Nancy artist at work

What Am I Passionate About?

“WHAT AM I PASSIONATE ABOUT?"

Sometimes we have to step back and be really honest with ourselves. Look, if I was passionate about getting the kids to school on time then maybe the my new series of paintings would have been SCHOOL DAYS instead of ELEMENTAL. I am just happy that my passion doesn’t come from hot dogs, though I couldn’t see a ball game without one.

Okay, so big whoop for me and what does this have to do with being an artist?

Well hold onto those horses and let’s talk about that word Artist.

My little dictionary describes an artist as a person:

1. creator of art: somebody who creates art, especially paintings or sculptures

2. performer: a member of the performing arts a well-known recording artist

3. skilled person: somebody who does something skillfully and creatively an artist with a basketball

4. cunning person: somebody who is very good at a particular thing, especially something cunning (slang)

a rip-off artist

[Late 16th century. Via French artiste < Italian artista < arte "art"]

Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Wow... keys words keep jumping out at me; Creates. The creative process can be easy and natural or like anything else, forced. That's when we get into problems, something that can be as natural as breathing, once force will seem stale and not right.

Art like anything else has to be true.....what I mean is, if you have never seem an elephant, then more then likely you are not going to paint an elephant...why try. Just like a writer, you need to paint what you know. Here are two examples of something I know. Both these pieces are my daughter, painted at different stages in her life.

Taylor Age 21

So, the first fear....the fear of the unknown has been conqured. The subject we can know intimately and this allows us to focus on completing the piece without anymore worries.

Was that so hard???? Don't worry we'll work on other fears as we go. GOOD JOB......now go paint something you know....... "hello kitty kitty or what did I have for breakfast?" Have fun, that's the name of the game.