Art, life and romance can, at times, get mangled up in this beautiful, tangled mess. And it not easy to see what’s going on when you’re in the midst of it.

This year I want to get a lot more “real” and honest on this blog. I don’t want it to just be about art and marketing and sales and tips and strategies, etc. etc.

I want to explore some of the things I’m going through, been through and things I want to explore further.

I’m closing in on being 50 quite soon (my next birthday April 1 I’ll be 49) and that doesn’t really qualify me for anything (except maybe AARP membership) only that I’ve been around for a while and seen some things and experienced some things.

For those of you who don’t know I got married sort of late in life (at age 40) I always did want to get married but had other issues I was struggling with (which I’ll reveal in later posts) and frankly, quite liked the freedom of being rather independent.

But I DID get married. I married the girl I took to the senior prom in high school. I met her almost 22 years later. It was pretty cool. I always thought about her and what she was doing but was involved with other crazy women during those times.

Through some strange consequences, we ended up meeting via a mutual friend (whom we both saw at a mutual friends funeral) and she told me that Cathy (my wife) really wanted to see me (she knew I was single and I heard she was divorced)

Long story short we ended up on our first date and it was really magical. I remember exactly what she was wearing when I met her all those years later. She had on this red, ribbed sweater white pants and these cool black shoes that we later jokingly called her “Pilgrim” shoes.

Anyway, she looked like the same kid I dated in high school. Even better. Just looked beautiful, healthy and happy. We ended up going to a local pub and just talking for hours. She was always real easy to talk with. It was a lovely, romantic evening.

And for the first time, in a really, really, long time, I felt calm. Like I could just be me. I think she gave me that space. It’s rather difficult to explain.

She was a single mom at that point with 3 boys. 2 were teenagers and the other was 8 years old. I knew she had children and it was really fun to meet them at a barbecue she had so I could have dinner and meet them all. Little did I realize all the fun that I was going to experience in the next 8 years!

So with all my consulting work (I do IT consulting, too) and work on Art Marketing Association, do my artwork, and other projects and my golf game, I have realized I have lost a bit of romance in my life. It’s become routinized to a degree. But my wife reminded be of this today and I realize that I have sort of neglected this area.

It just has been pushed off to the side. And as I began to think about I realized I’m not that romantic. I like to think I am but women really have a different view sometimes of what actually is romance. Is it a dinner? is it watching a football game together? Is it going shopping? I don’t think any of those quite qualify. So I need to dig deeper. And practice more.

I want to try to be more romantic but I realized I’ve forgotten what romance is. I shouldn’t say forgot – I just have neglected it. And you should hear me try to discuss it! I can’t even articulate it at all. Anything that comes out of my mouth just sounds stupid. And my wife can talk about this in such eloquent language. She really knows how to talk about what she needs, her feelings and what’s important to her.

Me, I just feel like a complete klutz. Incapable of uttering anything that makes any sense. And I realized I need to work on this. As much as I work on a blog or the AMA or any project or my golf game. My skills are rusty to say the least.

Maybe some of this is from my father, I’m not sure. He never really revealed much. That was a sign of weakness, I think. Otherwise you would have to become vulnerable in sharing your fears and weaknesses. I only witnessed a one-dimensional father, which to me is kinda sad.

But I don’t really want to follow that path. I want to be real. And honest. I have been scared and broke and lonely and depressed and ill and somehow am still around. I want to get better at being romantic. At understanding what women really need.

To understand what romance means. How to be more creative at it. How to show a vulnerable side of myself that has nothing to do with weakness, only strength. I want to become that person. To at least move toward it. Plan more, think more about it. Bring more light and consciousness to it. My wife and family deserve that.

If anyone has any ideas on being more romantic please feel free to share them. I don’t care if they’re quotes or books or programs or ideas, whatever.

Image above:
“L’aubade” 1967
Picasso
oil on canvas.

How you “perceive” yourself is the key to creating the life of your dreams. As there is no discernible difference in our brains to what is real and what we “perceive” to be real, we can often create immediate and dramatic breakthroughs in our life.

There are times in everyone’s life, I dare to say, that seem effortless, that everything is just seemingly happening perfectly, that whatever circumstance is happening, whether it be a phone call or a new contract or new show, it is welcomed with open arms.

But what about those other times, when things are not going so smoothly when there is more rent than money at the end of the month, when you are “stuck” creatively, when you can’t seem to fight your way out of a paper bag? How do you (or should you) archive these things mentally?

