Art flirt

You say you are ready to give up your pets?? to who?? would that be your ultimate sacrifice or is your soul up for sale too?

Karen Jones… the world loves you just the way you are. Your artwork is wonderful! Now turn off the computer. Stop reading those art magazines. And call a moratorium on all future art exhibition openings/exposes/expositions and/or workshops. Go instead to your studio… put on some music… kick off your shoes and paint paint paint [the glass of champagne is optional!]I’ll do the same at this end… and we’ll meet back here in a year and compare notes. No scratch that. We won’t compare [in case of a relapse]… we’ll just show the world what we’re made of… and what we made of it… [in paint]Okay… you start :-) “The snowgoose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself” Lao Tzu

The biggest inhibitor to making art, is the thought that whatever you do must be completely unique. Go ahead and use those techniques you’ve picked up from others; the more work you do, the more your personal distinct style will develop.

Karen, I think I agree with Robert and Jean Burman. In fact I think I’ll follow their advice as well. I confess I’ve been looking at books, magazines and exhibits to compare my work after submitting a series of paintings to become a member of a NH art association…and having a critique of my work with the denial. Turning on the music, kicking off my shoes and getting to work sounds like a better plan. I love (but not covet) your pastels. Okay let’s get to work.

Oh No! Such nice work!! Now I want to paint like Karen!!

Oh My Goodness…..this letter really hit home with me…. I am JUST like Karen (infact, I am now coveting HER pastel talents!!!) LOL. As I get ready to set off for yet ANOTHER art workshop, Robert’s prescription has given me food for thought…I really do have to look inward and find my own creative soul. Thank you!!

I enjoyed this letter on CCP. You can’t learn style from books, magazines or art on the internet. Style is an evolution that happens after countless attempts and failures. If you are not afraid to “go to your room”, work hard, trust your instincts, experiment and FAIL, there comes a time when your own personality and voice will become evident in your work. Looks like you are already there, Karen. So, enjoy your own style and life without comparing it to that of others.

My case is worse than Karen’s. I’d give up my children to be able to paint the way the artists I admire do.

I started on the same path, with no style of my own. There was no satisfaction. Copying another artists style is only work and stress. Finally, I began to experiment, let my creativity flow on expendable supports. I kept all that I loved for future reference. I developed a style that is me and I can’t wait to get to my studio – on my way now!

Yes we are each unique, but we go to classes, drive to workshops, read books, copy paintings and fall in love to learn how others have penetrated those dark woods we all face. Along the way we may consciously or unconsciously “pick up the melodies” of others. I’d like to think Robert and Marvin’s suggestions are not incompatible. Robert is addressing the seriously bleak nature of compulsive inquiry and offers sound advice about moderating your habit. Marvin encourages you to trust your inner synthesizer. You may feel that another artist’s skillful understanding of velatura may catapult your work forward, but I suspect the simple act of sharing this habit reflects a self-righting instinct that will more successfully advance your art and certainly relax your pets. Travellin’ mercies!

Marvin, from Napa Valley, is right. Try to copy. It won’t work perfectly, but you’ll learn a lot and become yourself anyway. We all learn everything we know by copying…how to talk, how we walk, even a lot of what and how we think. But we all end up individuals after all.

And I forgot to say, Karen, you’re work is fine and nothing like mine but I love it. You’re better off than you think. Paint on!!

Dear Robert, Being an artist is such a gift. That is not to say we are “gifted”, like so many parents claim their children are these days. But to have the gift to be creative is not something everyone has. We all have our talents, music, dance, writing or multi-tasking. The thing to understand about it, while we are all trying to communicate and be ‘understood’, is to let the work flow through you. Take your influences from any source and while learning how to paint, looking at other works can be a good source of inspiration. The key to any artist, is to make it your own. This is done by spending hours in your studio creating acres of canvas. Never looking back and saying that was my best piece and always knowing you can be better. When looking at another artists work, it is not just what is in front of you that should be inspiring, but the complete journey that brought them to their conclusion. Being inspired to create more and move in another direction is terrific, copying another artists vision is pathetic.

Best psychological advice Robert has given. Karen, look in the mirror: don’t you want to be that person?

I know this one so well. People keep sending me links to these great artists, and I continue to feel like if only….but I do agree, it’s a matter of getting it at it and finding out what you like to do and how you like to do it and you will find your voice. I’m actually having some fun painting these days and doing less second guessing.

