Rules for Painting & Life

Allowing yourself to Fail

2011-11-24T09:53:00.004-05:00

One of the main conditions that affect Artists is ( no, not carpal tunnel syndrome ) but “Fear of Failure”. This condition has debilitated more creative people than the swine flu, H1N1 and the common cold rolled up together each and every day. Why? It’s the obvious question and not easy to answer but I’ll give it a try.

A hundred years or so ago and for centuries before that all an artist was expected to do, once the decision was made that their talent was obvious to everyone, was to learn from a master artist the tricks of the trade. They would learn how to use the tools and practice with them until they were ready to become the master of their art. Then with the help of some local patrons and a church or two an artist could make his living doing what he did best. So what has changed? Well for one the world economy has made it so that living from your art is a crap shoot at best and has very little to do with whether or not you are the most talented or proficient. Secondly a little thing called the impressionism art movement changed the world of visual artists forever, not just because they gave us a licence to interpret the world we see into our own language but it is what happened as a result that started the problem. You see from that point on each artist wanted to explore expressing his or her self in a unique and different way. For the next one hundred years art as we knew it changed and morfed into many different and unique forms of personal expression with each artist taking it to the next level. It was because of this that pressure to be unique has been put on the shoulders of visual artist and I would surmise to say all other creative people as well.

Where once we had been satisfied to measure up to our peers now we have to outdo them and be different, unique and never been done before in the history of the world creative people. It is no wonder that we have an anxiety attack while working on our latest project. I have seen it over and over while teaching young and young to painting artists. They will sit and stare at the blank canvas afraid to start, and then they worry, fret and hesitate through the whole experience afraid to make a mistake. Even my constant assurance that if it doesn’t work out we can just cover it up and start again gives them no comfort. Sound a little familiar. It gets worse if you are really good at something then you have to add expectations to the formula of pressure.

So, what do you do? It is easy, so easy you will wish you had said it first; let yourself fail! Actually I hate the word “Fail” instead let’s try to look at it like this; no matter what happens you will produce a result and the result will be one you will either like or not; it is the way experimentation works – cause and effect. Each time you set out to paint, sculpt, write or perform give yourself permission to experiment and then decide that based on the result if this way works, if it does then go with that for a while, if not then you know you need to adjust things a bit. We are by nature experimenters, so don’t try to change your nature embrace it!

Sandra Taylor Hedges

Fear of Success

2011-11-24T09:53:00.003-05:00

The one thing that can stop you in your Art career faster than fear of failure is the flip side of the coin “The Fear of Success”. Most of us would poo hoo such a creature but the truth is that more often than not this is the fear that stops the most talented among us. Fear of Failure is just a matter of building up your self esteem and confidence but Fear of Success is a more difficult monster to tame. Often when someone is about a centimetre from reaching their goals they will start to self destruct. The closer you are to the top of your craft the bigger the mess as the destruct button is hit.

We have seen it time and again with Actors, Musicians and Singers who have so much potential and are recognized as the next great one in their craft only to see them throw it all away by participating in self destructive behaviour and then they are yesterday’s news. On a smaller scale some of us do the same thing just when we think our momentum is on the way up we start to behave in uncharacteristic ways for example our usual punctuality changes to forgetting appointments, important ones or finding reasons why we need to cancel them altogether. Commission work sits undone in a corner with the deadline come and gone.

Why do we do it? The reason is probably easily explained by psychologists but the short answer is we are afraid to have to keep up the momentum. Once you are a success now everyone will expect you to keep it up. You will be expected to always produce amazing songs; your voice has to always be perfect pitch; your artwork must always win awards, you get the picture. This is a lot of pressure to put on yourself, of course your fan base doesn’t help and adds pressure to the mix but you must be the one to recognize what is happening before you lose all the ground you have made in your career.

