Dear Artist, Yesterday, Teri Peterson, owner of The Lakes Gallery in North Lake, Wisconsin, USA, asked, “Do you have any thoughts for galleries in the current poor economy? So many artists are discouraged and art-related businesses are closing. I’m not closing,…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Brigitte Nowakof Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, wrote, “Is there any chance that you might reprint the original letter sent to twenty friends that you mentioned in your book Love Letters to Art?” Thanks, Brigitte. It was written on…
Dear Artist, Agnosia is a clinical condition involving the loss of ability to recognize objects, persons, sounds, shapes, or smells. It’s usually associated with brain injury or neurological illness. Some researchers feel it’s genetic. There are many different types. Simultanagnosia,…
Dear Artist, Just as the Santa business is a marvelous confabulation, so too is art. Perhaps it’s only with the addition of confabulation that art delivers its wizardry and magic. Scientifically defined, confabulation is the confusion of imagination with memory,…
Dear Artist, Several artists have written to complain that offshore painters, mainly Chinese, are doing such excellent knock-offs that they present a real threat to our livelihood. The phenomenon, they point out, may eventually destroy hard-won lifestyles in the Western…
Dear Artist, This morning Ray Johnson wrote, “My first job was doing charcoal portraits on the Atlantic City boardwalk (for $2.00 each). My friends and I did 30 or 40 a day. Good training. Then on to mountains, oceans, beaches–whatever…
Dear Artist, In 1847, Karl Marx wrote that working for wages would be superseded by what he called “self-activity.” With the economy humming along, surplus time would free people to study, privately create and generally improve themselves. He suggested they…
Dear Artist, There’s a wealth of creative info to be had in the life and work of Edgar Degas. He was a precise, thoughtful artist with an evolved, academic drawing ability. Impressed by Japanese prints, Degas contrived compositions not seen…
Dear Artist, For months we’ve been anxiously preparing, editing and proofing. Then suddenly, “beep, beep, beep,” a truck is backing up — and there we are, cases and cases of Love Letters to Art. Getting the actual book in our…
Dear Artist, Several recent emails have talked about mentoring. There are different approaches and I’ve tried a few of them. They range from “Show me, ’cause I’m going to be tough on you” to “Whatever you do is good, dear.…