Today I’ll be tied up fixing this place up and then doing some work out in my studio. It’s my turn to listen to the advice of others instead of doling it out.  With that in mind, I wanted to pass on to you an interesting post from The Happiness Project:

“One of my struggles is to allow myself to spend time on activities that don’t pay off in some direct way. Creativity often involves play, digression, exploration, experimentation, and failed attempts; it doesn’t always look productive.”

The Happiness Project — Eight Tips for Sparking your Creativity

It’s winter, you know this is a perfect time to work on that piece of art you’ve been meaning to get to for a while, now, but you just can’t seem to motivate yourself to work on it. Or maybe you haven’t made any art in a while and have been putting it off for whatever reason. Now is the time to get to it.Before you can “get to it”, it might be helpful to brainstorm why you’ve been procrastinating for so long. What if I’ve lost my edge? you might ask yourself. Or you might tell yourself I can’t think of anything to paint/write about/draw/sculpt/compose.

The “What If’s” and the “Cant’s” are some of the Motivation Murdering Monsters all of us have been familiar with at one time or another. Everyone has his own unique brand of Motivational Murdering Monster, but What If and Can’t seem to be all of their parents.

Let’s dive into five ways that you can destroy overcome any motivation killer.

1. Turn off your computer (and cellphone, and Crackberry). Unless you use your computer itself to make your art, shut it off for a while. Give yourself a specific timeline for how long it has to be turned off. The computer can be as big of a time-black-hole as television, so discipline yourself and turn it off. If you must leave it on, install and run some kind of distraction-killing software like the free JDarkroom for writing. Lifehacker has a complete list of free or low-cost distraction-killing software from which you can choose.

2.Tell others about the project you’re working on. It’s surprising the sense of responsibility that comes with telling others what you’re up to. When you tell others about the new sonnet you’re writing, the new painting series you’ve begun or the symphony you’ve started, they will naturally ask you about it when you see them. This helps you to work on said project because you want to be able to report your progress to your friends and colleagues.

3. Give yourself a deadline you can’t get out of. Some people work best under pressure. If you’re one of them, maybe this tip is the one for you. This is my tactic of choice lately. I have been spending so much time working on making this site what I want it to be that I’ve been neglecting making art. I have committed to a gallery exhibition opening in March, so I need to get cracking.

4. Play. Feeling stuck? Can’t figure out what you want to make, no matter what? Give yourself permission to make some really bad art. Stuff that would definitely make it into MOBA. Experiment with new mediums, color on the walls. Do something artistic that is outside your normal routine. Play for a specified amount of time, be it ten minutes or one hour. Then immediately begin working on your project.

5. Show Up. Just start. Start your painting (yes, I know paint is expensive). Start the next chapter in your novel. Throw some clay on the wheel and just start working. Whatever you do, just do the work, even if you don’t feel like it. Sometimes the most surprising things can happen when you just start making some art.
How do you break through the motivation blues? Let me know in the comments.

Technorati Tags: Art, How To, Process

1. Looking at art is interactive and engages your brain. Looking at others’ art might help you to become unstuck on a problem you’re trying to solve in your own work. The particular stroke of a brush, or the way a rusted shred of metal is applied to the larger might give you an Eureka! moment.

2. Because viewing art is usually a public event, you will expose yourself to members of your community. Knowing others in the community accomplishes many positive things including, on the selfish end of the spectrum, exposing yourself to others as an artist; and on the altruistic end of the spectrum it may reveal to you opportunities to become more involved in your community. Spending time with others looking at art also gives you a sense of what type of art your community enjoys.

3. (When viewing online) You will be exposed to a diverse amount of art that would not be possible in real life. Viewing art online is also a chance to take a break from any work you might be doing, while still extracting value from your activity.

4. You will have an opportunity to introduce yourself to the proprietor of the establishment in which the art is being displayed. By doing this, you are laying groundwork for establishing a relationship with this person, thereby enabling you to more easily suggest that your work be shown in this venue at some point in the future.

