The Mindful Artist

The Starving Artist Myth

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Chances are you’ve encountered it before – in movies, jokes, anecdotes – the concept of the “starving artist.”

Many of us have consciously or unconsciously borne the burden of  this pervasive myth in our society.

I have heard of countless creative people who were dissuaded from following their dreams because of fear of not being able to make enough money.

But that need not be a reason to give up entirely on something you cherish.

The truth is, of the hundreds of artists I know personally or count as dear friends, the majority DO have some other form of income. Most of them are doing something in the arts: teaching, arts administration, curating, design, illustration, working in or owning galleries, art preparator, framing. They are so many ways to make a living in the arts.

But let’s set the record straight: they are not starving. They own homes, go on vacations, send their children to college and STILL manage to make art, even if it is not their full-time income.

And then there are artists who make a handsome income off of their art. That’s a possibility as well.

Just last week I was at Anthony Meier Fine Arts in San Francisco looking at an exhibition of one of my favorite artists. Everyone of the five pieces sold before the show opened. My friend casually asked what the prices had been. “Between $500,000 and $1,000,000.” was the reply.

So definitely some artists are doing more than thriving.

The reason I bring this up is to just check our habits of thought and thinking around this issue.

Have you ever caught your self thinking thoughts of lack or limitation?

I was inspired by a passage from Lynne Twist’s book The Soul of Money: Reclaiming the Wealth of Our Inner Resources.

Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

Tips and Motivation for Getting Organized

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Did any of you get bit by the organizational bug recently?

Maybe it was the freshness of the new year. In January, I suddenly found myself wanting to straighten up and organize my office supplies closet. In the studio, I went through my boxes of drawings, drawers of supplies and tools. In my bedroom, I watched a bunch of videos on folding clothing and my freshly coordinated dresser is gorgeous to behold now! I even got renewed energy for purging and freshening up my paper files.

I find once I get the urge that it’s best to follow it in the moment.

But, what if you never get the urge?

What if your stuff feels a little out-of-control and you feel overwhelmed?

In polling many artists, I’ve found that organization can be one of the most challenging areas. I believe a lot of this has to do with the fact that most artists are right brain dominant. That’s not the part of our brain that organizes.

Please know that even if you feel out-of-control with this that you can change! And you can do it in a way that supports you and makes sense for you!

Take a moment, right now, and imagine an area of your life that you’d like to get more organized. Picture how satisfied, invigorated or accomplished you will feel when this has been completed. Imagine how it will make you more efficient and fluid in your daily life.

Savor all the benefits you will gain from this shift.

Maybe you’ve been shamed in the past for messy habits and have just given up. Most of the magazine images of organization are intimidatingly Martha-Stewart perfect. Your system doesn’t have to be magazine-perfect it only has to work to make you happy, satisfied and efficient!

Because  the visual sense is so dominant for artists many need to have things out where they can see them. Unless you have a workable system, this can lead to clutter and overwhelm.

Reflect on how the typical kitchen is organized. If you walked into a complete stranger’s kitchen and tried to make a cup of tea you could probably guess that the silverware is in the drawer and not in the cupboard above the sink. The tea kettle may be on the stove or an electric one on the countertop. Likewise, most people seem to put their teacups, mugs glasses and plates in the high shelves, and bigger, heavier pots in the lower shelves.

Why don’t we leave everything out and visible in our kitchen? Why not leave the orange juice on the counter in the frozen french fries and next to the stove? Why not just pile up the pots on the empty chairs? Why not just have a mound of eating and serving utensils on the table? After all, that’s where we’re going to use it next.

And yet some of us approach our studios this way. We leave everything out.

Now, this may work perfectly fine for you. If so that’s great! Read no further.

But, if you’re frustrated with the way things are set up in your studio, why not rethink it?

The difference between our studios in our kitchens is there are pretty established conventions and systems for kitchens. I’ll wager these have been developing over centuries.

As far as their studios go – we’re sort of flying free trying to figure out what will work.

Think about your space and how you use it. What materials and tools to you reach for most often?

Which materials and tools are used  less frequently?

Find places for your most used tools that are within easy reach of your workspace.

“A place for everything, and everything in its place” may sound like a cliché, but it’s actually some pretty useful advice.

If you have a place for everything and know you can always, always find your Conté crayons in the box on the top shelf of your tabouret, then, you don’t have to spend time looking for them.

When creative inspiration hits, all you have to do is get started. Not wade through a pile of mess before you do.

Part of this is also about establishing a cleanup routine. But that’s a subject for another post. (Let me know if you’d like me to write about that as well.)

Have you thought about using open bins for storage? Clear plastic bins are convenient, and I’ll admit I have some in my studio but, because of the environmental impact of plastics I am not a big fan of buying a lot of plastic if I can avoid it.

However, I have some white cardboard boxes with clear windows in them so I can see the contents at a glance. You could even make little windows for your cardboard boxes by cutting holes in them and taping acetate behind the hole.

storage-boxes-windows

I also spray-paint cardboard boxes white, because I like the clean look of everything in my studio being white.

It makes my drawings, paintings and installations stand out more clearly as the most important thing in the room.

Painting recycled cardboard boxes is an affordable way to create a clean sleek look in your studio.

Labeling everything is also hugely important. I use white artists’ tape and a permanent, felt tip marker as an inexpensive labeling system. Every thing has a place and everything in its place.

