Do you remember the first time that you fell in love with art? I do. I was just registering for college, trying to find who and what I wanted to become. Totally lost, I registered as a pre-law student. Me. Can you imagine? But then everything changed. I was visiting friends in LA who took …
Since this global pandemic began, I’ve been calling for artists to lead. But how can an artist lead when confined to their house with no resources? How can an artist lead when the whole world seems to be broken? I’ve been meditating on these questions for myself and I’m starting to get some clarity. …
Do you have a mentor? An Elder Artist who encourages you and shares words of wisdom? I do. My friend Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is a Native American artist whose powerful paintings have been awarded and featured and praised internationally for years. I’d always loved her work, but when I had the opportunity to meet her …
It’s hard to believe it was just over seven years ago that I began working as an artists coach. When I first seized upon the idea of teaching my bootcamp-for-artists online, I did my due diligence to see who my competition would be. Did other artist coaches even exist? There was only one guy at the …
Every creative person I know has certain things in common. We crave feedback. We want our work to be seen and we desperately want to know what our work says to the viewer. At the same time, creative people hate criticism. To be fair, everybody hates criticism. Constructive or not, criticism isn’t nearly as much fun …
Rewind to the Great Recession of 2008. Galleries closed. Art dealers moved on. Curators chased other professions. Karen Jilly, a mid-career artist who unlocks beauty in deceptively ordinary, forgotten cityscapes, suddenly found herself without key trappings of the art business. She was also faced with the immediate need to care for two aging parents. “I …
Wayne Brungard is a self-taught metal artist and experienced fabricator. He creates bold custom art that defines space. However Wayne’s journey to becoming a sculptor, from turning his craft into art, took over 40 years and it’s not been an easy path. Having focused, for the majority of those 40 years, on commissioned work, moving …
There are several definitions of artists that I personally subscribe to, but my favorite is this: artists are alchemists. During the Middle Ages, an alchemist was known as someone who could transform base metals into gold. I believe that as artists, we turn everything into gold. Think about it. Through an artist’s touch, a blank canvas …
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been curious about the religions of the world. I started visiting different churches when I was a kid. I wanted to explore the beliefs and rituals and stories that people believe. Oh sure, a lot of it had to do with the fellowship snacks, the donuts and …
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I told Andy about the special place where I ride my bicycle each day. It’s a tiny island in the middle of a pond. I explained how it’s been my destination for years; it’s where I write, where I work and where I dream. “Where is this place?” he asked. When I explained the location, …
