Do you have a creed?

A graphics friend made me a sign which hangs in my studio and is my creed: “Paint With Passion”. It’s what makes my life bubble over with joy when I paint, and alas, which makes me miserable and grouchy when I am not in the middle of a painting. Kris Preslan

“It doesn’t matter what other people are doing.” I used to worry more about how much better other people were than me. This caused me a lot of time being “stuck” and feeling awful about my own work. Letting that go and not looking at other people’s work has released me from my demons and allowed me to be my own kind of artist. That is all any of us can really be because when we copy others, we’re not us.

Wake up. Stay amazed.

Find Joy, Be Inspired, Create Beauty. I want to make the world a better place and art is one of the ways I seek to do so.

Rob Voyle, a west coast consultant, suggests that rather than a creed, an individual needs a statement of purpose. He says you get one by answering the question, “Without being humble, how would you describe yourself?”. His own is “I am helpful, humorous and healing”. This is a good exercise because it is both based in reality but also points to how one should be at one’s best. I spent the better part of a week coming up with my own. The words don’t all have to start with the same letter – but that can provide a structure if you need one!

“Chuck Close defined the attitude a little more closely: ‘Inspiration is for amateurs–the rest of us just show up and get to work.'” I belief inspiration is for everyone, for the moment you put brush to canvas you ARE inspired. You can’t not be inspired. You can’t escape it. To say inspiration is for amateurs is wrong. But Close is correct in adding that “just showing up and doing the work” is the important thing. This part of his creed could also be applied to the art of writing. Hanging in there, not getting discouraged – which EVERY artist goes through – is also crucial. If you feel your life is missing something, it is time to get busy with some kind of creative project, no matter what it is. Once you get started, you’ll wonder why you hadn’t done this all along. You may feel frustrated and discouraged at times, but, for the most part, you will feel happy, productive and purposeful.

I have not really seen a thing until I’ve drawn it.

Yes I do. On my easel I have written the phrase “Just Paint” where I can see it clearly. Those two words keep me out of a lot of trouble.

For me, doing a painting is simply an expression of the joy of seeing. I feel a sense of love, in varying degrees, toward the visual subject. The connection is made tangible, by hand-mixing paints to re-create my relation to the particular tones, colors, light and shade that move me.

I have a “chicken sign” that hangs by my studio door: “Come on in. My day’s fowled up anyway.”

It is all about beauty, dark and light.

I was very taken aback when I saw that many artists simply said NO to having a motto or creed. Generally, people who don’t have a motto, creed, or guideline in life are living with no direction, swaying in the wind of peer or cultural opinion. In fact, I can only wonder if they refused to have a creed because they are afraid of being categorized, preferring to appeal to everyone. Regardless of a reason, how sad to be lacking such an important part of oneself. I prefer to be follow artists who have personal life guidelines and convictions, whether or not I agree with them.

I’ve 2 “mottos , . “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”(Eleanor Roosevelt) and “Conformity and creativity don’t hang out together”, (Betty Dowdal.

I used to paint with a VERY specific idea of how my painting should turn out and 9 times out of 10 I was extremely disappointed. Now I use my ideas as a general guide and stay open to what happens on the paper. I’m much happier and I’ve discovered new looks and new directions for my work. I paint in watercolor, gouche and acrylic — right now I’m focusing on watercolor batik.

It’s all practice!

Here’s one of my favorite creeds: “You get more done when you have more to do!”

I would like to thank Luann Udell and Daniel Andre for their kind comments from few weeks ago. Thanks very much and happy New Year!

I believe in personal inspiration and in my perception of things around me where I drew my composition in my art. I am touched looking at a child struggling to walk on his own and a bird attempting to fly out of the nest. I believe in the intangible spirit that unifies people to their world. How do you portray these in art is a challenge that I would like to reveal in my art. I believe in the rugged beauty of nature untouched by bulldozers and builders changing the skyline in the name of progress.

Do at least three things related to art each day. (Doesn’t matter the size. Large or small if you persist, you will get there!)

Fanny Cullen, my music teacher in Heriots School had something on the wall that could be applied to a lot of ventures. “Sing what you mean and mean what you sing.”

Thank you for your cool emails. I need the inspiration….especially today.

A few years ago I made a very difficult change from 10 years of painting realism to abstraction, I felt I needed to escape the model and create my own world. It has been most satisfactory and successful but I think the hardest thing is to keep it original, study the masters but create your very own image, this is where I think your Featured Premium Artist Marie Martin has failed, at first glance I said to myself “This is a Mark Rothko”. I love your letter, I love painting and you inspire me.

