art.of.a.rock

Tag: art

  • Your Reason Needs to be Rock Solid

    Are there times in your life where you signed up for something and it put you into action?

    At least for me, I need something concrete to shoot for if I am to finish anything. It’s like making meals throughout the day. If I don’t eat, I’ll die. My main motivation for cooking food is for energy to sustain myself each day of course. With other things in life, there are goals and aims tied to them.

    I enjoy creating art to a high degree, but I believe it’s important to have somewhere that it will go, such as an exhibit, or a customer’s hands. Otherwise I will make art to no end, with no aim. I might work on a painting with no shortage of enjoyment of the process, but if I have no ending in mind, no reason to call it complete, I may rework it “infinitely”

    Rick Rubin describes it as being an experimenter versus a finisher. With art, that is true, but with other things, we might just not start because we don’t have a solid enough reason to. Perhaps for health reasons, we should start being more active and eating foods that are good for us, but we might not actually take it seriously enough unless we have a health scare…

    Or one could simply sign up for a high activity event that’s happening months away. That way, by signing up, the need to prepare for the event is felt. So one will naturally become healthy in this way, and hopefully by the time the finish the active event, they are inspired to do better for the next one.

    As for art, I need to sign up for shows and exhibits in order to complete work… Yet I often don’t know about the shows until within a month of them happening. With that, my main choice is to simply create art, and hope that I see the show in enough time to finish what I began and to submit it.

    Motivation doesn’t always come at the right times, it’s so easy to put off important tasks and endeavors. Whether its a life goal or simply doing the dishes. I for one am still navigating that best ways to approach and do things in a timely manner. As I wrote about last week, I am working to simplify my life so I can more effectively tackle what is important.

    Are there times in your life where you signed up for something and it put you into action? What are some mental tricks you have to make yourself be better? …To help you future self, in other words!

  • Tyding Up

    While I’ve come to appreciate the process of organizing my belongings, tools, and space, in conjunction with cleaning/tidying up, I feel it takes up more of my time than I’d like it to. Perhaps I feel this moreso this week, since I’ve been making a conscious effort to streamline my studio and my life in a way that cuts out unnecessary actions on my part, as well as distractions.

    I’m one of the jack of all trades types, though I am leaning strongly into my path as a painter [on canvas]. This means that I want to simplify my space and my belongings so that it’s more conducive to myself painting more, and further molding my life around it.

    This week I have rearranged my studio space (and bedroom). In the process, I am cutting down on things that I own, like unneeded electronics, clothing, and dishes/cookware. I am dysfunctional in life to some degree, so I have to learn to work around that dysfunction and make my environment work for me.

    Sure I’ve had minimal belongings in the past. Each time I move or go on an extended road trip, I would make a point to get rid of as much as possible, but it’s been three years since anything of that sort. So I’ve gotten more comfortable where I am. In that time I have pulled the trigger on buying many items to “make life easier” or pursue certain endeavors.

    More recently I have come to the conclusion that I just need to paint and cut out most everything else, because painting is the very thing I know I will do the rest of my life. I’m passionate about it and experience personal growth each time I do it. For photography, I only own a Fujifilm X100f which I very much enjoy. I sold the last lens for my Canon camera on eBay yesterday.

    I look forward to “completing” this organizational and minimization process so that I can focus on what truly matters to me. Funny enough, I’ve noticed I’ve been getting rid of my chairs too. My computer chair, so I now just have my laptop on a shelf which I can stand at to use it throughout the day. This is better for me since I am less likely to sit at it for long periods of time (I do have a stool nearby just in case I need some relief from standing). I also donated my only standard cushioned living room arm chair back to the place I bought it from. I found it would only ever collect items on it, like jackets… I really just have one chair now, and that is at my easel for painting.

    Anyway, that’s how my spring is going! How is yours?

  • Metaphysical Creation & the Mind’s Elation

    The upside of entering your 30’s is that ideally you have ten+ years of trying many things, going many places, meeting many people, with the result of attaining a more tuned sense for your place in the world… That is discovering what you enjoy doing most and realizing where your energy is best put in place. Encapsulated within it all is a both a sense of urgency to create a strong, meaningful body of work and experience, intertwined with a casual nature wherein disregarding the seriousness of it, in realizing it need not amount to anything, only the slice of the moment in which it is spent.

    The work we do as artists and humans is deeply personal, stemming from what has past, not even always known to us, yet if done properly, it still taps into a universal knowing that travels beyond our visual cortex into the euphoric void, awakening a sense of curiosity, wonder, and awe.

    Aside from all that, I’m thankful for how life continues to unfold, the importance I put in various aspects of my life, continuing to check in with myself, gauging where I’m at in relation to where I could be; not in physical location, but my personal reality that progresses over time, which in turn branches out into the network of everybody else. That is basically to say: getting my life in order, keeping it in order, so I’m able to put more energy into performing at my best for those in my life, whether it be brief or long term. And so I can spend more time painting of course.

    If something is hindering me, disrupting my daily flow; I notice. I believe it is the difference between being able to figure out a solution right away, or letting it get the best of me day in, day out for weeks on end. This could be as simple as a loose door knob, or something more involved such as a disorganized/dysfunctional workspace. It reminds me of something I heard once, something about how the best tools, gear or equipment is the that which you don’t notice. It should flow seamlessly; you should have to think about whether it’s working properly or affecting your ability to perform. It simply works. This can be carried over into most anything, whether it be a good conversation, interior design, hiking shoes, etc.

    With my painting, I notice what works and what doesn’t with my setup, I’m left handed, so my palette must be on my left. I now have a comfortable chair that swivels and rolls so I can more easily play with my dog when she comes to me with a toy. I work on many paintings during one session, so I have a large glass surface to mix acrylic colors. I don’t have the greatest lighting, but I had a nice under-shelf light that I was using for another purpose weeks and months prior. Since I was doing less of that, and much more painting I relocated the light which has elevated my painting experience! I have since purchased another under-shelf light for its original purpose, on my art print work table. This is where I cut prints to size, frame them, package them etc.

    To speak on my paintings themselves, I have come to create them to the degree that no brush strokes, no colors, no compositional details will disrupt my viewing experience of the painting. Sure, I may never succeed entirely at this feat, but I can inch closer in closer with each work that I create, working relentlessly to rid it of all flaws that my eye can see. Each painting is another leaping off point— with new techniques, and refined taste gained. While know nothing will be perfect, I’ve found satisfaction, and ultimately comfort in the striving to be better, to encounter less disruptions in the day to day (my dog gets a pass) by having the presence of mind to notice. Sure, there are many things to address in this way, some for a long time now, but they are prioritized, and in time will lend well to the mindful, minimal, and productive life that put emphasis on myself to embody.