Fridge painting is done

I finished my painting Admiral Duplex on Saturday. It took more work than expected - a lot of hours went into the various bottles, plates etc.
I used an entire roll of masking tape on this one. I wanted a crisp look for the edges.

Edison

Thomas Edison was a hero of mine when I was growing up in our mutual home state of New Jersey. I loved reading biographies about him. I also loved the inspiring quote below (which I discovered today that I have mis-remembered):

Edison was asked about inventing the light bulb. He had tried 10,000 different materials that didn't work, before finally finding one that did.
Edison responded, "I haven't failed 10,000 times; the light bulb was an invention with 10,001 steps."

I believe this philosophy can be applied to painting. Don't overly concern yourself with any individual painting. Just get the painting out the door. Later you will look back and see that each painting was an essential step in getting you to the point you eventually reach as a painter.

Here is the exact quote, by the way.

Motivation

I think that motivation to paint can be a problem for some artists. Staying motivated can be particularly sticky if you are very attached to external reactions. For example, if you paint primarily to show the painting to a particular person(s), you will probably find your motivation being very unreliable and you may even become de-motivated based on how the person reacts.
The same thing can happen if your motivation is attached to sales or competitions. Make a sale or get into a show and you are motivated; a lapse in sales or shows and you are discouraged and dispirited.
I think the best motivation is simply to create paintings. My motivation revolves around getting the current painting into existence.

Acrylic vs. oil

Since I am nearing completion of an acryilic painting after painting with oil for a while, I wanted to make a comparison table.

Acrylic	Oil
Great for flat solid areas	Great for smooth blending
Flat, "plasticy" look	"Creamy" look
Completely non-toxic	Can start getting toxic with all of the solvents, cadmium, cobalt, etc.
Requires multiple coats to cover fully	Covers decently
Paint flows well	Paint is somewhat "sticky"
Paint is easy to modify with various additives	Oil and solvents can be added to modify paint
Dries within 90 seconds on the pallete	Stays wet for over a day
Better if the subject your are painting has a wide variety of color areas	Better if the subject is a single color

Painting is like Xmas shopping

Merry Xmas yall!
I recently bought gifts for my mom and her husband Bob. Every year this involves hours of web research, looking up various topics I assume they like, and then mulling over each potential gift trying to determine if it has the specific elements that they will react to. (Did I mention that I'm a perfectionist?)
This process is actually exactly like what painting is like for me. I do hours of work trying to get pictures that I hope viewers will emotionally react to. It's actually quite difficult because I have never met the potential viewer and must brainstorm what they could possibly like.

Painting is 90% casting

There is a saying in Hollywood that 90% of the success of a movie is a due to casting - who's in it. I believe that that the same is true about my paintings - 90% of the popularity of a given painting seems to due to the subject I choose.
I used to think that technique, colors, composition, etc. were what make a painting a "hit" - however now I feel like, once I have decided to paint "X" item, the painting's fate is about 90% decided.

Painting in progress

I thought it might be cool to show what it looks like when I'm working on a painting. Here is my painting table while painting "Admiral Duplex", a picture of a refrigerator. There is still a decent amount of work left - there is a lot of detail with the food items.
Click on the picture for a larger view.

Are you good?

If you're an artist, do you ever wonder if you're any "good"? Well, according to an article I read a while ago, the fact that you're wondering about your abilities probably indicates that you're at least competent. According to studies, people who are bad at a skill often think they're very talented and "good".
So, keep on wondering!

Anybody could've painted that

My friend Tony (star of my painting Tony is an engineer!) has a Monet poster in his house. A while ago we were standing in front of it and talking about the art world. Tony remarked that although the painting is a famous Monet, really "Anybody could've painted that." I actually agreed, looking at that 1 painting. If this painting wasn't "a Monet", and was submitted to a competition or show, it would probably be ignored.
I thought the same thing when recently viewing some Monets in person at the Barnes Foundation. The paintings have sort of aquired a magical mystique, but when you look at any individual painting, you do think, "Anybody could've painted that."

New American Paintings results

I noticed that several people have been searching for the results of the New American Paintings competition, and have found my blog. Like you, I am awaiting the results, which I hope will be out soon. While we wait, here is some info that I have learned from being in the magazine previously:

The results are mailed out around December 12th. *** Update: I got the following email from N.A.P on 1/4/07:

We expect to begin sending out notifications early next week.

Best,

--
Jessica Fortin
Open Studios Press
617-778-5265

If you are accepted, you get forms for you to fill out, etc. They ask you to send them 6 additional pictures, so that they have a total of 10 to choose from for the magazine.

If you are not accepted, you get a simple letter telling you "sorry".

There is a third option, which happened to me last year - if you are an "alternate", they will keep your slides until around February 8th; you are kind of like a runner-up in the Miss America pageant - should one of the other artists be unable to perform her duties...

What you intended

The book Art and Fear has a fascinating section that talks about what happens when you view one of your recently completed paintings. It says you recieve "uncomfortable feedback" concerning how you couldn't get the painting to turn out like you wanted.
I think you know you're getting better as an artist when your finished paintings look more and more like you intended, and you don't feel sort of like you have to explain to people, "Well, actually I was trying to go for..."