If there’s something in your studio that needs organizing and you’ve been putting it off, I suggest you start very, very small. Pull out your calendar right now, and schedule a 15 minute organizing date with yourself.

When it comes time to get down to it, set a timer and stick to only 15 minutes! If you have trouble with organization, chances are there’s a part of you that rebels against being forced to clean up and tidy. Perhaps your inner teenager? Knowing that you only have to go at it for 15 minutes makes it manageable and unintimidating.

That’s exactly what this video is about. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39vnXSagD40?rel=0

Here is a list of materials to help you get started:
Archival storage boxes
Artist tape

Using Acrylic Pouring Medium as a Non-Toxic Resin-Like Coat

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I try to keep everything in my studio non-toxic and was excited when I developed this method for creating a resin look without using highly toxic epoxy resins.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBAzfxWKMHY?rel=0

 

Here I answer some specific questions I got from an artist in Guatemala on drying time with the pouring medium in different climates. Also, about adding gold leaf or other metal leaf in pouring medium. I got cut off but don’t worry, it continues in the next video.

 

Continuation of questions in previous video about using Pouring medium with inks and spray paint:

Here’s a list of materials mentioned in the videos above:
Liquitex pouring medium – 8oz.
Liquitex pouring medium – 1 gallon
Composition gold leaf
Composition silver leaf
Liquitex acrylic ink
Liquitex soft body acrylic paint set
Liquitex airbrush medium
Liquitex spray paint
Krylon spray paint (gloss acrylic)

My best advisor is myself

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blue_in_process

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I get caught up on a painting, like I did the other day, not sure where to go –

 

that’s when I stop, pause and go inward.

 

I turn off the music if it’s on, sit down, close my eyes, and center myself.

 

And wait.

 

Just in that centering, I gain clarity.

 

The other day, for instance, from that centered place I knew that I needed to focus on one painting at time.

 

So I let all the others in the series go for a moment and just picked one.

 

I looked at it, appreciated it, picked off the remnants of blue tape on the edges and declared it done.

 

I was delighted to find that the piece had different meanings depending on which way I turned it.

 

We can look outside ourselves for support and advice on our work, but I find the very best advisor is myself.

 

And not just myself but my Self. That part I connect with in meditation. The guidance I hear in the inner stillness.

 

What about you? When you are working on something and are not sure which way to proceed, what do you do to figure it out?

Grants for Artists: Tips for Applying

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Are you aware of the thousands of grants for artists to fund their work?

Artist grants are offered all over the world to help support artists in the creation and sharing of their work.

Look for the list of resources for grants for individual artists at the end of this article.

Last month, I was in the process of applying for an artist grant. As often happens when doing administrative work, I found my initial flush of enthusiasm of the project diminished in the bureaucratic minutia of applying.

Has this every happened to you? You get all excited about an opportunity, only to lose steam part of the way through?

I created a video on the spot to share with you how I realigned myself with my purpose and vision to reinvigorate the application process.

Whether you are an emerging artist, a seasoned professional there are funding opportunities worth exploring.
Many are geared towards artists from a particular region. A great place to start is to your local arts council.  Your municipality may have one or if you live in a smaller city or rural area, try your county, province or state arts council for opportunities. If you live in a smaller country, your national arts council or foundation may have excellent resources for you.

Getting started finding opportunities may be overwhelming at first. I recommend starting small.
If you are interested in learning more, make a 20 minute research appointment with yourself in your calendar for next week. This is something you can do after work some evening – even if you are too tired to go to your studio, committing a few minutes to finding opportunities to support yourself is a way you can demonstrate your commitment to yourself and gently nudge yourself along the path to playing a bit larger, stretching outside of your normal comfort zone.

It’s important not to get too bogged down. I find for myself, slow and steady wins the race. Setting aside small increments of time each day or each week works better for me than chaining myself to the computer for hours at a time.

If you find one you would like to apply for, write the deadline in your calendar and then schedule in weekly grant writing sessions for yourself so you have plenty of time to hone and edit your application.

If this is your first time, think of it as training for writing a grant. You will learn much in the process of putting together a proposal. This can then be edited and crafted for future proposals as well.  Just the process of applying for a grant will encourage you to take your work seriously and think of yourself in a more professional context. It’s creating a bigger vision of yourself.

You may want to start a general search or you may narrow your search from the start. There are grants out there specifically for younger artists, mature artists, LGBT artists, artist of Latino, Native American, African-American descent, artist working in specific media, artists working with specific subject matter, etc.

What follows is a brief list of opportunities out there to get your started. Please share any additional opportunities you find with our whole community in the comments section below.

And as always leave questions or suggestions for future articles in the topics area below. Let me know how I can assist you!

 

The California Arts Council has a list of grants available to artists throughout the United States.

http://www.cac.ca.gov/grants/

http://www.womenarts.org/funding-resources/visual-national/

For artists in Minnesota and 5 boroughs of New York http://www.jeromefdn.org/apply/general-program

http://foundationcenter.org/

The Guggenheim Foundation offers one of the most prestigious grants in  the United States for visual artists:

http://www.gf.org/

Pollack-Krasner Foundation: Grants to artists worldwide with demonstrable financial need and recognizable artistic merit
Creative Capital provides integrated financial and advisory support to artists pursuing adventurous projects in five disciplines: Emerging Fields, Film/Video, Literature, Performing Arts and Visual Arts.
From Fractured Atlas: A list of some grants with upcoming deadlines