The answer is really perception. I have been reading the famous hypnotherapist Lindsay Brady’s book, As the Pendulum Swings (see link at end of post). It’s all about the mind-brain connection. How perceptions are sent to the brain. And how those perceptions drive our behavior.

It’s remarkable how this works and how we have much more control than we think. Here’s an example. Say you win the lottery. You read the numbers in the paper and realize you just won 9 million dollars. You are off the scale in happy hysteria. You immediately start fantasizing all the things you’ll buy, the Jag, the mansion, the pool, and on and on.

Then, suddenly, out of the blue, you receive a call from the state lottery agent informing you there was an error in reporting those numbers. You didn’t win after all. From the heights of crazy joy to back in the boring doldrums of every day life.

So what happened here. You mind “perceived” you had all this money but in actuality you had none. How could it be about the money? You didn’t have any (yet). You just perceived you had it.

It’s like the famous example of a snake you see curled up at night, ready to strike and inject you with poisonous venom, then when you get closer you realize it’s a just a piece of rope. For a while that snake was “perceived” as real. There was no doubt in your mind it wasn’t real.

The circumstance was the same. It was just a piece of rope lying on a desert floor. But it was perceived differently. So the perception of anything is what really drives your thoughts, feelings and ultimately, your actions (or behaviors)

Behavior always flows from perception. And the good news is that I can alter my perception. Circumstances can be anything under the sun. I can keep shifting my perception(s) of that circumstance until it’s in alignment with my goals – where I want to go.

Say your “down” because you are barely scraping by in your art business. If we follow our line of thought that perceptions alters behavior then we have made a logical mistake. We think the “cause” of our lack of business is attributed to outer-world circumstances. It probably would be more accurate to say: “I’m depressed because I’m forming a perception that this is bad.”

We need to b e very aware of this. That is, thinking we perceive this circumstance as bad, this circumstance as good, this one as ok. We can end up flip-flopping all day based on our current perceptions.

How about “creating” some new ones. I say creating because it IS an act of creation to form new perceptions about yourself and what you want. I challenge you now to create new perceptions about yourself. New perceptions of yourself as a successful artist. As an artist who is now finically successful. As an artist who sells more work than they have.

Heres a few suggestions that Mr. Brady recommends in creating new perceptional patterns.

1. “Perceive” yourself as _________ “with” your mind – These words are very important. Mr. Brady mentioned he went through all sorts of word deviations. Words like “picture” or “see” or “visualize” or “imagine”. And the other big switch was from “in” your mind to “with your mind. This can mean, ultimately, different things for different people. How ever you “see” yourself as XXXX, whether it is mental images, or a type of feeling or something else, than that is your reality and it will drive your behavior.

2. Repetition is key – You need to perceive yourself as XXXX on a regular basis. You really are creating new neural path ways. As Mr. Brady says, “The imprints, grooves, furrows and eventually ruts are neural pathways that are strengthened with each use of that pathway and that, with repetition, become so strong they become habitual way of behaving, thinking and believing”

And further, “It appears that by creating a clear perception in the mind of a client, thus creating a new neural pathway, the resulting behavior can be immediate.”

Keep in mind, this can happen in an instant. In a moment. And it has. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a long process.

3. Perceive yourself being _______________ “Now” – Perceive yourself “in this minute” as being XXXX. Your are being “a successful artist who sells all your work and profits greatly from it.” Keep in mind, that “in this minute or moment” you are one who behaves as a successful artist and the next minute the same, etc. Life is a series of “moments” so if you have awareness in this moment you will begin to perceive yourself differently in this moment.

4. See the “end result” of your project – It’s not necessarily the perception of the “behavior” that causes the change but rather a perception of the end result. New neural patterns can be established that produce the behaviors that lead to the end result benefits of whatever you are trying to perceive differently. You don’t need to know how neural patterns are created, just know that it’s the end result of the “perception” that caused the behavior, that produced the end result.

Mr. Brady sums this up perfectly, “Since the brain cannot distinguish the difference between a real experience and one that is perceived to be real the the process of establishing new neural pathways (hence a new behavior) is to simply create new perceptions.”

