Loving the struggle

These are times of massive and critical transitions as we ease into a global community. It's our job as artists to hang loose, remain receptive, and filter these changes through the gift of our creative talents, obsessions, and fascinations. Let the bad times roll! I'm loving every minute of the struggle.

(RG note) There was an overwhelming volume of letters in response to "Times are bad." I've noticed that when I put in a negative subject line, there are always lots of artists who will help to refute it. Thanks so much. Especially in this Painter's Keys Community I'm thinking that artists are a positive and optimistic bunch. Of the several hundred who have written so far there were only a few who were really glum and said "yep, times are definitely bad."

What a rush!

I am happy and fuzzy headed as I get more and more into the "reality" that I create on blank canvases. I find it inspiring and awesome to be in the company of other artists and am so grateful to have been born with this gift of seeing the world through the eye of an artist. I see living paintings as I drive down the street and pass light flooded scenes of daily life, what a rush! I discovered this I think at the age of 6 and have never tired of being different in the crowd of more practical minded individuals.

Swell time anyway

It is all about attitude. Bad economic periods happen to all of us but maintaining

Bulow Creek oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches  click image to enlarge

a spirit of anticipation and joy are the key to success. When I wake up every morning I think to myself, today I will have a swell time whatever comes my way, for one reason. I get to be an artist and others don't. I have a couple of doom and gloom artist friends, and they don't feel the excitement and thrill of being able to paint every day. I pity them.

Messes with my spirit

I will not hang out with whining people - it messes with my spirit. No matter what

Adobe Wall oil on canvas, 20 x 26 inches  click image to enlarge

their life situation they would find it to be woeful. I worry about the images such a state of mind creates. Here's to us who remain optimistic--even if deranged.

No vacations in this job

Do artists ever really take a vacation? No matter where we go, it seems we are

Nightfall quilt, 26 x 31 inches  click image to enlarge

always 'seeing' a possible new subject for our art, and thinking how we would create it. Is there any such thing as a vacation for artists? (Not that I want one!)

Leave ego at studio door

Sell I do. Both my folk art and my hard-times art! So many artists take an ego trip

Paw Traded The Cow original folk painting  click image to enlarge

"I'm not selling at a lower price etc." As a single mother I have to support my children and make a living by accepting change and getting my work out there so that the more folks that saw it would come and buy. Those with an ego attitude must have a mate that brings home the $ so they don't worry about paying bills with sales from their art. Yes the small mini paintings of cats, people etc., does add up in dollars. If artists would leave the ego at the studio door and live in their world and create with joy hard times is just imagination they could put on canvas instead of passing it on to others.

Pie in the sky?

Because I have stepped up and followed a life long dream of becoming a painter, my children can see that following your dreams can and does enhance your life. Success is so much more than money. I might add that I'm fortunate to have a husband that supports me and doesn't want me to work outside the home (I have six children). But nonetheless I still have a full time job raising children and keeping the home functioning. I also think a person's success as a painter has a great deal to do with how they see themselves as an individual. Instead of seeing myself as a struggling artist...I choose to see myself as an adventurous artist who tries to embrace failures as stepping stones to more successful paintings. It might be pie in the sky but that's what I'm trying to do.

Just keep going

I guess I am one of those who believes it is 90% attitude in life. You can choose to be happy, creative and focused on your vision or you can dwell on the doom. I prefer to love what I am creating at the moment and just keep going.

Throw the dice

I've always had an aversion to the word "luck" in the business of art, or even in

Two Bartlett Pears oil on linen, 16 x 20 inches  click image to enlarge

the business of life for that matter. There is no such thing as luck, only calculated risk. Pursuing every opportunity that presents itself makes one appear "lucky" when one of these opportunities pans out, possibly years later. Like the game of backgammon, you roll dice to decide your move, but you take the greatest opportunity of every roll, and with optimism (and a certain amount of aggressive planning) you can tear up your opponent. The dice don't know what numbers you need, just like the whims of the stranger off the street are nothing that can be charted and predicted. Don't wait for what you need, put in the energy to create what you need. Creating work as though you'll sell out tomorrow, scheduling shows for work that doesn't even exist yet, meeting as many people as possible and educating them about who you are, and listening to who they are, all of these things help cultivate a climate rich with opportunity. As long as you have the energy and optimism to keep throwing the dice, times are never bad.

Thriving group

Sometime it seems you are writing just to our group: the

Birdman watercolor, 16 x 26 inches  click image to enlarge

Art Alliance of Brown County, IN. In this last year we have literally taken the half empty glass and made it half full! With a mission to network, educate and inspire we managed this year to produce a full color map-fold brochure featuring 36 artists in Brown County, Indiana. We're quite proud of our achievement together, and now we worry less abut what the "art business" is doing and more about what we're doing as artists.

