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Hello everyone, Happy Holidays! Wherever you are, whether you celebrate the season or not, I want to extend my heart-felt gratitude to you for being here with me. It is so appreciated. Thank you for being a huge part of my creative community. It is always around this time of year that I like to reflect back, acknowledge what I have created for myself, and note the insights I have gained. This process of reflection is a ritual that I love to engage with each year, and I think it is especially important for us now, as we continue to face so many changes and challenges in our lives. “Look for the helpers” is something a wise friend once said to me when I was struggling. The helpers are always there, and when we stop and reflect we notice all the ways we were supported and helped. This year I am so keenly aware of my supportive helpers – and that includes YOU, my subscribers, my followers, my creative community. You bring me back to my deepest purpose at those times when I might otherwise feel adrift. It seems one of our most precious commodities these days is our time, and when you spend time with my newsletter, drop me a note of gratitude, I am so appreciative. I hope my newsletters, and all the content I share, offers you inspiration and support for your artist’s mindset. For the year ahead, I wish you abundant peace and creativity. This month my blog was prompted by an awareness of the weight of self-imposed expectations. I hope it helps you to consider how you’re meeting yourself as you travel along your creative growth path. I am also over-the-top thrilled at the reception to the launch of my 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge Course. Thank you so much! If you’re curious about the course, scroll down for more info. And just a reminder that my monthly blog post is also offered as an audio recording, allowing you to listen rather than read. To listen to the recording just click on the READ MORE OR LISTEN button in the ‘FROM THE BLOG’ section of this newsletter and you’ll find the MP3 file on my website at the bottom of my written post. If you have any feedback for me, I always love hearing from you. Thank you for reading and sharing this newsletter…it truly is appreciated. PS: For those of you that are new subscribers I have included a link to find previous issues of this newsletter – full of additional resources for you!
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EXPECTATIONS ON THE WAY TO BECOMING
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“An artist cannot fail. It’s a success just to be one.” – Charles Horton Cooley
For every artist there is a sensing, a knowing, that they have something to express. Some from a very early age, and others come to realize this much later in life. Either way, no matter when an artist claims that title for themselves, there is a good chance they have been thinking and observing the world as an artist would. They may just not have realized that it was something unique and rooted in an artist’s sensibility. But it has always been there.
The fact is, no matter when we decide to start making our creative work, and commit to that path, we have always been an artist. An artist isn’t simply defined by their output, but more in how they think, interact, and move through the world. What they notice, consider and in how they deeply observe the nature of things. Robert Motherwell once said that all artists are voyeurs – watching others and the out-workings of the world with deep interest. I think this is quite a comforting thought, and one that when offered to many of my clients, allows them to lean in a little more to the belief that realizing their artist’s vision is possible. They come to know that they don’t have to prove it to themselves any longer, even if they may still feel they need to prove it to others. In time that need also diminishes, as they stand strongly in their own authority and position. No artist should ever have to prove to anyone something so innate and integral to their wellbeing. However, the challenge that many artists face is the weight of others' expectations alongside their own. Somehow many of us believe that realizing a creative vision, or finding our artist’s voice, is something that should come more quickly for us. This feels inextricably linked to the expectations that are ill-placed and loaded on before we even had the opportunity for true growth and development of our craft. I remember graduating from a three year arts program full of vigour and assumptions, ready to launch my art career. I had been an artist my whole life, but hadn’t committed to working as one, or even really exploring the subject of art-making to the depth that is required for an artist to truly blossom. There was just a knowing that I was one, and a deep longing to realize on that feeling. I was always creative, but only dipped my toe in art-making, and as a result my skills were underdeveloped and my critical thinking was not formed.
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INSPIRATION FOR YOUR ARTIST’S MINDSET
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JR : PAPER AND GLUE Artist JR claims the world as his canvas. He creates large format photographic collages and his technique allows him to show his work on walls everywhere. He is seldom prevented from making his work – after all he is just gluing paper images to wall surfaces, many of which are in stages of decay or defacement. He is also completely comfortable with the impermanence of his work, as it deteriorates or is washed off days later. JR doesn’t charge for this work, and he has a particular passion for connecting communities and giving voice to those that are often overlooked and marginalized. By involving community members in the installation process, he offers them an opportunity to be makers of the work itself, allowing them to become co-creators in the transformation. JR uses art as a method to invite curiosity and engagement. In an interview he stated that it is “...because of the excuse of art, one listens to the other…” This recently aired, long-play MSNBC documentary called ‘Paper and Glue’ captured my attention and heart. I think we are profoundly in need of hope right now – the possibility of transformation, healing, and connection. This film exemplifies how art can do that, as only art can – expanding horizons, opening us up, touching our hearts and minds – all while speaking to difficult topics that are often highly charged in other modalities of exchange. This is what you, as an artist, are connected to…the transformational and healing power of art. I hope this film reminds you of your deepest purpose as an artist and fills your heart with possibilities.