My creed? The creation of joy, and the creation of meaning. It must be that time of year, I was writing about this on my blog… Wishing you joy and meaning this new year…

“…then fiery expedition be my wing, …” -Wm. Shakespeare, RICHARD III, Act IV Scene III

I need to organize my work and yes, get me a Creed…I’m thinking maybe mine should be: ‘Just because I am retired, does not mean that I have nothing left to say with my art.’ A quote of R.W.Emerson speaks to me: “I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.”

Here’s my motto’s. Pay up. And Its all Bunk anyway.

I think “Discover your Passion” pretty well sums it up for most artists. At least it works for me.

Writing is great ‘There is Always An Open Window~’

“Science and art make good bedfellows. They both seek to explore the unknown.” Ian Semple

So much to paint, so little time.

This is so inspiring and even soothing. It’s really getting me to think more in a sense of being aware and ready for a whole new year. Especially since my birthday is the 5th and I’ll be turning 37 and I’m in denial.

“Teach your eye to see…your hand will know what marks to make.”

On MPR there was a guy who said you could describe who you were in only 6 words. (kinda a challenge) His Dad redefined himself every day. For me: “If I don’t paint I’ll combust.” So that’s my creed. I am no longer able to say things like …”Keep your eyes & mind open and when the time is right you will be ready to produce.” Perhaps the time was yesterday.

In an art theory class we had Paul Plant come in and speak to us. Paul Plant has had his birds eyes on the cover of the Smithsonian, 3″x3″ works in oil pastels. He said to us, no joke or pun, but you must ‘JUST DO IT’ and he said that the whole inspiration part was an excuse and one must simply get to work. He told us about his very rigid schedule of doing art each morning before he did mass. I never forgot what he said. He makes one to three pieces of art each day!! Also that he wanted to make art affordable to the ‘average’ person and so I am lucky to have an original Paul Plant in my studio. I am blessed to have his strength and his ambitious attitude toward the making of art in my memory forever.

What a great list you’ve presented us with, a Who’s Who of the New York art scene. It was interesting to Google all the names to see what kind of work they’re producing and, no surprise, most of it was wonderful. I was familiar with some of the artists like Chuck Close and Eric Fischl, but there were others, Amy Sillman and Matthew Ritchie, whose work I loved and hadn’t seen before. I spend a lot of time looking at other artists’ work, just because I like to keep up on things. Has the level of competence risen around the world? I know that people everywhere are better cooks and know more about what makes a good restaurant, due to the influence of the Food Network. Are we all better artists, too, for the same reasons, i.e. availability of information about what makes good art?

Mostly I write, and paint only a little. My creed is; ‘Hey, we are all in life together.’

Actual title of book is ‘Inside the Painter’s Studio’ and it looks interesting so have just ordered it online.

“Your work is to discover your work, and then give yourself to it.” -Buddah

I appreciate some of these creeds very much. Chuck Close has something there, and Ross Bleckner is inspiring, wink, wink. I used to work for Gregory Amenoff. What he offered as a creed was great, and I can imagine it’s truthful. It’s time artists do support each other. I also appreciate the perception that we are fortunate to work at something that makes us tick, but is not necessarily asked for. It’s not personal, it’s not even yours, so enjoy the unfoldment of what you are discovering in each piece, and grow with your courage to face the unknown regularly

Two things came to me from my childhood The Golden Rule and the Brownies motto: Lend a hand. Strange, I hadn’t thought of those for a long time, but both are values I live by, pretty much by instinct now. Although credit goes to my mom for instilling them in me. Which reminds me, one more she instilled in me (thanks, Mom) Use your initiative. And the final two are my choice as a mature adult: Do what you love. Keep learning.

I really found your posting ” Do you have a creed?” to be a significant question that until a couple of years ago I was unable to answer honestly. Your twice weekly blog has been a great help in my finding what I strive for… “I am – I accept – I do not know – be deliberate.”

“Life is hard. Wear a helmet… It reminds us, with a smile, to be tough and push through. Tenacity is a gift! Thanks for letting me share. I love your letters!

Personally I don’t have creeds or motto’s. I just show up for work every day. I do tell my students some things like – “Don’t fall in love with a work until it’s done”. “Never be judgmental of what you’re doing while your doing it.” “There are no mistakes, only miscalculations either in value, color or drawing.” rickrotante@aol.com

Follow your heart, and do the best darn job you can….and always paint for yourself first….If someone else likes the end product….that’s all the better.

