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Wake-up on arrival

I love the letters! When they arrive, they always wake me up. Where has the time gone -- flashed by -- since the letter that came just a minute ago? What am I doing -- is it art? Usually it's busy work. I need to be woken up to that. I love the universality of your letters. Currently I'm a full time student studying to become an art therapist -- and your philosophy, tips, nudges are useful to me even though I'm not painting. Thanks so much for spending the energy getting the letters out, and thanks for sharing your experience, struggles, and successes. Yes, you write about painting; I find you are also writing about living. Very helpful, insightful and down to earth.

Keep it real

This was a funny (meaning I laughed) topic and I enjoyed it because, as expected,

Nola in her studio

there is no such thing as making it better. Better is generally understood to mean 'improved' and 'better' will be defined by each of us depending on what we want. So is the question - what do we want? Here's what I say - I subscribe because of your uniqueness. That you write in a conversational style and I feel that you are nearby - that you appeal to my spiritual and esoteric side as well as my technical - I often respond to you in my imagination which means that whether I agree with you or not you have stimulated my thinking enough for me to want to respond to you - cool huh? Just keep doing what you are doing - keeping it real.

(RG note) Thanks Nola. Some time ago we started compiling odd and sometimes funny things that people wrote about the letter. Andrew has gone back in and added some more. If you're interested, see What artists have written about the Twice-Weekly Letters

Keep it honest

I guess what I like about your letters is that they are honest and unfiltered. Honesty helps everyone, even if you don't agree with what you are reading--it helps everyone not be so afraid of truths. Because your letters are not "magazines" looking for sponsorship and advertisements, they don't feel edited and postured. I don't always have time to read each one, but I am glad they are frequent. I print out the ones that are relevant to me and sometimes forward them to friends I feel will relate to the subject. Keep writing—it's a good thing.

Selling art

Yours is the mature commentary of an artist who has under his belt a lifetime of maturing and development. My input for your letters would be that the most daunting part of being an artist is selling one's work. It takes every bit as much effort as painting itself. Moreover, there is so much competition out there, especially here in Southern California. There are so many very talented artists! It's like the gunslingers in the old West: no matter how good you are, there's always someone better. There's only so much wall space available in galleries and elsewhere, and only the best get hung. The rest of us get the leftovers.

(RG note) Thanks Brian. Some ideas about selling art are at Dealing with dealers and Gallery Joy and other places on our site: see the related material link below.

Connectors for gallery owner

I'm a gallery owner and I find your letters an absolutely essential element of my operation. I don't read them all - sometimes I scan quickly - sometimes I read them twice - I also act as editor and forward relevant letters on to other friends in the art world, which leads to interesting chats.

Transported from the house

Your twice weekly letters are a lifeline to me. Currently I live with my daughter, her husband, their 9 year old son and 9 month old daughter. I am an artist/writer who struggles with the compulsion to keep both right and left brains actively expressing sights and insights, experiments with textures and colors, etc. I am caregiver for my daughter and her family during her months-long illness, and while I've entered my 60s, it is often overwhelming. Physically disabled myself, these 15-hr. days of care-giving leaves me bewildered as to how to find time to put anything on canvas, computer, paper, or other forms of the talent I've been blessed with. I not only read and enjoy your letters, I print them out for further reference. They take me out of the closed-in feelings I sometimes have and cause me to think, Oh, when I can, I'm going to do that, too, or try this method, or train of thought, to apply to my "work" as an artist. You've taken me out of the house to far away places and helped me ponder the beauties of them -- the spirit of your expressions is a delight to receive.

Favorite uncle

Don't change a thing. Your letters are a twice-weekly blessing. Just when I start to

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think the artist's life is making me lonely and odd, along comes one of your emails, and suddenly I am at home in my skin again. You are giving us something so precious. You have created a family around these emails, and just like a favorite uncle, we just want you to continue being who you are, because that is something pretty wonderful.

You be you

You be you. That in itself is a valuable thing. I would not change a thing to your letter - it is because it is a unique document from a unique person that it is helpful. Keep your confidence. I gain much more from your writing than not and think the length, tips, insights, etc., are just fine. There is too much homogenizing in this world - stay a single bottle or a drop of milk or one flower. The world does not need more of the same. If you want to change it, go ahead! It is your baby and you get to raise it in anyway you like.

Also, the way the site is set up is uniquely helpful. I can find whatever I need or want in two clicks. Easy and elegant. I don't always read every letter right away. I do file them in their own folder in my e-mail box.

A smorgasbord

I appreciate and share your passion and commitment for art. Taking time to

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write these eloquent, informative, inspiring, and insightful letters and maintaining this Mecca of a website, speaks volumes about your love for what you do. Your willingness to share your knowledge and to grant permission to teachers and artists to use it freely is most generous and the mark of a true teacher. I'm sure that Robert Henri is smiling down on you. The beauty of email is the ability of the receiver to simply delete a letter that is of no interest, too long or wordy for them. They can go to the clickbacks or not, read in-depth responses, scan, find a quote, or just look at the artwork. They can take what is important to them and leave the rest. I suggest that you keep the Painter's Keys just as is it is -- a smorgasbord, so that people with all kinds of tastes and appetites can find food for their artistic soul and come away feeling nourished.

