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A couple weeks ago I did a post on Discovery. One of the things I wanted to convey is how important I think it is for all artists to be open to Creativity. It can come to us at the most unusual times and places. Sometimes imagery comes to me in a dream. Another time I wrote about the images coming to me in my optometrist’s office!
The common denominator for me, in all of these situations, is letting my mind be open to receive that creative energy, force, or guidance. Just doing the familiar in ones studio helps. The flood of ideas can be overwhelming. Overpowering too. There are times when I cannot put my pen and sketch book down because I know I am in the zone and the energy flows from my mind to my hand. I must capture those images in my sketchbook as quickly as I can. I can feel, literally feel, that creative energy flowing in me.
I hope that all of you have experienced this feeling. If not, seek out those places where you can calm and center your mind. Breath, slowly. Listen to music. Find a quiet place where you can still all those distracting voices in your head and just breath. Looking at the mountains, the trees, our sunrises and sunsets, the patterns clouds create…..those help me to find my creativity. Even swimming laps or cycling hushes the distracting thoughts that can impair my creativity. I must admit it’s difficult to capture anything as I would like when I’m swimming or cycling, yet I’ve been able to retain those thoughts until I can find my sketchbook. Whew.
These techniques are not something that I have perfected, they have become a starting point for me and with practice, allow me to tap into a creative channel.
Today I would like to share the first in a new series. The design inspiration came from those beautiful Dendritic Opal stones I discussed in my Discovery post. Ironically, I have yet to use one of those stones in this series. Yet this first one, Evening Moon, is very special. It is an Amethyst Sage that Mark Lasater of The Clamshell gave me. When someone gives me a stone, whatever I make will become mine, so Evening Moon will remain with me. It is very special.
Evening Moon
Tree-Scapes
Photo Credit ~ Daniel Krucoff
The design came from what I could see in those other stones and also in this one. Trees. I carried some of the trees from this stone and added the texture to ‘create’ the leaves. The technique that I used to create the tree trunks and branches is called ‘piercing’. The bottom tree trunk is a replica of the one I see in this stone that is right in front of the white moon.
The shape of the setting does not follow the stone. This is a shape I have been drawing in my sketch books almost from the beginning of my metalsmithing work. I love this shape. To have the stone offset from the center of the sterling silver was important to me. I wanted the area in the lower left for the accent of the trees. I kept the oxidation light as I wanted some of the silver to be light and emphasize the beauty of this stone.
I feel that I have been open to this aspect of being creative. A new direction. It is a continuation of what I have experienced throughout my life; growth, change, finding myself. For some, things appear to happen quickly. For others, like me, it takes time. I am enjoying the journey.
I hope that some of you will share your thoughts and experiences on being open to creativity. What are your challenges? What techniques do you employ to bring your creativity to the forefront?
Please remember how important it is to be open to tapping into the creative channel. It is out there, just waiting for you.
Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.
Can you believe it’s September? Next weekend is the Castle Rock Art Festival in downtown Castle Rock, Colorado. This will be my first big fine art festival. Lexi generously offered to share her booth with me if we both got juried into the show. Well, Lexi has done the show for the past two years and I had no doubt she would be juried back into the show this year. She was. Lexi’s first year in the show she won Best Fine Crafts. I was less than confident about being accepted into the Artfest, but I submitted photos of my latest works, the Mouontainesque Series, and ponied up…holding my breath…. To my delight and surprise, I received the acceptance notice back in May. There was that feeling of euphoria knowing that my work made it into this show and to be able to do this show with Lexi will be a real joy.
There are lots of wonderful artists doing this show. To see the complete list, check the Artfest site here. Lexi & I will be in booth number 152. I will finally meet one of Lexi’s dear friends, Mary Sharp-Davis, whose booth will be next to ours. I have seen Mary’s work and it is just stunning. Her work encompasses ceramics and jewelry. I can’t wait.
Then there’s our friend Julie Jerman-Melka, another gifted and talented metalsmith, with her beautiful river stone and raw diamond pieces. You can find Julie at booth #98.
Lexi will have more of her delightful Shamans inspired by her work as an archeologist. I gotta tell you, these guys truly define art jewelry in my mind.
I have two more new series that I will be debuting at this show. Veracity and another that I have called Elements. The show runs from 9 AM – 6 PM on Saturday the 10th, and on Sunday the 11th, the hours are from 9 AM – 5 PM.
One of the many things I enjoy about this show, having been an attendee in previous years, is how well-organized it is. There’s plenty of parking at the Douglas County Fairgrounds and the city runs complimentary bus shuttles to the event location on a fairly regular basis. Admission is only $5. There’s something for everyone.
