My best advisor is myself
When I get caught up on a painting, like I did the other day, not sure where to go –
that’s when I stop, pause and go inward.
I turn off the music if it’s on, sit down, close my eyes, and center myself.
And wait.
Just in that centering, I gain clarity.
The other day, for instance, from that centered place I knew that I needed to focus on one painting at time.
So I let all the others in the series go for a moment and just picked one.
I looked at it, appreciated it, picked off the remnants of blue tape on the edges and declared it done.
I was delighted to find that the piece had different meanings depending on which way I turned it.
We can look outside ourselves for support and advice on our work, but I find the very best advisor is myself.
And not just myself but my Self. That part I connect with in meditation. The guidance I hear in the inner stillness.
What about you? When you are working on something and are not sure which way to proceed, what do you do to figure it out?
Leave a Comment
Grants for Artists: Tips for Applying
Are you aware of the thousands of grants for artists to fund their work?
Artist grants are offered all over the world to help support artists in the creation and sharing of their work.
Look for the list of resources for grants for individual artists at the end of this article.
Last month, I was in the process of applying for an artist grant. As often happens when doing administrative work, I found my initial flush of enthusiasm of the project diminished in the bureaucratic minutia of applying.
Has this every happened to you? You get all excited about an opportunity, only to lose steam part of the way through?
I created a video on the spot to share with you how I realigned myself with my purpose and vision to reinvigorate the application process.
Whether you are an emerging artist, a seasoned professional there are funding opportunities worth exploring.
Many are geared towards artists from a particular region. A great place to start is to your local arts council. Your municipality may have one or if you live in a smaller city or rural area, try your county, province or state arts council for opportunities. If you live in a smaller country, your national arts council or foundation may have excellent resources for you.
Getting started finding opportunities may be overwhelming at first. I recommend starting small.
If you are interested in learning more, make a 20 minute research appointment with yourself in your calendar for next week. This is something you can do after work some evening – even if you are too tired to go to your studio, committing a few minutes to finding opportunities to support yourself is a way you can demonstrate your commitment to yourself and gently nudge yourself along the path to playing a bit larger, stretching outside of your normal comfort zone.
It’s important not to get too bogged down. I find for myself, slow and steady wins the race. Setting aside small increments of time each day or each week works better for me than chaining myself to the computer for hours at a time.
If you find one you would like to apply for, write the deadline in your calendar and then schedule in weekly grant writing sessions for yourself so you have plenty of time to hone and edit your application.
If this is your first time, think of it as training for writing a grant. You will learn much in the process of putting together a proposal. This can then be edited and crafted for future proposals as well. Just the process of applying for a grant will encourage you to take your work seriously and think of yourself in a more professional context. It’s creating a bigger vision of yourself.
You may want to start a general search or you may narrow your search from the start. There are grants out there specifically for younger artists, mature artists, LGBT artists, artist of Latino, Native American, African-American descent, artist working in specific media, artists working with specific subject matter, etc.
What follows is a brief list of opportunities out there to get your started. Please share any additional opportunities you find with our whole community in the comments section below.
And as always leave questions or suggestions for future articles in the topics area below. Let me know how I can assist you!
The California Arts Council has a list of grants available to artists throughout the United States.
http://www.womenarts.org/funding-resources/visual-national/
For artists in Minnesota and 5 boroughs of New York http://www.jeromefdn.org/apply/general-program
The Guggenheim Foundation offers one of the most prestigious grants in the United States for visual artists:
Pollack-Krasner Foundation: Grants to artists worldwide with demonstrable financial need and recognizable artistic merit
Creative Capital provides integrated financial and advisory support to artists pursuing adventurous projects in five disciplines: Emerging Fields, Film/Video, Literature, Performing Arts and Visual Arts.
From Fractured Atlas: A list of some grants with upcoming deadlines
Leave a Comment
What Inspires You?
In this feature, each month artists share one thing that excites them creatively.
One key piece to support healthy, productive creativity is stimulating inputs. What kinds of things stimulate the creative centers of the brain? What kind of inputs stimulate us visually? Emotionally? Spiritually? Mentally? Physically?
I’d really like to know, what’s one thing that fills your creative cup? Share with us in the comment section below.
Matthew Johnson
Hello M.A. bloggers, my name is Matthew Johnson and my creative stimulation dwells within the realm of the creation we call “Life.” From the tiniest insects that stroll around among the vast plains, and rolling hills of this planet, to the human machines that occupy this world, and discover the ins and outs about our existences through experiences. There are so many outlets that my artistic view drives upon, and my mind travels alongside imagination avenue with my solar-battery operated automobile packed full of music, paint, pens, and a broken navigational device (to ensure that I am in no way shape or form ‘set’ within any boundaries of expression). As you stroll through the corridors of the imagination, it is only you that can entail what you see and then begin to proceed to create the pieces you’re driven to produce. Continue all the great work, and may peace be your imagination’s significant other.
