It’s All Part Of The Process

November 9th, 2007 admin

Cole Thompson is a local photographer who produces amazing black and white images. In his recent newsletter he told a story about this photograph:

The following is a glimpse into the artistic process we don’t often see:

Sometimes people think, including photographers, that great images come from extensive planning, great hardship and long waits. While that sometimes produces a great image, I’m usually just lucky enough to stumble onto something great and I take the time to photograph it. Here’s how I came to create “Clouds;”

My family and I had been in the car for 3 straight days as we drove home from San Francisco at the end of a 3 week vacation. We were tired; tired of hotels, tired of restaurant food and tired of driving. The kids were even tired of watching movies!

We were two miles from home and everyone was stirring, excited about getting out of the car and seeing the animals. In mere minutes we would be home!

But then I saw it, an enormous thunderhead, the largest I had ever seen in my life!

My first thought was; “I have to stop.”
My second thought was; “The family will kill me!”
My third thought was; “You made a promise that you’d never pass by an opportunity again.”

So I told my family that I was stopping for a photograph, and while they were screaming at me I quickly set up my equipment and took the shot. Because the cloud was so large (the above mentioned meteorologist said it was about 20 miles wide) I took a photograph of the left side, the center and the right side.

When I got home and looked at the images , I knew I had something special, but I also knew that a lot of hard work would have to go into it before it was perfect (see one of the original images below). First I “stitched” the three images together to make the large panoramic image you see above. Then I had to convert the image to black & white and bring out the power and fury of the cloud. I did this by “dodging and burning” the details in the cloud with a graphics tablet. It’s a bit like painting on the photograph to bring out the highlights and darken the shadows to improve the contrast.

My goal was to have the viewer feel some of the size and majesty that I felt standing there that day. Unfortunately the small image above does not do it justice, you really need to see the five foot version and then say to me “Wow! Where was that taken?”

-Cole Thompson

This is one of the original images used to create that beautiful black and white cloud image:

Please click here to check out Cole’s website and more of his work.

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Why Do They Buy?

November 5th, 2007 admin

Selling art is often the goal. So it is worth asking why people buy. Robert Genn has some good thoughts on that in his latest post on The Painter’s Keys website.

In the post he quoted Shaw as saying “When you know the artist you think less of the art.”

Is that true? I disagree but would like to hear some other thoughts.

Read “Why Do They Buy?” by clicking here.

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National Novel Writing Month

November 1st, 2007 admin

Grab that blank notepad, pick up a pen and start writing because today begins National Novel Writing Month. Here is a statement from their website:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: Sign-ups begin October 1, 2007. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

I tend to be a glutton for punishment so I am going to go for it. I admit I comforted by the fact that they do not stress quality, just quantity. So I can think of it as National Novel Draft Writing Month. I’ll try to remember to keep you posted on my progress as I attempt to put down 1666 words on paper a day.

Click here to read more about National Novel Writing Month.

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Has Your Work Ever Been Stolen?

October 24th, 2007 admin

I came across a post via Laughing Squid where a photographer vents some frustration with having photographs being used without permission. In this day and age such an issue is on the minds of artists, especially those one the internet.

How about you? Is this a problem you have had to deal with? Any thoughts on how to handle this in the internet age?

Read the post by clicking here.

Thanks Laughing Squid.

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Do Or Die List For Artists

October 8th, 2007 admin

On September 28th I posted Robert Genn’s “Success Course of the Arts.” The Art News Blog created their own list to answer Genn’s:

Do or Die List for Artists

• Learn to like noodles from packets as you probably won’t have much spare cash to buy real food for at least a few years.
• Have at least a couple artist friends so that you’re not always the only weird creative person in the room.
• Find a psychologist or a good shoulder to cry on before you start creating art as it will bring up a lot of stuff.
• Inspiration is found in the studio while you are working. If you sit around waiting for inspiration before you start creating you will have about 15 paintings finished when you’re 60.
• Never listen to the criticism of family and friends, especially if they’re not an artist or gallery owner.
• Don’t take criticism personally. It’s not an attack on you as a person (unless it’s from a petty little person that needs to put others down to feel important).
• Don’t expect to be “discovered”.
• It’s OK to steal from other artists, as long as you don’t remain a parrot.
• Learn about business, marketing, taxes, media, and start your own website.
• Work with the best quality art materials available and don’t expect art collectors to buy your cheaply made art that will only last a few years before falling apart.
• Being an artist is a privilege. Don’t feel sorry for yourself or other artists that are “struggling”.. feel sorry for people working in jobs that they hate.

What would you add to either list?

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Success Course of the Arts

September 28th, 2007 admin

Painter Robert Genn says he often gets asked to be a personal art coach for people. Instead he offers, “A sort of Jenny Craig Success Course of the Arts.”

