The best way to get known is to keep working and showing as often as you. I, like a lot of other artist get trapped 
sometimes thinking that we are going to get discovered. But that not likely if the only place people can see what your work is in your studio or even worst in your mind. I don’t have anything booked for February, but I putting out there and continue to work in preparations.
My good friend and artist Nancy got me out of the house and over to a drawing/sketch group up in the hills of Cave Creek (Beautiful, near a real creek) and once I started drawing life seemed to make sense (overly dramatic but what heck). I had forgotten how much I love drawing and especially working with a good model.
There is some value in looking at the past. There maybe something that you forgot about and would like to revisit, a theme or approach to resolving your work. One thing that becomes clear is that no matter what you felt about your work in the past, you see how your views about what you do has changed. It would make sense that this would be a good lesson to remember but I never do.
I’ve had this feeling since the beginning of the new year that I’ve been trying to prove something. Today I decided to take some time off and just look at my old drawings and let them speak to me. They were not as great as I thought they were, but there was a sensitivity in how I approached drawing that I would like to get to. So I am at this moment off to a friends house to study and draw two models. See if I can capture what I looking for. 
The City of Tempe Arizona has been under going a change to its skyline. The new Tempe Center for the Arts’s structure is a eye catcher as you drive east or west on the state highway 202.
Inside the center there is a combination of the elegance of natural wood, glass, steel and concrete and reminds me of the lofts and galleries of New York’s Chelsea and Soho.
One of the features at the new building will be a 3,500 foot gallery, featuring the works of local artist.
When something is just right the first time you see or hear it, can it be attributed to formula or technique? Usually not. It is obviously something that can’t be learned just by taking classes or mingling with masters.
Recently I watched for the third or fourth time Gorillaz: Demon Days Live in Harlem and think a certain type of magic had to take place in order Albarn to pull this off. I know it is well produced and staged, but so are so many things that don’t work and are far from being magical. How does the magic happen. For something to be important and seen as a contribution it has to not be before or after its’ time.
It has to have an enduring beat, something that time can’t dull, like “Little Rooty Tooty”
So it is for me with the Paintings of Hopper. There is Poetry in his paintings. Old style rap, you can see and feel the “Rhythm”
I came across a “work in progress’ painting by Luis Colon I’m Still Here which I liked a great deal. The artist was not satisfied and made changes which is something I do all the time. 
The reasons Luis gave for making his changes had to do with the scale of the objects and I wondered if this the reason I liked the painting so much and why I have my difficulties painting still life’s?
I try very hard to get the relationship and size of the objects correct, but then I lose 
interest. The scale of the objects in this painting make no sense, but there is something about the painting that I’m beginning to like.
Now that I am over much of my 
computer issues and can focus on art I came across a couple of photos (hidden on my PC) that I had forgotten about. Over the last ten years or more I’ve had an opportunity to be taught creativity by pre-school young people. When I am around a bunch of kids, I learn all over again that art like life is to serious to take seriously. 
There is so much joy in watching kids paint flying dogs for Valentine’s Day or green hearts for Mother’s Day. When ever I get an invitation to work with young people, I say sure, why not, I’ll be there. Then I experience an unimaginable fear as if I were meeting the Queen and I wonder why I did I say yes. The answers comes within two seconds after meeting the kids.
Artist at times have a choice between telling the honest to goodness truth or in-creditable lies. This painting (wp) is the truth as I experienced it.
This past Tuesday I attended a lecture and discussion panel with three gallery owners who talked how they got into the business, what they see their role and relationship to the artist is etc. Someone in the audience brought up Internet sales and did they work with artist who also sold their work on line.
If you are currently doing both, selling via your website and through a gallery, what are the agreements that you have in place with the gallery? Do you sell certain types of work on-line but not through the gallery?
I’ve been reading a lot about how certain conversations and comments have a way of halting the progress of an artist. I was surprised to learn that a positive remark has the same or similar effect for some artist
What happens is that our (individual) need for approval shows up and unconsciously we try to replicate the applause. In both cases, negative or positive, the artist moves away from his or her personal intent to “what can I do that will please others or at least avoid ridicule”. As result the artist becomes “Stopped” and avoids creativity in his or her work.
Does this ring true for anyone? I ask the question looking for ways to support the teaching of art and creativity.
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