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WAYNE THIEBAUD : IN HONOUR OF HIS LIFE AND WORK American artist Wayne Thiebaud passed away on December 25, 2021 at the age of 101. There have been many posts, articles, and tributes made to this beloved artist. He was most known for his observations of the everyday things that fill our lives –much of which goes unnoticed. His stunning depictions of bakery counters with glorious cakes all lined up for presentation seem absolutely, and impossibly, edible. He also painted beach scenes, gumball machines, portraits and city streets – many from his observational memory rather than life. Thiebaud used thick paint to render his objects, placing them on a subdued and quiet background, and juxtaposing warm and cool colours to make them pop. He elevated the ordinary to extraordinary. In this 2016 interview, Thiebauld shares his wisdom around how to consider what it means to be an artist and choosing art as a career. He tells us that when he considered making the transition from being a commercial artist to painting he asked himself, “How do I do this?” The answer was that the road ahead would be difficult. His focus was captured in this simple statement: “You may not make a living, but you can make a life.” Thiebaud was a very successful artist and showed many the path forward. He was a generous and gifted teacher, and lived a life filled with passion and devotion for his art. Wayne Thiebaud, American painter, 1920 - 2021
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FELIZA BURSZTYN : OBLITERATING NORMS This Hyperallergic feature, ‘Feliza Burnsztyn, a Colombian Sculptor Who Obliterated Norms’ offers us a look at this unconventional artist, often called ‘the crazy woman,’ and her unique work. Feliza Bursztyn made noisy kinetic sculptures out of metal and cloth. Often dubbed disturbing, these sensual sculptures were much like the artist herself – brave and unapologetic. She experienced great loss and hardship in her life, and died quite young. A recent retrospective exhibition called ‘Feliza Bursztyn: Welding Madness’ at the Museum Susch, brings more awareness to this artist’s contributions, beyond her homeland of Colombia. I am inspired by artists like this, who firmly claim their place and make art that needs to be made.
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INSIGHT CREATIVE : THE 30 DAY SKETCHBOOK CHALLENGE COURSE The 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge Course is an affordable, self-guided, content-rich course that you can start anytime. It guides you through developing a consistent and personal sketchbook practice to enhance your art-making and mindset skills. With daily prompts, reflective questions for gaining further insights, and pre-recorded video sessions, there is tons of support for artists as they nurture and connect with their artist's mindset. Offered at only $59 CAD makes this course available to so many – you can even give it as a gift to the artist in your life. I have spent six months creating an enriching experience for you by offering some of my best content on working with a sketchbook and reflective journaling. Being a stand-alone, self-guided course means it can be accessed at any time and you’ll have lifetime access to the content. And since I launched this course so close to the holidays, I have a Launch Celebration planned for the new year to help us recommit, re-engage, and amp-up our creativity! If you want more details on the 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge Course, please visit my course information page HERE. You can also email me at info@insightcreative.ca with your question or for more info. PS: Gift vouchers are now available to gift this course to the artist in your life. Just email me and I’ll send you all the details.
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For new subscribers – please enjoy these previous issues of my monthly newsletter. Thank you for subscribing!
Links to additional back issues can be found on the right sidebar of my Blog HERE
If you know of any artists that could benefit from these monthly newsletters and/or my 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge Course, please share this email with them and invite them to have a look. They’ll receive my free PDF download on ‘How to Make a Creativity Journal’ when they do.
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Art-making is such a personal experience, always calling us forth and asking us to be more of ourselves, to trust more deeply and to show up for the work.
When we develop a healthy and resilient attitude towards the struggles we may be facing, we feel more balanced and set ourselves up for success. I hope this newsletter gives you some tools to help guide yourself towards more trust and awareness around your creative process. Thanks for being here…wishing you abundant creativity today and every day!
Warmly,
Cheryl Taves
info@insightcreative.ca
h: 250.360.1453
c: 250.818.3239
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