past personal diary entries of an artist - from 14 jul 04
Happy Bastille Day!
Yesterday was an interesting, slightly strained day. It started when a critical comment left at my blog sent me into a time warp (no Rocky Horror choruses, please! *grin*) and renewed some of my anxieties over my art. But, having been to this dark place before, I recognized the landmarks, and took immediate action. I was still stalled artistically, at least for yesterday, but I worked through a lot of "War of Art" stuff, cognitively and to good effect.
The result at this point is: I'm stepping back from my LiveJournal/blog after about three years of being active there. It's not really working for me, not when I want to have more time (and focus) for my art.
I'm also considering issues of censorship, inherent after being blind-sided by a comment that undermined my sometimes-wobbly self-confidence as an artist, online. That led me to revisit the McCain-Feingold Act, to prevent somewhat subliminal use of political ads. On one level, I say, "Yes!" Then I pause and reconsider whether the better approach is to educate people about critical thinking during elections... and in general.
There will always be efforts--sometimes successful--to slip under the censors' radars. I'm thinking of the disputes about anti-smoking ads, as well as some cigarette makers' clever use of the arts towards their own ends. Is this wrong? I'm not sure.
Worse, I'm troubled by my logic regarding the cigarette packs. The artists were paid only $10/pack for their designs. My gut reaction was, "That's not enough for that much work." In other words, my reaction was first about the pay scale, not about the relative morality of cigarette advertising.
But, putting those thoughts aside, today I'm taking some time to do more packing for our August move to a new apartment. And, I'm also pondering a radical change to my painting palette, working with a more limited and expressive palette of colors. (See the book, Color Choices, linked below.) I'll probably talk about that more, later.
Mostly, I've been inspired by the limited palettes of Rhea Gary, the colors of Elemore Morgan, Jr., and the expressions of Wolf Kahn.
So anyway, that's what I'm doing today. I may have more art in eBay later today, but I probably won't until tomorrow (Thursday).
Wishing you rich and creative days filled with dazzling inspiration,
What I'm reading right now, and recommend:
What I'm listening to right now: the a/c
What I'm watching right now: Heaven help me, I've been watching the new Big Brother series