Here’s my creed: I need the gift of reflection. If I give that to myself, my work will be true to myself and that is all I need.

I have never improved on ‘water on the right, coffee on the left’!

Thanks very much for your help.Thanks a million.I wish all a happy new year…

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Action has magic, power and grace.” Goethe This is my favorite quote and also my kick in the butt. Just begin it. Sometimes the hardest part is getting rid of the distractions and just doing it. My, now passed on, teacher and friend, Nina Connor, said “Showing up for the work is the win that counts.” Love the process as much as the end result. Thanks for a great article and all the support you give us as we struggle on.

Bought the book (thanks for the recommendation). After 30 years of painting I find that my motto is always in constant change. Today it’s just words in a list: Foundation Time Repetition Keep on Truckn’

My studio has a blackboard and on it are my “Rules for Painting” Rule #1 – There are no Rules, just really good advice!

Last year I had a solo show of over 100 paintings and the name of the show is actually my creed, “It’s the Journey!” I have always told my students the same thing and one night they kept whispering among themselves until I finally said it once again. Then they presented me with a small collage three of the students had made which had all kinds of things on it about “journey” and time. But they had made a pact that they would only give it to me the next time I said “remember, it’s the journey.” They hooted and hollered and we had such a good time. But, I know they all believe what I have been telling them. Unless you enjoy the journey, then what is the purpose of what you are doing. You must enjoy the processes to keep you going. So, I have “It’s the journey, not the destination” that is my creed!

When I start doubting my work, or “thinking” too much, the thing that helps me is “Follow your brush!” Thanks so much for all your inspiring and interesting letters!

I love what Gibran had to say about work. “When you work you are like a flute, through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.”

My motto is painted on my studio wall. It comes from a poem by Deena Metzger: “..There is time only to work slowly There is no time not to love.”

This quote from Flannery O’Connor came to mind thinking about Norman Rockwell’s approach to painting or “illustrating” if that is what he preferred. It also might be a good “creed.” I haven’t decided yet. “Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing.”

A creed is the “motive” that Cezanne spoke about. Creative people need an engine to produce and be interested in the process. For myself, it’s mining the unconscious and then creating my own myths. Of course, there is lots of meaningless art out there….but if you look at what people stand in lines to see, it’s always art that holds meaning. The shallowness of the present art world reveals its enslavement to money. Artists think that the billionaires are the best collectors, but the real collectors are the discerning public.

Chuck Closes quote “Inspiration is for amateurs–the rest of us just show up and get to work.” is a great sentiment! I tend to work in sculpture and functional ceramics and honestly nothing gets work done faster and draws inspiration into the mix that just showing up and getting to work.

I have a plaque that I painted myself that says “Grandma’s Studio” on the wall, one on the door for my students, that says “if you can write your name, you can draw”! and one on the little refrigerator door that says “No Rules, Just Fun”.

Thursday, February 3, 7pm at 209 East 23 Street, 3rd-floor amphitheater (NY), Artist and SVA alumnus Joe Fig (BFA 1991 Fine Arts; MFA 2002 Fine Arts) explores the working life of professional artists in diorama-like miniature reproductions of their studios, including those of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Fig’s book Inside the Painter’s Studio (Princeton Architectural Press, 2009) includes his interviews with other artists about their creative processes, alongside images of his sculptures documenting their studio spaces. Presented by the BFA Fine Arts Department. Free and open to the public.

I use the pithy saying attributed to poet Jane Hirschfield: “Everything is connected; everything changes; pay attention… She wasn’t referring specifically to art, but the applicability is universal.

I have my motto (in calligraphy) hanging in my studio: “The work will teach you how to do it.” It has always been true for me!

My “creed” for life is borrowed from Edmund Bok, who erected Bok Tower and gardens in Florida “Make you the world a little bit better or more beautiful, because you have lived in it.” My observation from art is, “The picture is teaching me what I need to do with it, if I am patient enough to listen.”

Thanks so much for the recommendation of Joe Fig’s book. I really enjoyed the vignettes of all the artists covered and thought his use a series of same questions to each artist most enlightening. I, frankly, jumped on this book as I don’t live in a metropolitan area where there are a lot of artists to share info/thoughts/motivations with, and this book gave me some up to date glimpses into other artists’ lives. Thanks for doing what you do.