Category: Creativity

Some galleries are arrogant. I do not know why they act in such a manner but you can walk in a gallery and  feel very uncomfortable. Sort of like you have no right to be there. This is so unfortunate.
I had a friend who wanted to buy a Jaguar. He had cash for a new Jaguar and when he walked into the dealership they shunned him. He did not have a suit on and looked just like a regular guy, but he had cash in his pocket to buy a Jaguar and they snubbed him.
What a foolish thing. He eventually bought one from another place but they could have had a sale.
Sometimes people do not look like they are serious buyers , but they are.
You never know.
I think anyone who takes the time to wander into a gallery should get lots of attention. they might be an artist scouting for new places to sell their work, or they just might be someone who is looking to fill his whole house with art.
But the artworld is totally snooty. In fact the more popular the gallery is the snootier they are.
Don’t let them intimidate you. They just have something to sell, they are not smarter than you or more sophisticated or brilliant. They only have a product to sell.
Go into any one with your head held high. They need you. They are just playing hard to get.
If you come into my studio, I will be very happy to talk to you about anything. I can put down my work and talk. I just have to actually stop painting and talk. I can’t do both at the same time.

Vik is an artist who does artwork that is very unusual. He takes a picture and blows it up( sometimes really really big) and then embellishes it with objects. He did art with sugar of some kids that worked in the sugar fields.
He did artworks of people that worked in the garbage dump in Rio with actual garbage spread all around them. So he is a photographer artist.
I saw a documentary about him the other day.
I want to tell you about the garbage dump workers.
People are precious no matter where they end up. He came to Rio(where he grew up) and built a studio in a garbage dump. The pickers were people that would go through the garbage and pull out recycle items and sell them. they made a living that way. Rio is very poor and that is just what some people have to do.
Anyway Vik comes to the dump and get several of the Pickers to help him in his project. He stages them in poses in the dump that look like famous paintings then he photographs them. He blows it up huge and the pickers add garbage to the picture for shading and color. Weird as it sounds it is extremely beautiful.
then he sells the finished art work at auction and gives the pickers the money.
It changes their lives not only because they got some money but because they were a part of seeing themselves as beautiful. Which they were. They all went on to have better lives because they participated in this art project.
I have never seen art used in this way and it was so inspiring that I recommend everyone go see this film . Wasteland.

I need space for thinking. I did not know I needed this until I had some but now I know.
There is something about big open sky is so big spaces that seem to help clear the mind.
I went to soap Lake again this past week and had an unusual experience.
I was alone for awhile there. Usually there are lots of people around.
But his time I was alone for a bit with just me and the sky. Looking at each other.
me and the sky.
when there are no buildings or people to distract you from how alone you are in the big sky you don’t think about it.
Well we are alone ultimately .I had a weird experience of feeling like I was scared I was so alone. The silence of nobody there but the sky and birds and the wind is different.
It made me think of how I am hardly ever alone.
something is always there. computer, books dogs, people walking by.
I want to do a test.
If I stayed in that different place by myself for a week what would I paint.
what happens when I am distracted always .
would it be the same or really different to be there alone for an extended time.
anyway that is what I am going to do. maybe next month . work and sky and nothing else.

When do you know when a work is done? I contend it is done when it does not bother you anymore. When it sings and when it speaks to you great mysteries and live secrets and everything is coming up roses. Then it is done. Before that, it is a work in progress.

The progress part is fighting and looking and agonizing and screaming and crying. This is not a pretty part. If someone comes into the studio when I am on the process progress part and says something to me, anything to me I totally don’t like it. Because I start to look at it through their eyes and start to immediately find fault and fury and then want to destroy the painting.

You might think I am overreacting but I think that is normal. To all onlookers of all art in progress– don’t say anything. We are not done. We are not done. Do you look at a half baked cake and say that it does not look done? No.
So don’t look at art in progress and make comments. Don’t even say you love it because then I will try and figure out what you love.

Someone told me once that your body wants to keep doing what it is doing. If you are lying down then you want to keep lying down. If you are moving you want to keep moving. If you are failing you think you will keep failing and if you are doing good you think it will always be like this and when you feel happy you feel like you want to burst with joy and when you are sad you cannot remember what joy felt like, and you think you will die of sadness. Yup we are creatures of habit, even habits that started two minutes ago.

That is why it is good to get the ball rolling in a good direction. We control the direction of our minds. We are the ones who make the ball move. not circumstances. We bob and weave through life. You just have to get good at it.

I did a painting yesterday that I am in love with. It makes me want to go there and be with them. It is the sweetest painting I have ever done. ever ever ever. Most people will love it because it has such a kind feeling that you never want to stop looking at it. this is where I am steering my new paintings. unbearable sweetness. only I can bear it and so can you. I think everyone is starving for sweet. That is my new habit. focused sweetness. that is going to affect everything in my life. yup. that is just the way it is.