5. You will begin to develop a more clear idea of how your art should be displayed in a public space. Even if you have been displaying your work for years, another artist may choose to display his work in such an effective way that you may want to adopt that style as an experiment the next time you show your work. If you’ve never shown your work publicly before, or are just beginning to display your work, you might learn about what is expected when displaying your work. Think about things like framing, matting, and the actual hanging of the work, as well as artist statements, guestbooks, and price lists.

6. You can learn what NOT to do. Let’s face it, sometimes you walk into a place and think to yourself, How in the world did this person ever get a show? Maybe you think that because the artwork is terrible. Maybe you think that because the work is poorly matted or framed. Whatever the reason, you can learn from others’ mistakes.

7. Go to gallery openings and learn how the host artist is expected to behave. If you are just beginning to display your work, you are going to be nervous at your first few shows. I’ve been displaying for years, and I’m nervous after ALL of my shows. Attending the opening night of an exhibition of an established artist can teach you how to behave (or sometimes how NOT to behave) when others are praising (or insulting) your work.

8. You will be inspired. Often, when I am feeling listless and unmotivated to make my own art, I purposely go to an art gallery with a blank notebook and an open mind. Sometimes, I see art that makes me want to make art because I know I can do it better than what I’m looking at on some wall. Other times, it challenges me to explore new themes that I may not have explored before.

9. You can learn by copying. Yes, it seems almost juvenile, but copying someone else’s work can help you to learn. Walk into a gallery, and if they allow photographs, snap a few photos to take home with you and copy later. The photos don’t have to be perfect, just enough to give you an idea of what you’re trying to get at. Most galleries will let you take non-flash photos. If they don’t, draw a quick sketch in your scketchbook for later reference.

10. Because it’s fun! And inexpensive.

Do you go to art galleries or look at other people’s art online? Why do you go to galleries. Or why do you view art online? Do you do both? What are some of your favorite sites online to view art? Let me know in the comments.

Creating art involves recognizing the critics and learning from them before one can prove them wrong. Today, I’ll explore some of those critics, two of them enemies to be sure. In future posts, I’ll expand upon some of the ideas presented in this post.

1. ENEMY: Mrs. Acres - first grade teacher, Lincoln School, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

I have written about Mrs. Acres before, and as I’m thinking about it, am wondering if the representation I presented of her is an accurate one. (Update: after going back to read the comment thread for the linked post, I guess I did fictionalize some of the story.) No matter, that is how I remember it, and she can go to hell. Fuck you Mrs. Acres, you fat cow, you squasher of young minds and young dreams. (If you go read that story, be sure to read the comments as well, before the spambots kicked in, that is, for one reader shared a similar story that is definitely worth reading.)

2. ENEMY: My freshman year intro to graphic design instructor, 1990, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

The first assignment was to arrange hand-drawn squares, at least three, up to four, using specific dimensions and galleys and alleys, and arrange them in an interesting way on a piece of paper. The paper itself was a specific kind of paper, I don’t remember now what kind. We were to use Rapideograph pens to draw the lines and Sharpie markers to color in the squares. The coloring in was to appear even, and we were not to color outside the lines. The alleys and galleys had to be very specific widths, and I could not, for the life of me, draw them to spec.

Part of the reason was that I was working on a very small desk with poor lighting. Another part of it may have had to do with the shaking of my hand, caused by all of the coffee that I had drunk. I was, after all, working full time and going to school full time. The big reason, though, was that I had never done anything so precise before, and I was learning. Learning is, after all, the reason one goes to school and pays such exorbitant sums to do so.

I worked on the project beginning the night it was assigned, and for hours a day on proceeding days, until I had come up with the best work I could do at the time. I could see by looking at it that it was a good first attempt but was not perfect. The squares were arranged in an interesting fashion, the coloring-in job was somewhat even. It was getting on close to four in the morning, and I had to take a nap before my seven AM class.

