Month: April 2016

April 30, 2016

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Fail, Fail, and Fail Again

“Would you like a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.”

Thomas J. Watson

The curtain rises on the studio space, skylights above, drop cloths below. The maestro begins the lesson with a gentle but stern lecture on the years it will take to master the tools and techniques of the craft. You, overcome with genius, passion, and an innate talent that will be ruined by academic guidance, touch the brush to the canvas and the magic pours out. Wait, what is that sound? Could it be the choir of Muses, singing your praises? Is it the maestro, weeping to have been so fortunate to have been at the birth of such genius? And not just that painting, but success each and every time at the easel! Bravo, kudos, roses!

Sigh. If only the road to mastery was so easy and the one to success so consistent.

My advice this week, is this: if you really want to make something worthwhile, plan on failing, quite a bit. This truth can be hardtack for some artists to digest. A class or workshop under the old belt and, if the experience was positive, success is expected on a regular basis. If the experience was not up to expectations, then one might as well throw in the paint brush because the art fairy must have skipped town on the day talent was dispensed.

But struggle– not the sort that wears and tears and defeats, but the struggle that results in gaining real understanding– is critical for artistic growth. If every creative encounter results in success, you aren’t reaching high enough; it is the stumbling that builds strength and endurance.

And you need to commit to the time needed to fail, evaluate, relearn, try again and repeat as necessary. Just ask my friend and colleague, Patricia Barnes, whom I have the great pleasure of working with in our Open Print Studio. It took Pat about two years to get comfortable and consistent with screen printing, with many fits and starts along the way. Finally, and proudly, Pat submitted her screen print and collage for the Student Show, an entry that was met with oohs, ahs and “how-do-you-do-that?”. Well done, indeed!

This Week in the Studio

This week, I experienced moments of pure happiness while painting; happy with cadmium yellow and making the perfect shade of green, happy pushing paint, happy having time for lose and find myself. Happy. Here’s this week’s progress:

Painted the next layer on the Matisse background in the yellow, orange, green and the black squares and black on the sleeves. Next up: the blue and red in the background, and modify the hands.

For the rondos: Made progress on the pineapple, rabbits, fossil and roughed-in the bees. Next up: refine the bees and honeycomb, finishing touches to the other 3 and begin tackling the romanesque.

Worked on repainting–again–the black grid in the Mondrian background. Added more to the hair, adjusted some of the skin tone. Next up: redefining the background shapes, particularly adding a layer to the blue.

April 22, 2016

A Road Forward and Back

“True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross…”

Nikos Kazantzakis

As a Mid-Century Modern, I remember the time before Al Gore created the internet and what it meant to be stuck in a bind because a missing piece of information was needed to complete a project, research an idea or learn an artistic technique. Myself, I’ve used the “www” to learn the history of saints (for my mixed media relics), the anatomy of bees (a painting I am currently working on) and formulae for oil paint medium (still referencing). How was knowledge ever transmitted prior to the 1990s?

Well, yes, it sometimes involved trips to the library and searching through the stacks for the right book, crossing your fingers that someone else didn’t take it out before you. Subscriptions to art magazines were another good source, with their “how-to” articles and tips and techniques. But far and away the very best way to know the ins and outs of a thing was, and remains, having a mentor and teacher.

Lucky the students whom the fates conspire to put the right teacher in their path at the right time. When I went back to college, itched by the possibility that I might find a place in the arts, my teacher Jim Pudjowski encouraged me to go to graduate school at Wayne State University. There professors, with manners direct and no nonsense, encouraged, pushed, advised, counseled and otherwise helped launch me towards my lifelong vocation, each adding, bit by bit, to my artistic formation. Best of all, although it has been over 16 years since my graduation, I can still call upon any of them with a question or request for feedback or artistic advice.

In the classroom I often tell stories of my own trials as a student and the different techniques and philosophies learned from my teachers. Once, at an exhibition opening, I had the great experience of having one of my prior teachers and a former student visit at the same time. After introducing them to each other, we got to talking about the lineage of teaching, tracing tradition backwards from the student, now an artist herself, to me, to my professor, who then shared who his teacher was, and who his teacher’s teacher was and so on. A veritable genealogy!

It’s lovely to stand on the road and look both forward and backwards, feeling that as a student and a teacher, you are part of a grand lineage. That thread is something that the digital universe, with all its access to information, just can’t duplicate.

This Week in the Studio

I’m still working on my small rondel paintings and am making fair progress on those as well. Hopefully I will have a completed one to post next week!

April 9, 2016

On Holiday: A Visit to Asheville

“Art is all around you”

street painting: Asheville, North Carolina

Easter week found me away from the studio on a trip to Asheville, North Carolina. There, my sister Josephine and I, along with our very understanding spouses, spent time researching family history, going to cemeteries, and visiting the local county historical society. Genealogy is one of my sister’s long held passions and one of the site visits she was particularly looking forward to was an afternoon outing to the Earle-Chesterfield Mill Company. The mill, built c. 1890, was situated along the Norfolk Southern Railroad and the French Broad River in Asheville’s industrial area. It was there that our great-grandfather, leaving the family’s mountain farm, found employment.

But we were 21 years too late. A fire in April 1995 destroyed both the Earle-Chesterfield, and extensively damaged the Asheville Cotton Mill, originally built 1887. While that discovery was disappointing, our spirits rallied because we found out that whole area is now designated the River Arts District! Now just how cool is that for an artist on vacation, especially one who loves visiting other artist’s studios?

Beginning in 1985, the rundown area underwent urban renovation. Where once abandoned and rundown buildings stood, the former economically depressed area is now vibrant. Today 22 historic industrial buildings and warehouses provide more than 200 artists spaces to create and share their work. Our self imposed time limit meant that we couldn’t visit all, or even a significant number of studios, but our quick in-and-out visits refreshed and inspired. A perfect complement to the time spent with one foot in the past.

Now I’m back on home turf, playing catch-up in the studio and classroom, thinking and dreaming about current and future work. Without a doubt, Asheville, and other cities embracing the arts, show how art and artists possess transformative qualities.

This Week in the Studio

I have been able to spend some time in the studio since returning home. Next week, I’ll share the small increments I have accomplished. Perhaps, the Muse willing, those increments may be of significant size. As usual, stay tuned!