So what can you do? All I can do is tell you what works for me when I see the signs of Fear of Success. I remind myself that I am not a machine. I am just a human being with ups and downs and I need to trust my years of experience and training and it’s OK to not be perfect. Then I make a point of telling my friends and even my students, which they are happy to hear because they want to know that everyone will have a bad day.

I know in this case I have over simplified the problem but it is important to recognize that this can happen and it may have already happened to you and if it does you may need to seek out the help of a qualified therapist or the help of a good friend who you can trust.

I will leave you with this one last thought,

“Whether you believe you will be successful or whether you believe you won’t you will always be right” Henry Ford

You are the only one that can control your future so make it a good one.

Sandra Taylor Hedges

2011-11-10T16:18:00.003-05:00

Without a Vision the Artist will perish

A very wise man once said that “Where there is no vision, the people will perish” Proverbs 29:18; very simply put you need a goal. Why is goal setting so important? The short answer is without a goal you have no way of determining whether or not you have moved yourself forward. In my Art classes and lectures on Business I always ask the group to set a goal for themselves around the class.

The goal must fit some of the following criteria:

1. It must be able to be accomplished in the time allowed; there is no point in setting to lofty a goal for a short term project when only days or hours are available to dedicate to it. Certainly there is nothing wrong with setting long term goals just so long as you see them as such and set a series of short term goals to get you from here to there.

2. It must be tangible and measurable; do not set the goal of being rich some day as your goal after all my idea of rich may not be yours. Instead if you want to earn a $100,000.00 a year, month or per appearance then make that your goal. If you want to play at certain clubs or show in a particular Art Gallery then state it. Do not be afraid to aim high.

3. It must move you forward; always look ahead to the next level or best venue. If you want to perfect a particular talent do it only if it will move your work forward toward your goals. Don’t set a goal of perfecting abstract painting if your goal is to be the next best thing to Robert Bateman. Instead set goals that will move you toward the style of Art, Music, Acting and Dance you want to be recognized for.

So now we understand about setting goals what exactly will those goals look like? The time honored way to get a visual of your short and long term goals is to make a Vision Board. This can be done with Foamcore Board, magazines, scissors and glue or now with the magic of computers we can set it up with any document maker, save it as a PDF and make it wall paper. Have the Vision Board show all the things you wish to accomplish while you are building your career both easily attainable and those that may seem “Pie in the Sky” to others. Keep this Vision in a place you will see it everyday and remind yourself daily that this is your Dream and you will see it come true.

The flip side of this is that without the Vision and the goal setting you are not focused enough to take yourself there. There is no magic Fairy Godmother; no Genii in a bottle; no amount of wishing and hoping that will get you there and soon the dream will die. This is sad but true. The good news is as soon as you realize the power of having a Vision and Goals you can be well on your way to success, a little late but better late than never.

As a footnote, hang out with other Visionary Goal seekers they will help inspire you and uplift you.

2011-10-20T14:34:00.001-04:00

Talent Verses Ability

In the world there seems to be a magic dividing line between the Artist and the average person. The average person believes that talent is a thing that you are born with and you either have it or you don’t.

The problem with Talent is this; it is one part ability, one part practice and two parts focused drive. The average person on the street may not understand this process and often put the Artist on a pedestal because of what is perceived as “God Given” talent. It has been my experience however that most humans have some measure of ability and with a little practice and a few pointers their ability evolves. The main difference between the average person and the “Artist” is the focused drive. An Artist is driven sometimes to the exclusion of all else and it is this, as the old saying goes, that “Divides the Men from the Boys” but isn’t this true of so many things? The driven Artist often has to be reminded to join the rest of the world once in a while. Without a doubt these individuals will always rise to the top in direct proportion to their ability to be driven and focused.

