It's Monday morning and I'm getting things together in the studio including todays blog post. As you know if you read Fridays post, I'm back to writing my own "material" if you will. I felt I covered alot of information from others and that it was time to put the focus back into my artwork. It feels good already to have my "writers cap" back on. This weekend I concentrated on my "superbike" commission where things are coming together nicely. I started some of the detail work on the helmet and most of the uniform has been outlined with color. The whole key to this [...]

Today I have something new for you, my own writing! Yes I decided that I covered more than enough art related information over the past few months, exposing you to other artists view points and opinions that I need to again put the focus back to what I'm doing in my own studio. I'm glad that doing that has given anyone who comes across my blog an excellent art information resource but at the same time it needs to once again be more about what I'm doing with my own artwork. I do want to thank those who did leave comments and encourage you to keep [...]

Today I have for you an article that I hope inspires some people out there who read artist blogs and look at artwork all the time often wondering if maybe they should be an artist themselves. Laura Thykeson shares with us the belief that maybe everyone starts out as an artist, but what I like is that she has now given me the perfect thing to say to someone who says "I can't even draw a straight line". "I firmly believe that all people are born artists. Everyone can remember how, as children, we all loved drawing, finger-painting, etc. The wonderful thing was, [...]

It's Monday morning again, the first Monday of spring and people will start getting their homes and yards in shape for the nice weather soon. Today I have for you an article by Gabriel Adams that gives you some ideas for adding artwork to your home. I love how she recommends learning as much about the painting and the artist as you can, it just goes hand and hand with a good artist and collector relationship for live. "If you want to decorate your house properly, then you should consider buying some paintings to put up. Don’t buy photocopies of famous works – there are plenty [...]

Today I have something for you that I think you will like. Here is a listing of the top 20 museums in the world. I myself knew of some of them, but what I didn't know was how many people visted them. I never knew it was that many! Thats a good thing to see, tons of people still wanting to see great artwork. "The Art Newspaper has released their annual list of the most popular art museums in the world, with the Louvre in Paris coming in first place with an estimated 8,300,000 visitors. The most popular exhibition was at the Tokyo [...]

Today I have something I came across that isn't directly art related but still brings to light a possible reason you come across people that still just don't get it when you talk to them about art. In this article from the New York Times, Patricia Cohen tells us about Susan Jacoby's new book "The Age of American Unreason". I think you will enjoy this one. "A popular video on YouTube shows Kellie Pickler, the adorable platinum blonde from “American Idol,” appearing on the Fox game show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” during celebrity week. Selected from a third-grade geography curriculum, the $25,000 question [...]

Today I have for you an article done by Barney Davey from Art Print Issues. This was the result of an interview he had with artist Milton Glaser in 2001 who gave him a list of 10 things he has learned about art. I agree with Barney, this list is just as real today as it was then. 1 YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE. This is a curious rule and it took me a long time to learn because in fact at the beginning of my practice I felt the opposite. Professionalism required that you didn’t particularly like the people that you worked for [...]

Today I have an article by Emily Jones on how art and culture go hand and hand together. I've believed this myself for a long time now and I'm glad that a talented writer like Emily was there to put it all in words. "The origin of the word "art" can be traced back to the old English "thou art" which means "you are". Again, art as in "fine arts" owes its root to the Latin "ars" or "artis". However, in comparison to the dual meanings in which we may express the word, the second meaning has remained unchanged with the process of time. [...]

Today I have something for you that has been around since man first started creating. After people started experimenting to find something different from other people the question was born, "yes, but is it art?" I have an article by Sandy Cosser that sheds some light on those artists who dare to be different as they put their work out there for the public to pass judgement on. The other really neat thing is that she mentions "The Duct Tape Guys" website that I mentioned in my "Wacky Links" area of my newsletter a few weeks ago. "The essence of art is that it's a [...]

Monday morning is here again and I'm happy to say that sometimes "old school" still works in this ultra technical world we live in. I wasn't able to work on my mural this weekend due to my car not starting. To make a long story short, it wasn't the battery but the starter and the old "hit the starter with a hammer" trick worked. I still need a new starter, but at least I don't need towed. Anyway as for art related matters, I thought I would share with you an article by Beau Smith on art and consciousness, enjoy! "What [...]