When I was in the sixth grade, we had an art teacher come to our class every Friday. It was the highlight of my week. I loved art. I never followed my love for drawing and painting, until I was in my young forties. I realized that the reason that the girl next to me in the sixth grade appeared to be such a great artist, drawing her “perfect” horses, was because she lived with horses! She knew how the foot was placed and the relative proportions of height and stature. Artistic endeavors such as writing or acting in school plays helped, somewhat, to fill the void created by my desire to paint. I was very much like your writer, Karen: Experiencing art, through the works of others. Buying, viewing and collecting the works of artists brought art into to my life, without satisfying my desire. No matter how bad your first works look, it is important to remember that it is a beginning not an end. Always remember Yoda’s famous words: “There is no try, only DO!”

We are all tempted by the wonderful paintings of others….. emulating them is no crime. It’s all part of see and assessing what’s good work and worth learning from. The trick is to learn the lessons they have to teach and make your own work. I believe it’s impossible to make someone else’s mark…(unless you are into forgery) so look away …soak it up and find a way to take the energy from it into what is yours. Paint what you know!

Very, very good. I know it’s dangerous ground, but someone once told me if you don’t love yourself, you can’t love anyone else. I think that may be especially true when referring to your own work.

I really like her work!

Thank you for sharing……At least you have now admitted that you have a problem and it appears that Robert has shown you the way to overcome it. You can be your own person and need not blindly copy anyone else. Fortunately for you, he has stepped forward with his (as usual) excellent advice. Hang in there, remember were all pulling for you.

I needed that one today. I’m in a slump the last half year and spend much time looking at others’ work. I moved, tired, searching for something – I am reminded by this that what I am searching for me ME!

I am an abstract artist with a split artistic personality. On the one hand, a perfectionist= GET IT RIGHT! On the other hand a spontaneous abstract artist = JUST DO IT! The perfectionist in me wants a path to follow but the abstract artist wants an adventure to unfold. This butting of heads (even though I only have one) takes an emotional toll and results in a spotty, stop-and-go, on-and-off work habit. What do you suggest?

Owning your creative soul or thumbprint is everlasting and will remain unique! Wonderful read Robert!

Ha! So let’s stop reading and browsing/surfing and PAINT!! Bye bye!

It’s a phase you are going through.

I read the letter from Karen Jones with utter disbelief. I am familiar with her work, we belong to the same art associations, and I have attended one of her pastel demos. It shocks me to hear that a painter of her caliber and at her level of (perceived?) confidence is “falling in love” with someone else’s style. I too have fallen in love the same way. Sometimes I like to have a Sargent day, or a Wolf Kahn day, or a day of meditation to ask myself what exactly it is about someone else’s work that is so appealing. Then, it’s like window shopping at Bloomingdales: is this love, or just infatuation? Usually, just looking at the object of beauty is sufficient.

Rudyard Kipling has the right of it. A number of years ago I started teaching and making videos. It is my way of passing on my knowledge. My father asked me why I was giving away all the hard earned secrets that I had learned over the years. I told him that the one thing that my students really needed was the one thing that I couldn’t give them and that my secrets were not worth that much without it. He asked what that was and I told him, “The 20 years of experience it took me to get them”. I was teaching to encourage my students to do the “mileage” so that they could create their own voice.

It is an interesting concept to be in love with a work of art to the extent of giving up your own style. It seems more like an obsession a bad habit to be discarded. I admire the work of others that are really exceptional. They have all the qualities of perfect work of art composition, color scheme rendered well even perspective is well planned. I also wish I could produce a work of art that are as beautiful and as excellently done but I won’t go as far as coveting it and copying it. It challenges me to improve on my own work considering all the qualities that would make a good work of art color scheme and color value; all the qualities that make people want to acquire it. Isn’t there a law against it to claim it as your original? I take pride in painting and I will keep trying to create my own style recognizable as my own. It’s something that no one can take away from me.

I want to flirt with Karen’s work. Especially those colorful clouds! Karen certainly has the ability and the creativity of her own. I am sure all artists, at one time or another, wished they could accomplish a work of art they see in a gallery or museum. I myself told a friend of mine when we visited a gallery, “Oh how I wish I could come up with something like that!” To which she responded, “but you have!” The problem is we do not see ourselves as good artists, at least good enough to be in high end galleries or museums. I am an artist of art leagues. Have done a few art fairs and a few solo shows. And, in this tough economic times, we are more limited to market ourselves to sell more. I always say, I do not paint to sell, I paint because I love it. If I sell something, then it’s icing on the cake and use it for supplies. I do not stop painting. I keep going and going, with almost no space in my studio for my inventory. I bet you’ll get lots of letters from subscribers who have suffered the “flirting syndrome”.

