Today I want to raise a question, is any graffiti art? I don't know if this story made national news or not, but here in Pittsburgh our number one graffiti artist "Mook" in believe, has been arrested. They plain on charging him with over $300,000.00 in restitution, fines, and possibly going to jail for the rest of his life. The majority of his "work" I would have to say is vandalism. Walking around with a can of spray paint and spraying some little "ditty" on someones home is uncalled for.Now having said that, what if we have a building that has been demolished and we [...]

Today I want to talk about something all serious artists need, a good support team. One of the first things people are taught when they want to reach a goal is that they can't do it themselves, art is no exception. If I were to go back in time I would have to say the two earliest members of my support team would be my teacher "Miss B." and my mother. If it wasn't for these two women I don't know if I would have pursued art the way I did. My mother kept paying for lessons as my teacher told her that it wouldn't [...]

Today I thought I would share with you the story on how I acquired my power wood working equipment. You know if you have followed my blog long enough, my early days of framing my paintings so I won't go over that again in detail other then saying that I had a picture frame "chop shop" where I would get a larger frame at a thrift store and chop it down to the size of my painting using a miter box and back saw. I was able to get the job done but found it hard on my arms and hands when doing more [...]

Today I thought I would share my thoughts on having enough space as an artist to get your artwork done in. I myself live in a one bedroom apartment so guess what the bedroom is used for? yes, the studio, and it was planned that way from the day I moved in. If you are wondering where I sleep, I have a sleeper sofa in the living area. This small room 10' x 11', has been able to meet all my needs from day one. I have my computer and printer, my easel of course, the "art library" I talked about on Monday, [...]

Today I thought I'd share with you something that is near to my heart, my "art library". Yes, over the years as an artist the books you buy add up and before you know it, you have your own library! As many of you know, I took oil painting lessons as a young man and anything else that I learned about art either came from a reference book, or from the internet. I have books on painting certain subject matter and others on certain techniques. One of my favorites is "Brushwork Essentials" by Mark Christopher Weber which covers just about anything [...]

Today I thought I would go over a concept that most artists are taught about at some point and that is creating your own "art community" The Idea is pretty basic, instead of thinking about the art world as a whole you go about trying to create your own following. That is the reason most artists have a blog and now like myself offer a newsletter. You want to tell people what you are doing in the studio and take a genuine interest in them as well. I feel that not only is it a friendly way of doing business but the right [...]

Today I thought I would be a little "interactive" with all of you and ask you for your thoughts on two basic questions, what is art, and how much is it worth? When it comes to art, no two people have the same opinions. Art is truly up to the eye of the beholder so they say. Having said that, I'll start with mine. Number one I think at the minimum, if it stops you and you find yourself staring at it, it just might be art. You don't know why but you see "something about something" that gets your attention. I think this is [...]

This past Saturday like most since August 2006, I worked on my mural commission. It looks like I have some more details on the "iron sofa" in the front, the lettering, and final revisions to go. I never thought it would have taken this long but I have stuck with it from day one. I have mentioned it here in the blog in the past and more recently my newsletter. I have learned so much and of course improved my techniques. Any of you "I can't even draw a straight line" people out there? Do a project like this for a year and a half of [...]

On Wednesday I went over some of the health benefits that I found as an artist so today I thought I would go over some of the hazards as well. To thin the oil paint either to clean it off your brushes or to make it easier to spread, requires a solvent of some sort. Some of these are more harmful then others with turpentine at the top of the list. Not to many oil painters use genuine "pine" turpentine any more including myself. It's a shame because that is the "smell" associated with an oil painters studio. That leaves you with either odorless thinner [...]

Today I want to share with you some of the things about being an artist that maintain and possibly over time improve your health. The first one will be a familiar feeling to those out there that practice meditation. About 20 minutes into a painting session, your heart rate drops and your breathing becomes very relaxed. Not only that but any tension in your upper body seems to go away as well. You could almost say that painting is meditation in a way. The mental benefits are obvious as an artist has the ability to create any imagery that they feel to [...]

I don't know about the coming part, I just felt it was a great title for the post, but I do plan on building my own painting "taboret" in the near future. I planned it to fit my needs and desires. There are some nice ones out there on the market but they cost a good bit, and have things that you won't use and/or have things in a poor location based on how you work. I've been using two plastic tables with shelves and wheels that I got years ago at K-mart, and they have served me well. The main upgrade that I [...]

As many of you know by now, I recently made some changes in my life and it looks like they are paying off. I moved my "required" painting time to the morning before going to work, and my business efforts to the evening. I did this along with some diet changes to make it easier to produce my artwork and to keep my energy level as high as possible. I work a very stressful day job and I needed to do something to avoid becoming a couch potato upon arriving home from work. I found that painting before work "conditions" me for [...]