to-day life I am an organized person and like things to be evenly and purposefully arranged.  I used to have that going on in my studio as well–at least more than I do now.  Now…things are much more in a muddle.  I guess I could fret and get to work cleaning it up, but lately I’ve been enjoying the more chaotic nature of my surroundings.  It’s like going into the wilderness, never knowing what you’re going to find.

So instead of cleaning it up or rearranging things to look more orderly, I will give you a tour of things as they truly are in my creative laboratory.  Come in and allow me to present to you the treasures of my increasingly messy (read ‘relaxed’) studio.

Studio Floor

See this pile on the floor?  This is a hub, a vortex, a soup of my imagination.  This is where drawings I am currently interested in or working on have landed–are perpetually landing.  In between being in process and being finished they shelter in place here with others of their kind.  They sprawl comfortably, casually intermingling, awaiting my attention.

The size of the pile ebbs and flows.  (A week or so ago my whole floor was covered.)  Its configuration morphs considerably.  But the mass of material always remains there for me to step over, circle around, and pick through. 

The place where I find the deepest, most random, and fascinating gathering of pictures is on top of my flat file.  I rarely know what all is in there, but I know it is interesting enough to have once been placed where it could be easily seen and contemplated.  

Flat File Top

Every couple years I get things all arranged and sorted out and I can see clearly what is on top of my flat file.  But very quickly things gravitate there, stick, and mix. 

I continually resolve to dive in and at least take inventory, but so far I haven’t had the heart or the true inclination, and the layers just keep accumulating and things become less well aligned.  I know some day I will go in.  But right now it is building a history, expanding itself, fermenting.

Anyway, the point is, no matter how much I organize and put things where they go, there are always new piles forming.  They are the fertile soil in which my imaginative arrangements of words and pictures and ideas grow.  There’s a composting going on in this mulch of artifacts. Every time I step into my studio now I feel a thrill at the disarray.  I enter it completely, without resistance or need to fix it up, and I play with the chaos.  The deck gets shuffled and things get stirred up, and the higher order of beauty arises now and then.

BTW you might want to check out Ariane’s VORP event today to get a little stirred up yourself!  It’s a wild ride as she interviews all 11 experts for this year’s smARTist!

La Toilette by Toulouse Lautrec

There was Degas’ group that gathered each summer in Brittany, which later gave rise to Gauguin’s group. There was Lautrec’s group that roved in and out of a variety of Montmartre cafes, and experimented with a variety of absinthes. There was Benton’s crowd on Martha’s Vineyard, the American Impressionists at Old Lyme, and…

Jackson Pollock’s band of merry drinksters at the Cedar Bar on Long Island.

Mutual support and shared connections

But it hasn’t just been artists who have banded together. All kinds of people engage in this practice for obvious reasons of mutual support, shared contacts, and shared beliefs.

To me, young Ben Franklin’s coalition of intellectuals, entrepreneurs and artisans, called The Junto during his early years in Philadelphia, is one of the best examples.

Want to start your own ‘gang?’ Start with a local paper.

How do you form such a group, regardless of where you might live? One place is to approach your local paper with a story idea about your pending “art group.”

Call the paper, get the name of the appropriate editor, and send them a press release. You can do this via e-mail or regular mail. I recommend the latter so that you can include visuals of your work as an example.

The release is nothing more than a one-page letter, explaining your idea for the art group, the story behind it, and why there is an element of human interest. Make the story as interesting as possible. Include details of when you want to meet, where, how frequently, etc.

And while you’re at it, you might want to mention some of the groups I alluded to above, and how throughout history this has been a practice of singularly dedicated artists.

After sending the release, wait a week, then call and politely inquire whether the paper will be doing the story. In time they’ll let you know. Just don’t bother them overmuch, as journalists are insanely busy people with even more insane deadlines.

Once the article comes out there’s a good chance it will get passed around. It will be up to you to decide if you want to restrict the group to the kind of work that you do, or leave it wide open.

Defining the group

Just be sure to ask yourself, is this group going to merely be a collection of polite coffee sippers who gather to socialize, or are you going to get down to the blood-and-guts aspects of creating art, and be honest with yourselves in the process?

This doesn’t mean that you can’t be polite, or that you can’t sip coffee. You should always be considerate, as I think vitriolic criticism is counter-productive, and rarely inspires change. But candor, when born of mutual respect, is essential for the advancement of individuals within any group.

The purpose? Growth.

Your purpose should be growth, both as individuals and artists. Growth is best achieved by grappling with and overcoming adversity in both your work and personal life. That, in turn, is best dealt with through candor. When everyone understands that this is among the group’s goals, then you’ll be creating a coalition that may well leave a significant stamp on each of you for the rest of your lives.

Good; that sure beats staying at home and doing nothing in perpetual solitude. There’s already enough of that; too much in fact. This is your way to break out of it.

Have a great time with this. And hey, swap the coffee for wine if you want, or better yet, bourbon (then I’ll join). Absinthe? Man, I think I’d stay away from that. Bad news. Just ask Lautrec.