Rather myopic

I'm as much a proponent of seeing a glass as half full as anyone, but when the 10

mixed media collage  click image to enlarge

galleries that carried my work 5 years ago has shrunk to 6 (and one of them had been in business for 23 years), and my income has decreased by 50%, it's a little hard to blame it on my "attitude." I'm working as hard as I've ever done and I still feel privileged to be able to make art fulltime, but honey, times ARE tough and trying to blame artists' attitudes seems rather myopic to me.

Self control

Attitude will always define who we are in life. For myself I found over the years working with other artists a lot of the time was a negative experience. It created cliques and in my younger years I worked the 'social ladder' to become accepted by other artists. Now with some life experience and some personal growth I have come to learn that for myself at least - working on an individual level is a much more positive experience.

I control my work, my attitude and my outlook. I do my own thing, for me it is not so much about the sales, but more about saying what is important. To use my hard earned 'gift' to portray what I feel. Am I lonely in the 'art' world when working alone? No - not really, I try to surround myself with positive thinking, encouraging people who think as I do. I once visited Ethiopia when there was famine. The glass will always be full for me.

Just how miserable are you?

What the heck are artists talking about? Hard times indeed, my grandmother was a homesteader, in the middle of Saskatchewan, single parent, no plumbing, very few neighbors, was a seamstress to help pay for the farm. Come on, how many of you are hungry, or cold?

We are not victims

As with the depression some feel about the outcome of the recent election, we all have to remember we aren't helpless and we must hold the light for ourselves no matter what the situation. Bottom line is when we face our own inner conflicts, then the ability to create harmony, success and maintain hope becomes a reality. We are not victims unless we choose to be. The external circumstances are one system, but the deeper, more powerful source lies within us and moves us beyond all limitations. Do the inner work and the rest will follow.

No boss but herself

As long as I've got some paint and the freedom to use it, times are not bad. One

Yellow Flowers painting, 16 x 20 inches  click image to enlarge

of the many blessings of being an artist is that I don't have to wait for someone to hire me before I can work. That's wealth beyond measure.

Tricked the kids

I teach high school art and am working on a Masters. There are a few negative folks in education also, and it's a choice to be that way or go along committed everyday to doing the best job you can - and all points in between as you can imagine, but overall, it's a wonderful life. Thanks! It is attitude! I used Stephen Covey's paradigm shift story about the man with the noisy kids on a train (from the The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ), to demonstrate how we can change our outlook in a matter of seconds. The kids were amazed at their change of perception. Yes! Tricked them, yes I did!

We all choose our times

The attitude or mind set is what makes us who we are. Our outer lives are a reflection of our inner lives, our thoughts and prayers. No, I'm not religious...prayer is just a concentrated way of thinking. Artists do a lot of prayer as they work. In other words we think and live in our thoughts. That is what and where creating springs from. For some it starts the moment one picks up a brush. For others it comes from talking with people, listening to music, walking in the park, meditating, whatever inspires a person. Why does that trigger inspire a person, because of who they are and their thought pattern. So even negative thinking people are inspired but into negativity. We live in a world that functions on many levels but the only immediate level we can see is the physical one we currently occupy with our thoughts. So yes, there are hard times and good times because so many people out there live in hard times and so many live in good times and some live in hell and others just live. But, we've all chosen our times, our thoughts and our environment. To change it we have to change our thoughts, our attitude. It's hard but it can be done. I think the artist's way is just one journey on the road of life we all take to learn about life and to grow individually. Artists are lucky in that they can be so attuned to their own creations that they can have a more immediate influence on their environment through their creative process.

Good humor lady

I recently had a conversation with a fellow watercolorist (a well-known workshop

East Boothbay Village watercolor, 15 x 22 inches  click image to enlarge

artist), who was bemoaning the bad economic times and the lack of sales. I kept to myself the same feelings that you expressed in this most recent letter---that there are always people who want to buy good art, in good times and hard times. This past year I doubled my painting sales income! I was able to completely pay for my entire summer's rent in Maine, and pay the sales tax on my new car! I have a two month trip to Florida coming up, and in the past, through trading paintings for rent and selling to people on the street, have mostly been able to finance the winter trip as well! I think it's my humor as much as my artwork that sells. So attitude does count!

Going to be very rich

If times are bad, when they get better I am going to be very rich! I notice a lot of bah humbug lately. Then on the other hand there are the ones I have noticed that change to something new. I find that keeps the mojo going. Yes, thinking positive is helluva lot more fun, plus it keeps the ideas flowing. Closed mind, blind to opportunity. You have to be open to what can be! I do have a brain disorder. The only time I'm happy is when I'm painting, creating, and living in the luxury of art. I say Bah! Humbug to those who like to be stale! My glass is always full of opportunity.

Produce work that sings

I too have been hearing the litany of complaints that it's been a bad year...having just come off one of my best seasons it puzzles me as well. I've tried really hard not to let public opinion and consumption of my work be what motivates me to make it. (pandering to a public and a market kills the joy really fast) Perhaps in so doing, I have continued to be able to produce work that "sings" and as such is recognized for its joy?