Breathe in the creativity, breathe out your own.

www.claudiatrue.com

Breathe in the creativity, breathe out your own.

www.atthestudiodoor.com

Some people also refer to this as your artist’s voice, much like every singer has a distinct tone that cannot be duplicated, or a signature style that’s immediately recognizable (think Georgia O’Keefe or Frida Kahlo).

It is what sets you apart from the pack of ordinary work, where a dozen pair portraits from a dozen different artists could be lined up next to each other and all look as if they came from the same artist.

When your work is speaking from the level of your soul, no one can ever successfully copy you. Your artistic fingerprint is just that: yours. By definition it cannot be anyone else’s.

Only a lot of artists feel confused by the difference between loving what they have just made, and knowing the work carries a distinct sense of who they are as an artist.

An artistic fingerprint can be simple or complex, but it is never about self-duplication.

It’s something you do…

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Welcome to the phantasmagorical world of Geoffrey Gorman_American Style Mag

Geoffrey Gorman, artist and partner in our Art Career Mentor Program, made a very provocative statement during one of our sessions. He said that “curiosity is the most important trait an artist can have.”

Arguably, he was referring to the making of art where an artist lubricates all parts of the process by staying open and curious about materials, about subject matter, and the message.

But I think there’s another dimension where curiosity will separate out the short pants from the long pants (now why isn’t there…

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The comments you left on my last post about confidence made me realize this is a subject begging for more.

So let’s shake it out.

Let’s take each of the five points I made, last week, and expand in as many directions as we can in a 5-part series. (Well, if you count last week that would be 6 parts ;-) but who’s counting?)

And, I’m going to need your help for this. I’ll be able to nail down a few ideas, but it’s you, out there in the studio day after day, who can tell me what I can’t even imagine.

Here’s what I’m looking for, from you…

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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!

In Motion by Lori Wolfson

It’s been great fun being here and sharing this wonderful blog, but it’s time for me to move on.  My work here is done. The canvas calls me and I must attend.

Have a wonderful time all you artists and good luck in all you do.  Until we meet again…

And thank you, Ariane, for the opportunity to spend this valuable and rewarding time here with you.  You are one of a kind and, as an artist, I can’t tell you how much your support and work out there in the world for us all means to me!

Abstract 1/3 by Lori Wolfson

All is tumbling down.  How to proceed safely?  Where to step when everything is shifting?  Like Alice, falling, falling, I wonder at the strangeness of my surroundings as I sink.  What is this sudden hurtling rush of events and circumstances, and what am I to make of them?

Like the midpoint in a painting, when you’re far enough away from the beginning to…

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Breathe in the creativity, breathe out your own.

Rosemary Conroy – “Ravens Free Light”

www.studiobuteo.com

Breathe in the creativity, breathe out your own.

Mary Whitehill – “Highlands 5″

http://www.mewhitehill.com

In an earlier post I talked about going back into unfinished drawings and paintings with an abstracted and loosened approach, and how that served as a good vehicle for my re-entry into the world of making pictures.  I continue to work like this on these old drawings, and in the process I am slowly and subtly becoming aware of my developing visual memory.

I remember when I was an art student my teachers would often talk about visual memory.  They told of how…

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Breathe in the creativity, breathe out your own.

Marianne Post – “Spring Hilltop”

http://www.mariannepost.com

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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Ibis

I have been thinking about art that is made as an offering of beauty to be shared, in contrast to art that is made as an enticement to critics and consumers.  These days it seems like we are coming at it from the wrong direction, regarding art mainly as…

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This story is lifted from Living the Artist’s Life.  It happened eleven years ago now, a good time to review past disasters, and recoveries. Something to remember in these times, when people might be wondering about the nature of “recovery.”

It was in March of 1997 that the manager of the Hotel Savoy, where my first gallery was housed, called me one Sunday night.  He asked if I was watching TV…

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