Dear Artist, As I said, it’s all very personal — we all have our way with what we see and what we feel. I look for pattern, complexity, and the potential for mystery. I also spend a great deal of…
Dear Artist, In 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson walked 120 miles in central France with a donkey by the name of Modestine. He sketched, took photographs and wrote Travels With A Donkey in the Cevennes. My friend Robin and I are…
Dear Artist, Here’s a valuable creative device. It takes a bit of practice and it requires character and maybe even a change in your natural personality. The next time you have an idea or a plan that fires your enthusiasm,…
Dear Artist, A line in my last letter picked up a bit of notice. It read, “I’ve always preferred quiet collectorship rather than ballyhoo or peer acceptance.” How, they wanted to know, do you get that quiet collectorship happening? This…
Dear Artist, A lot of friends ask about entering juried shows. I’m not a very good example in this department. I practically never enter any of them. Fear of rejection is probably the main reason, but I also don’t care…
Dear Artist, Here’s an exercise that you might try the next time you’re having a bout of creative constipation. I’ll relate it to painting but it works as well if you’re sculpting or writing a short story. It goes like…
Dear Artist, The “artist’s statement” is a relatively recent convention. Many are filled with obscure illusions and pretentious prose — as if words might somehow add a glow of importance to the work at hand. But I never cease to…
Dear Artist, Sometimes it difficult to get down to basics. Holding onto the tools of our trade — brushes, chisels, colored pencils, whatever, goes a long way toward propelling ourselves along the path. But there’s another asset to keep uppermost…
Dear Artist, In high school I was always the last to be chosen for the team. I suffered through that excruciating wait while everybody else heard their name called and ran forward to make the teams. I was simply poor…
Dear Artist, One of our joys is the respect that our work receives from the people who see fit to take it into their homes. Compared to many other products, even hand-made products, art is guarded, insured, honored, re-framed and…