When I wrote the art book Sky’s the Limit, I spent hours interviewing the gifted artist, Nancy Cawdrey. I adore Nancy’s work and I’m inspired by her artistic process. She emphasized to me how much training she’d had. But the women of Gee’s Bend blow the idea that artists need extensive training out of the [ Read more … ]
artist
“Art doesn’t come in measured quantities. It’s got to be too much or it’s not enough.”
“Art doesn’t come in measured quantities. It’s got to be too much or it’s not enough.” ~ Pauline Kael I work with many clients who have big energy. They worry about being ‘too much.’ They want to be nice and fit in. But artists can’t live from a place of ‘fitting in.’ That’s not what [ Read more … ]
Artists engage in a process that lets them touch Something that’s alive.
Artists engage in a process that lets them touch Something that’s alive. Joseph Campbell said, “The way of the artist and the way of the mystic are very much alike, except the mystic does not have a craft.” The creative process allows us to have a conversation with Something greater than ourselves. It puts us in [ Read more … ]
Do you think like an artist?
The physicist Arthur Zajonc says that our culture needs the artist’s cognitive capacities. But what is it that poets and artists do that take them beyond ordinary capacities of knowing? Perhaps it’s the artist’s willingness to be confused, welcoming any unlikely connection that shows up; or his or her sensitivity to nuance and qualities [ Read more … ]
Art has to be too much, or it’s not enough.
I work with so many clients who have ‘big energy.’ They worry about being ‘too much,’ they want to be nice and fit in. But artists are people who can’t live in that place of ‘fitting in’…that’s not what they’re ABOUT. Their GIFT is to be TOO MUCH. I’m reminded of something the film critic [ Read more … ]