One of the biggest ‘hazards‘ that I find at a show of this caliber is I’m going to be so tempted to buy from a number of the talented artists that will be there. :)
Let’s hope that our Colorado weather will be wonderful rather than filled with surprises. If you live in the area, I hope you will stop by.
Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.
There’s a scene at the end of the movie Pretty Woman, where a man is walking along the street, asking everyone he passes, “What’s your dream?“. It always makes me smile because of his enthusiasm and the way the movie ended….on a high note in spite of the glossed over, fantasy story line.
What I would like to discuss and emphasize in this post is, “Do you know what your dream is?” If you do, that’s great…it’s a start toward achieving it. But if you don’t, it’s time to sit down, pen/paper in hand, and start working out the details.
I’m still revisiting my thoughts and impressions from the Colorado Metalsmithing Conference held in Salida, CO on July 22 – 24, 2011. As I have reflected on what I experienced at the conference, more details are unfolding for me. They have been significant to me because of where I am with my work, my goals, my dreams.
Avi Good
Avi Good discussed the business side of art. She is Michael Good’s daughter and one of the most delightful and enchanting people I have ever met. I love the way she looks at life and approaches things. Coupled with her sense of humor, I found her insights invaluable.
The business side of art is something that I think we all struggle with, yet it is vitally important to our success. Avi stressed that you have to know where you want to be, before you get there. I often joke that I think many take the approach depicted in an early South Park episode about the Underwear Gnomes.
Underwear Gnomes Business Model
You can see a key component of this business plan is missing! How does one make a profit in their business?
Avi discussed the straight forward approach that must be taken for your business to succeed. At the beginning of the year, determine the amount of money you need to make annually and then start working on all of the factors that will allow you to achieve that income. It isn’t easy. There are some ‘guestimates’ you will need to make. You have to crunch the numbers in order to have a hope of achieving them and being on the road to success.
There are so many unknowns that go into this formula for calculating the amount of money you need to earn during the year from your work. How many shows do you plan on doing? Consider those costs….application fees, travel expenses, food, lodging coupled with the costs of doing your work. That’s just one aspect.
She pointed our the dilemma, creativity vs selling to make a living. You have to analyze what you are doing and is it working? Pricing is the foundation of a sound business.
Determine the following:
- Your costs = price of materials
- Labor = all aspects surrounding your time, show preparations, making your pieces, marketing your work, etc.
- Overhead = expense in relation to time, utilies, insurance, mortgage/rent, any fixed cost
- Expenses = everything else, your tools, meals, advertising, etc.
Labor breaks down to how much do I want to make annually. Once you have that figure, you can break down the number of weeks you work in a year, hours you work in a week and then ultimately, your hourly rate.
Lets face it, as we start, we may not be making much, if anything, on an hourly rate. Sad but true. I’m a realist and Avi confirmed (as Lexi has) that for the first couple of years in the biz, you may not be earning an hourly rate for your work because you are an unknown. Avi’s father is Michael Good. Talk about name recognition! As she pointed out, would some one purchase an identical pair of earrings made by Michael Good or a pair made by an unknown? The value for Michael Good’s work is considerably higher than that from an artist who has no name recognition. That’s just the reality of it.
The thing is that we all have to set goals, coupled with that, we need to outline the steps we need to take to achieve those goals. Remember here, you need to outline those steps you are going to take to achieve those goals….don’t be like those Underwear Gnomes and have a red question mark in Phase 2 of how to achieve your goals.
I admit that I’m lucky; I have a full time job in the corporate world that provides the stability and funding that I need to continue my artistic pursuits. I know a lot of artists in this category. Does this make any of us less as artists? I would say not. I am a person driven to achieve, grow and learn. Certainly one of my goals is to become a full time artist. Given the status of our economy in the US, along with the mindset of the public and the collectors, well, it feels like salmon battling the upstream current when trying to grow my business. Yet I am determined to succeed. That determination alone will not guarantee my success as an artist.
First and foremost, we must have a plan. What do we want to achieve and how will we go about making that happen. As I said earlier, it is not easy.
I am re-evaluating my business goals. It’s imperative that we write these goals down, look at them every day to stay focus and pursue them. This year I have made the choice to be a self-represented artist. Once I complete my fall show schedule, I am going to look for galleries that would find my work to be a good fit. Remember that takes work and research. No one is going to “discover you and your work” without a LOT of effort on your part. Realize that being represented by a gallery must be a good fit for both the artist and the gallery. Much to do and learn.
The challenge of achieving one’s goals is a worthy one. Consider where you want to be as an artist and how you will work toward those goals. I believe there isn’t a set formula to achieve these goals and each of us must work out the details that will be a custom fit, tailored to our individual personalities and needs.
For me, I know there is a lot of work in front of me. Being an ‘overnight success’ does not happen overnight. Ponder this.
