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Guest Writers On Art Click on a title to read that article: Tips on Breaking the Artist's Block The Importance of Creating & Updating Your Artist's Statement -------------------------------- These articles may not be reproduced without including the author's credit which appears after each individual article. Tips on Breaking the Artistic Block by Mary Baker There's no question that creating a work of art is hard to do. Here are some tips if you find yourself creatively blocked. 1. Set a Goal Set a goal for yourself. For example, it could be to write one poem, one short story, to paint two small paintings or create three works of art. Don't make the goal too big. 2. Set a Time Table Give yourself a time when you want your work of art to be completed. There is nothing like a deadline to help you get things done. You can tell people about the deadline or keep the information to yourself. Don't make the time table too unrealistic. 3. One Step at a Time Baby steps get you to the top of the mountain. If you manage to do one small thing towards your artistic goal each day, you will be amazed at how fast you can accomplish it. Ask yourself what your next artistic step would be and then do it. 4. If It Isn't Working Stop If you are working on an artistic project and you don't know what to do, stop and do something else; it can be anything-the laundry, mow the lawn, work in the garage. When you come back to your creative project, you will probably have the answer to what was blocking you. 5. Progress Not Perfection If you don't expect to create the perfect work of art, it will take off a lot of pressure. It will make it easier to accomplish what you have set out to do and the process will be a lot more enjoyable. 6. Easy Does It If you don't create exactly what you've set out to do, don't worry. Ask yourself the question "how important is it?". It will help you get things in perspective. 7. Don't Worry About the Other Guy Don't worry about the artistic project that anyone else is doing. Keep the focus on yourself and what creative project you want to accomplish. It will help you to go forward instead of getting stuck. 8. Just do it Don't talk about it, don't worry about it-just do it, one step at a time until whatever artistic project you have set out to do, gets done. © Mary Baker Mary Baker is a contemporary realist painter, whose studio is in Newburyport, Massachusetts. This New England city, north of Boston, has been the inspiration for the artist's realistic oil paintings. Mary Baker is a professional artist and has shown in New York art galleries. Mary's art work has passion, depth and beauty, capturing moments in time that many people pass by. You can visit her website, Mary Baker Art, at http://www.marybakerart.com , see her beautiful paintings and read her comments on creativity, the creative journey, the creative process, breaking the creative block and creative space-the illuminating silence. "The Importance of Creating and Updating Your Artist’s Statement" By Yasmeen Abdur-Rahman An artist’s statement is a statement of ideas and thoughts that describe your philosophy, vision, and passion towards your artistic creations. Ponder over the following questions prior to writing your artist’s statement: Is your work whimsical, thought provoking, or edgy? Does it portray a series of stories? Whom or what has influenced you the most? How is your work meaningful to you? How do you begin to write your artists statement? You could begin by writing a quote that has inspired you and your work, or you could create a strong sentence that summarizes your philosophy about your life and how art has changed your views on life in general. You could also include what type of style and technique that motivates you the most while creating your art creation. Some artists have writer’s block when it comes to putting down their thoughts on paper. I would suggest that you start with words that best describe your art and inner thoughts then go back to edit them into definite statements. Most artists know and feel what they are trying to convey to their audience, however, writing it down becomes a huge task. Personally, I believe your artist’s statement should be written by yourself because of the personal touch you would be able to provide to it. No one knows better about your artistry other than yourself. Your audience will get a feel of what your inner thoughts are and how you find this passion to be a lifestyle and not a hobby. Make sure you aren’t using too many words that only artists would recognize. Express yourself while allowing your words to flow. You are expressing your passion; so don’t feel pressured to become a renounced writer. While being an artist is a rewarding career, unfortunately, there are people outside of this industry who would say it is a hobby. So, it is very important to express how you feel about your craft through your artist’s statement. Writing a one-page statement would be sufficient in getting your statement across to your audience, but if it runs to a page two, that’s fine. Clearly, it shows your audience that you are vividly and precisely getting your thoughts across. Your artist’s statement should be updated as your career inspires new direction and when there are profound events that have captured new inspirations in your creative vision. Your statement could be updated at the same pace similar to updating your résumé. If you’re still unsure how to get started, here are two excellent sites that have sample statements: www.mollygordon.com or www.naia-artists.org Your artist’s statement is a very important tool. Take a block of time out of your daily or weekly schedules to create the type of statement that will allow your audience to understand how you began your journey. This article may not be reproduced without the including the following credit: Yasmeen Abdur-Rahman, Virtual Assistant & Lifestyle Coach, is the owner of a home-based business called ‘The Brownstone Workshop.’ If you need your artist support materials (ASMs) professionally created and updated along with other administrative, ad hoc services, or lifestyle coaching, contact Yasmeen via e-mail yasmeen033@aol.com or via website: http://www.thebrownstoneworkshop.bigstep.com _________________________________________________________________________ By Mikel Frank Art is about communication and dialogue. Some artists think they make art for themselves. I don’t agree with this view. Artists are attempting to reveal themselves, to reveal their inner most feelings and thoughts. At times without even realizing it they succeed in a way that strikes a cord with the viewer. This is when art becomes meaningful on a different level. It takes the work from the particular point of view of the artist and transcends it to the universal view of the rest of world (the viewer). As an artist myself, this is a subconscious goal. The tricky part is, if it becomes a conscious goal the work may suffer. So, the artist is in a kind of double bind. That is, if an artist is alone in the studio painting because he wants to and has to, when does the he purposely consider the thoughts and ideas of others when he is making his art? In other words, when does it start to really matter what other people think? This is an issue that plagues the artist throughout his journey of expression. And this issue is why I think it is important to have art criticism. In my view, the artist is concerned with what other people think in so far as communicating a vision or else why would she thrive on exhibiting the work. What has to be remembered is that it is important to the artist who is looking at the work. To have one’s art critiqued by a layman is not of value to the artist because the layman is not educated enough in the language of art to give constructive criticism. The criticism must come from a place of knowledge. That knowledge is cultivated by years of looking at art, knowing the history of art and talking with artists about how they approach their work. This is not to say that the layman’s response has no value. It is important to the artist how people react to their work in general. But, it is much more important for the artist’s learning and experience in making future works, to know what response his educated peers have to say about his work. In critiquing artwork a dialogue needs to be established. This dialogue should not be confrontational it should be constructive. The goal is to help the artist see things in their work that they might not be able to see on their own. It is important in a group critique for the artist to discuss their work before critiquing can begin in order for the critics to understand a little bit about the artist’s sensibility. The artist will discuss their selection of media and what they are attempting to do with their medium of choice. For example, a painter might explain why they have chosen a certain style or technique of painting. Some painters use thick impasto paint and like to scumble while others use thinly applied paint to build layers known as glazing, two different techniques in the search for the best way to express their particular sensibility. An expressionist painter will rarely use glazing and a realist painter will rarely use the technique of scumbling. Since glazing requires patience and exactitude the sensibility at work there is one of control and requires attention to detail. That being the case, it would not be a fair criticism to say to an expressionist painter that she should use more glazing in her work. Likewise, it would be an unfair criticism to say to a detailed realist portrait painter who is using the glazing technique that he needs to use more scumbling technique. Criticism is not a guessing game. It is an informed, multi-faceted way to communicate verbally what one sees as successful or unsuccessful in a given work of art. And it should be noted that not everyone will agree on the criticism of the same work. Because making art is such a personal thing, it takes a certain amount of courage for an artist to have his work criticized in any way. It is much easier for anyone who is having doubts or questions about what they are doing or making or feeling, to be left alone and not questioned or made to give an account of why they are doing what they do. It is up to the artist being criticized to take away from a critique session the ideas, questions, concerns and comments that resonate within him. Many things can be learned from a good critique session. What the artist takes away from a good constructive critique is a different perspective on her work. Hopefully it will be a perspective that never occurred to her before, something that may open up new doors, new ways for the painter to see things when approaching the canvas or an entirely different direction that may lead to a better way of expressing how the artist sees the world. In order to take the criticism the artist must be open to learning. In order to learn, the artist must realize that his art is like life itself; it never stops changing. --------------------------------- Mikel Frank is the creator and leader of the Contemporary Artists Forum, which is a group of artists who meet twice a month to discuss relevant art issues and critique each others work. The Contemporary Artists Forum meets at The 1978 Maplewood Arts Center on Springfield Avenue in Maplewood, NJ. Mikel is employed full time at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He is an expressionist painter and has been making art for over 30 years. Mikel lives in Maplewood and paints in his garage which he converted into a studio. _________________________________________________________________________ "On Starting an Artists’ Critique Group" By Mikel Frank When I was in graduate school and painting nearly every day, I always had the fortunate luxury of being involved in a structure that required students to bring work in for criticism on a weekly basis. My thesis class was always the most interesting and the art students in the class were eager to give their criticism and insights as well as hear what other art students had to say about their work. On many occasions I thought it would be great if this kind of thing could continue in the "real" world (life after school). After I graduated from Pratt I got together with some fellow graduates and started a group work space on Washington Street in Brooklyn. It was a large space and each artist had about 500 square feet of space to work in. Every once in a while we would get together on an ad hoc basis and talk about each others work. This was the beginning of my experience with post school art critique groups. Many things happened between then and the time