Let each man exercise the art he knows.
Aristophanes
hello lovelies!
Yes, you.
Including the men who join me here.
(and i know there are a few)
I hope i didn't scare you all away
with my recent "I'm not married" rant. ;-)
I may not believe in marriage
but i do believe in love.
Big difference between the two (in my eyes).
Now let's get on to some fun stuff,
shall we?
The little yellow birds above
are paintings i used to do a lot.
I began doing them for friends
and they kinda started selling well.
A little too well.
I was faced with the age old question
most artists are faced with eventually...
"am i doing this because i love it
or because i know it'll sell?"
These little birds eventually became boring for me,
so i stopped painting them.
I still think they're cute - i just do them much less now.
I painted these two for my mother,
who's giving them as a gift.
(she still loves them...)
On my regular walk on the beach over the weekend,
I found these beauties.
I watched as a huge seagull
cracked this open with his beak
and feasted on what was inside.
Whenever i see something like this,
part of me is in awe of the whole spectacle,
and another part wants to run towards the seagull
and scare it off
so i can save this little guy.
But then i remind myself that this is nature,
the way things are supposed to be.
So i just sit and watch instead...
with my eyes half closed.
Isn't it beautiful?
As for painting, i've done a little less lately,
only because work got in the way.
i hate when that happens. ;-)
Whenever i have left over paints,
i spread them on paper, like i did here.
No particular image or idea,
just blocks of leftover color.
Then whenever i have a bit of time -
I add more paint to it and turn it into something
a little more visually pleasing.
At least for me.
I like this free form kinda painting
where nothing needs to make much sense.
Very liberating.
A quick pencil sketch...
may turn into a painting soon - not sure.
A while ago, i ordered these books
and they came in last week.
It's like Christmas at the house
whenever i get a box from Amazon!
Soooooo exciting!
The Fire Starter Sessions.
A. MA. ZING.
Steal like an artist...
SUCH a good little book.
So many gems in there.
And yes, there's a difference
between good stealing and bad stealing
so don't go sending me any hate emails
about how stealing is bad, ok?
I already know that.
And i don't run with scissors either. ;-)
One of his little nuggets of wisdom.
On that note, i've had a few conversations lately
about what it means to be creative.
With today's technology at our fingertips,
and everyone else's masterpiece in our face 24-7,
it's hard not to feel overwhelmed and intimidated sometimes.
There's nothing wrong with being inspired by others,
but i think we need to set limits for
inspirational time.
If you often find yourself sitting in front of your computer,
thinking things like
"I wish i would've done that"
"I wish I was that good"
"if i had the money, I would do blankety blank blank blank"...
shut off the damn computer
and go make something.
The only thing you should be concerned with is this:
what fuels me?
What do i want?
What do I love to do?
And go do it.
Let others do what they are best at,
and you wow us with what YOU are best at.
I know you're all best at something...
I've seen it.
Go do that.
"Let each man exercise the art he knows".
xoxo
