Saturday, January 28, 2012

I miss you and will always love you, Mom...

Today was one of the hardest days of my life.  Today we laid my mother to rest.  I rarely talk about my family life on here, so for me this is a really tough post.  I loved my mother dearly and she will be missed...

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The mind of a child can truly hold the key...

 I recently watched a bit of an artist lecture that Kerry James Marshall which I found quite intriguing.  In the brief clip that I saw, he talked about getting to a point that his work was where he wanted it to be.  When he got to that point he was older than I am right now, which for me gave me useful insight into where I am and where I am going in my own work.  I am always worried about when I'll reach the moment when I feel my work is really clicking.  Every year when we turn the calendar year, it seems like I am going to myself; "This is the year".  I think I get too caught up in the "...it's now or never" to see that I can't try and force the work.  When I try doing that I end up getting to caught up in over think and over analyzing my work, which leads me to be overly critical and eventually abandoning a concept that has been good for me up to that point.  

I need to focus more on finishing the work and not wondering too much on whether or not I have made that piece that will make or break me as an artist.  Most artist will know what I mean when I say this but "I need to get in a childlike mindset" when creating work.  For those of you who might not understand that statement, kids when creating art tend to make work that makes them happy or they make work where they don't fuss to much over details or getting everything perfect.  For them it's all about making something that they can be proud of or something that they can take home and hang on the fridge for all to see.  Kids are great at creating things more out of love because they haven't got that handle on color schemes and juxtaposing images and/or marks yet.  To them any mark they make is a work of art and they are pleased with it.  Having that great childlike innocence is something that helps them to stay honest in their magical little creations. It's something that a lot of us artist try to maintain as we learn and become more self-aware as artists.  It's so easy to get caught up in over thinking and analyzing our work, that we get lost in why we started creating in the first place.

The more I try to get back to basics in my work, the more I feel like I am letting the work resolve itself.  And that makes for good art-making...

 

-Namaste

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Leap before you look...

Hello faithful few.  In the time since my last post I have gotten a little older.  No really. I am older. My birthday was Thursday. :). I am getting closer to another milestone in this thing that we call life. Its again time that I take a look and my life and see where I stand.  Where do I need to be? What do I need to do to get there and how am I going to get there...I definitely am getting to that point where I have to be more of a doer than a thinker

One think I have always prided myself on was, that I am a great thinker.  One downside of that is that I am prone to over think things. Or I tend to think too much which leads to me not take many chances.  And we all know that you have to at some point in your life take the proverbial "leap of faith". I'd like to believe that as I get older I am opening myself to take more chances...to be more open to step out of my comfort zone. I plan on doing things differently. No that doesn't mean that I am just going to go and jump blindly into things but I am going to try to things without trying to overly rationalize why I am doing these things.  I feel I am at a point in my life where I need to have results and signs of progress.  I don't want to look back on my life in later years and have any regrets.  Now is the time and I shall seize it...

 

 

-Namaste

Saturday, January 7, 2012

First Post of the last year on Earth...?

So faithful few, this is my first post of the new year or as some conspiracy/thrill seekers would say...The beginning of the End!"
I am not going to get caught up into the whole Mayan end of days prophecy...at least not yet;) Check back after Dec 21st and then I might discuss it with you guys then...Lol...

Well I haven't decided on whether or not I am going to do a New Years Resolution post for you guys yet.  I think the hold up is that I don't think I am going to come up with any this year.  I believe that because I set goals for myself through out the year that there is no real reason that I can come up with to create some for New Years.  Do I think I am going to disappoint myself? No... Do I think they are a waste of time? No... For me, it's just I feel that over the past few years I have been focusing on try my hardest to "make it happen" so I know what I have to do.  It's just a matter of doing it.  No need to set a resolution for the sake of saying, "Hey guess what? I have a New Years' Resolution World" :). 

I believe in myself enough that I know I have what it takes to get it done.  So I am content with tackling goals as they arise and you guys know I love sharing with you.  You all are apart of my world and you make this fun.  Oh yeah...I am close to finishing the painting that I posted for you guys last week and when I am finished I will post the final piece here for you guys.  Until then...


-Namaste