Blog

In the psychological literature you will hear about “good stress” (called eustress) and “bad stress” (called distress). But it isn’t the stress that is good or bad, it is the stressor. The stressor or demand may be so-to-speak positive, like a gallery wanting a show...

There may be new creative projects that you want to begin or new ways of marketing and promoting yourself that you know would be smart to attempt but something seems to be holding you back. Here are four tips that will lead very naturally to an increase in your...

A painter complained to me that her friends, the organizations where she volunteered her time, family members, and the few gallery owners with whom she dealt regularly took advantage of her. I asked her what her role was in this unfortunate dynamic. She responded at...

Creating depends on having a mind quiet enough to allow ideas to bubble up. Living a successful, healthy life as an artist requires that your self-talk align with your goals and your aspirations. Your job is to quiet your mind and extinguish negative self-talk. These...

Many visual artists also write or want to write. Nothing could be more natural: someone interested in expressing herself, sharing her vision, and having a voice is likely to want to manifest those desires in all the ways available to her, painting and writing being...

It is possible to change your relationship to your moods—and over time change your moods themselves. You accomplish this by learning how to lead with your life purposes and by making the decision that your life purposes are going to trump your moods. That is, you make...

It is hard to pay attention to everything in life – to our art, to our career, to all of our other responsibilities … and to our eating. There are many reasons for our preoccupation with food, unhealthy eating patterns, and general insatiability. An important reason,...

Making art is no doubt one of your primary meaning opportunities. But for a rich and complete life, human beings need multiple meaning opportunities—a full menu of meaning opportunities. Here are five to consider. One. Service Being of help feels meaningful. It is a...

Say that you have a studio mate and that you get along pretty well with her. Her paintings look nothing like yours, so you aren’t competing; she isn’t chatty; she has no habits that particularly annoy you. But then one day she comes over to your side of the studio,...

Last week I shared how artists deal with the anxiety of art deadlines. Here are some additional tactics! Tamara explained: I find that accountability to another human, set up at the beginning of the project and kept up throughout, is really important. When I know that...