I started the Contemporary Artists Forum, which meets now every other Tuesday at Maplewood’s 1978 Arts Center. However, the idea never left me and I talked about starting another critique group often. When I heard about "1978" opening I was curious to know what ideas they had for offering courses and events. I was approached by someone on the Advisory Board of "1978" who asked if I had any ideas for classes. I explained my idea and presented it to the board and they were in favor of it. The idea is simple: to get a group of educated and talented people together who are serious about their artwork and can articulate what they are trying to express in their work. And to have this group of artists understand that their work will be discussed in a critical way and to encourage them to be critical in a constructive way when other artists work is being looked at. This seemed to be attractive to many local artists and has been a great success. I started with five members and now have seventeen. Having a local space to meet is very important. Also, having the support of 1978 Maplewood Arts Center has been very helpful. At first, we put announcements out in the form of flyers. These flyers listed the class courses with descriptions. A few people called me and expressed interest and by the time the first night happened there were 4 or 5 people interested in joining. I remember the first night, I was sitting there alone and little by little people showed up. At one point I said to one of the artists who arrived early that if I didn’t get at least 4 people I would cancel. However, we did end up with 5 by the end of the evening and it has been growing ever since. At the beginning of the program, I did not charge any fee for joining. I asked for donations to the space to cover some of the overhead, but I wanted to first see who would be signing up and what I was in for. What began to happen was people were non committal about showing up and sometimes they would and sometimes they wouldn’t. I remember on the final night of the first series of sessions, nobody showed up at all. So, I decided to charge for the sessions and also decided that it would be better for me and everyone else, if the sessions were every other week instead of every week. This would allow artists to have more time to get new work done. I felt that if I charged a nominal fee of $30.00 for 6 sessions, people would be committed to it and take it more seriously. I was right, it is now the 4th series of sessions and the artists who are involved do not mind paying the fee and those who are new to the group are glad to pay it. The fee also pays for the use of the space to help the operating budget. I also thought it a good idea to end the 6 sessions with an exhibition of works by the artists in the group. Most of the works in the show were discussed by the group during the 6 sessions. Although the people viewing the exhibition don’t know what was said about the work, the work did benefit from the criticism and what they are seeing, in most cases, is the result of that critical affect. Being the leader of the Contemporary Artists Forum has been a real commitment of time and effort on my part. However, it is both fulfilling and stimulating. It is a rare opportunity to have an artist in front of you with their work asking for a critical opinion. In many cases, the criticism reverts to questions of how the artist did this or that or what medium was used. These questions are valid because it is important to get as much information about the process as possible in order to make an educated comment about the work. However, I think it more important to know what the artist was thinking or feeling when the work was made and what the artist is attempting to say in the work. In other words, what does the work mean to the artist. It is a real leap of faith and even a risk for any artist to put themselves on the line with maybe the most personal thing they do; their art. It is hard to find artists who can articulate what they are trying to express. It is expression after all and it is very hard to put words to it. But, in the group what happens is things are said to the artist that hit home and he or she can take that information back to the studio and experiment with it and maybe have a breakthrough or at least think about what was said and learn something from it. The forum also pushes the artist to come to terms with what they are trying to say in the work and be responsible for what is there. Starting a critique group requires many things; a space that is conducive, time to organize the group, resources at your disposal, like e-mail, motivational and communication skills and a willingness to listen and be open and sensitive to other people’s means of expression. It is not only beneficial to art making, but it is a forum for ideas and stimulating intellectual discussion as well. I think the leader of the group should be willing to guide the discussion in a meaningful direction, ask provocative questions and be able to articulate in a meaningful and sensitive way the things that he or she sees in the work that could be done with more success. This is the hardest part. The leader must be educated in art and the formal or "plastic" elements of art such as, composition, design, color, light, shading, drawing, mark making, scale, etc. The leader should try to bring their knowledge of art, art history, and other artists and art forms to the critical discussion. If all goes well you and the other members of the group will leave at the end of the evening with a feeling of renewed excitement about the work and art in general and be anxious to get back to work in the studio, not to mention looking forward to coming back to the next critique session. --------------------------------- Mikel Frank is the creator and leader of the Contemporary Artists Forum, which is a group of artists who meet twice a month to discuss relevant art issues and critique each others work. The Contemporary Artists Forum meets at The 1978 Maplewood Arts Center on Springfield Avenue in Maplewood, NJ. Mikel is employed full time at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He is an expressionist painter and has been making art for over 30 years. Mikel lives in Maplewood and paints in his garage which he converted into a studio.
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