Here it is:

Find a sanctuary where you can comfortably work.
Dedicate at least two hours a day to your art.
Have more than enough equipment and supplies.
Set short- and long-term goals and keep track of progress.
Think of your work as exercise, not championship play.
Explore series development and exhaust personal themes.
Work alone with the benefit of books and perhaps tapes.
Replace passive consumption with creative production.
Use your own intuition and master your technology.
Feel the joy of personal, self-generated sweat.
Fall in love with your own working processes.
Be forever on the lookout for the advent of style.
Try to be your own person and claim your rights.
Don’t bother setting yourself up for rejection.
Don’t swing too wildly and damage the well-being of others.
Don’t jump into the ring until you’re feeling fit.

What works for you? What advice would you offer to other artists?

Click here to check out more words on art from Robert Genn at the Painter’s Keys Community.

Posted in Art, Productivity, The Process | 1 Comment »

Resources (free resources)

August 26th, 2007 admin

Part of the process of creating is finding resources. Most artists must be savvy in this regard due to income limitations. That is what I am here to tell you about two places to find free stuff.

The first one is Freecycle. It uses Yahoo! groups to manage posting of free items that people in your town have. I have found Freecycle to be a good place to find items I could not otherwise afford and also to find homes for items that would be harder to sell via classified ads but I did not want to throw away. The place to get started is www.freecycle.org.

Craigslist is the other site for unloading and finding free things. There is a free category in the site’s “for sale” column. I have not used that one myself but I know people who have had success with it. www.craigslist.org is the main site and click here for the Fort Collins “free” section.

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Quick and Dramatic or Careful and Quiet

July 30th, 2007 admin

What kind of art genius are you?

Last summer while waiting in an airport in Maine I read an article on an economist theory of creativity.

“What he has found is that genius – whether in art or architecture or even business – is not the sole province of 17-year-old Picassos and 22-year-old Andreessens. Instead, it comes in two very different forms, embodied by two very different types of people. “Conceptual innovators,” as Galenson calls them, make bold, dramatic leaps in their disciplines. They do their breakthrough work when they are young. Think Edvard Munch, Herman Melville, and Orson Welles. They make the rest of us feel like also-rans. Then there’s a second character type, someone who’s just as significant but trudging by comparison. Galenson calls this group “experimental innovators.” Geniuses like Auguste Rodin, Mark Twain, and Alfred Hitchcock proceed by a lifetime of trial and error and thus do their important work much later in their careers. Galenson maintains that this duality – conceptualists are from Mars, experimentalists are from Venus – is the core of the creative process. And it applies to virtually every field of intellectual endeavor, from painters and poets to economists.”

The article by Daniel H. Pink appeared in the July 2006 issue of Wired Magazine. You can find the whole article here.

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A Demo of an Artist’s Work

June 12th, 2007 Daryle Dickens

One of the missions of ZAF622 is to show you happenings in the art world you may have missed. Could be anything. Could be in Fort Collins or something on the other side of the planet. It could be an event, a piece, an installation, a book, a movie, anything is fair game as long as it relates to art or artists.

Take for example Lisa Cameron’s web site. Lisa is a Fort Collins artist that if you remember was ZAF’s #2 interview. She works in a few mediums, one of which being paint. She paint huge florals and the like using large bold colors. I have spent time in front of her pieces wondering how she does it. Her work contains large color shapes covered with paints squiggles and drips. Lisa’s web site gives us a glimpse of just how she does it.

On her site Lisa has a section titled “demo.” And there you will find a few examples of her work. Clicking on a piece brings up a step by step slide show demonstration in the creation of the piece. It is simple but very cool. I watched everyone of them. I wish more artists would do something similar. Go check it out.

And thanks Lisa for sharing.

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Creative Spark

January 31st, 2007 Daryle Dickens

I have a very old lawn mower. It is a simple machine with a Briggs and Stratton engine mounted on top of a beat up red metal deck. To start it I place my foot firmly on the deck, grab hold of the black rubber t-shaped handle and pull hard. Some days it starts right up. Other days it will not start at all. I pull and pull and pull, each time a little harder with a little more frustration but the engine will not start. Live damn you live! It does not. It does not spark, does not breath, does not come to life. When this happens I wonder what is different. Why will it not start today? It started on the first pull last week. My creative work is a lot like that lawn mower. Some days I sit down and it fires right up and some days it stays cold and lifeless no matter what I do. And I admit that sometimes I want to give up on it. Other people make creativity appear so effortless, so easy. Maybe I am just not meant to be an artist. I know better. I know there is a reason we call it “work.” Because it is work. And it is through a lot of work that it becomes easier. I have learned that when it will not start it probably means something has been neglected. Much like my lawn mower that may need an air filter cleaned, spark plug changed, or something as simple as gas added to the tank, there is probably something in my life that needs attention before the creative engine will start again. I have learned that for me the most important thing is to see the times when the work will not happen as an opportunity. A chance to take care of something else that needs attention. Today may not be the day to mow the lawn, today is the day to weed the garden and clean out the gutters.

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