Oh! You should so honor your work! Can I say that we all go and wish we were….(in my case Rembrandt and Toulouse Lautrec combined) ahem…Your work is distinct, you have your own style, it is yours and no one elses, it intriques, it has merit. Also, think of this as a party where you meet all these other distinctly individual people and you bring your unique self along and enjoy the process.

I used to be somewhat of an art flirt. But I realized that the thing other artists had that I lacked was passion. And that’s the one thing that can’t be copied. It has to come from within. Karen, you can find your passion if you just hold still long enough. As Kafka said, “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

I think the quote by Kipling has said it best. “The Chinese have copied my style! The Brataslavians have copied my brushwork! The guy down the street has copied my subject material!” If everyone has had the chance to copy what you’re doing, then they’re the ones moving forward while you’re standing still. Don’t copy others, be creative. R.

This gift we have is more than an ability to put things on paper or canvas but an ability to think it up in the first place. Working alone, allowing yourself to follow new paths, setting new challenges for yourself can lead to something better than you ever believed you were capable of. I painted a still life a couple of years ago using some different techniques with watercolor and Gouache that I thought up myself to achieve a certain effect in the painting. The painting won a couple of awards and did well. I thought I invented this technique until I went to a workshop this year and lo and behold we were taught how to do all kinds of things with watercolor and Gouache! After getting over my disappointment, I decided I had better step up my game to improve my painting. Other people know the same techniques that I do and probably have more skill in drawing and design. Only I have my particular brand of passion and can bring all of these things together in my paintings.

Oh no, I’ve been found out! Well, not quite as bad as that, but it might be more appropriately called “art envy,” Even when I walked into the Canada House Gallery in Banff last week, seeing Robert Genn’s original work for the first time, I wanted to switch his medium and his style immediately. Not possible. Loved the work. But, I’ll go back to my pastels and oils and take some of his advice he’s so generously offered week after week. http://heirloomsbyharriett.blogspot.com

If you must knock of the work of other artists, choose a dead one. There are plenty of them to be inspired by and copying them is much more acceptable.

Reflect soul shares art reflections images float~ poetry becomes painting, arises from the dust of another’s heart~

Karen, you won’t move on as a painter until you buckle down and accept your important responsibilities: stop flirting, don’t subordinate your life to art, and don’t give up your pets!

I relate to Karen. I have had to go ‘cold turkey’ as Robert suggests and avoid looking at all artists’ work at times when I’ve found that it paralyzes me and discourages me. Yes, Robert’s diagnosis is correct for me too, it all stems from a lack of self confidence. I must overcome that, but at the same time, nourish my passion in my studio. I cannot compare my ‘gift’ with another’s gift. How boring if we all painted alike! By the way, Karen, I love your style. It is unique and beautiful. I appreciate your gift and your honesty. Thank you. It is always helpful to realize we are not alone in our stumbling unsteady moments. Especially when that ‘someone’ is an accomplished artist I might tend to want to be like! Thank you for admitting you are human. I read something that Kevin Costner wrote about his beautifully produced film, “Dances With Wolves”. He said that his only regret was that he could never view the completed work with fresh eyes. As an artist, when I create a work, I can never ever see it with fresh eyes as someone else can. I see the areas where I struggled, the wash that didn’t quite explode into perfection, my mistakes, but also the successes. I read once that, I believe it was Michael Angelo said, he never stopped trying to create a masterpiece. He didn’t believe any of his works were masterpieces! I look at other artists work, and do not see the flaws they see, I see their passion and their gift visualized. We are too harsh on ourselves, too demanding and expect perfection. You and I, we must try to focus on our passion. OUR passion. Period. Unfortunately we can never see it with fresh eyes, but if we created it with passion we can know that it will reflect it. That is really all I want.

An inspirational phrase helps me focus: “You never understood that it ain’t no good, you shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you.” I take that to mean to find it inside, and make something that you put together in your own processes.

On viewing Karen Jones’ images, I think she is onto something good. All she has to do now is – as was said, is – to jump in.