When I teach people painting and drawing it doesn’t take long before I see which ones are the ones with ability and the ones with talent. The talented artists will be focused, and involved in their projects while the ones with abilities will just coast along making due with the minimum effort. The final results will, on the surface look similar but when inspected a little deeper talent will win out. The talented person’s work always has that little bit of something extra that shines through

So now the question arises, can I move from just having ability to having talent? The answer happily is yes, but only if you can find inside yourself the focused drive required in order to push yourself to the next level. Sometimes that may just look like discipline to practice more in order to perfect difficult techniques or maybe it will be to get out there and look for representation. It may even be to invent a way of doing things that no one else has done before. Remember “Focused Drive” will give you the edge over ability alone every time, even if your competition has a greater level of ability than you do.

If you can’t find the drive inside you that’s alright too; just accept this about yourself and learn to enjoy the level you are at and take the pressure off yourself to be the best. Sadly I see individuals with ability abandon what they do completely because they are not as good as they think they could be. Creativity is the great balm for the soul, it helps to calm and restore our stressed out minds and that in itself makes it a pass time worth perusing, as long as you take it one day at a time.

Paucity Principal

2011-09-11T12:41:00.002-04:00

The Paucity Principal

pau·ci·ty

noun /pôsitē
paucities, plural

Paucity means "the presence of something in small or insufficient quantities or amounts; scarcity." In our game, it's one of the main principles. Robert Genn

Artist, Robert Genn, is a big supporter of the power of paucity in an Artist’s work and I happen to agree with him and have been using it in my work for over 20 years, long before I knew there was a name for it. To put it into layman’s terms it would be the difference between a Robert Bateman painting and a Rembrandt drawing or a full orchestra playing and a simple flute. My mentor and friend Elaine Bigelow always referred to it as “Less is More, You don’t have to tell them everything”. For the main stream Art critiques and buyers this looks like unfinished work but I ask you when is a painting or anything creative finished? I say when the Artist say’s it is.

This concept is not popular with galleries and those that do not appreciate art but it is the way I chose to paint and I encourage you to try out the idea no matter what your artistic discipline. As an artist I can tell my story in the way I chose, just as an author tells their story in the fashion they do. Even an Author knows that too much description within a story can be worse than not enough as the viewer becomes bored; there is no room for them to use their imagination.

When we leave out some of the information that we see in reality we now add a 4^th dimension to the world, the dimension of “Perception of Content”. This powerful dimension allows the viewer or the listener to now become an active part in the art being created. When a line on a painting is left unfinished and is placed in a certain way the human eye will finish it, by doing this they are part of the process of painting, with out them it is incomplete. This is often used in stage production, when only key pieces of furniture or props are given to the actors to work with and the audience must imagine what the rest of the room would look like. The beauty of this process is the imaginary window the actor looks out can now become the viewer’s window at home and through this they are part of the performance.

We, the artist, are no longer required to fill in all the information. Rembrandt showed us in his simple line drawings that as long as you are true to your self and sensitive to your subject the viewer will know what you have drawn. Singing without the benefit of an orchestra can be as hauntingly beautiful as with. An actor holding his hand in a certain way and lifting it to their lips will allow you to believe the glass is there, half full or half empty. Which it is, is up to you.

Sandra Taylor Hedges

The Wall

2011-09-08T10:47:00.000-04:00

Recently Iwas asked to do a commission painting of a seascape of a southern beach from avacation snap that my client provided. The first problem was the photo was not the best view I am sure of thissection of beach, but what can you do. So with some encouraging on my part and a few drawings I convinced themof the wisdom in adding a horizon line and some sky in the distance. That along with a couple of other minoradjustments and we had a composition that I felt would work and they wereexcited about.

This as Idiscovered was the least of my problems. Getting excited about painting it was my real challenge. When we as Creative people engage ourselvesin the process we usually have a catalyst or idea that we are challenged by andwhen we are asked to do something that is old hat to us, we can hit “TheWall”.

You knowwhat “The Wall” is, it is that invisible barrier that comes up and keeps usfrom taking another step forward. Runners experience “The Wall” often on long runs when suddenly eventhough up to this point everything was great it’s as if the air became thickerand their feet have sunk into mud and every muscle screams for them tostop. Experienced runners know that thisis the time to keep pushing because very shortly the energy will return to themand they get a renewed burst of strength.

