Greatness has to be continually cultivated...

I have been working in my sketchbook everyday this year so far. I have really gotten into the habit of just pulling it out and working in it.

I have told myself that I need to treat it more like a creative journal. So the days that I don't sketch in it, I just put down my thoughts or I brainstorm. It's a pretty good feeling to start something and stick with it. Now if I can get the rest of my life to go this good. The Struggle is real. That's it for now folks. I will get up with you guys next week. Also on a big note, I'll be a year older then.

Until next week...

-Namaste

It came and it went...

I had a pretty rough week this week. Rough mentally. Rejection and stress. Good thing for love...I celebrated another birthday this week, so that was something on the plus side.

I am beginning to enter into a new stage of my life and I realize that there are things that I thought I definitely wanted to experience are some things that I am not liking experiencing lol. The next couple of months will be big for me. BIG!!!

How I come out of it I think will govern the rest of the year for me. I know it's a little early in the year but I like to sometimes peer over the hill before I climb it. I have great plans for 2015, so this year will be a pivotal one for me.

Wow this post while short went a little better than I thought it would. I thought it was going to be all somber and macabre but it came out pretty good. That's all I have for you guys this week.

Until next week...

 

-Namaste

 

Neverland or A Childlike Dystopia concocted by a Mad, Mad Artist...

Hey faithful few, tomorrow is the day of my birth. One thing I have noticed as I've gotten older is that I don't actually feel older. You know what I mean??

I mean I know that I am getting older but I don't feel it.  I wonder if it as something to do with me considering myself to be a late bloomer in some aspects of my life...I mean I don't have any kids but I don't think that even if I had kids that it would make any difference.  Don't get me wrong...I am not implying that I am suffering from some Peter Panian theory, I know that I am aging and have grown up. Plus I have always been mature for my age no matter what. It's just internally, in me there is a small part of me that feels like it will always be a young man of 22.

I know what your thinking...I'm some sort of wing nut or some crazy weird wacko or maybe I am a Toys R Us kid.(sings, I don't wanna grow up...I'm a Toys R Us kid...There's a million toys at Toy R Us that I can play with...) I'm sorry I went away there for a second LOL.

In any event, I plan on being around forever and I plan on talking with you guys; the faithful few forever.

Until next week...



-Namaste

Reflecting or the Art of Reflection...

I have a Note to my 28yr old self post coming soon. I just started a new painting today and unfortunately I can't post any pic of it. Its a gift and I don't want to spoil it:-). Let's see...last week this time I was celebrating my glorious birthday. Its amazing how time flies when you are enjoying the moment though right? In some ways I wish I could freeze time and just live in the moment. There are a lot of of instances where I would do things differently and some where I would hold on to certain things.

Don't get me wrong, its nice to move on but sometimes its always fun to bask in all the glorious gloritude of the thrill of things. All too frequently we get caught up in the zen of life (which is not a bad thing) but sometimes its OK to hold on to fleeting moments. Sometimes it's better to savor and enjoy the moment. There have been plenty of times where I dwelled on a moment. Now when I say dwell, I don't mean over think...I mean spend some time to reflect. Reflection is a powerful thing.

That's all I have for you guys today but like I said earlier, I have a Note to my 28yr old self post coming soon. I just have to decide how I'm going to do. Until then...
post

-Namaste

Holy Grail of Days...

Hello faithful few,  how is everyone doing...Today I consider it to be one of...if not the greatest day of the year.  It's my birthday. The day of all days.  Its probably been one of the best birthdays I have had in awhile.  I got to do everything I wanted to do. I had a great time in Charlotte the last few days. The last few birthdays I have made plans and have had to alter them for one reason or another but this birthday went off with out a hitch.  I really enjoyed. Now tomorrow I start my track back to my other reality.  But lo and behold my faithful few a change will come;)  That's all I wanted to share with you guys this week...oh yeah I also wanted to show you something that was/is cool but also kind of creepy.  I open up my computer and went to Google and I was presented with a google doodle.  The google doodle was made of birthday cake.  And a quick hover over the birthday cake revealed a "Happy Birthday Arthur" message.  I was like AWESOME!!! but then I was like HEY!!! You snooping snoopy lol.  Anyway I enclosed a pic so you guys can see what I saw.  Until next week and from my home base of Baltimore...