Get the book here: As the Pendulum Swings by Lindsay Brady

Image above:
“The Journey of the Magi (fragment)” ca. 1435
Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni)
Tempera and gold on wood,
8 1/2 x 11 3/4 in. (21.6 x 29.8 cm)
Maitland F. Griggs Collection

As artists we all have certain goals we want to accomplish. But do you actually accomplish them or do you end up not even setting goals because they hardly ever come true?

Yeah, I’ve certainly been down that road before. I didn’t set goals for a long time because, overtime, as I set them to paper, hardly any of them ever came to fruition (But isn’t that like us to focus on the goals we didn’t get?)

Some seemed pretty attainable (and I’m sure I did accomplish a few) and others were probably too ambitious – then again, aren’t we *supposed* to have goals that make us reach and extend outside of our comfort zone?

So, like probably a lot of people I never got really obsessed with goals because it frankly gave me more frustration than it did by helping.

Anyway, the years passed by and I still did pretty well until one day this one distinction really hit home for me and, oddly enough, I started reaching more and more of my goals.

What was that distinction? It was end goals versus process goals. So what does that mean? Let me give you an example.

Say your end goal is to have a series of art (let’s say 10 pieces) complete in 3 months. You want to have 10 cohesive pieces of art that you can sell. that would be your end goal: to have 10 pieces of cohesive art completed in 90 days. Simple enough, right?

Here’s where it gets squarely and where I fell int the rabbit hole time after time. I would have these “end goals” like, wanting so much money, or this type of car, or that type of business, of this type of vacation . . . you get the idea, right?

But what I really missed was the need for “process goals” to make these “end goals” a reality. Previously, it was like I set goals but really had no specific plan on how to achieve those. I guess thought they would some “just” manifest. Fat chance. And nothing is what happened because i didn’t have a bridge to connect today to the eventual future goal. That’s what was missing.

Back to our example. So if I want to complete those ten pieces of art I need a process plan to complete them. This is where we can be a bit creative. So I have 90 days to produce this work. That means I would have to complete 1 piece of art every 10 days. That seems do-able right? All of sudden the goal starts to become real. I may even want to do 1 piece of art every 8 days just to give myself a bit of a buffer – just in case.

See how much more powerful that is? It’s more powerful because you are no longer wandering around in the hazy future over which you have no control. Instead, you are in the present moment creating and working on your art realizing you have only a few more days to get piece #1 complete. You don’t have to figure out what to do. You know what you have to do – go into the studio and work until your done. Then move on to piece #2, etc. etc.

This has made such a big impact on me because it allows you to get into action without worrying (or even dreading) how your going to complete this big goal that seems so distant when you first declare it.

And this can work for any goal. Say you want to lose 20 pounds by the holidays. You have 30 days to do this. You then think of your process goals(which you can do everyday) to make this happen, like I will eat no more than 3000 calories in any one day, I will do a minimum of 20 minutes walking and I will cut out all breads and pastas from my diet. You only have to do this on one day – today!

That’s the beauty of it. By following your process goals you are much more likely to reach your end goal. The key is to make your process goals something you can meet every day. Something you can complete *every* day. This will keep you on track and you’ll only have to worry about today – which, again, you have control over.

A cool benefit of this process is you will start to have much more confidence in completing your task. Then will begin to happen almost like magic. Each success will build on the previous and before you know it you will be an unstoppable force feeling like you can create almost anything at will (which you really can)

Just don’t skimp on the process part. Make sure you create a foundation and tasks that YOU can complete. You don’t want to depend on others. This might initially take some strategizing and some brainstorming (be creative) to make sure your process goals are do-able,workable and that you (and you alone) can accomplish.

This has made all the difference in the world for me and I’ll never set a worthwhile goal without having a process goals that make the end goal a reality. As I mentioned above, I like to think of the “process goals” as the bridge I am creating (a new plank everyday) that will get me closer to my end goal every single day.

Image above:
“Two Rounds” 1991
Richard Serra
Paintstik on paper, 78 1/2 x 155″
Gift of the Dannheisser Foundation.
© 2011 Richard Serra / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

So how do you find your artistic purpose? how do you even know you’re on the right path? it this the art I’m supposed to do? How do you know for sure?

I get these questions a lot, not only from artists I coach but also from artist friends, too. The answer seems pretty simple to me now, although just a few years ago I really (I mean really) struggled with this – almost to a point of complete immobility and as a result severe headaches.

I was really struggling with what type of work to do. Should I continue to do abstract painting or veer off into more traditional work. I even thought of doing some sort of combines (a la Rauchenberg) because I liked the physical substance of paint and really wanted to “gunk up” something.