Technical suggestion

I would like to have some way to search for information and comments regarding

Delta Don original painting  click image to enlarge

specific subjects in your clickbacks and other on-line sources. I love the longer responses in the clickbacks but I understand readers who don't want to wade through long ones. It might be practical to catalog them on-line and provide a link to a key-word indexed site for such. There might also be an isolated section for flames and contentious opinions. I manage a couple of on-line discussion groups and found that this last suggestion helps in the harmony and mutual respect within the group.

Thank you for your letters and acting on your love of art. Stay full of yourself - it helps to refill all of us! Hopefully, we help to refill and recharge you and one another.

(Andrew Niculescu note) Thanks Dave and everyone else who took the time to suggest technical improvements for the Painter's Keys website. Besides updating the content on the website, I create and implement features to improve the accessibility of content while striving for increased user-friendliness. Dave's suggestions are valuable and can be found on my long "to do" list. Currently our search feature -- found at the top of every page -- can be used to find subject related material from Robert's letters or from clickbacks. When relevant, a "Related material on ..." link can be found at the bottom of a clickback letter alongside links to the author's website and his/hers previous contributions.

Feedback on the look and feel of the Painter's Keys website is always appreciated and can be sent directly to me: andrew@saraphina.com

"Just for me"

Your letters provide me with a time to learn and to see others work and points of view. It also motivates me to take the time to keep painting - and again learning. I have read your book and have looked up the other artists you speak of, as well as order their books. I read for content and to get the "nuggets" that are there "just for me" and the needs I have for this time in my art.

Expanded connection

I live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania along the Delaware River. Across the river is the state of New Jersey. I am a half hour drive from downtown Philadelphia and a one hour train ride from New York City. So I don't live in an out-of-the-way place like Juneau, but I still identify with Pua Maunu's assessment of your e-mail letters. They expand my connection to the art world.

Got to please yourself

Don't change a thing! Your twice-weekly letter is a winning formula, and judging

Ib and Salvador  click image to enlarge

by the enormous amount of subscribers, you are right on target. Your letters are not only informative, but seem to "hit home" ninety percent (or more) of the time, or to say, they arrive just in time with a solution to a problem I thought only I could have. Your ability to articulate problems and solutions seems uncanny, and your sense of humor and play with words is so refreshing, I always feel uplifted after reading your letter. We are blessed to have you and your staff providing us all with a sense of unity and sharing in what at times seems like a rather isolated profession. There are many types of Artist communities on the web, blogs, etc., but I venture to guess not one is the quality or size of Painter's Keys. Too many cooks crowding the kitchen, and many turn rather negative due to that. So don't change a thing with this winning formula, and remember you can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself. (Easier said than done for some of us.)

Letters inspire her

Thank you for your piece about writing your letter. I have been painting less

Annette

and writing more. I found that after writing my book, Drawing from the Mind, Painting from the Heart that I enjoyed writing ever so much. In fact, I have a new "day job" as director of the Chamber of Commerce here. Your bi-weekly letters inspired me to write a weekly column in the local paper. Your style is crisp, full of excellent references and art history. You are providing the art world with an excellent resource in this technologically challenged world. Thank you for your joy.

Too much normalcy

I am forever reacting to the predominance of 'adjusted' art and artists here at

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Painter's Keys. If the planet and our culture is a standard of sanity, I beg for more "madness". Salvador Dali's "Be mad" remains an inspiration because he wasn't bothered with a need to come across as 'normal'. There is so much normalcy aboard Painter's Keys! I would much prefer some candor, some confession, some humor, some something alongside the Clickbacks letters. I'm not asking that Bob be any crazier than he is. Normal people do not trouble to foster a 'Creative Occasion' such as Twice-Weekly/Painter's Keys. Bob's appearance here is just the kind of 'craziness' this world needs more of. It amounts to a willing "showing up" - in this vast culture of humanity - that too few engage. When I feel free, I take the liberty of being absolutely insane on the canvas. I do not adhere to the myth that most people are well adjusted. I do adhere to the idea that most people are compromised by the manipulations of their own egos. Who dares reveal what's behind our charades? Only those who recognize it as the innocence that it is.

Create to become unique

By making your inquiry regarding your writing process and the opinions public,

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you've reminded me why it's important for an artist to re-examine her/his motivations and expectations, both privately and publicly. Reading about the contradictory responses you receive gives me a chuckle. I'm reminded of the completely contrary advice, both unsolicited and paid for (I work with consultants), I've received regarding my art. Many corporations can attest to the capricious opinions a focus group will come up with while examining a box of cereal. Art history is rife with reassessments of an artist's work as time passes. Luminaries such as Vincent Van Gogh, Vermeer and Rembrandt were perceived during their lifetimes mostly on the failure end of the continuum, only to have their work completely reassessed positively in the decades and centuries after their deaths. Ultimately, as artists the advice of others will only serve us if we use it as another viewpoint from which to investigate ourselves and by extension, our work. The more you create, the more you become the truly unique human being you are called to be.

(RG note) Cristina Acosta is the author of Paint Happy!.