What is my dream? I have a concept, after listening to Avi; just having ‘a concept’ isn’t good enough. I have to develop a clear, concise, well thought out plan. Do I want to be famous? No. I envision myself as one of those artists who create “one of a kind” pieces of art. That is all well and good…now I must plan my strategy and determine my real goals, along with the steps that I need to take, in order to achieve my goals.
Whew, that’s heavy….a lot to consider. Well worth it!
Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.
I’m still capturing my thoughts and experiences from the Colorado Metalsmithing Conference last weekend. Thankfully, as I have journaled about these here, I have found some of the clarity I wanted to achieve. From some of the feedback on these posts, I think the rest of you are enjoying this journey too?
Hoss Haley
Hoss Haley was another one of our speakers and he is a blacksmith, an extremely talented metalworker artist. There were so many things that impressed me about Hoss. As he talked about his background, growing up on a farm in Kansas and how over the span of 20 some years he has grown as an artist, I was struct by his innovation, creativity and resourcefulness.
I know I related to him as well as I did because of my background. My mom grew up on a farm. Her father was a blacksmith. From my mother’s descriptions of life on a farm, you just had to be self-sufficient. If you needed something, you made it, grew it, did whatever was needed to get it or just did without. When my mom was a child, there wasn’t a Wal-Mart Superstore 5 minutes down the road to go to and get what you needed.
This philosophy of do what you need to accomplish the task at hand is clearly first and foremost in Hoss’s mind. He has built several hydraulic presses, his last one exerts 100,000 tons of pressure, and he uses it to form the larger components of his public art works. He’s looking to put together the components to build a new hydraulic press that exerts 200,000 tons of pressure! Wow, imagine what he will do with that one.
Example of the scale of his public art work
He showed a video of one of his smaller presses in action, it was automated and all Hoss had to do was move the metal around as the press moved up and down on the surface. Besides being awe struck by what the press did, seeing it in action I kept thinking, keep your fingers and hands out of the way!
He initially apprenticed with Tom Joyce and his work was greatly influenced by him. Yet he recognized that he needed to radically change up what he did as an artist in order to have his own individuality. He has definitely done this.
He said that he started looking at these huge sculptural works, public art works, and thought, I can do this. He just needed a way to build things on that scale. Here was one of the prime examples of his innovation, creativity and resourcefulness that he had learned growing up on a farm. He broke his design ideas down to their smallest components. That is why he would build these presses that could forge the metal in sections. He would take these sections and piece them together as you would a jig saw puzzle. It all came together, a little bit at a time.
The Pi Plotter
If he can’t find what he needs he builds it. He created this one machine that calculates pi and uses this in some of his designs. It is an arm that pivots, with a pen attached that draws these circles based on the latest pi calculations. Each one is different and as random as the calculations. Every time he starts it, it starts in a different position base on where the calculation starts. Awesome stuff folks! Again, he was looking for a machine that did this and didn’t find one out there that would do what he needed….he built it! This guy is really super smart, innovative.
Hoss explaining the forming stake he created for the demo
Hoss was one of the presenters who did a demo after his talk. In preparation for this demo, he worked up a couple of forming stakes to use and brought them to the conference. He was showing us how he would form a pear, even down to the detail of how he did the leaf. Imagine, creating a couple of rather large forming stakes just so we could benefit from watching him doing one aspect of his work. That was terrific!
Hoss demonstrates forging
And you can definitely tell that Hoss still wields a hammer on a regular basis. The man has ‘guns’ and he got them from hard work, NOT steroids!!!
He even does a bit of jewelry and small sculptural pieces (like that pear) that are available through galleries. However, I think he is best known for his large sculptural works of public art.
The point he drove home for me was we are an accumulation of all aspects of our learning experiences. Going back to the days on the farm and his progression of his artistic journey. Innovation, creativity, and resourcefulness….each of us possess those qualities. Be mindful of them and just think of the possibilities! How exciting is that?
On top of all of this, he has a great sense of humor. I truly believe he is humble about his work and all he has accomplished. It was really energizing to listen to Hoss.
Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.
Continuing with my trend of random thoughts since the Colorado Metalsmithing Conference.
Again, I must revisit Saturday night. As I mentioned in my first post about this year’s conference, that evening was when the real magic happened for me. In Harold O’Connor’s studio, with other metalsmiths and my dear sister Lexi, listening to one of the true masters of their craft. It was profound. Harold was sitting in his bench chair and he said the word, “Art”. Simple, clear, distinct. It resonated in my mind and my soul…. to the very center of my being. ”Art”. And then he went on…he doesn’t ‘like’ jewelry, he doesn’t wear it and he doesn’t make it, he creates works of “Art”….wearable works of “Art”.