I arrived to the intro to graphic design class that evening after having had a full day of other non-art classes. I was both nervous and excited. I believed that here we would place our creations upon the wall, without our names on them, as we had been told would happen, and each member of the class would criticize each piece ruthlessly, and then say something nice about each piece, thereby facilitating learning through discussion.

This did not happen.

I’d like to remember that my classmates had something constructive to say about my work, and also that they had something nice to say. I don’t remember that. I don’t remember anything about the discussion that evening.

What I remember is that the instructor pulled me aside after class had been dismissed. She was holding my work. She handed it to me and asked, “What are you doing in this class?” I explained to her what I thought should be obvious, that I wanted to be a graphic artist. She frowned and said, “My recommendation to you is that you take up another line of study. You do not belong here. You struggled with this, the simplest of projects, and the road ahead is a long road to haul. You have no talent.”
No talent.

I walked out of the classroom angry, ashamed and frustrated. I had always wanted to be an artist, and thought that becoming a graphic designer would allow me to express that creativity and get paid (see critic #3, below). Now I am being told that I have no talent. I felt like a complete sham, a failure. I dropped the class on her recommendation and explored an English major before falling into teaching secondary education as a line of study.
3. CRITIC: My family, through no fault of their own

My family is a working class family from northeast Ohio. They always encouraged me to express my creativity, but they always did so with a caveat: “You need to eat, Marc. You need to pay the rent.” And it’s true, I do need to eat and to pay the rent, or the mortgage or whatever. The implication from them was always that I could not make a living by making art. I am working to change their perceptions and my own in this regard; creating art, selling my art, and learning how to align other areas in my life so that I can afford to do both things full time without starving.

Right now, I am finding that the way to do this is to have gallery openings. It is at the gallery openings, and in galleries, that I have found the most success in selling my art. Eventually, I will sell prints more extensively, though you can purchase selected prints already, either by contacting me directly, or by visiting Apollonova, an art collective based in Akron, Ohio.

I did manage to have one art opening at Angel Falls Coffee Company before I moved from Ohio. That was back in 1997. I did not show again until I had moved to Missoula, Montana, and that first show was not under the best of circumstances. At neither show did I sell any work. Since those early attempts at displaying my work, I have learned many things along the way, and have begun to redefine what being a “successful artist” means for me. That definition is one I will explore in more depth here at a later date.

The important concept to take away after reading this is that you CAN be an artist, or whatever it is you choose to do, and you can be successful at it, despite your creative enemies and critics. You just need to define what that means for you and work towards that. Last year, I paid my rent for three months by selling art. It was not easy, and I was on pins and needles for much of the time wondering where my next rent check would come from. My day job was behind in payroll, and I was having to be creative in ways that I bought groceries, had an entertaining night out, and paid my monthly bills. I turned to art as an outlet, and had six successful openings, each one with new work in a new venue. In this blog, I hope to
share that process with you, along with some of the many things I learned during that process.

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Share your stories of your creative enemies and critics in the comments or by emailing me directly.
Thanks for your attention. If you found this article useful, please consider donating by clicking the Paypal link below.

–Marc

Read an article on Forbes.com via Lifehacker on ways to live longer. Seems like following these lead to better quality of life in general. I’ve summarized them here for you. If you wish to read the full article, you can do so here.

1. Sleep 6 hours/night, no more
2. Be optimistic
3. Get laid
4. Get a dog
5. Get a VAP (cholesterol test)
6. Get Paid (well)
7. Stop smoking (for real)
8. Chill out
9. Eat antioxidants
10. Exercise
11. Crack up
12. Slim down (yes, even me)
13. Kill stress
14. Meditate

So I haven’t written much of late because I’ve been out in my garage matting art. That is, when I’m not outside enjoying the summer. And now it’s serious. I’ve had to craft a “proposal”, whatever that is, in order to submit to galleries. They will in turn review the proposal and decide if they want to feature me. Some of it is merely a bullshit formality, some of it is more along the lines that (shhh_) these galleries take themselves too seriously. But I have to play along if I want to be included, I guess. I think it’s all a bunch of pretentious bullshit. My original artist statement is kind of an “eff you” to that idea:

My artist statement
Paint collage photography
order in chaos

But I don’t think that would fly. Plus, most folks who don’t know me would think I was being a pretentious asshole anyway, not understanding the inherent sarcasm of the haiku.

