Dear Artist, Economist David Galenson of the University of Chicago has published several books and countless papers on the genesis of creativity. Odd business for an economist, you might say, but his research is largely based on exhaustive research into…
Dear Artist, “Bozzetto” is an Italian term for a sculptor’s small-scale model, usually in wax or clay, made in preparation for a full-scale work in more permanent material. Like the French “maquette,” a bozzetto is often exploratory. The word bozzetto,…
Dear Artist, Off the northern tip of Haida Gwaii lies Langara Island. It’s wild and lush, with great heaving seas below wheeling gulls and soaring eagles. The rocky bluffs are the home of puffins and guillemots, while the waters abound…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, as Dorothy and I were scrambling up and down a Cariboo creek, an e-mail came in from Karen Dawson of Burlington, Vermont. “I wonder,” she asked, “if you would be willing to talk about your writing process;…
Dear Artist, I’m laptopping you at midnight from a bedroll under the Milky Way. We’re on a rock-strewn sandbar beside Lone Cabin Creek where it enters the Fraser River in the Cariboo region of Western Canada. The cabin has long…
Dear Artist, Within easy walking distance of my studio is Crescent Park. When we’re at home, Dorothy and I go there in every season, nearly every day. I’m guessing the park is about a hundred acres — it includes playing…
Dear Artist, In the jungle mores of high school, the choosing of teams was my frequent mortification. Standing in a lineup, the stronger, dominant males would be picked one by one until it was down to just me and my…
Dear Artist, We’re all familiar with the problems associated with Sunday Painters. Cranking up the old machine once a week may be okay in the vintage car hobby — but it’s bad news in the creativity game. The steady worker…
Dear Artist, It seems that a struggling young composer asked Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to give him a few tips. Mozart told him to go home and work at composing for a few years. “But,” said the young man, “you didn’t…
Dear Artist, The rapid turnover and point-of-sale nature of the greeting card business lends itself to the analysis of visual appeal. One of Hallmark’s top selling son-daughter cards shows a stark image of a large tree with a smaller one…