I too have felt like Karen, falling in love with others’ work and feeling that I could try doing it “that way”. Over the years, I’ve experimented with many different things. I think we are all influenced in one way or another by what we see others doing. I will still experiment, but have come home to my own style. I changed after an experience told me “I wasn’t good at that particular thing” and now I do a kind of expressionistic work. My artist pals tell me this is “me”, and I feel good about it as well. Colourful and fanciful. It is fun to do. But I am also influenced a bit by the work of Matisse and Van Gogh (others say my work reminds them of those guys). We are all inspired by someone sometime! I am not copying, but there are themes and influences for sure, that I have incorporated. There is nothing new under the sun!

An anonymous quote I came across gave me much food for thought, “Love who you are – and who you are not.” It isn’t necessarily an art quotation but it is meaningful none the less.

Thanks for putting yourself out there–all of you. I’ve been stuck for awhile and I’ve done a lot of ‘flirting’. In fact I’ve trolled the web for landscape painings that I love, copied them, and (citing them properly, of course!) created a personal PowerPoint. I spend a lot of Sunday mornings viewing the landscape paintings longingly. As the months have gone on I’ve come to realize that each one carries a germ of who I am as a painter; reflects back to me something of the spirit or the technique I want to achieve. It’s been an agonizing process but finally I’m beginning to ask the paintings the right questions and they are beginning to elicit some of the right answers. For me the salvation has been in having over a hundred wonderful styles, not just one, on which to diffuse my infatuation!

Inspiration for Karen: The beautiful words of the Russian Poet – Fyodor Tyutchev (1803-1873) from his poem “Silentium” “Know to live within yourself – a whole world is in your soul” Gloria Marshall

I love Picasso’s quote about this: “Bad artists copy–great artists steal”.

Dear Mr Genn, Thank you for showing me the way; your way . Whilst being helpful, entertaining and quietly direction giving;I think that you may have either overlooked or overpainted the aspect of Influence . To some degree, we are all effected by the amount of daylight, the changing shadows, and what we look at; including that last sculpture or painting.The intellectual aspect of putting pen to paper would allow us to be influenced by what we last read; as well as what we envisioned. I am on my own road , influencd daily and not lost on my journey. I paint for the sake of painting. I take no prisoners , and I may be open to some creative criticism if it comes with any real authority. When I reflect on the art schools of old; one could not help but be influenced while being taught, because as Warhol said, it is a Factory after all. There is room for the individual as well the group. Co operative approaches them selves are one method of sharing and growing. I could go on, but I think that I have made a dent in the canvas……Regards, Sell Owen

Your last comment about only surfing the art sites on the net when you have had a good art day was dead on. I would also tell artists to watch out for ‘Workshop Contamination”. After a day or a week with another artist it is easy to lose your own style.

It amazes me how you always find interesting subject matter in the extensive field of Art! It makes reading your twice weekly letter most enjoyable! Regarding the Art ‘flirt’, I believe that all artists have to go through ‘practicing’ the different styles of art making to find their own ‘inner’ artist. . In a way it is like having an apprenticeship – it makes you think and react differently about projects and that stretches your mind which in turn encourages you to think out of the box. It is a challenge to find different solutions to the same problem.

It pains me to see that a large portion of the posts from women, including myself, expressing the feeling that we’re not good enough. Is this good, this humility? The men artists never seem to betray this lack of self confidence, they’re all bluster and boldness, they don’t “copy, they steal” to quote Picasso. As women we are so admiring of other artists, which is good, but sometimes I think maybe we should have more strength and power and sense of our own ability to forge our way as artists. The observation of the “workshop syndrome” is especially apt, as most workshops consist of women and more than half are led by men. I do think there comes a time when we do have to go back to our studios and just paint the heck out of everything we can get our hands on- but that’s hard to do when you doubt your own ability, or if you feel that everybody paints better than you do. In order to get in a full days work painting confidently and boldly, we need to pump ourselves up and shout out a few affirmations! Get up our mojos ladies, summon the muse and fling the paint around. Maybe we need to have a virtual pow-wow painting cheerleader camp. We can do it girls! Only look at art that makes you feel inspired, that turns you on and makes you want to get to work. We all need to find our personal mantra, and maybe a little wild delusion to usher in queens of confidence.

A lot of the work I see practically gives me hives. I really don’t like it at all. Then there is the stuff that makes me itch, and really drives me crazy: the stuff that not only is not to my taste, but looks blissfully free of the application of skill. I think my taste is too well honed to be lead around by the nose at every show. I’m not suggesting this is a good thing, because it’s a pain walking past a hundred pictures to be stopped in your tracks by only a single one. Seriously, the fact is, I probably wouldn’t give my own work the time of day, but I’m thankful others appreciate a wider range of work than do I.