It is thevery same process for Artists we just need to recognize it and pushforward. When we are in our creativeplace time does not exist, we are focused and full of energy but when we areasked to do something (especially with a time limiting factor added in) that isnot stimulating to our creative self we need to find ways to not hit“The Wall”. How I got myself into the right space to workon the seascape was listen to sounds of the ocean from my computer, and look atlots of photos of beaches that were similar to the one I was going topaint. When that didn’t do it for meanymore I took myself outside into the elements near the water to at least feelthe energy of the water near by and feel like I was on location.

For youdepending on your discipline and the commission you are working on this maylook very different, perhaps playing some music, taking a walk, going to aconcert or play may be what you need to get yourself motivated. The important thing is to not allow your LeftBrain to start pulling up the list of things to do that takes you away fromworking on your commission. That tricky Left Brain is always trying to make usdo practical things that it is good at and keeps it in control. If this happens the next thing you know daysand weeks have passed and now your customer is calling you asking when it willbe ready and you are still stalling.

So take itfrom the long distance runner, do what ever you can to push through “The Wall”because when you come out on the other side of it, you will be brilliant!!

SandraTaylor Hedges

2008-10-31T10:36:00.001-04:00

Preface

Truth

The truth is colour blind;
it does not see man or woman; race or creed;
it is not found exclusively in a particular religion or philosophy yet when spoken the truth resonates deep within your soul.

Ego

The ego is the great liar! It wants you to believe that you are not perfect and that you need to have more but the truth about you is this:
You are not what you have;
You are not what you do;
You are not what people think of you;
You are not separate from everyone else;
You are not separate from what you need to be happy.
You are whole and perfect exactly as you are.
The day you believe this truth
is the day you will the master of your destiny.

The Rules sound so simple and yet they are truly difficult to master.
Why? The answer is as simple as the rules are. We all like to live in a comfort zone. The comfort zone may not even be working for us and in fact cause us a great deal of grief in our life and relationships, but it’s what we are familiar with so we hesitate to change. We resist changing what we are doing simply because we are used to doing it that way and we justify what we are doing by saying that it’s our habit.

It is the nature of Humans to develop habits. Habits are Natures way of keeping us safe, it starts from the time we are tiny babies and realise that if we cry out we will get a reaction. It doesn’t matter if we are hungry, lonely or in pain. We make our need known and we have it met, nothing changes over the lifetime of a Human just the need and the solution to getting that need met.

Along the way we develop an expectation that if we do “X” then “Y’ will occur. Unfortunately the variables of a situation will change or sometimes an individual that we are expecting a reaction in our favour from doesn’t quite respond the way we would like them to.

This is when problems start.

When expectations are not met then the people who are interacting become confused. This confusion can result in one or more of several things.
1. Hostility or anger (This is not fair, what is your problem)
2. Defensive posturing ( It’s not me it’s them)
3. Low self esteem ( It must be me, I’m not worthy )
4. Separation from the situation (leaving, walking away either temporarily or permanently)

Think of a time when you entered into a situation that didn’t go the way you expected it to go. What was your reaction after the first feelings of confusion? When this happened a second or third time, did you say to yourself -
“Maybe this approach isn’t working and I need to change it” or did you say
“I don’t know why I even bother it always turns out this way. I’m just not good at it”? “They don’t understand”

Most of us will fall in to the second option and for a very valid reason.
For a lot of other people this solution to a problem works perfectly fine, so it must be us. If only I was, smarter, taller, shorter, more talented, less controlling, a man, a woman, I would be able to do this and do it well. You become used to failing and come to expect it. You now have developed a “Failure Habit”.

Still confused? Don’t worry you are not alone. Let’s look at the rules one by one and see if it can start to make sense.

Rule #6

2008-10-02T20:23:00.000-04:00

Rule #6 – Creativity needs the company of creativity

Creative Sympathetic Resonance

Have you ever wondered why it is that when you go to an artist’s workshop and spend a day or several days with a group of artists that you find that your abilities seem to skyrocket? Suddenly you find that you are full of ideas and inspiration virtually everything you try comes out golden and even when you make mistakes you instantly seem to know what went wrong and how to fix it. When the workshop is done and you are back in your own space the same brilliance that you had at the workshop seems to leak away with each passing day until you are back to starring around the room looking for something to jump out at you and move you to create.
Conversely have you ever wondered why even though you have the perfect space set up in your home or a studio away from home you find yourself tidying up and organizing the room instead of creating your art? The phone rings and the slightest thing will send you in the opposite direction. You suddenly remember the laundry needs done or you need something at the store for dinner.

The reason for this is simple: Creative Sympathetic Resonance.

What is Creative Sympathetic Resonance? It is simply the science of similar vibrations, or sympathetic vibrations. It is not new age mumbo jumbo but science pure and simple. When objects of a similar or sympathetic vibration are near each other they start to vibrate in strength and harmony together. Piano tuners have taken advantage of this science for centuries. A tuning fork is struck and the cord which is attached the key vibrates all the others stay still. The piano tuner will then adjust the cords until the correct string vibrates at the correct key. It is the same thing with everything in the universe, everything vibrates.
Quantum physics now with the help of the electron microscope can see down to the level of the very molecules that we are made up of and what they found was that at that level everything is vibrating. Each object that they examined vibrated at a different frequency.
So before I put you to sleep with all that science stuff what does that have to do with an artist anyway? Simply put artists vibrate at a similar frequency when they are in a place where they are exercising their right brain or in other words being creative and when we are together that vibration becomes stronger. The stronger the vibration the more freely the creative energy flows through you and around you. The more freely the energy flows the better your art.
It is for this reason that when you are painting with other artists whether outdoors or in your studio you feel more in tune with that part of you that is driven to create. The longer you are in the vibration the stronger the energy comes to and through you the stronger the energy the better your art.
So don’t create your art alone! Don’t believe the crap your ego is telling you that you need solitude to do your best work or working with other artists is distracting because it is just that, crap! Your ego is not always your friend remember Rules #2, 3 and 4!
If you want your skills to soar then call up your painting buddies, put a pot of tea on, get as many creative souls as you can squeeze in your space and start making art!

Excerpt from: The Rules for Painting & Life
By
Sandra Taylor/Hedges

2008-09-20T16:00:00.001-04:00

Dear Readers,

For years I have been teaching art classes to both novice and seasoned artists. During that time I have seen a pattern form in the evolution of each artist and although it started as a list more tongue in cheek than serious I soon found that the "Rules" for my painting classes became a standard of teaching that each of my students clung to. So by popular demand I am now putting the rules to paper and explaining the reasoning behind each of them.
Over the next couple of months I will be looking at each of the rules in further detail but not always in any particular order so stay tuned to this blog for more details. I invite your questions and comments as we discover the art of what works and what doesn't.

Rules for Painting…
and life

1. There are No Rules (Just really good advice)
To quote Monet, “I neglect the rules of painting in order to paint what I feel”

2. If it works, Keep Doing it

3. If it’s not working, Stop Doing it !!!!

4. Get a Second opinion
But only from someone you trust to tell the truth

5. Knowledge doesn’t guarantee results
The secret is make your art, good, bad or indifferent make it!

6. Creativity needs the company of creativity
Feed your need to talk about and make art with other people who need to talk about
and make art. Experience the phenomenon of symbiotic creative resonance.

7. Challenge yourself, and you will grow
Take a step outside your comfort zone!

8. Creativity needs exercise daily

9. If you think you know it all, sorry you don’t!
Every day of your life there is something new to learn.
There is no age limit on acquiring new skills or knowledge.

10. Believe in your dreams!!

Sandra Taylor/Hedges
Copyright 2006 by Artist S. Taylor