Harold
At one point, he got up and went over to another area of his work shop. He started to pull out his sketch books. Filled with designs. He leafed through them with me looking over his shoulder. Occasionally he would stop on a page and make sure I saw a certain drawing. I was so touched that he took the time to share. He discussed how he starts with designs. He also mentioned how he too suffers occasionally from the dreaded artist block. All of his works are one of a kind, yet he will occasionally return to a certain design and change it up. I had a golden opportunity to view three of his sketch books. I hope this helps to convey why the evening was magical for me. Being able to view his “Art” works. Clean, pure, simple designs. It was all about the metal, with an occasional stone. I was humbled and honored that he would take the time to go through some of his journals, sharing them with us.
“Art“
What else needs to be said?
For my work to grow and be more meaningful, I realized that I too must strive to create “Art”, yes, wearable works of “Art”.
Thank you Harold, it was a privilege and a moment in time (to quote Lexi), that I will always remember.
Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.
Continuing with my random thoughts about what I experienced at the Colorado Metalsmtihing Conference, this one came to the forefront more than once. Do you think like an artist?
Part of me feels like my answer to this is, no, not yet. However, I know that I do think like an artist, just not to the extent that our presenters do. From my perspective, doing a bit of self-evaluation, I do not feel that I am fully engaged in thinking like an artist every day. After this conference, I want to….I need to think more like an artist every single day!
Perhaps it is because I am pretty equally balanced with the whole right brain (creative) / left brain (logical) thinking process. I consistently land smack dab in the middle any time I take one of those tests that evaluate which side of the brain dominates your thought process. I’m sure that is why I am fairly comfortable switching gears from being a geek by day (left brain thinking) to being an artist by night (right brain thinking).
Yet now I have this awareness, an insight into an area I want to address to become a better artist. That enlightenment came with the first presenter at the conference, Judith Kaufman.
Judith Kaufman
When Judith was 13, her mother signed her up for some metalsmithing classes and from that point on, she was hooked. She spent almost every free moment in their basement, working on things, refining her technique and how she created her designs.
Judith doesn’t sketch; she doesn’t draw her designs. As a matter of fact, she said she doesn’t draw well. I found that very interesting and bit reassuring, because I don’t feel like I draw well either, yet I do sketch things out. Ever since I started metalwork, I have felt the need to have a clear path of what I wanted to do before I started to work on a piece. Perhaps that is the logical part of my mind, satisfying the need to have that clear direction. Yet, this isn’t the way Judith works and as she showed us how she approaches her work, I had one of my many ah ha moments. I realized that she thinks like an artist all the time! Well, of course she does.
On her workbench, she lays out a variety of gem stones, previously assembled bits and pieces and just searches through them until one of them speaks to her. She will pull that one out and start looking for something to pair with it. So the process continues until she has her next work in front of her. As she said, she doesn’t sketch but she does sort through the myriad of shapes, colors and textures until she finds the right matches and off she goes to make something breathtakingly stunning. That spoke volumes to me about thinking like an artist.
She commented that as she looks at a completed piece, she could trace back to where the inspiration came from. When she would see something, it was some how tucked away in her subconscious and would manifest itself in these creations as she searched through her table top of treasures. Unconsciously, she was searching for the right components to replicate something she has seen. She said, find beauty in the mundane. Interesting concept, right? Once a piece was completed, it took her back to that thing that had inspired it. She provided this quote that pretty much sums up that principle:
She showed photos of things that inspired her pieces, one came from rain drops, another from some tree branches. Now I didn’t think any of these things were mundane, but I guess for some they are. As she discussed these things, I realized how much I need to exercise the right side of my brain to think more like an artist. Be open every day to taking things into your mind and appreciate the small details of beauty that exist in the most common things you see. I think it takes practice, but I want to do that every day until it is ingrained into the way I process information.
Judith Post Presentation
This way of viewing the world reminds me of some of the vacations Dan & I have taken to some of our National Parks like Bryce, Zion, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. People would rush from their cars, snap a couple of pictures of a breathtaking waterfall or magnificent mountain and then scurry back to their car to quickly head off to another place. They would spend less than 5 minutes in some of the most spectacular places. Why bother to make the trip at all?
For Dan & I, our approach is to linger…take it all in. You just traveled hundreds of miles, spend some time to see the vistas, experience nature. Cameras in hand, we would hike, drinking in as many aspects of the scenery as we could. Large and small scale. Truly “taking time to smell the roses”. Savor that dew covered leaf, the mist from the tremendous force of a waterfall, stop and watch a moose in a pond…knowing full well that she was aware of us, but allowed us the honor of watching her in her element. Slow down, take life in and now, more so than ever before, I want to convey those things in my work. Think like an artist.
As I reflect on this, I am realizing that I do think like an artist more than I thought. Perhaps these artistic Olympians at our conference have just put the spotlight on my need to be even more artistic.
To be continued…..
Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.
