Dear Artist, In an effort to boost creativity, I’ve begun an experiment in which I expose myself to only genius-level music. For example, in my car, I switched permanently to the Beatles channel. Now, I zip around town in my…
Dear Artist, Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood has invented the LongPen. With custom software and high-speed broadband, her device permits people like herself to do book signings without having to be there. At 66 she’s getting tired of travelling. I have…
Dear Artist, Jane Appleby of Burnaby, B.C. wrote, “I’m thinking I may like to put more “calm” in my work — a pause, an element of pure simple colour, and then the canvas seems to think otherwise. I try adding…
Dear Artist, Nigel Spivey, in his insightful book How Art Made the World, speculates on “peak shift.” It’s a concept that comes from research into both human and animal behaviour. A neurological principle, peak shift says we need exaggeration to…
Dear Artist, According to productivity gurus, there are two types of motivation; extrinsic and intrinsic, with extrinsic relying on the “if/then” reward model, and intrinsic depending more upon personal, internal drives. Extrinsic can be great for tasks; establishing a daily…
Dear Artist, This morning I was on the phone with a painter I’d Googled. He Googled me as we spoke. We looked at each other’s stuff. Then we mutually Googled the same works of the Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla. We…
Dear Artist, At the risk of beating a dead digital horse, I need to revisit something I wrote to you in last week’s letter. When discussing presenting art online, I mentioned that one might have more success attracting collectors by…
Dear Artist, I’m laptopping you from Ansel Adams’s room in the beautiful old home of Mabel Dodge Luhan in Taos, New Mexico. It’s now a B and B and conference center. In these hallowed rooms Mabel entertained some of the…
Dear Artist, A survey conducted by artists’ emergency fund Artist’s Relief found that 95% of the artists who responded have lost income due to the pandemic, on average, about $27,103.00. The coalition of seven U.S. arts grantmakers and their co-presenter, the…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Jennifer Foster wrote, “I was recently at an arts professionalism seminar where one of the presenters was a gallery owner. I asked him about submitting work to galleries in more than one medium. He surprised me by…