I took this photograph at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Steins Collect show is a “must see” (through September 6th) if you enjoy the work of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. A movie that shows at noon most days and runs 52 minutes documents the endearing friendship between the two artists.
5 Tips for Making a Living as an Artist
Recently I heard a panel of five artists each share five tips on making a living as an artist. Here’s my distillation, my favorite five after going over 25:
1) Realize you are a brand and people buy into how you present yourself.
2) Making art is a daily practice so always be making something. Especially something that means a lot to you.
3) Don’t get discouraged by the noes. You’ll learn from each one.
4) Have integrity. This is perhaps the most important quality.
5) Find your place, your voice. Don’t even think about the “Art World” when you make your art.
Make Your Own Scan-O-Gram
Photograms are one of my favorite art forms. They are cameraless photographs often produced by placing objects on top of photo-sensitive paper and flashing them with light under the photo enlarger in the darkroom. I once saw images of objects scanned and decided that might be a way to shortcut going to the darkroom. Here’s the result of my first experiment on my scanner. Making art from your image scanner has been around for as long as the scanner has been around. What have you been scanning?
What’s in Your Bag of Tools?
Isn’t it strange
That princes and kings,
And clowns that caper
In sawdust rings,
And common people
Like you and me
Are builders for eternity?
Each is given
A bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules.
And each must make –
Ere life is flown
A stumbling block
Or a steppingstone
The poem, A Bag of Tools, written by R. L. Sharpe (1870-1950), is timeless. Here we are, with perhaps more tools than ever before. Are our tools a stumbling block or stepping stone? What are your book rules?
Here’s actress Maggie Smith reciting Sharpe’s poem. Video provided by UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland).