Dear Artist, A design school graduate who recently visited asked, “Would you like an assistant? I want to get back to painting after working in product design during the week. Can I come over Saturdays?” The value of a studio…
Dear Artist, Unlike the Roman, the British, or any other Empires under the sun, the Empire of Art rises from grass roots just about everywhere. While its citizens speak a variety of tongues, they are understood pretty well universally. If…
Dear Artist, If a painter were to tap the principles in William Zinsser’s book, On Writing Well, she would follow the rules of clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity. Zinsser, a feature writer, author, blogger, editor and professor at Yale and…
Dear Artist, Most of us paint first and title last. Sometimes, about the middle, a title just pops out of the ether. And a few of us get a title in our heads and figure out the work to go…
Dear Artist, We recently lost our friend Yulanda. She was 77. Smart, funny and glamorously beautiful, Yulanda’s essence was her enthusiasm. She made meals of books and read the newspaper daily from cover to cover. Most of all, Yulanda loved…
Dear Artist, Here’s a creative method surprisingly and often overlooked as we go about and busy ourselves in art-making. Take a look around your own home and family and see what might be needed. Find a wall or a space that…
Dear Artist, Synesthesia, meaning “joined sensation,” is a neurological phenomenon that combines two or more of the senses, producing cross-modal perception in the brain. While it occurs in about 4% of the population, it’s 7 times more common in artists.…
Dear Artist, In life, in art, a major problem is failing to see the big picture. Individual parts may be just fine but the overall doesn’t get off the ground. Together with your individual sensitivity and your own vision, what…
Dear Artist, I once visited the studio of an artist living on the Eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay. His windblown farm swelled with inspiration and distraction — cormorants were nesting on the channel markers, a farmer kicked tractor dust in…
Dear Artist, At my easel this morning I realized that the way I’m working right now contradicts the way I was doing it a couple of weeks ago. Even in the literature it seems that eminent instructors and much-published writers…