Tenacity to the Audacity

Tonight while at the car wash trying to exchange paper currency for silver coins a man approaches.  At first I thought he was homeless and going to ask for some change given the opportune time, instead he asked if I had seen the movie "Babershop".  I respond with a yes and politely decline his offer of a bootlegged copy.  Of course most people would stop there but not this man who owned a fairly new E-class Benz.  Yes the sight was quite a contradiction.  Next he tried to sell a porno and tennis racquet, I declined both thinking in the back of my mind what is next.  It gets better because he gave a one time discount especially for me, all the merchandise at the low price of fifteen dollars. Lol!  Trying not to laugh and ask a couple of obvious questions surrounding his car I came to realize his tenacity and hustle was persistent.  After saying I had no interest in playing tennis he suggested I buy the tennis racquet as a gift for a friend or family member who could possibly teach me how to play the sport.  I don't agree with his merchandise but I have to give the man credit for having the balls regardless of his image to hustle for a few dollars.  By the way this was an older gentleman in his late forties or early fifties.  He even suggested I come back in a couple of weeks because he would have more of a variety of things.  One of the lessons I learned from this salesman was to never under estimate the opportunity for a sale and always be prepared to have more than one reason why your product will work best for a client or customer.  As a full time artist I am learning my marketing strategies from the advertising and branding gurus to the petty hustlers at car washes.  Knowledge and wisdon can come from the most unsavory and unlikely characters.

Simple Questions? Simple Answers!

I have come to realize the things we know for sure in life are very simple and direct.  The simple lessons you have learned in life are often times the most difficult to apply.  Simplicity is very pure and expects your best on a consistent basis.  Also the thing you desire to do most is very obvious and apparent.  Why are the simple things in life so easy to ignore, apply and overlook?  If we take a step back and consider less is more within the context of keeping art simple the answer to our problems will be directly in our face.  A solution to most of your art problems no matter how big or small can be typically found within the problem itself, you just have to search for the simplest answer.  What are you looking to accomplish?  What materials will you need to be successful? What are your long term goals?  What kind of artist are you?  What is the meaning in this piece?  All these questions deserve little thought when you keep it simple and very direct, every one of these answers should be less than ten words.  If you go over ten words then go back to the drawing board and pay attention to what your spirit is saying, what your intuition is saying, what your inner wisdom is saying and most importantly what God is saying!  Keep it simple!

Switch it up

Last week while playing a game of basketball at the local recreational center I suffered a minor injury.  As the day progressed so did the pain in my right thumb followed by swelling.  I couldn't believe my thumb was out of commission which basically meant no painting for at least a week.  A miraculous thought came over me; why not use your left hand to awaken different parts of your brain when creating art?  This experiment of art therapy would later open my mind to new levels of consciousness.  I found myself producing rough sketches riddled with wiggly lines and deformed shapes, but they were all natural and unpredictable.  Although we learn through repetition sometimes things become routine and make your daily task mundane.  The simple gesture of sketching with my left hand breathed new life into my art work.  Every day I could see progress being made in the background of a drawing as well as some of the detailing in the faces of my subjects.  After the third day I realized why use one hand when I am blessed with two.  This epiphany made me take a real hard look at what I considered to be resources and what I take for granted.  In addition, I learned you can take a challenge or what seems to be an obstacle and use it to your advantage.  If done properly creativity will be unleashed from a place you least expect.

Hunger Pains!

Hunger pains should be common place to a starving artist, right?  No!  There is no comfort when you’re starving; everything begins to hurt not just your stomach.  When you are starving obviously stomach pains are apparent, but the headaches and irritability happen to surface and there can even in some extreme cases be temporary hallucinations.  Who wants to work with all of these ailments serving as a constant reminder of  shortcomings and failures?  The stress of not appealing to the masses and feeling your success is not happening due to things outside of your control will starve your soul to death.  I would rather have an appetite for success as the next emerging artist than to suffer from hunger pains due to a societal label better known as "the starving artist".  The title you wear is what you advertise to the public, the canvas is your book of life where many chapters will unfold to tell stories of tragedy and triumph.  As an artist I never want to be wasteful, not of my talent or art supplies for that matter.  I’m learning it is best not to take anything you have or own to create art for granted.   The idea is to take all of what you have and creatively utilize your resources to build a foundation of constant progression.  If we shall reap what we sow then we must change with the seasons and prepare ourselves to harvest under the worse conditions, otherwise we might not eat.  If the soil is not fertile then we might have to move to a different space emotionally or physically.  If the fertilizer doesn't enrich the soil to produce edible crops then we must change up our sh!t sort to speak and do what comes naturally.  By this I mean your art should have substance and purpose.  The soil is art ready to be plowed for seeds to grow, and the fertilizer is your mind creatively tilling the field making sh!t happen.  Why take on the mindset of a starving artist if we are suppose to eat to live and live to eat?  What you put in and what you put out is a direct reflection of what you are made of as an artist.  Art should be a religion and a way you live your life, and what you create people should want to eat it up like the crackers at communion.  Going into the art world with a starving artist attitude will produce nothing but struggles that will keep you famine.  If you simply utilize what you have by making necessary changes then your career as an artist will be fruitful no matter the season.  Call me farmer John.

Don't Worry All of You Sellouts!

If you are worrying about selling your art work stop now.  Nothing positive has ever come out of worrying.  Try to worry over everything important in your life for a week and see if anything good, great or miraculous happens.  Anxiety and fear usually accompany weary thoughts which dampen your mood and prevent progress.  The last thing you want to do as an artist is paint with nervous energy.  Confidence should show in your work from the beginning to the end, if not then you start over or try something new the next time around.  There will be many mistakes along the way as an artist from your bio to the next potential masterpiece, but you have to remember there is nothing to worry about when you have prayed for everything that matters.  Every time anxiety creeps in my mind and stress begins to tighten muscles I think back to an old buddhist proverb I learned years ago.  "If you can fix the problem what is the need of worrying, if you can not fix the problem what is the use of worrying".  Art is the problem solver.  Creativity is the equation.  The solution is believe in yourself!  SOLD