In Conclusion, The End Of The Book

     I finished reading The War of Art by Steven Pressman.  It is such an excellent read, I highly recommend it for anyone who is or wants be creative.  I think it should be on book lists for art students everywhere.  I must say, the style is easy to read, he gets to the point and delivers the message clearly.  The message is pretty powerful, too.  When I read traditional books, I tend to give into the temptation of leaf through the pages at the end, because I can hardly wait to get there.  I read this on an e-reader, which is new for me, and with this you have to click, click, click to get to where you want to be, and without a book mark to place anywhere, I didn't dare venture off of my page, so I read every page in order, and then finally found myself completely done!
     In essence, to be an artist is to tap into your soul, create what your soul wants and not be concerned with what the world thinks or wants.  Also, that our soul is connected to a higher spiritual plane, and we will be full filling our purpose for being here.  Mr Pressman's final thought is: "Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor.  It's a gift to the world and every being in it.  Don't cheat us out of your contribution.  Give us what you've got."
     All I can say is, "wow"!  I may have to get back into this book to re-read parts, but I feel there is great value in what I have learned.  My only hope is that day by day, I remember these thoughts and that day by day I do something that brings me to my goal of creating art more present in my life.  There will always be the conflict of what the world wants from me and what my soul wants from me, but I have to find a way to bring my soul more present in my life. He did touch upon reinvention of ourselves and shedding the old skin. I found that amazing, since the theme of this blog is the reinvention of myself, to be the person I was intended to be all along. Thanks for sharing my journey, I will let you know the steps I take along the way.

Professionalism , Art and Love

     Continuing with my subject of  The War of Art, a book I cannot put down, Steven Pressfield has a chapter entitled "For Love of the Game" where he touches on professionalism.  He wrote: "To clarify a point about professionalism: The professional, though he accepts money, does his work out of love.  He has to love it.  Otherwise he wouldn't devote his life to it of his own free will."
     This reading brings my thoughts back to The Woodstock School of Art where my teacher, Chinese master painter HongNian Zhang, explained to us that we should paint what we love.  When he was away in China, his wife Lois Woolley taught the class alone and our model set up was a chef chopping up food.  When he returned and saw our subject posing, he was pleased and said, "Look at this.  This is love".
     I believe I had a hard time understanding this at first, along with his asking what was the "story" of my painting (as I had my apple girl dangling in the middle of a blank canvas, story? what? I have to think up a story, too?), and, "what are you talking about?", as I would be putting detail in a particular area (probably the wrong one, too).  But, as I am learning more, and becoming wiser, I realize love in our work is crucial to get the results we are looking for.  I've said it before in my blog, that I know when my art is going right because I fall in love with it.  I must remember to keep love in my art, when I choose my subject, when I create my story theme and as I create.

The Spencer Fair Art Exhibit

     After arriving home from work yesterday, I was off  to the Spencer Fair to submit my three pieces of art work for the exhibition.  I was so excited.  I lovingly and carefully checked the glass for smears, the frames for dust and then carefully wrapped them in cloth and off I went!  As I passed the fairgrounds, I felt a thrill as I saw the ferries wheel and the carousel set up, bringing back so many memories of fairs gone by.
      In the exhibit hall I needed to obtain my number which is needed to claim my artwork back at the end, then I went off to the table to write my labels for each piece.  I was so excited, I was all thumbs!  Next to me was a man who brought his photographs to show and he was doing this process for the first time.  I glanced at his work, and saw he did beautiful close up shots of his wife's garden and there was this huge white spider on a flower!  The hair stood up on the top of my head and I got goose bumps all over!  What a picture!
     I then brought them to the tables where my work was placed last year, and I only saw one other painting.  Realizing there was one more hour to submit art, I thought, where are the artists??  Have they all gone professional? I saw there was big response to photographs, they had large plastic bins filled with photos, all sorted by categories.  I walked away, looking back at my art work hanging up, waiting to be judged, wanting to be loved.  It was an empty feeling leaving them behind, kind of like when you drop off you child at school for the very first time and you walk away leaving them.  Wish me luck!  Please feel free to check the Spencer Fair website to the right in this blog and see what we do here.

