Blog

Calmness may not seem like much of a virtue to you. Maybe you prefer a life of excitement, adventure, and risk-taking. Maybe you harbor the suspicion that calmness is very much like premature death. Or maybe you do crave calmness and would love to live your life more...

For you, making art is one of your life purposes and one of your meaning opportunities. Are there others? There probably need to be, because putting all of our “meaning eggs” in one basket causes us to rise and fall precipitously based on how our art making and our...

Last week I chatted about why boldness is such an important attribute for an artist and how you can better manifest boldness by adopting a “seven-word rule”—that is, by training yourself to say what you need to say and want to say in short, strong sentences. It also...

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...