Rooms

I have this store that I am renting and it is just sitting there waiting for me to do something to it or in it or for it.
LIttle store is very sad because nobody has taken care of her.
A store is like the owner so it is a female store.

Ok that is thought A.
Now thought B which is related to thought A.
One of the children in my art class drew a picture and I asked her to tell me about it.
She said it was four roses in a bowl and you have to add a cup of honey and stir it and it would make a flower bed.
I thought that was brilliant . What you can learn from a three year old.
My little store needs some honey and it needs to be stirred up and then it will be a flower bed.
That is what I want a flower bed where people and come pick flowers and bring them home to make their lives better.

My little kids

Even though we have only done four classes and that translates into 8 hours with the children , I am beginning to see how they are and how they will be for the rest of their life.
Teaching art to a very small class is the only way to go. Art is a relational experience and sort of a sacred space as they are exploring their most personal and tender parts of themselves.
Caring for that area of their life at this young and tremendously vulnerable age is a great responsibility.
They are formulating who they think they are in this world and this is the time where you decide you are able to communicate on a unique level to the rest of the world. Well how important is that.
Let me tell you about Aiden. He is a 7 year old boy.
He has a quiet spirit and is very bright and articulate. He is able to quickly observe changes to his surroundings and makes comments about them.
He draws a picture using only part of the paper. I want him to use the whole thing because he has a lot to get out. His personality is very obedient and compliant charming. He is tremendously thoughtful too.
So naturally he is a total joy to be around.
I sense a profound well within him of talent and I want to be there when it starts coming up.
I figured that because he likes to draw small concise things I should give him bigger and bigger paper to work on so he will be forced to go outside his comfort area.
Yesterday he did an upside down drawing and commented that he thought that version was much better than the right side up one he had done earlier.
It was not an easy drawing he was coping either.
He did exactly what I told him to do and only look at the picture one line at a time and draw really slowly.
Another exercise we did was to draw a number over and over again on a large piece of paper till the whole space was covered. At first he is a neat row of 7’s across the top in a methodical manner, but when I said I did not want to see any paper showing at the end he started making giant 7’s really fast and furiously which is what I wanted him to do. Then we did a whole page of curved lines and he made these wonderful curves all over with abandon. I was really wishing I had a bigger space for the kids to do some expressive body movements right after that and then go right into super slow drawing. I have this feeling that that would be a great way to access a deeper part of his ability in super slow.

I am thinking next class I will give him an even more complex cityscape to draw.
We are going to the Glass museum on Friday and I will teach the kids how to see with their whole body.
This is a technique that I stumbled upon when I was in New York and did not want to forget anything that I saw in the museums.

Inventing yourself

I am teaching little kids art. I am making up lesson plans as I go and am just reading what everyone else says and mulling it over and adapting it to little kids,
I look at their little faces full of beauty and wonderment and think how incredible it is to be able to spend time with them.
I did not know I was going to do this till I was doing it.
Then I realized if little children can invent how their lives will so can adults.
You can reinvent yourself by doing these three things.
Make it up, Start doing it small and then start doing it big.
You don’t have to know everything in advance.
I have visions of my little art class painting murals in a playground without any help. I envision my little kids writing and illustrating their own books, and I also envision them teaching their parents new skills they have learned.
they are fresh and not full of doubt yet so the sooner they get some major project under their belts the better.
I was sitting in the studio this morning a couple of hours  early for the kids to get there and decided to do some imagination work for the class.
One way is to look around and project what yo would like to see. What I thought would be great for me and the kids is to have a dance studio in conjunction with the art side. What if there is a connection between moving your body and getting an abstract concept. what if dance and art could be smushed together. Well you need quite a bit of space for that so I was thinking that half the entire floor space would be great.
If I could do anything I would do that.
I think adults would enjoy this too as most people never do anything like this and if they do they only do one or the other.
The best thing could be if it helped them grow and the worst thing would be that it would be enjoyable.
It is better to learn to to enjoy yourself in a natural healthy way then just do be passively watching something or someone else do something.
I want the two hours I have with them to be the best of the week and a time they can call their true time being way way alive.

Positive and Negative

Did you ever notice how to get bathwater cooler it takes just a little cool water but to get it hotter takes so much that you have to basically start over or literally put a lot of boiling water in. It is also easier to roll a ball downhill than to get it up the same hill.
The energy needed to get things started is so much more than to put things out.
Why is that?
If it is like that in the natural realm then it is even more so in the mental arena.
To get yourself motivated is the hardest step from inactivity. It is like starting with a bath of cool water and adding eyedroppers of warm water to it.
If you know this you can avoid letting the water get too cool.
You want hot water to cook and clean and think. You want it hot,
The old saying “you are pouring cold water on that” is so easy to do that you might not even be aware of it.
A slight slip of the thought that was going in a good direction and now is spiraling downwards into depression.

This is especially true in the incubation stage of new ideas. How many times have you had a great idea and then two seconds ,(yes I literally mean two seconds ) into it you thing Nahhh, That won’t work because bla bla bla.
Then three seconds later you have a monument to how terrible of an idea that was.
How do you know your idea is terrible till you try it. You don’t!

I am an impulsive person and that has been my saving grace my whole life.
When I have an idea I usually play it out.
I have failed more times than not but at least the impulsivity overrides negative thoughts.
Failing at something is not the worst thing. Failing proves you are brave to even try.
I say don’t even be afraid to fail miserably And if you get in hot water, well that is where we all want to be anyway. creatively. So here is to getting soaked getting baked, getting stoked, and getting on fire. Its all about the heat.

 

Making art

It is possible to make art and not have anyone to sell it to. Most work you do will not get sold. Unless you know a lot of people that are looking at your work and love what you do and fall in love with it.
Art buying is a love story.
You don’t need art like you need to pay the phone bill or get a car to get to work. You dont need art to live.
But I would rather buy art than pay the phone bill or put gas in the car or pay the electric bill. I hate paying those things and if I could think of a way to live off the grid in the woods somewhere I would but in the meantime I have to pay them.
But art makes life wonderful and exciting and it is the gift that never stops giving. Everytime you look at it is pay off time,
So art buying is a super treat.
That is why artists are so fortunate to be artists. They can fill their house with their own work.
Artists are never poor.
Even if you never sell anything you r whole life, it does’t matter. You can make art and fill your life with it and so you are like a king.
When you are an artist you might think that it is no big deal but most people do not have an art filled house and you do.
And here is what else I think. You don’t have to be an artist really.
If you have any inkling of desire to produce art yourself I recommend that you do.
Any art on the walls is better than no art.
I think there should be a rule that you should just
go out a buy a canvas and do something. Even if it is not that great, it is fun to make what you want on your own walls.
Walls are not sacred holy shrines that only masterpieces can go on.
If I was king I would make it a law that everyone has to paint one painting a month and put it up on the wall whether you want to or not. What would happen to the whole world if that law went into effect. The only fun law in the world,

error: Please do not copy.