4/30/05

Next Installment: CAN YOU EVEN SEE?

IMAGE AND TEXT ARE BOTH COPYRIGHT PROTECTED


"EVIE AT EASTER"--lithograph print w/ graphic border (commissioned watercolor 24"x27")

Oh yeah, I know, everyone thinks of art as something one just throws together, while staying as far away from any “real” work as they can! Right. The truth is that in order to paint you first have to draw . . . and in order to draw you must learn to see. But that is all presupposed by the hope that you have any innate talent at all somewhere rolling around in your genes. And do you know the real kicker? “Art” picks you first . . .not the other way around! In other words, you don’t just “decide” one fine day that you’ll be an artist . . . then off you go to magically draw, paint, and/or sculpt!

It’s just not that simple.

First you must meet a Muse, or at least be introduced, and in some cases (mine, for instance), your Muse may even have to chase you down and beat you up pretty good before some of the thicker skulls among us begin getting the message. And that message is simple, all it really consists of is the total knowledge that Art has now picked you, Mr. or Ms. or even Mrs. so-and-so to become its latest victim . . . uh, I mean target . . . ohhhh, you know what I mean!!! From that point on the future is out of your hands, Art has gotten into your blood, now you must create it to live.

4/29/05

First Of More: ART

IMAGE AND TEXT ARE BOTH COPYRIGHT PROTECTED


"BLUE TAKES A STROLL"--18"x24" Original, SOLD (Private Collection, Austin, Texas)

Art is hard. You can run away and join a circus easier than you can become an artist. At least with the circus you get to go somewhere, see other places and meet other people. With art you are pretty much stuck in one room. Unless you are a Plein Air artist, then you get out of the house.

And with the circus you get a paycheck. Okay, maybe not much of one to be sure, but something!!! Which is ninety-nine point nine % more than the average artist will see in their lifetime. Did you know that Van Gogh never sold one painting? Or was that Cézanne? No, it was Van Gogh, hence the whacking off of one ear. Or was that Lautrec? And let’s not even mention that back then an artist was pretty well forced to find a “sponsor” who would support himself and his work. Okay, we’ll at least “mention” it. Michelangelo, for instance, can you imagine having to find a wealthy family to pay your bills today so you could paint? . . . let alone footing the bill to haul several tons of marble cross country and into a studio just so you could build a high scaffold and carve out The David?