Free Inspiration

Other Artists. How to Handle the Competition
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

How To Respond To Negative Feedback
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,

Meet Working Artist Karen Jilly
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

Meet Artist Wayne Brungard
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

The Artist’s Mantra
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

When Did You First Suspect You Might Be Creative?
When did you first suspect you might be creative? Do you remember the delight you took in colors when you held your first crayons? Or the thrill of building sand castles on the beach? Maybe you

How I Learned To Be An Artist By Going To Church
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

Do They Like Your Art?
My favorite college professor taught art history. He’d started out life as a photographer, a lifelong dream since he’d mixed his own chemicals in a homemade darkroom under his parents’ stairway. As a young man he’d

The First Artist I Ever Met
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

How To Achieve Your Art Dreams Instantly
So you say that you’ve been telling The Universe exactly what your art dreams are for quite some time now. You’ve spelled them out. You’ve also created a time line and check sheet for The Universe’s

The Worst Word An Artist Can Use
If you’re an artist who’s feeling overwhelmed going into 2021, try striking the word BUSY from your vocabulary. I’m serious! This is potent stuff. A few years ago I realized that I’d been ignoring my heart’s

Who Believes in You?
All artists have dreams, wishes and goals. It doesn’t matter whether we keep our light hidden and never share our aspirations with another soul, or we announce our plans loudly to the universe. Either way, as artists,

The One Word That Changed Everything
Like so many artists, I was working hard. Submitting, proposing, applying. But it seemed nothing was going my way and I was totally stressed. Have you ever felt like this? I phoned my Guardian Angel. It

Being Called To Be An Artist
What does it mean to have a ‘calling’ as an artist? Who’s calling you? What exactly are you being called to do? Artists aren’t the only ones who feel called. When a person dedicates their career

Little-Teeny-Tiny Steps
If I had a nickel for every time I couldn’t move forward because of money, or because there simply wasn’t enough time… but I decided to stop letting those things that I cannot control decide my

It Was Every Artist’s Dream
It’s every artist’s dream, but I was shocked when it happened to me. While in Arizona a couple of years ago, I decided to visit the local art museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA). It’s one of my

Are You Choosing Through Fear? Or From Truth?
An artist recently told me that for years there was a battle inside her head as both hemispheres of her brain struggled to control her fate. The right side of her brain screamed to be an

How Working Artists Survive Rejection
Rejection is an important part of being an artist – or any creative field actually. So it’s something that you need to learn how to handle with some resiliency. As an artist and as a writer,