How to Kill The Critic
You know the voice that tells you are not good enough for {insert your thing here}, or that you are too good for {insert your thing here}? This is the…
To Sign or Not to Sign
I am undecided about whether or not to sign my art and waffle back and forth. When I sold prints, I included a paper containing a description of the print…
Sizing Up The Triangle
I am thinking again about the Triangle. Along with the Circle and the Square, the Triangle is one of the basic shapes which are the building blocks of our known…
Layering For Depth
Digital artists heavily use image layering to build a finished work. It is a natural way of bringing ideas together and presenting them with poetic intentions. I've approached this subject…
Abstract Expressionism and Photography
In the 1950s a movement called Abstract Expressionism gained ground in the world of art. Painters like Willem De Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Robert Motherwell were at the head of…
The Flower of Life
Sacred Geometry was thought to be a view into the mind of God. The shapes and designs were used as guides to many works of art. They arise from a…
Circling The Circle
You already know what a circle is, and you have been drawing it since you learned how to hold a crayon. The Circle is one of the foundational designs from which…
Original Authenticity
I have probably written about this before, but it is worth reminding myself about again. It has to do with having original ideas. You see, I don’t have anything new…
Capturing Motion in Stillness
We are aware of how our bodies move and are used to people and things moving around us all the time. This means that we have an idea of movement.…
The Cheeky Vertical
The Vertical Line is energetically upbeat. It is the jump in the skip, the upward thrust. It is that which defies gravity, in which sense it knows something more. It…
Soft Focus
As I look at my habits checklist today, it’s 4 pm and there is not a single check under any habit. My energy is low and my routine is skewed.…
Drawing by Kai Patrick
Make Art Like Noone is Watching
To practice art, you need to believe in yourself. It has nothing to do with whether you are talented or not. It does, however, require that you think that you…
A Search for Style Goes Sideways
My intention for this blog was to become better at seeing images and to settle comfortably into an artistic style. Instead, my focus has shifted to making posts about things…
Creativity is a Left Turn
Creativity pushes boundaries of the norm. It forces us to open our minds and accept a way of thinking that did not exist before. It is like taking left turns…
Learning to See
Photographer and educator Bryan Peterson suggested an exercise to learn how to look at a subject like a tree.Using a single lens with fixed settings, approach the tree from a…
Color Bias
People make associations with color. For example, Red gets associated with fire. White, with purity. Black, with darkness, and so on. Through our associations, we tend to make generalizations. For…
The First Rule of Art
The first rule of art is to have fun. Understanding composition, design, harmony, perspective is important.Also, you need to learn the rules to break them. That is true. But if…
Love After Love
Marcelle Quao is an educator in Ontario and a new friend of mine. We know each other through Seth Godin’s Creative Workshop, in which the idea of ‘generosity’ as a…
Wabi-Sabi
In his books, Leonard Koren points to qualities that embody Wabi-Sabi - An aesthetic, philosophy, description of beauty, originating in Japan. In my photograph, I am attempting to capture:“Beauty at…
Keep Your Ferrari Geared to Drive
A couple of years ago, my husband, Richard, and I test drove Ferraris in Maranello, Italy. It is an experience offered by a company of race car drivers, one of…
Horror Vacui
In visual art, 'Horror Vacui' refers to filling an entire space with detail. It also means 'fear of empty space'.The Italian critic Mario Praz used this term to describe the…
The Perfect Nautilus
I saw this Nautilus shell on the table of a vendor at the Wednesday Market in Cascias. The man had several crystals and agates and shells. Having recently written about…
Taping the Creative Flame
A musical colleague told me something his teacher would say to him. 'Music is readily available to everyone, but we are seldom readily available to it'. Music = Creativity. Be it photography,…
Squaring Up The Square
When I studied electronics, I would listen to Bach’s Air on G String, written in 4/4 time on repeat. It was part of a memorizing technique I used to recall…