Amateur VS Professional

     My latest reading in The War of Art by Steven Pressfield including a discussion of what is an amateur and what is a professional.  This is really good food for thought, when do you know what you have taken that turn to become professional?  I am about to submit my pieces of artwork at the Spencer Fair tonight for consideration of prizes and ribbons.  When I worked on framing this past weekend, I pulled out the book with the rules of the contest and the title of the page is written: "Adult Domestic Arts & Crafts for Amateurs".  I had not noticed this before and my thought was "how does the fair define the word amateur?"   Maybe there has to be a certain fame associated with your art form and name.  Maybe you are selling and making money.  Now that I am thinking about it, I scanned the book cover to cover and did not see a definition of what is an amateur.  I guess it is believed that if you're an amateur, you know who you are"!
     Steven Pressfield states this: "The amateur plays for fun. The professional plays for keeps."  "To the amateur, the game is his avocation. To the pro it's his vocation."  "The amateur plays part-time, the professional full-time."  "The amateur is a weekend warrior. The professional is there seven days a week."  "The professional loves it so much he dedicates his life to it. He commits full-time."
     This is all wonderful food for thought.  My dream is to be able to do my art all the time, to wake up in the morning and get going painting, drawing, creating, whatever it is, all day long.  That day will come, and for my faithful readers, you will watch my process and see this come to fruition.  I long for the day when the only things I can submit in the Spencer Fair are my baked goods, my canned jellies or jams or my hand knit sweaters, because I will be known for my art work and I will be a professional artist!

Combating Resistance

     I am truly enjoying the War of Art.  Steven Pressfield writes in short, direct paragraphs and covers a multitude of (sins) information regarding resistance.  I even experienced it this morning when thinking about blogging.  Something in my head reminded me I have to leave the house half an hour early to drive to my work 35 miles away half an hour early, "do I really have time to blog? Missing one day is all right, no one will know."  As soon as I thought that, I got right up and sat down at my trusty laptop and here I am, keeping my promise!
     I have just touched upon the topic combating resistance, but I am already feeling liberated.  I love this first quote: "It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior's life" by Telamon of Arcadia, mercenary of the 5th century BC.  I love this too: "The moment an artist turns pro is as epochal as the birth of his first child.  With one stroke, everything changes.  I can state absolutely that the term of my life can be divided into two parts: before turning pro, and after." (Steven Pressfield)
     This is reminding me of Lucy, a fellow art student I met at The Woodstock School of Art.  We were side by side painting the same models, we struggled over the same colors or the same form, we joked, we laughed.  I was there to witness her first art show of her beautiful oil paintings.  She was at a bank in Saugerties, NY, and when you entered the bank, which was conducting business, there she was with her husband and children around her helping, a table of refreshments set up and her paintings all over the bank, and she was selling them a I was there looking at them!  Her story was wonderful. She had started oil painting 3 years before and always remembered her first teacher telling her to paint every day, and paint she did.  That was her secret.  HongNian Zhang instructed me to draw everyday.
     I must listen to those wiser than me and put on my warrior armor and conquer my own resistance!  At the end of this writing, I want you to realize that by doing this I am combating my resistance to sit here, believing that I did not have the time to blog, and I am going to report that I am leaving for work in 15 minutes, which proves to myself that, yes, indeed, I did have time to blog.  I was only fooling myself!!

