Dear Artist;

Last night Krysta Stahl wrote: "I'm one of those painters who really has to make an effort. I spent all day Saturday in my studio...and ended up with 3 colossal failures. Nothing was working the way I wanted it to... I should feel thankful I managed to find the time at all but instead I just feel disappointed in myself. Could you or any of your readers help me with this?"

Thanks for that Krysta. There's not one artist alive or dead who hasn't had the same experience. It comes with the territory. It comes with the territory in anything that requires skill and resourcefulness.

It reminded me of one Saturday when I was invited to take part in a golf tournament. The politicians who promoted the event thought that it would be good to include someone from the arts community. The three fellows I teed off with knew what they were doing--one was a pro. From the get-go my self-esteem was in ruination. My best drive was when my ball hit a tree in the next fairway and bounced near the pin. The whole day was a sweaty, embarrassing disaster. I finally and sheepishly got off on the 17th when I happened to notice where I had parked my Bentley. Driving home I decided I could either take lessons, get in touch with my inner golfer, or abandon further contact with the activity.

Similarly, getting in touch with your inner artist means finding a clear way to your passion. In my experience you do this by digging into books and galleries, and by examining all the feelings that you have ever felt. You must ask "How do I want my world to be, and how do I want my work to look?" You must trust the journey and have expectations of future joy. Then it's a matter of drawing on every resource to actualize what you visualize. Be prepared for surprises. Along the way there will be the artistic equivalent of sand traps, bad lies, to say nothing of other duffers. But make no mistake, you must make the time for the exercises, the "pitch and putt" and the driving ranges of art, before you start to feel a better sense of accomplishment.

In my golfing situation we do not speak any more of that Saturday and I shall never again be seen replacing divots.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success?" (Elbert Hubbard)

Esoterica: A technique that I've found to be valuable is to always have something on the easel. While marathoning has value, doing it all on a Saturday has its shortcomings. Better to pass by for a few minutes before breakfast, after dinner, after the party. It can be frustrating with limited time, so let the painting help you by giving it a longer period of gestation. "When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

The following are selected correspondence arising from the above and other letters. Thanks for writing rgenn@saraphina.com

+Advice that has helped me
I'd like to respond to Krysta Stahl's sad story of failure by mentioning three pieces of advice which have helped me:
1. Don't be afraid to paint the same thing again. It will always come out differently.
2. Once you've reached the point where you're ready to throw the painting into the dumpster, you can do to it anything you like. You're going to throw it out, anyway, right? So why not do something wild to it?
3. End the workday with your work unfinished. By this I mean, leave yourself with a task for next time. Then when next time comes, you'll have less trouble getting into the groove.

David Sharpe, Toronto, Ontario, Canada dsharpe@remtullaeurorscg.com

+Working through writer’s block
When writers experience writer's block they should continue to write even if the work seems amateurish or clumsy. One should even write anything that comes to mind whether the words and sentences do not relate to each other or whether they make any sense. At a later time, if one reads the gibberish something will often trigger an idea which can be developed into a good piece of writing. I believe that this is true in any of the arts and that the experience which produced bad results is not wasted but added to the bank of skills. I have on several occasions taken a bad painting years later and developed it into a good one. If the idea and composition are good, the painting is often worth rescuing at a later time. If not, one should chalk it up to practice much as a pianist must practice scales before the elements are made to "make music".

Sophia Morrison smorrison@pinc.com

+Taking the pressure off
I too have set a goal of keeping a colored pencil drawing or painting going all the time. I have found that this is better than trying to do a "masterpiece" all in one day. It takes the pressure off. I also find that it's a comfort and an inspiration to know that there's always something on my drawing board to look forward to. I sat down for a couple of minutes this morning before leaving for work and I also worked on one last night for about an hour after dinner. This works great for me! It keeps your momentum up and keeps you focused on the inner artist.

Deborah A. Lowe, DLowe@SWVTC.state.va.us

+Take the journey
I think we have to keep in mind that it's the Journey, not the finished product. That's the important part of art. Perhaps Krysta has a busy life and set aside Saturday for her art. Perhaps she needed the escape from all of her other pressures and needed to think about brush strokes and color mixing. Maybe she learned some things, something about art or something about herself. Maybe what was learned on that Saturday will simmer in her brain and produce something great the next time. But we shouldn't judge the worth of the time spent doing art by what ends up on the canvas. It just doesn't work like that. We have to analyze our work and analyze our methods and learn all the time; be aware, generally speaking, of the journey, of progress, of shortcomings. And then just keep on doing/exploring our art. There's a point to choosing to do art, and it's not the decimal point. We won't all be world famous. But it's still important that we continue. For some of us it just allows us to keep our sanity while the rest of the world is going nuts.

Susan Correia, Castro Valley, CA scorreia@csuhayward.edu

+More on fundraisers
Jane Lake's experience with a charity auction is as good an example of bad karma as you can get, and your reply is right on. We've all been there, and eventually are sickened and disheartened by these people and their attitude that because we are artists our work has little intrinsic value. Never do as they say and paint to sell cheaply. It's ruinous to one's own good karma (learned the hard way). Had I not been taught not to indulge in profanity (the sign of an inarticulate, powerless person) I'd lend Jane a few choice words to say to them next time they ask. I say no to most of them, and donate regularly to women's shelters I know to be in need. They always send a thank you note.

(RG note) Jane Lake’s letter and my note is in http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/karma.htm

Free Workshop in Brittany Contest (what happens now)
(RG note) All of the entries to our "Free Painting Workshop in Brittany Contest" have now been opened and looked at by my assistant Therese and myself. The contest is now closed. There were 578 entries. In cases where artists have submitted a number of works we have reduced the number of entries to two. Thus we have chosen what we think are the best or most representative for each artist. All of these have been copied onto four CD’s. The four CD’s will be mailed in the next few days to the four-jury members in four different countries. The names of these jurors will be kept confidential until after the winners are announced. We are asking each juror to go through the disc and supply us with the names of 15 deserving artists. When we receive the 15 names from each juror we will cross them against one another and come up with the names of 10 finalists. In the case of no consensus we will go back to our jurors for further refinement. At a suitable time Robert McMurray, current President of the Federation of Canadian Artists, will pull one name out of a hat containing the names of the 10 finalists. All finalists and the workshop winner will be published here and notified about August 15. All finalists will receive a free copy of "The Painter’s Keys." Thanks so much for participating. Good luck!

You may be interested to know that artists from every state in the USA, every province in Canada, and at least 100 countries worldwide have visited these pages since January 1, 2002. That includes Sharon Voyles of Illinois kanycm3@yahoo.com, who says: "Finding time to paint is sometimes so difficult, and then having the paintings turning out awful is pure frustration, but sometimes there is magic worked, and the painting exceeds all expectations." And also Jacques Fignac of Paris, France, who wrote: "Your message is ‘give up doing what you do lousy.’—hooray!" And also Joseph P Blodgett, jblodgett10@hotmail.com who confirmed: "It’s a matter of finding out what you’re not good at, then working on what’s left."

If you would like to see correspondence relating to the last letter "Good karma" please go to
http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/karma.htm