A painting a day

I was searching around the web yesterday for ideas about how to make a living as a painter. I happened upon a "job" some artists have where they continously paint small paintings, and sell them on eBay for about $100 each. I especially liked this guy - Justin Clayton

There is a whole "society" of these "daily painters" -
check it out. I was surprised how much I really like these paintings.

So, it looks like these guys make around $40,000 a year, and about $20/hour. Interesting. I'm not sure if it would be right for me...

a "daily painting" by Justin Clayton

The house, the museum, the ribbon, the heart and the dollar sign

I went to an art seminar a few months ago, and one of the speakers told us about a interesting concept. She said that art can be classified by 5 icons - the house, the museum, the ribbon, the heart and the dollar sign.

- the house. This is the type of art that people like to hang in their house, as decoration.

- the museum. This type of art is shown in museums.

- the ribbon. This art wins awards - juried shows, competitions, etc.

- the heart. This art is loved by people and considered their favorite.

- the dollar sign. This art sells for a lot of money.


I think this "icon" system is fascinating. Note how art that excels in one area is often unsuccessful in another - for example:

the paintings that a typical person has on their walls (such as Thomas Kinkade) will never be shown in a museum.

Art that is people's favorite often isn't very expensive.

I think an artist has to think about which type of art he wants to produce - is your goal to get into museums? Then you probably won't be selling every painting. Is your goal to make a living? Then your paintings probably won't win juried shows.

Next painting started

I thought I'd take a break from all my recent art-philosophy posts and talk about what I'm currently working on. A couple of days ago I started my latest painting, which is a picture of an open refrigerator. It is 12x12", acrylic on panel. I haven't used acrylic for a while and I am liking its ease of use.
I am on vacation all next week and hopefully I will be able to finish the painting. The pic is pretty simple and doesn't have a lot of shading. It does however have a much larger number of hues than I usually use - I usually try to limit the hues so that the painting has a "unified" feel. However, this painting might benefit from having a lot of hues because I am trying to give a sort of "overwhelming" feel from all the different food items in the fridge.

Not art

In the movie Art School Confidential, the main character has a goal to become "the greatest artist of the 21st century". However, his drawings are extremely traditional portraits of pretty girls.

I was thinking about this, and I realized - very few of the painters considered "important" in the last century painted anything traditional. In fact, what many of the "important" artists created was not even considered art at the time. The public at the time looked at these paintings and said "What?? That's not art - art has to have a subject, can't be copied from a photo, has to be of high craftmanship, etc."

Here are a few examples of art that was not considered art when it first came out:

Abstract art

Action painting

Cubism

Expressionism

Impressionism

Lowbrow

Minimalism

Photorealism

Pop Art

1 in 100

In the movie Art School Confidential, one of the professors tells his class that only 1 out of 100 of them will eventually make a living as an artist. This is also mentioned in the book A Life in the Arts, which says that 90 percent of artists earn less than $5,000 a year.

Am I currently the 1 out of 100? Nope.
I think that to have a continuous cash flow, your art must be:

decorative

attractive

simple

the kind of art which the average person can picture sitting on his wall for years

repeatable/ repetitive. This gives the buyers a "catalog" of various paintings to pick from.

My paintings do not meet the above criteria!

"A machine could've done that"

Welcome to the first of what is sure to be many posts insipred by my recent viewing of Art School Confidential.

The film's main character is Jerome. He's an artist whose drawings are what probably 98% of America considers impressive and considers "art" - pictures of people which are realistic, accurate to reality, and attractive.

In the film, there is a scene where a class is critiquing each other's self-portaits. There are a wide variety of styles, from abstract to even word-art. One of the students attacks Jerome's drawing, saying something like, "Look at yours, Jerome! A machine could've done that!" The self-portrait that the class prefers is an abstract expressionist drawing which consists of a series of lines.

This scene perfectly demonstrates the difference between what the average person admires and what is truly creative and expressive. I picture Jerome being heavily praised his entire life, by "average" people, for producing these accurate drawings. Now that he is among other artists, his art looks almost ridiculous by comparision. The student that criticized him is correct - a machine could have produced his drawing. Why do we even need an artist?

Art School Confidential

I saw the movie Art School Confidential a couple of days ago on cable. I did not go to art school myself, but I have been waiting to see this movie for a long time. It was quite thought-provoking and brought up a lot of issues about the art world, what it means to be an artist, what success is, etc. I will definately have lots of blogging material for many days to come!

More on fame

Here is a thought I had recently: if you want to be a famous artist, the average, Walmart-going, sitcom-watching American must like your art. This may sound "weird" at first, but when you are famous, by definition, a lot of people like your work. However, there simply aren't enough "highbrow", arty types in the country to make you famous - you'd just be a "niche".

How to become a famous artist, part 2

I have been thinking about it, and here is my opinion about how someone becomes a famous artist.

The person has a simple, understandable, new, unique concept that appeals to a large number of people, and he has a decent level of technical skill.

The person begins making a number of artworks.

The person catches the eye of someone in the art world.

The art world figure validates the artist and introduces him to the world.

Because the art has a broad basic appeal and is easy to "get into", many of the people who encounter it like it.

Soon the artist is famous.

Examples: Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko