Why I Make Art, A Postscript

Wow, the word “postscript” has 5 consonants in a row.

Today’s post is borrowed from Jon Acuff, who borrowed from Steven Pressfield. I’m not sure of the exact etiquette of this borrowing business but think it is okay if credit and links are provided. This was so timely and so in line with my thoughts that I wanted you to read it too.

It’s hard for me to describe what a gift that book was. I’ve underlined most of it, dog eared page upon page and constantly re-read it. Designed with short, powerful essays on the creative process and the threat of what Pressfield calls “Resistance,” the War of Art is easily one of my favorite books of all time. Here’s a section I really liked:

The Artist’s Life

Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action. Do it or don’t do it. It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God. – Steven Pressfield

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution.

Give us what you’ve got. – Jon Acuff

via A book that changed how I look at creativity. | Jon Acuff’s Blog.

Isn’t that powerful and motivating and guilt-relieving (or inducing if you aren’t doing your thing)?

Why I make art, #4

Reason #4: It shows off Tulare County.

My art provides a way to share beautiful places and moments of time with others. This is a natural thing – aren’t you just dying to tell someone or show someone or lend a book or see a movie with someone else? Me too. (You should have seen me running down the street to share the book “The Help” with my neighbor!)

And, living in Tulare County with its bad rep, I feel an obligation to share the good parts with those of us who are “trapped” here. Sharing our beautiful spots helps our self-esteem as a county. It helps our self-esteem as residents of this place (“You live there? WHY???”)

Why I Make Art, #3

Reason #3: I make art because it is my job. (Duh, hunh?)

Some people make art because they feel like it or because they can; I make art because if I don’t, there is nothing to sell.

Being an artist is a great way to earn a living, even if it is not always easy, fun or highly  profitable. My friends have heard me say more than once, “I’d rather draw an ugly house than wait tables.”

In his nonfiction book “On Writing”, Stephen King wrote, “Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.”

If you are thinking “what a sell-out” or “how commercial”, comfort yourself with the fact that this isn’t my main reason. Even when I had a real job, I made art. That was because of Reason #2 – I feel compelled to make art.

Sneak Peak

I’ve dropped a hint or two about a lot of drawings coming up soon. Here is another little preview, but I’m not ready to disclose any details yet. This is for 2 reasons: 1. The details are a little squishy and 2. If I think about it too much, I will have to go lie down from overwhelmment. Nice word, don’t you think?

Blog tutorial

Lemons VII, oil on wrapped canvas, 8×10

If you are on my email list, about every week or 2 you receive an email from me. It mostly says hello and this is what is in my blog and here is the link. People ask me about these emails when they haven’t heard for awhile. Some people don’t read my blog unless I resend the link. People also ask questions about how to access certain posts or if I have ever written about a subject.

  1. If you would like to be on my personal notification list, you can email and ask, or you can use the Artist button at the top of the page and click  “Contact The Artist” . I might be able to figure out myself how to add one directly to my blog, but I’d rather be writing or painting or drawing or anything else!
  2. If you would like to receive automatic notification each time I post, look to the left of this entry. Scroll down if necessary. See the thing that says FEED ON? (No clue what that means but it doesn’t mean lunch is coming, sorry.) Underneath, see Posts RSS? click on that. It gives you a place to enter your eddress (isn’t that a clever word?); then, each time I post, you get an email from WordPress with a clickable link to my blog.
  3. If you would like to learn about a particular subject, you can scroll down to Categories and click on whatever subject piques your interest.
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  5. If you are looking to read other blogs but don’t know where to begin, scroll down to Blogs I Follow and click on any of them. Each of those blogs may have its own “blog roll” with clickable links to other blogs. This is a great way to find interesting reading material and learn of new subjects. I find other blogs to be great sources of information and inspiration. For example, I recently read a blog about blogs. It said lemons are cheerful and welcoming. Really? Do you feel cheered and welcomed? I hope so!

Thanks.

Class dismissed.

Superlatives!

Tulare County is a place of superlatives. Sadly, we rank highest in the nation in being fat, uneducated, diabetic, poor; we make more teenage moms, have terrible unemployment and the dirtiest air. Ready to run away screaming yet? I don’t know all the specific statistics, only that we are either the “best” at those terrible things or close to it.

That’s the bad news. Perhaps it isn’t all that bad if it prevents our population from booming like that of Orange County, but that is a stretch of “glass half full” thinking.

The good news is that we have the largest trees (Sequoia Gigantea), the oldest trees (valley oaks), highest point (Mt. Whitney), smallest operating Post Office (don’t worry, we have normal sized ones too!), produce more dairy than Wisconsin,  we produce prodigious amounts of citrus and we feed the world. No kidding! Tulare County, my home.

Sunny Sequoias IXX, 8×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, $75

Worth It!, oil, sold

Sold (yes, I know this isn’t a Valley Oak, but I haven’t painted one of those yet!)

Kaweah Post Office, sold, another one on the easel, stay tuned!

Oranges 83 – 11×14 on canvas in black wooden frame, $250

Daily Painting 13

Hidden Gardens 2, 8×8″, $75

Historic adobe house, lavender farm, fabulous garden, and a view of the fake Comb Rocks. The real Comb Rocks is out the the frame to the left. (It’s a Three Rivers thing, with apologies to those of you who are wondering what I’m going on about.) The number of available views to paint from that one location would seriously cut into my gardening time if I lived there! I do a great deal of gawking while I walk past that particular location.

Daily Painting, 11

Sold

“One ton tomata, I ate a one ton tomata, one ton tomata, I ate a one ton tomaaaa- ta.”

(Hint – it’s a song that you hear while eating chips and salsa)

Okay, that’s it, that’s all for these daily painting posts. Too confining to my smart-alecky, free-spirited, non-routine-loving self.

Daily Painting, 10

Sunny Sequoia IXX, 8×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, $75

When I belonged to the Colored Pencil Society of America, there was a tradition. At every annual juried show, there was a piece called “Paper Bag #_____”. The numbers went quite high, the pieces were always well done, they were a little boring, and they ALWAYS made it into the juried show! When the slide show took place at the convention, the paper bag was an anticipated piece, and it ALWAYS caused laughter.

What does that have to do with anything? Series: I learned about painting in series, naming series, numbering, keeping track and making tiny adjustments and corrections as I repeated a subject over and over. Besides, if it is a popular subject and customers ask for it, an artist can hardly say “Nope, it has been done already.” Okay, an artist can say that, but she would be stubborn and missing lots of opportunities. Me? not about to miss the opportunity to keep painting better and better Sequoias, poppies, oranges, whatever is appropriate to Tulare County in particular, California in general. And, whatever is popular! (gotta be honest here!)