Matthew Johnson
Toni Murgas
Things that inspire me may be a picture of nature, a book I’m reading, a dream or a song. I was reading a book on Edward Manet and how he used to cut paper as he got older to create his art. This inspired me to cut and paste colored paper.
Toni Murgas
Leave a Comment
Food for Thought: Alice Neel
Food for thought is where I share a quote I’ve come across for your reflection and discussion among the other artists in the mindful artist community.
If you’ve been following me for a while you may have gathered that I’m a keen student of the creative process. I’m always interested in other artists’ experience of their art practice and how it can help us better understand and navigate our own.
My loving husband gave me this book on Alice Neel for Christmas that I’ve just begun reading so I thought a quote from Alice Neel might be in order.
You should keep on painting no matter how difficult it is, because this is all part of experience, and the more experience you have, the better it is… unless it kills you, and then you know you have gone too far.
– Alice Neel
What about you? Do you feel you ought to keep making your work even though it is difficult?
Can you give an example of a “difficult” time in your work?
What does it mean to you to have gone too far?
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Leave a Comment
What Inspires You?
In this feature, each month artists share one thing that excites them creatively.
One key piece to support healthy, productive creativity is stimulating inputs. What kinds of things stimulate the creative centers of the brain? What kind of inputs stimulate us visually? Emotionally? Spiritually? Mentally? Physically?
I’d really like to know, what’s one thing that fills your creative cup? Share with us in the comment section below.
Kellyann Lyman
The continued practice of an academic rubric that instills a love of learning is what inspires me. I continue to explore the complexities of abstract painting by continually readdressing the medium with reinvented concepts and methods from conceptual and minimal art: the use of repetition, color palettes, materials, the appropriation of photographic images, ink, silkscreen, digital reproduction and the transmedia discourse.
Kellyann Lyman
Carol Steinberg
I’m inspired by flowers, sunlight, and bright colors!
Carol Steinberg
Leave a Comment
Nine Tips For Making Great Digital Images of Your Art
I’ve sat on a few art juries before in a darkened room for hours looking at hundreds of projected images. The consensus from numerous jurors is that although you create outstanding art, if your images don’t show it, you can forget about getting selected.
Sometimes an overly dark or blurry photograph of a painting or sculpture is projected on the screen and you wonder “How could someone put such exquisite care into their art and not have noticed how poor these digital images are?”
It can happen to the best of us. Unless you are a photographer already, you may not have the skills or the eye yet to even know when your images are representing your work well.
Here’s something I’ve noticed: I spend so many hours, days, months with each piece of art I make that I often can’t “see” what my digital images really look like. Because I have such a deep relationship with the work, I see it as I visualize it in my head not as it’s appearing on the screen.
I’ve had to really train my eye over the years to be discerning as to whether my pictures are really representing the work. And, yes, it’s taken years.
Some suggestions:
1. If possible, sit down at your computer with your original art piece in your line of vision. Glance back and forth at both and pay attention to details, light, texture, etc. Really scrutinize every aspect of your work. Do those digital pictures really look like your work?
2. Find a discerning friend (or two) to do the same exercise. First show them the images on your computer, then show them the actual artwork. Ask them to be very specific as to the differences they see.
3. Invest in (or borrow) a good quality digital camera (a digital SLR with a detachable lens) to document your work. If you don’t have the funds yet, start putting away a little money each month. This will give you time to do your research.
4. Research your camera options fully before buying. Use the internet, consumer reports, your camera geek friends, youtube reviews, etc. Some camera buffs LOVE to talk about cameras and will be happy to share their knowledge with you. They’ll also throw around a lot of technical jargon that may confuse you. Take notes. Give yourself time to learn and study. Don’t rush into your purchase.
5. Make a list of all the features you need your camera to have. If you make jewelry, you’ll need a different type of lens from an artist who does large scale public artworks.
6. Save money. When you are sure of what you want or need and have the choices narrowed to a few models, keep an eye out for sales or scan craigslist.
7. Learn a photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop. If you take your own photographs, you must learn to use Photoshop®. There are some easy-to-learn tricks for making your work look better on the computer screen which is where most people will see it first. Even if you aren’t a great photographer, don’t have the best camera or have less-than-ideal lighting there are tons of things you can easily correct if you know Photoshop®. I recommend Photoshop because it’s the industry standard, and once you learn the basics, you can take it further if you like.
8. If you do small scale, 2-D work, try scanning it. I’ve saved a lot of money on professional photography by scanning my small works on paper. Important because when you do a lot of drawing, you can be quite prolific.
9. Hire a professional! If all this sounds totally daunting, and you are in a position financially to hire a professional art documenter to photograph your work, please DO! It is one of the BEST investments you can make in your work. Keep in mind that not any professional photographer can do good art documentation. Just as not every painter knows how to do monotype. Different skill sets, different equipment. Do your research. Ask artist friends for recommendations or call local museums and galleries and find out who they use. Be prepared to spend at least $125 an hour or a per artwork fee, plus processing. You may be able to save money here if you know Photoshop and can do your own image processing.
Leave a Comment