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If you were to ask me what single quality you should cultivate in order to become successful as an artist, it would be boldness. That isn’t to say that your art must be bold: you don’t have to produce solid-gold skulls, ten-story installations, photographs of valleys...

HOW TO MEET A PERFORMER’S TOP TEN CHALLENGES Are you a performer—a musician, an actor, a public speaker, or anyone who has to make presentations? Maybe 2014 is your time to get a handle on one or more of the following top ten performers’ challenges! 1. Performance...

    20 ARTISTS’ QUOTES ON NATURE 1. "I have gone into roses and have over a thousand planted.  There is nothing like making pictures with real things." -- Mary Cassatt 2. "I, too, find the flower beautiful in its outward appearance.  But a deeper beauty lies...

How might grief affect your art? Please read on … This week I received the following email from Ellen in Oakland: “Last month I lost my husband of 20 years and I am awash in grief and business details. I was wondering if you could do an article addressing the impact...

Mary sent her slides off to a gallery where she had high hopes for representation. What she got back was the terse email, “You are such an amateur!” Mary stopped painting for the next three years. Such dramatically unfortunate events happen all too often in the lives...

For 2014, resolve to get a grip on the following 4 challenges that visual artists regular face. 1. How will you handle the limits of your medium? Every art form has its own natural limitations. For example, how much “work” can you really expect pigments on a...

The creative process comes with its share of mistakes, messes, failures, and other “disasters.” How you handle them determines whether you will give up or persevere. Here are ten tips that will help! 1. Mind your language Is it really necessary to call it a...

Many visual artists have trouble letting go of their original paintings, sculptures, and other one-of-a-kinds. Do you? Read on! Why does this happen? It might happen because you love having your work around, because you feel you need exactly the right home for each...

Imagine the following scenario. You are part of a group show at The Downtown Gallery. The gallery is expecting four paintings from you. You are to deliver them, framed and ready to hang, on a certain date. Originally that date was six months away; now it is only two...

Stress mounts up during the holiday season. Life with all of its stresses doesn’t stop and piled on top of that are the calories of holiday indulging, the oh-so-right gifts to purchase, the interactions with family members we manage to avoid most of the rest of year,...