But I just wasn’t sure. I was waiting for some kind of signal from outside. Something that would set off the tiger and say, “Yeah, that’s it!” – but you know what? It never happened. I was back at the starting line once again.

One indelible day, I got it. I didn’t get what I was supposed to paint or some stylistic direction but something deeper. It was the distinction that your purpose (or in this case, what stylistic direction) isn’t dictated by something outside of you or something “out there.” It comes from within. Your purpose is created, it’s designed, it’s developed by you. It’s whatever you say it is.

It’s like that old story of the person looking around for their reading glasses and you and other members of you’re family are laughing because the reading glasses are flipped up on their head. This was a major revelation for me. I (yes, ME) was the person walking around looking for my glasses when they were on my head to begin with!

It became such a freeing paradigm. That I could create what I wanted to create. Look at Picasso. He just leapfrogged from one style to another, from Realism to Cubism, to Surrealism to this style and that style and back again. Truly amazing.

I am certainly not saying that everyone be a Picasso and hopscotch all around art history – unless, of course, that’s your thing. I think today, in particular, it IS important to carve out some type of niche – for a lot of reasons I won’t get into here but it really helps in terms of positioning you as a brand where you can “own” your own niche, which helps to optimize sales and provides laser-beam focus of your work.

Because you’re no longer considering this or that or what to do – you’re just working – focusing singularly on your craft. It’s a bit counter-intuitive but focusing on a niche can be VERY beneficial.

A good example of this is Jasper Johns, the American painter. There was a point where he wasn’t really sure what type of work he was to produce. After a fair amount of experimentation, he decided to focus on “things the mind already knows.” It was a way to free himself up so he wouldn’t have to worry about WHAT to create. That was already solved. He went on to paint American flags, targets, maps, numbers, etc.

All he had to do was paint it. So he focused on the craft of “making” via paint and encaustic. What resulted are some of the most beautiful and enigmatic paintings ever created.

So realize that your purpose is created. It’s created by you. Create whatever feels right to you. No need to look outside yourself, the power is within you. Tap into it.

Image above:
“Racing Thoughts” 1984
Jasper Johns
Oil on canvas. 50 x 75 in.
The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection.

We hopefully learn and grow in our journey as people and artists. By taking a larger perspective we can learn to make these life/business principles work to our advantage and become better, deeper and more accomplished artists. Here’s how:

Getting older is not all its cracked up to be, however, one thing it DOES is give you is a certain perspective. And as I am just passing my 48th birthday recently I will try to give you *some* things I feel certain of.

1. Nothing is permanent - sometimes it feels like things are “permanent” and will never change. There have been times in my life where I thought it was my destiny to only make X amount of dollars per year, to always work for a large corporation and be single.

But just a few short years ago I started two art-related online businesses, vastly increased my income, was married, and had an instant family.

Keep in mind, life does move and does change and it will for you too. It moves in cycles and waves so if you feel like your life is in a down cycle and nothing is happening, rest assured a positive, up cycle is right around the bend.

2. Your environment is important – where you live and who you choose to surround yourself with can make all the difference. This often reflects your personality, goals and income.

At times, in my life, I have wondered, “how did I get here?” and only realized later that the choice of environment was probably not the best one.

Today, I am very aware of the importance of environment so I try my best to associate and be around vibrant, positive and forward looking people and enjoy the healthy, fresh air and open space of Western Massachusetts, where I live.

3. It pays to be nice – we’ve all heard the saying, “nice guys/gals finish last”. However, in my experience and what I have seen, this has just not been true. When you practice a “service” mentality meaning you focus upon others needs and wants I have found true magic happens.

So think about some ways you can be nice and brighten someone’s day. For example, surprise and delight a client by sending a hand-written thank you note, a gift certificate to a restaurant you’ll know they’ll love, a round of golf, a nice book or something else personal to them. Trust me, they will love you forever.

There is nothing better than the wonderful feeling of being kind and thoughtful to your family, friends and clients.

4. Everyone needs balance – it is so easy nowadays to get distracted (especially us computer users). Most people now work an average of 10+ hours a day. This leaves little time to pursue other important enjoyable personal activities.

It’s easy to just getting sucked into the vortex of life and just go, go, go without ever slowing down and taking the time to reflect and take stock of what is important, who is important to you, where you are going and how you’re going to get there.

