Just do it!

"Art is what you can get away with"  Andy Warhol

Vision

"Here's to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
Steve Jobs

Creativity takes on many forms

Make it your business to know who each of these folks are/were they have what the Finnish people call Sisu*

*Sisu is a Finnish term meaning, roughly, inner strength, determination, perseverance in the face of  adversity, and a strong work ethic.

You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. (Maya Angelou)

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what
 you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. (Steve Jobs)

Albert Einstein said, "Creativity is the residue of time wasted."

The artist begins with a vision – a creative operation requiring an effort. (Henri Matisse)

Do it no matter what. If you believe in it, it is something very honorable. If somebody around you or your family does not understand it, then that's their problem. But if you do have a passion, 
an honest passion, just do it. (Mario Andretti)

Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it's done right. (Walt Disney)

When you've got it, you've got it. When you haven't, you begin again.
 All the rest is humbug. (Edouard Manet)

If you stick to your work it will take care of you somehow. (Kiki Smith)

I would add: 

Creativity takes effort.  More people would be creative if they just saw the value in
putting time into it. What ever it is!

t'*s a combination of stamina, courage, and obstinacy held in reserve for hard times

ee'-soo) is a unique Finnish concept that cannot be fully translated.  One definition is: spec*ial strength and stubborn determination to continue and overcome in the moment of adversity.  It's a combination of stamina, courage, and obstinacy held in reserve for hard times

what to paint

Paint the necessary; ignore the obvious. (Bill Hosner)

Her Face to the Wind (pastel, 20x16) by Bill Hosner

More birds

We are what we repeatedly do. (Aristotle)

Oh dear.

Keep working at it.

The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist. The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all. (Julia Cameron)

Display

It's interesting when you make things or do things that open up the possibilities for making more things, or different kinds of things. (Bruce Nauman)

working at it

You begin with the possibilities of the material. (Robert Rauschenberg)

seeing is believing

What I see in the winter from my sauna window.

See the planes of light as shapes, the planes of shadows as shapes. Squint your eyes and find the big, fluent shapes. (Irwin Greenberg)

Play

Pastel acorn. I am playing.

Creativity is about play and a kind of willingness to go with your intuition. It's crucial to an artist. If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it? (Frank Gehry)

Stretching for creativity

It is a warm up really. The 100 day project. It what you do daily to keep in shape, to stay fresh, loose and alert. I had to remind myself of that as I have been struggling with a boring "workout". I needed to change it up a bit and really think about my long term vision. The 100 day project is about creative excavation, creating exploration and creative exercising. It is that simple. So when I found myself struggling with the tight feeling of my weekly restrictions I knew it was time to try something new. So I stuck with the medium that I was on the previous week (pastels) to really  help me loosen up and I explored new shapes and revisited old ones. Some wonderful things happened. I am currently staying in the pastel phase of the 100 day project. I am still exploring the acorn and  some new things have been happening there. Also, I have been inspired to do more birds which I haven’t done in two years. I am feeling a bit limber again!

which way are you going

Art is a continuous activity with no separation between past and present. (Henry Moore)






This is a real picture,not something photoshoped or re-touched. Unless you have two heads, there is no reason not to move foreward. And if you do have two heads, just communicate with yourself.

Slow and steady wins the race. (Aesop)
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. (Dale Carnegie)

Rules

I want to break a rule, my own. My own self imposed rule about my 100 day project. There I said it. I am bored with the acorn. I want to try something else and stick to the medium for longer than a week. I just get into the swing of things on Sunday night. Then I start all over. It is the artistic equivalent to the movie Ground Hog Day.

It seems to me that we get use to rules. There are rules that are suppressive, and wrong, there are others that help us live in harmony.

To  break some rules can be seen as a sign of strength, break others it is a sign of weakness.

Challenging rules can be freeing and a good thing. 

But, when we put forth a set of self imposed rules and break them ---we have let ourselves down and dare I say “failed”. These self imposed rules, regulations, and restricitons may have no rhyme or reason, they may just be trap to keep us from exploring possibilities.

Self imposed rules may be the thing that keeps creativity under lock and chain. It may be the very thing that needs to be avoided.
So while I mull around my own set of limitation for this go around I am going to dedicate the next few posts  about rule setting; abiding by them, the purpose of them and of course breaking them.

 Here are a few quotes to get started as  I am contemplate my dilemma

Thomas Edition said, “Hell, there are no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.”

Emerson said, “Be true to the highest within your soul and then allow yourself to be governed by no customs or conventionalities or arbitrary man-made rules that are not founded on principle. 

To blossom forth, a work of art must ignore or rather forget all the rules. (Pablo Picasso)

Direction

Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it. Do something else to it. (Jasper Johns)

finding reality

benda

"What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things... it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface. "Constantin Brancusi:

"When you see a fish you don't think of its scales, do you? You think of its speed, its floating, flashing body seen through the water... If I made fins and eyes and scales, I would arrest its movement, give a pattern or shape of reality. I want just the flash of its spirit. "Constantin Brancusi:

Simplicity

Constantin Brancusi: The Newborn

"Simplicity is not an objective in art, but one achieves simplicity despite one's self by entering into the real sense of things.  Constantin Brancusi

things to do with your 100 day project

I now have dozens of acorns around my house and on my table. At this point I am wondering why the acorn? What  can I possibly do with it, to it, for 100 days? I am at the 33 day mark. 1/3 of the way. I wonder what will become of all these acorns and what will they morph into in the next 64 days.
Here is one thing I have done. Made some gift tags. I knitted the bag and felted it. It will be a Christmas gift for someone this year. Notice the tag in the corner.

Color

painting by Hans Hoffman

"The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the
mystic realm of color. Our entire being is nourished by it. This mystic
quality of color should likewise find expression in a work of art." Hans
Hoffman, Artist

Display

I have found that with my past project display is key...watching them grow, as in the case with the above photo. I did a bird a day for 100 days. ( sometimes I did more). This time around I have not hung up my acorns. I miss this aspect to the project and see the value in display. Especially when you feel like you are stuck, not uncommon of a feeling about 1/3 of the way through.