"Procrastination is the Theft of Time", Edward Young, British Poet

     As I continue with my reading of the War Of Art by Steven Pressfield, I am gaining insight into what resistance is, and procrastination is one of the indications.  I have heard this phrase my whole life about procrastination being the theft of time.  Since I am thinking about this phrase now, I looked it up on the internet and discovered the author was British poet Edward Young.  There, I also found other wise sayings he had and I want to read more about him.  I have a feeling that he was a creator who resisted resistance and movement forward with this art, and accomplished what he dreamed about.  I also always  heard the phrase not to put off until tomorrow what you can do today.  A long time ago I use to ponder these thoughts, but only briefly.
     When I was young, I would put off anything that seemed unpleasant, even though it was necessary or required, like a big homework project for school.  I would get to the library on Saturday, park myself there as long as possible, photocopy as much information as possible, take it all home (no, there were no computers!) and just spend the rest of the weekend putting it all together.  I had made this my practice and actually prided myself to have mastered my procrastination since I always came through, and, after all, no one knew that I did this, the teacher only knew that the project was completed on time.  As an adult, I have mastered leaving my house and getting most places on time, by the skin of my teeth sometimes, though.  I have timed myself going from this point to that point and when I can leave the house. It does create for stressfulness as I keep checking the time.  I do realized it is best to leave early to prepare for the delays and to have less stress.
     When I think about my art, I do realize that I did not procrastinate on my art or creativity as a child, I would fill my time with all of the things I loved to do, maybe that is why I procrastinated on big school project.  But, as an adult, I seem to procrastinate with my art, which actually disturbs me very much, since I am always looking at my world in terms of colors, palette, composition, design and ideas for future masterpieces.  I would like to report that I did accomplish my goal yesterday of framing my art work for the Spencer Fair, so now I am ready to submit my work, and I will not be scrambling at the last moment to put it all together and arrive breathless as the last bell gongs.  As you all can see, I have kept my promise to blog.  Also, I am going to work now and since I am aware that a hurricane passed through yesterday, I need to leave extra early in order to accommodate any slow traffic from workers out there cleaning up the mess left behind.  I am a work in progress, and, at my age, I am still learning, still needing to be reminded of things, still striving for improvement.  My art is very important to me, I am going to come up with a plan to put this more in the front of what I need to do.  Any one else have a problem with procrastination?

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

     It has been a long time since I blogged!  "What happened?", you ask.  I will tell you that "life happened", I work full time, I have home responsibilities, I need to sleep 8 hours at night, I need to watch my favorite shows on TV, I must see who is being eliminated on various reality series, I need to sit down and pay my bills, the list will go on and on.  I check my blog faithfully, I check my STATS to see how many people read and from where in the world. For this, I will say "thank you" to all of you who return just to check to see if I posted any more art or wrote, and to the new people who just happen to find my blog. I sincerely hope that it is enjoyed by all.  I will think to myself, "I need to write, but I haven't been able to do any art, what will I talk about, my "block"?", then I will think I never finished telling about the artists I met on the cruise in the spring, and then I close down my blog, just to open it up the next day and go through the same scenerio.
     I decided today is the end of not blogging!!!  I give credit to the book The War of Art, Winning the Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield.  I found this book online yesterday, I manged to get it transferred to my e-reader (yes, all by myself, since I am not technologically savi).  I just began reading it today, this morning, as I am hunkered down in my house listening to the pouring rain as Hurricane Irene comes our way north.  The first topic is resistance, which is rooted in fear, and starts in our inner being.  I decided, at this point in my reading, to stop and blog, as a gesture of fighting my resistance, even if all I have to talk about is why I haven't been blogging.  He explains that once you conquer resistance, then you free creativity.
      My hope is to be sure I blog regularly, be sure I have been creating in some fashion, and keep my eye on the prize.  I will share what I am learning and how I plan to apply it to my art.  I will say that today's assignment will be to get my art work framed and ready to submit to the Spencer Fair again. I will not say what I am doing because the judging is anonymous and I do not want to leak out what I am submitting, I will only say that I will, again, be competing with myself, something that makes me chuckle inside!  Thanks for reading.  Anyone in the path of the hurricane, stay inside and stay safe. To everyone else, have a nice day.