For example: Are you really happy with your art career now? Why or why not? Are you spending quality time with your family and children? When was the last time you took off an afternoon to do a “special something” with your spouse? Are you taking enough time for you? To exercise, eat properly, meditate, time to reflect, learn a new skill?

And unless you take the time to actually schedule and plan these activities there is a high probability they will not happen.

5. Planning solves a multitude of problems - sure, just when you think you are swinging the world by the tail some unforeseen event happens that throws you for a loop. You can pretty much count on this happening. But what do you do with the rest of your time that goes by fairly uneventful?

My advice is to plan. By planning your days and weeks you will be miles ahead of everyone else. Personally 80% of my days go pretty much exactly as scripted. You may think that sounds boring but trust me it is anything but.

Most importantly, plan those things that most important to you (but not necessarily urgent) like: taking that course to improve your skills, calling 10 prospects a day who may be interested in your art, sending a surprise gift to a client, taking time to see your son or daughter’s event. Planning GREATLY improves the likelihood of these tasks being accomplished.

Use a computer or paper or PDA, whatever works best for you but take the time to do it. Keep in mind, it does take discipline to plan your schedule consistently. The best way to do this? Create a system by setting up a time and place to do your planning on a regular basis. And just do it!

6. Life is often not fair – many things happen in life that cause us great distress and worry. People get divorced, close ones die, you or your child/spouse/friends have sadness, disappointment and hurt in their lives.

It is a very helpless feeling when you cannot “control” life. With many situations in our lives we spend energy resisting or complaining. Why can’t it be different? Why does it have to be this way? How come he/she has the advantages and I don’t? How come I’m not as beautiful as her? Why did I have to be in that auto accident?

As if your disagreement with the way things are going to make any difference. The fact is, right now, nothing can be any different than the way it is. And it will be that way until it changes.

The strange miracle of life is that often wondrous things are hidden in these adversities. And if we can drop our “resistance” to life and just let it flow we come to have a much great alignment with life and realize it’s ALL part of the grand scheme.

“Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill

Something to think about.

7. Life is much bigger than us – often, we get caught up in own little world and don’t take the time to realize the “bigger picture” of our lives.

Meaning we often need to adjust our perspective and understand there is so much more than just us. There is always someone better off than us and also someone who is not. Always people with a lot more troubles than you and just as many with less. And on and on.

Once we realize we are all just “blades of grass” we really free ourselves to, paradoxically, accomplish more as we no longer NEED to strive and control. We just allow the world to unfold as it should.

And, at the same time, we participate, do our part to contribute our unique personality, skills and abilities.

So take the time to give. To give more of yourself, of your time, your knowledge and your resources. Consistent giving always means consistent receiving.

Image above:
Wolf Kahn
“Pines in the Evening” 1998
Oil on canvas, 40″ x 52″

One of the biggest and most pervasive myths of creativity is that you must wait for it. That is, the age-old myth of having to wait for divine inspiration in order to create great art.

While, I agree, there are times where you need to let your ideas simmer or evolve a bit, that practice, in my experience, is a discipline that will have you barking up the wrong tree.

What is most pervasive about this myth is that you have given up control to something outside yourself. That some divine force (or the muse) comes to you when you least expect it. And to some degree, it does. But it arrives because of YOUR present engagement in the work and the letting go in order for your innate creativity to flow through you. It comes from inside out.

Where this goes wrong for many artists is that they are in “waiting mode” a lot of the time. Not really keeping their hands moving. That means just keep working. Being “in-the-now” when you are working. That is the only way creativity has ever worked. In the working. In the doing. Keeping your hands moving.

I used to do a lot of “thinking” about my work when I was producing a series of paintings. But after a while, it really got to be unproductive. Running to the studio when I received a flash of insight or just working when I felt like working. When the “feelings” were right.

Let me tell you – that is one of the most unproductive ways to structure your creativity. Doing it when you feel like it. Or when you’re in the mood. Not good – or productive. Contrary to what you might think, having a clearly defined and detailed structure to your creative activity actually gives you more freedom – not less. That’s the real paradox of creativity – the more structure, the better.

Because it allows to to work within a structure. I remember reading how the painter Ross Bleckner plans his creativity. He said it was just like punching a clock at a factory job. Punch the time clock at 8am, work till noon, have lunch, then punch out again at 5pm and your day is done. He said he does it in a religious way, almost never wavering from this discipline.

