Dear Artist, Around the turn of the year several artists wrote asking about the numbering of works. While you can start doing it any day you choose, January the first seems to be the day of choice. Questions arise: Should…
Dar Artist, Being largely self-employed, we artists don’t have the problems of group stubbornness or committee incompetence. In gratitude and joy we make our private mistakes in an atmosphere of personal reflection, even in the face of self-doubt. Artists are…
Dear Artist, On Saturdays, my mom used to take me along when she went shopping in the big department store. Inevitably we rode the elevator to “Notions” on the third floor. “What are notions?” I asked one day on the…
Dear Artist, Thanks so much for all your Christmas wishes. I’m deeply honoured to be connected to so many fellow travellers. This time of year my emails show an increase in “Dear Santa”-type letters. Though I treasure every one and…
Dear Artist, With the Mayan “Long Count” calendar turning 5,125 years on December 21, 2012, folks have been getting ready for the big day. One group in Britain put in dried foods that will last for twenty-five years. A group…
Dear Artist, I’ve always been fond of brushes. Traditional tools going back to primitive times, for the past five hundred years or so, brushes have more or less standardized into a classic form; gently lathed, finely finished, long-handled and short,…
Dear Artist, You may have heard of the Mexican author and spiritualist Don Miguel Ruiz. Ruiz is a new-age advocate of freedom from certain beliefs he thinks create limitations and unhappiness. One of his ideas is to find your own…
Dear Artist, On Sunday, I happened to stumble on some photos of Francis Bacon’s studio. It made me feel a lot better about mine. His was really messy — a combination of never picking up, mental chaos, and compulsive hoarding.…
Dear Artist, You’ll be glad to know this letter has nothing to do with not talking about your art. It has to do with the business of painting people with their mouths closed. While a toothy smile may suggest desirable…
Dear Artist, “Autopoiesis” might just be a new word to you. It means “self-creation.” The term was introduced in 1972 by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. In the understanding of biological cells, for example, the components of a…