Hawaii the First Time

This has been a shake-up, wake-up year for me, your normally stay-at-home-in-my-Internet-Ivory-Tower kinda gal. Oh, sure, I might wander up to Maine, or down to New York City – once in a while. But 4 trips in 4 months that all started with getting on a plane?

In the first place, I’m an introvert – which means I’m pretty darn happy toddling around in my own space, frolicking with the fairies and elves of my endless Idea Machine. It’s why I prefer being online and on the phone to, say, a keynote address where my body is in front of a bunch of other bodies – being alone keeps the external stimulation to a minimum so I can access, and cough up ideas like the smARTist Telesummit, or write books like Writing The Artist Statement.

However, something dramatically changed at…

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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!

Just when I thought my day could not get any lower, a kind and thoughtful soul sent me this poem.

And now I want to pass it on.

May the reign of art, in its many guises, bring a light to your day too!

Paula Zima - The Burial of the Sardine

An Excerpt from:  The Ear That Got Sold to a Fish

Art is the conversation between lovers.
Art offers an opening for the heart.
True art makes the divine silence in the soul
Break into applause.

Art is, at last, the knowledge of
Where we are standing—
Where we are standing
In this Wonderland
When we rip off all our clothes
And this blind man’s patch, veil,
That got tied across our brow.

We are partners straddling the universe.
Someone inside of us
Has one foot
Upon each resplendent pole.
Someone inside of us is now kissing
The hand of God
And wants to share with us
That grand news.

by Hafiz from his collection The Gift

I’ve been talking to a lot of artists lately in a series of strategy sessions, and I’m watching a pattern replicate itself like an out-of-control virus.

I’ve come to call it the Business Bitters–that mouth puckering contrast to the sweet taste of creative flow.

The story is simple and timeless: artist paints or sculpts or weaves or throws or composes, experiencing a kind of…

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There are three reasons I’ve seen for why artists won’t ask for what they want:

1. They already expect rejection, so why waste the time.

2. They think asking is a kind of weakness; a lessing of individuality.

3. In some well-hidden corner of self, they secretly believe…

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I just finished listening to an interview with Robert Storr, the current Dean of the Yale School of Art.

And I was struck, as I often am, by an academic’s perspective on being an artist. Which is not to say that Dean Storr is not part of the real art world. Far from it. He has extensive experience with curating (at the Museum of Modern Art, for one), exhibiting as a painter, he’s a respected art critic and a writer on the theory and practice of art.

The interview zeroed in on his plans for graduate and undergraduate students at Yale, yet I found that he had much to say that was…

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Strawberries and Chinese Cup - Oil on Linen Panel - 12" x 9" by Michael Lynn Adams

One of the best ways to see how you and your art travel around the web is to sign up for Google Alerts. I’ve done this for my name and also for the smARTist Telesummit.

Now, every day I receive one or more “Google alerts” in my inbox. Not only can you see where your name and art are showing up, these alerts provide a link so you can click to find out more. Once in a while the link lands me on page where I can’t find any mention, but more often I end up…

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Breathe in the beauty, breathe out your own.

Carol A. McIntyre – “Mountain Music”