And, remember, it IS a discipline. A discipline meaning a practice. Something you do habitually – over and over again. I’ve noticed, working myself and with some of the most well-known contemporary artists today they have certain disciplines they practice as part of their working creative process.

I definitely recommend re-evaluating and/or re-thinking your creative process. How much do you plan your creative time? Are you religious about protecting it? are you susceptible to those “time-sucking” vampires who interrupt you time and time again? do you have a plan in place to avoid these interruptions?

Whenever you introduce a new discipline it’s always a good idea to have it written down on paper or saved as your screen saver or something that will trigger you to remember it. It will take time to “re-wire” into your current patterns. And cut yourself some slack. It takes time and attention to implement a new pattern. But the more successful patterns (or disciplines) you can implement the more and more successful you become. I guarantee it! (and can prove it)

A book I really like that not only shows a ton of very cool studios but also discusses (in interview form) how some very well-known artists work and plan their creative process is this book Inside the Painter’s Studiofound on Amazon. I highly recommend it.

I be discussing soon a number of other artist “disciplines” that other super successful artists use and that you can implement, too. Stay tuned.

Image above:
Ross Bleckner
“Falling Birds” 1994
Oil on linen, 96″ by 120″
Courtesy Mary Boone Gallery

There are many, many ways you can motivate yourself as an artist. Here are just a few ideas to get you inspired and motivated at the same time.

1. Translate your work into another medium

This one is always a big motivator for me. It is so easy to create the same type of work time and time again. Why? because it’s easy. It’s what you know how to do. But perhaps try something different. Try, for example, to translate your work into another medium. If your a painter translate your recent work into a drawing or watercolor. If your a sculptor, translate your 3d work into a 2d one. You get the idea.

I love doing this for a number of reasons. One it allows you to almost instantly create more work. Second, it allows you to get lost in the physical process of creating the work. You don’t have to re-envision the whole composition.

No one does this better than painter Jasper Johns. Johns, who made the US flag quite famous continually “re-purposes” either parts or often times (in the case of the American Flag) the entire composition. See the many versions of Jasper Johns flags. You can easily do this as well.

2. Go to a museum

I always get motivcated by going to museum shows. I was recently in NYC and went to see the show “Abstract Expressionist New York” at the Museum of Modern Art. It was a fabulous show. Nothing like seeing those amazing Rothkos, Pollocks, DeKoonings, Klines, etc. paintings up close and personal. You can really see (and feel) the commitment and conviction in these seminal works.

Of course, not everyone has availability to NYC or other metropolitan areas but there are always good, local museums in almost any part of the country. It’s really beneficial, I believe, to really slow down, get outside of yourself and immerse yourself in anothers work – whether or not it’s the same medium you work with. Just allow whatever inspiration is there to bubble up.

3. Sell your work

Nothing more motivating than selling some of your work. It’s immediately gratifying and motivational that other people find value in your artistic expression.

What to do? List a few pieces on Ebay, enter some local shows, add some Paypal buttons to your website, contact friends who might be interested. There are tons of things you can do to sell more of your work. Just realize it doesn’t happen automatically. YOU initiate the conversations that result in sales.

Once you see that $500 (or whatever) in your PayPal account or an email inquiry to purchase one of your works you will be motivated beyond belief to create more and more work to sell.

4. Aim High

I wrote about this in another article here on this site called, Aiming High – Lessons from “The Boss which is an article on Bruce Springsteen and how, when creating the album, Born to Run, he set out to create the great American Rock Album. It’s an amazingly inspirational story to see how he set out to create something great, something powerful, something memorable.

And you can do the same. What about creating something great. Not just “another” painting or sculpture or drawing. Ask yourself what qualities, themes, materials would I need to touch upon to create this. It’s really asking these big questions that will create great work.

Challenge yourself to – up it a notch – to really raise the stakes in your work. Aim high. Once you begin operating from this new paradigm you’ll reach a new level of motivation.

5. Change your pace

This one is fun. Try to change the pace at which you create your artwork. If you tend to take a long time (say 3 weeks to create a painting) try to create one in a day. Or maybe a 10 paintings in 10 days. On the opposite side, if you create your art quite quickly the try slowing down. Try to become more intricate in your process. See what it reveals.

Not long ago I produced a DVD called, Oil Painting Tools and Materials, and it seemed like it took me forever (actually it was like 6 months I think) and I loved the process but when I recently spoke with a talented friend of mine his goal is to produce a DVD week. I was floored when I heard that! I couldn’t belief the audacity (and the the power) in that goal.