-Namaste

First post of the New Year or Exactly one week before my birthday...

You ever have one of those moments when your entire week as an artist is noncreative? Where it seemed like you wasn't doing anything worthwhile but just trying to make the week go by faster... That was the gist of my week this past week. I didn't really feel creative, I just felt like blah! Everything just seems to be coming at once. It gets to be overwhelming sometimes when you are going through this juggling act with life. At times I feel as though I am in a great place artistically and then other times I feel like I'm in some weird holding pattern.
My problem is getting the thought out of my head and on to the drawing board. I have so many things going on concurrently and none of them are coming to full fruition. I think my brain needs a rest. I mean I've had a vacation and I'm about to go away next week on a little mini vacation for my birthday (Oh yeah! I am about to get a little bit older...) but I think lately or I should say for awhile I have asked a lot of my brain. I need to be in a place where I can just let my brain spend time with itself collecting and releasing its inner thoughts.
I mean every week I am here taking with you guys, my faith few and I let the thoughts flow from my mind but during the week save from tweeting now and then (shameless plug inserted here... Find me @artstarv9), I don't spend a lot of time de-junkifying and purging my think parts of information and ideas. So what happens sometimes is I'll get this great idea one moment and the next moment it becomes the fleeting idea that I wasn't as excited about as I thought.
I need to find the middle ground, that sweet spot, where I am able to have my thoughts and then put them to good use creatively. I know what your thinking, that's what sketchbooks are for (Man, I've used a lot of commas and parentheses in this post) It seems like an simple easy fix but in someways its not. You have to have your mind free and focused on using your sketchbook as a means of release and not just sketches. Your sketchbook then not only becomes an extension of your work but also a sort of idea book. A book where you can not down your craziest thoughts or your darkest thoughts. Which in retrospect make that sketchbook quite personal and I someways not fit for public consumption. There are people who teach and people who believe in keeping sketchbooks like that. Books where you don't share with anyone. I personally find it hard to keep sketchbooks like that because I'd get to a place where is just have to show somebody what I sketched out or have to show my close personal friends or loved ones what I just did. Who knows though, I might give it a go just to see if I can do it.
Well, I feel like I am about to start rambling so I'm going to end this post here. Next week, I'll either blog earlier in the week or come to you guys while I am a way. Until then...



-Namaste

Final Saturday of the year or 2 days before the New Year...

So it's that time of year again. My how the time DOST fly! This is that post of the year where I either promise to or promise not to come up with some New Years' Resolutions. And then the further I get into the year I begin to realize that I did or did not succeed with the resolutions that I did or did not make. (Insert smile, wink or some other random emoji here...)

This time around I think it will be different. I have set goals for myself that I have based around definitive dates. I know your going "...anyone can set a date but that doesn't mean that you'll still follow through with it..." I have always been pretty good when I give myself or I'm faced with a deadline. I might not hit my goal date but it will give me a "horizon" line to stay close to or reach.

I'm not getting any younger. (Birthday in 2 weeks exactly!) So there is the self-imposed sense of urgency when I do things now. I heard someone the other day talk about sacrifices and whether or not you have done everything you can possibly do to achieve what you want. Have you sacrificed certain things to make sure everything your trying to do become a reality? A lot of the choices I have made so far in my life have not come from sacrificing or taking chances. For the most part it has been about "doing" because it seemed like that was the way to go or because it seemed right. Last year this time I had a set plan but I was not willing to "sacrifice" my comfort zone or take chances for fear of failure. I have told plenty of people how I get so content with situations and things that I become entrenched in whatever I have going on in my life at that moment. It's something I've struggled with for the better part of my life. I've always said contentment is only good for a couple of things; friendships and relationships. I just need to break it in other areas of my life. Maybe that's a good New Years' Resolution for myself this coming year.

Well folks that's it for me this weekend. I'll see you guys next year. Until then...




-Namaste