Blog

Last week we chatted about the special challenges that artists face with regard to the issue of boredom. This week: what to do! We have a billion videos to watch to fill up our spare time, a trillion blog posts to read, and a zillion tweets to send and receive. We...

Boredom is a serious psychological and existential problem for many people and an especially serious problem for creatives in recovery. If you’re creative, you’re likely to find boredom unbearable. That dreadful feeling is a trigger for using drugs or alcohol or...

Below are twenty-five challenges, vulnerabilities, risks, and needs in an artist’s life. Each of these can cause an artist to want to soothe himself with a substance or a behavior—and over time that soothing can result in an addiction. 1. Biological Risks. These are...

I’ve worked with creative and performing artists for thirty-five years as a family therapist, couples’ counselor, and creativity coach. Over the course of that time I’ve acquired a good feel for why relationships in the arts prove so difficult. What do these...

What is your “list” and why would you want one or need one? Your list is simply the email addresses you collect of folks who might be interested in what you do as an artist, as a teacher of art, as a workshop leader, etc. It is one of the ways—perhaps your most...

Relationships in the arts are complicated. You may be very friendly with a fellow painter and also quite envious of her. You may actively dislike a gallery owner or a collector but decide that he is too valuable to cast aside, maybe because he is your only advocate or...

How do artists describe their love affair with art? Take a look! 1. "I love red so much that I almost want to paint everything red." --Alexander Calder 2. "I hardly ever paint people unless I'm rather in love with them." -- Sylvia Sleigh 3. "Every picture shows a spot...

Here’s a quote a day for the next two weeks to inspire you. Please enjoy two weeks of beauty! 1. “We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.” -- Kahlil Gibran 2. “If you seek happiness and beauty simultaneously, you will attain neither. For the...

One of the best ways to help yourself create every day is to craft a starting ritual that you begin to use regularly and routinely. When your ritual becomes habitual you will find yourself moving effortlessly from not creating to creating. For example, here’s a...

Say that you’ve managed to make a connection with a local gallery and they are currently the only gallery representing you. They’ve been showing a few of your paintings for almost a year now without garnering any sales. In the back of your mind you wonder if they’re...