Immediately my mind was set on fire. Can this actually be done? How would one do that? What process would I have to create to accomplish researching, writing, shooting, editing and producing the DVD. The specific answers are not important but what it did to motivate my thinking was amazing.

6. Dig deeper into your craft

Not long ago I did a tremendous amount of research into Van Gogh’s materials relating to a project I was working on. I called the Tate Gallery in London to speak with a conservation specialist, communicated with a number of other experts in museums through out the world to find out his exact materials, color palette, type of supports and painting techniques. It was immensely informing and enlightening at the same time. I felt like Sherlock Holmes trying to get to the bottom of some great mystery.

However, it really deepened my understanding of Van Gogh’s craft. His craft, of course, was an Alla Prima style of painting which encourages spontaneity sand is much much different, than say the process of Rembrandt who orchestrated translucent layers upon layers of oil paint.

So I encourage you to find out more about your materials or research famous art that particularly intrigues you. Find the best in your artistic niche and learn from them. Many of them have workshops and working seminars that can teach you more about your particular craft.

As your understanding increases your art will become all the more richer and deeper.

7. Re-Arrange your studio or working space

I do this about every 6 months or so. Kinda of a “out with the old in with the new” type of philosophy. It’s extremely liberating to rid yourself of old stuff (or stuff that just doesn’t serve you or your goals anymore) Or maybe just re-organize your current space.

There is always something to moving stuff around to. I know it’s a very Feng Shui thing but you do create new paths for energy to flow. I always feel fresh and newly inspired when a new “Spring” or “Fall” cleaning or new arrangement has occurred. I bet you will too.

For me, cleaning, re-arranging or organizing is always a way to invite “instant motivation” to embark on a new series or just create space for something new to happen.

Image above:
Joan Snyder
“Big Blue Two” 2010
Oil, acrylic, herbs, seeds, paper mache, twigs on linen; 63 x 96.”

Funny, when one thinks about creativity they often associate it with the arts, music, etc. But what about other parts of your life? How can you use creativity to re-invent those?

Of course, it makes since to discuss creativity in terms of the arts (as this IS an art blog) but I wanted to try to expand the perception of what might be possible in terms of BEING creative in your ENTIRE life.

It might be worthwhile to look at parts of your life and see where you might like to be more creative.

You might ask, “Why do I have to be more creative? What’s wrong with life as it is now?” and I would say, “You tell me.” Maybe nothing feels out of sync for you. That’s great. But what about this 1 or 2 or 3 areas where I really want some different results.

Creativity can give you that. It’s our life force. It is a wonderful, playful, light part of our being. All you have to do is remember back to when you were a kid. All those magical adventures and times where it was effortless. We just lived it.

Versus a fear-based and reactive approach approach where I’m looking for what will go wrong, what I don’t want to have happen, what can I avoid, who do I need to impress, I hope he/she doesn’t think this or that, etc. etc. Remember, also, old programming is current programming. If something affected you years ago but still has a “negative charge” it is part of your current outlook and needs to be resolved.

See, the issue is we can get very subtly sucked into patterns. Patterns of thought and patterns of behavior and it’s all so “under the radar” that it is often difficult to see for yourself. This is where a coach or other impartial person can really help bring those patterns out of the dark and into the light – where we can see them, accept them, then let them go (if we so choose)

But you KNOW it’s not a healthy pattern if the results are not positive, right? So we really want to bring more creative inventiveness to these areas. Areas like your finances, physical exercise, marketing, personal and business relationships (even parenting).

And the shift is really simple. It amounts to asking yourself better questions, like: “How can I bring more creativity to this challenge/issue/area?” “What can I begin to create today that will give me substantial income in 3-5 years?”

Notice the the solution-based nature of these questions. They “lead” you to rely on your own resourcefulness (it’s all you’ll ever need) to create and find solutions.

Recently a key person decided to leave a project we were both working on and after some initial upset I asked, “How can I be more creative in my response to this challenge?” and I ended up coming up with a “Top 10″ list of responses I could create to move the project forward. After reviewing the list 1 solution stood out and wasted no time and went with it. But it was all created!