Anyway, here’s the proposal.

I possess a body of work consisting of over five hundred pieces spanning a variety of media including photography, both film and digital, painting in a variety of medium, collage, homemade paper, and a combination of all of these. All of the pieces have not been documented. Taken together, they explore a variety of themes including depression, the joy of living, relationships and political ideas.

An artist statement is, as is the body of work, a living, breathing thing. Writing about art, for me, even though I am a writer as well as an artist, is next to impossible, for art must be an experience, must make the viewer feel something, must touch the individual. Generally, my art exposes truth around me as I see it. I explore decay and rebirth, considering the subjects I choose to explore, as well as the mediums I use. The medium of collage exemplifies this, but even the photographs I take tend towards urban decay and the beauty inherent in that. A solid artist statement makes more sense for me after a show has been solidified, even if the show hasn’t yet been hung.

Creatively, I am constantly electrified by the opportunities for creation that surround me. I like to create at night, and tend towards short bursts of creativity lasting several days, and then collecting materials again in order to create anew.

My biggest weakness as an artist is my interest in so many different mediums that I am unable to develop one fully. Areas of interest include…

1. The potential of the digital darkroom
2. Sculpture - traditional and “found object’ sculpture
3. Polaroid
4. Medium format photography
5. Homemade cameras
6. Becoming better trained in the exploitation of color on the canvas, or paper as it may be
7. The potential to exploit the Internet in creating new art via HTML and Flash technologies
8. Sound collage
9. Multi-media experiences
10. Graphic Design

Taking that as an outline for my goals as an artist….

Short term goals:

1. Learn how to frame my own work
2. Learn how to market my work effectively
3. Expose my work in local galleries
4. Work more consistently
5. Continue challenging myself to learn more about the areas of interest outlined above

Long term goals:

1. Sell my work consistently
2. Produce enough work consistently to maintain the demand for my work
3. Donate work to charitable causes
4. Move beyond themes that I currently explore and branch out into more socio-political topics
5. Always remain fresh

Past Exhibitions

•1998 - Angel Falls Coffee Company, Akron, OH
•2003 - Art Missoula, Missoula, MT

A couple of years ago, I envisioned an ad campaign I’d like to see. I photographed it, but somehow lost all but one of the images. Spent a little bit of time today to recreate it for you. I’m sure I’m on my way to winning some kind of award for my brilliance.

Promise to write again soon. I had something ready to roll, but was told by the owner of the photograph from which the piece was written not to post it.

Meanwhile, here’s the best email of the day today from our Male Secretary at werk. I cannot make this up. The spelling errors etc. have been left intact.

——-

From: [Front Desk Guy]
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 3:31 PM
To: [Compnay Wide]
Subject: FYI

Instructions for how to fill an ice tray:

When you have an empty ice tray, there is a simple procedure for making more ice.

!. Turn on a facet so you have access to some water (in the downstairs break room this is located approximately three feet to the right of the freezer)

2. Hold tray under the running water until the trey is nearly full.

3. Place the ice tray in the freezer. Close the freezer door. Amazingly, the cold temperature of the freezer will turn ordinary water into ice in a short period of time.

4. Turn off the faucet.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at the front desk and time permitting, I can go over this with you one on one.

Thank You,

[Name]

Shift Supervisor*

Front Desk

[Company]

—————

*This guy is NOT the shift supervisor. We don’t even have a shift supervisor.