Posts filed under 'Teaching'
July 4th, 2009
I have a friend named Yanosh, who has worked in industry for the last 25 years. For years and years he visited museums and has seen more valid, contemporary art than most of us. Yanosh recently started painting. He creates work through the manipulation of paint on the canvas with a palette knife while experimenting with color, texture, value and line. Yanosh will scrape paint off, reapply it, then move it around until he is satisfied with the result. Each piece he produces is abstract. He really has not exhibited yet, and people haven’t really seen much of his work.
There is another friend that I know named Angelina. She graduated from college with a major in art. Angelina paints these lovely realistic landscapes over and over and over, and she has been creating art for 25 plus years. Her work has changed little in all the years that she has painted, although Angelina has perfected techniques to a high degree in her expression of the landscape. Angelina exhibits quite a bit, continually sells pieces, and people really seem to enjoy her work.
My question to you, is, which one is the legitimate artist?
January 7th, 2009
As artists, many of us work in vacuums. We paint our paintings, almost oblivious to fact that art is being created everyday by thousands of artists. This is a very provincial approach to creating art. By working in isolation we miss the opportunity for stimulation. Most importantly, we miss the chance for growth as an artist.
I don’t care what your ability is or what you are doing right now in your work. If you are growing as an artist , expanding your vision, exploring color, shape, or surfaces, this is at the heart of being a good artist. If your moving in this direction, then you are truly developing your “talent”. Seeing other artist’s work stimulates. We like it, dislike it, compare it to what we’re doing, dismiss it, we get inspired by it, and sometimes it changes us. Whatever happens, we get out of our vacuums.
So, I’d encourage you to look around for shows, exhibits that might interest you and go look at the art. Go see any artist friends that you have, look at their work and have them look at yours. Get and give some feedback. Once again, it all comes back to personal growth. This is the value of seeing art.
February 26th, 2008
How many times have you thought this to yourself. It’s the phrase that every artist creating original, honest art thinks to themselves many, many times. Doubt, fear, and uncertainty are all part of the artist’s palette. So many times the emotion borders on despair. The artist looks at an empty canvas, brushes in hand, saying to himself or herself, where do I go from here? The canvas answers back with an empty stare.
It’s times like these that are so challenging. It takes a lot of belief in the self to get through these periods. You’ll find out what kind of artist (and person) you are. And there really is no secret on surviving these insecure times.
The secret is to keep working and moving forward. You just have to persist with your artistic vision. I’ll say it once again, keep working and move forward. Fail. Do you think deKooning, Pollock and Rothko created a “masterpiece” everytime they picked up a brush and put marks on a canvas? You’ll get through those “I can”t paint” thoughts, and find that wonderful part of you that exists in your art.