One final note: It DOES take courage and strength to listen and act on your creativity. It sometimes can be quite bold and unexpected. Just look at what Steve Jobs did when founding Apple or Picasso with an image like: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

So take the time to ask yourself these questions in select areas of your life on a regular basis. It will bring amazing creative solutions to any area of your life choose.

Image above:
Artist: David Salle
“Angels in the Rain” 1993
Oil & Acrylic on Canvas, 244 x 335 inches

Not finishing what you start can begin to eat away at you in small and insidious ways if you let it, like: lack of energy, overwhelm, tension and general lack of self esteem, among others.

Now, this has always been a biggie for me and I’ll admit I loved to start things but never seemed to finish them. And it wasn’t as if I never intended to NOT finish them. I was just off and running and on to the next thing. It was the initial idea rush that got me going. I just couldn’t sustain it.

The problem became pretty bad. I was missing deadlines, not honoring my personal commitments and just feeling generally fatigued and unfocused. As it’s really the tasks we DON’T complete that cause the most fatigue.

Like anything else (I guarantee, you can come up with a few) you can quickly find yourself in a fabricated “story” of your own making. You’ll start labeling yourself a procrastinator or a person who doesn’t finish things, then you’ll go out into the world and try to solve “your problem” with books, seminars, trainings, etc.

The next thing people often do is try to change their belief system about their “not finishing things” They begin to BELIEVE they are not someone who is good at finishing things. And it’s really hard to become good at completing tasks if you don’t believe it.

So what do do? What worked for me was really changing the truth about who I was in this area. I started to keep a log and noted every time I finished something. Like if I was typing an email I would finish it before going on to something else.

Start small. Finish the dishes. Finish raking that section of your lawn. Finish a well thought out email. Then move on to some larger task or projects.

Soon, I had a decent size log of things I finished. I was becoming a person who “finished things” That was my new truth. I didn’t have to will myself into coming up with a new belief system. I was living it.

All it involved was shining a little extra light and bringing a bit more consciousness to this issue. Oddly enough, this is often what we DON’T do. We just expect it to sort of resolve itself somehow.

Today, I very rarely leave the scene of a task without finishing some part of it. Of course, it’s always a judgment call, but take a stand and finish what you started – even if it involves staying late or some other sacrifice. Don’t waste the heat and momentum you have at the moment.

Counter-intuitively, you’ll have more energy, more focus and be more productive than ever.

Image above:
Dorothea Rockburne
“Mozart and Mozart Upsidedown and Backward” 1993
Screenprint, 36.5 x 45.5 inches

As an artist, it is particularly important to stand guard at the door of your thinking. For it’s your thinking that will bring you all the success you could ever want. Here’s an idea that may help get more things done.

Sometimes something as seemingly insignificant as a quotation can really turn your life around – that is, if you are open enough to allow it to. This one really did for me. Here it is below.

The quote is below is attributed to 17th century Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer Baltasar Gracian.

“Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy.”

So what does this mean? Well let’s take a look at just one part of this first. “Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult.” When we take on easy tasks as if they were difficult we can really slow down and perceive the task differently. We can bring more consciousness and awareness in it. Like watching a flower bloom in super slow motion. We see and are aware of every nuance.

What do most people do? Just rush right through their “easy tasks”. Just to get it over with and move on to other more “important” things.

But what if we turned that around. For example, what if you took the *seemingly* “easy task” of answering an email and applied this new perception to it? How do you make it “more difficult?” You simply take your time. You SLOW down. You answer the email slowly and thoroughly.

You look for ways to SERVE the person writing. Maybe a word of encouragement or a valuable resource that could inspire them or the name of another person who might be able to help them. Not just some quick, unthoughtful answer. It can really change the level at which you communicate. Your relationships will become deeper, more meaningful.

What about the 2nd part, making the difficult tasks seem easy? If we have an easygoing mindset we can just begin. We don’t HAVE to carry extra baggage with us. The only reason a task is difficult is because of our thoughts about it. So be aware of this built-in resistance. Know that they (thoughts) will always be there.

I have often found “difficult task” much more easy to begin if I don’t think to much about them. The trick is not to resist the thoughts but just let them go. Don’t let them coagulate into a sticky, toxic sludge, causing you to become frozen and immobile.

The solution? Just stop the thinking and dive in. The more you practice this the easier it becomes. Remember action begets further action. It’s just that simple!

Image above:
Paul Cezanne
“Un Coin de Table” 1895-1900
Oil on canvas, 47 x 56 cm
The Barnes Foundation