Dear Artist, Stephen King, who is 73, says he doesn’t write his ideas down because if they’re good enough, he’s unlikely to forget them. While this goes against many artists who keep notebooks and tape recorders in the car or…
Dear Artist, Back in 1978 Colin Martindale of The University of Maine put some electrodes on some students’ heads and made an art-shaking discovery. Subjects were asked to create stories while the electroencephalogram recorded their brain waves. Creativity, he found,…
Dear Artist, Jennifer Sparacino of Chilliwack, B.C. wrote, “I have some questions regarding growth as an artist, the changing of subjects and the evolution of one’s “style.” I’ve been primarily painting wildlife since getting into galleries (about eight years now).…
Dear Artist, Drawing mastery is understanding our world and understanding relationships. Contrary to popular belief, drawing doesn’t mean trailing a line around things — it means seeing and reporting the relative distances between things. Drawing is a non-literary way of…
Dear Artist, Psychology Professor Dean Keith Simonton, an expert in genius, says that if you want to up the quality of your work, begin by making more of it. “Empirical research on hundreds, even thousands of artists and scientists,” he…
Dear Artist, In ceramics, there is always the kiln. Half-baked and half-made, the objects enter the kiln in slips of brown and grey. Later, after the Gods of Fire have had their way, they emerge ultramarine, ruby, golden. They appear…
Dear Artist, As if we didn’t already know this, the New York Times yesterday announced that going for a walk is good for the imagination. A recent study by scholars at the University of Graz in Austria and published in…
Dear Artist, With my weakness for studying creative people, asking trick questions, and listening to dreams and rants, I’ve decided that some artists are blessed with a sublime gift. It’s not of talent (that’s another issue) but of attitude. Further,…
Dear Artist, Artist Sherry Abramson of Vancouver wrote, “I know I’m hunting for the next key and figure I need someone who can mentor me, to help me set up a simple online format to sell my art. I totally…
Dear Artist, “Virtuous circle” is a term used mainly in economics. It refers to a chain of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop with positive results. When results are negative it’s called a “vicious circle.” In both systems…