By Holly Hubbard Preston International Herald Tribune
SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2005
Art collectors are a trendy lot. As the famed art critic Robert Hughes once wrote: "Most of the time they buy what other people buy. They move in great schools, like bluefish, all identical. There is safety in numbers. If one wants Schnabel, they all want Schnabel."
What if you hate the work of Julian Schnabel, the postmodern painter-turned-filmmaker? Will not having one of his oversized paintings in your collection somehow diminish its overall value?
An art collection, by nature, should be a highly subjective possession. Heidi Neuhoff, an art dealer and gallery owner in Manhattan, said, "A collection should allow your own individuality to shine."
What if your individual tastes fall outside the current norm? Not to worry, said Neuhoff, who has 15 years of art world experience. Collectors who buy quality works at solid values usually get their day in the sun. She cited the case of one of her clients, a newly divorced woman looking to sell a sizable collection of contemporary Chinese art. "She and her former husband purchased a lot of Chinese art before it became the thing to look at," said the gallery owner. The client, who wants to diversify her collection, came to Neuhoff seeking to cash in on her portion of the Chinese collection. Her timing could not have been better. Demand for Chinese contemporary art is on the rise, allowing Neuhoff and the client to sell an estimated $300,000 worth of paintings at a healthy profit ranging from two to four times the original value of each individual work.
There is a lot of due diligence that should go into building a collection, no matter how eclectic or staid, voguish or contrarian. Every painting or sculpture that goes into a collection needs to be fully vetted in terms of the quality of the work and the value it has been assigned. While the quality component is going to be a subjective exercise, determining the valuation should be more straightforward, particularly if the artist has a track record, said Alan Bamberger, an art consultant and independent appraiser based in San Francisco.
Bamberger, who has spent 30 years appraising art collections for clients, begins his valuation process by determining the style, period, size, scarcity, and standing of the work. He will compare the work against that of other artists of the same school or period. There are several databases Bamberger uses that list prices for millions of fine art pieces sold at auction, including artprice.com, art-sales-index.com, and artnet.com.
Next, he will study the artist's accomplishments, including gallery and museum showings. Any legitimate gallery will have a statement or résumé about a featured artist beginning with where he or she attended art school to a breakdown of exhibits, Bamberger said. "Those are things you want to look at," he said. "You should see clear-cut progression of events - each subsequent event being equal to or greater than the one before - all of which are moving toward museums."
Still, don't let an artist's coming show mist your critical eye. As Bamberger noted, there is a lot of "gaming" that goes on when an artist is about to have a museum show. Prices for an artist can spike, Jennifer Roth, director of Sotheby's Arcade Fine Arts division in New York, said. She pointed to a rise in secondary prices for a number of 1970s American minimalist artists recently on exhibit at a New York contemporary art show.
Collectors should expect the valuation process to become more subjective and harder to critique when an artist "comes out of nowhere and creates whiplash in the art community," said Bamberger. "This is when prices become very speculative and you have to be really careful."
One final point on both value and quality: Know the condition of a painting or sculpture. According to Roth, Sotheby's "loves to sell things that are not in repaired condition." Works that have been touched up are less valuable, she said.
Collectors who follow these steps afford themselves a lot of flexibility in terms of future trades on their collections. The global art trade, in general, is a liquid world.
The Mei/Moses Fine Art Index, created by two professors at New York University, calculates that fine art sold at auction has outperformed stocks from 1953 to 2003: Art posted a compounded annual return of 12.6 percent, compared with 11.7 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 index.
To get the full benefit of this liquidity, a collector might have to wait years to resell a work. Consumer demand for art runs in 20- to 30-year cycles, Roth said, citing that as the reason that sales of 19th-century European art are low and '70s minimalism is making a comeback.
Herein lies the opportunity for art lovers working to build a collection.
"There are speculative bubbles within an artist's career and the art world in general," Bamberger said.
One of the biggest speculative trends right now, Roth suggests, is the current run on Russian art.
Art collectors are a trendy lot. As the famed art critic Robert Hughes once wrote: "Most of the time they buy what other people buy. They move in great schools, like bluefish, all identical. There is safety in numbers. If one wants Schnabel, they all want Schnabel."
What if you hate the work of Julian Schnabel, the postmodern painter-turned-filmmaker? Will not having one of his oversized paintings in your collection somehow diminish its overall value?
An art collection, by nature, should be a highly subjective possession. Heidi Neuhoff, an art dealer and gallery owner in Manhattan, said, "A collection should allow your own individuality to shine."
What if your individual tastes fall outside the current norm? Not to worry, said Neuhoff, who has 15 years of art world experience. Collectors who buy quality works at solid values usually get their day in the sun. She cited the case of one of her clients, a newly divorced woman looking to sell a sizable collection of contemporary Chinese art. "She and her former husband purchased a lot of Chinese art before it became the thing to look at," said the gallery owner. The client, who wants to diversify her collection, came to Neuhoff seeking to cash in on her portion of the Chinese collection. Her timing could not have been better. Demand for Chinese contemporary art is on the rise, allowing Neuhoff and the client to sell an estimated $300,000 worth of paintings at a healthy profit ranging from two to four times the original value of each individual work.
There is a lot of due diligence that should go into building a collection, no matter how eclectic or staid, voguish or contrarian. Every painting or sculpture that goes into a collection needs to be fully vetted in terms of the quality of the work and the value it has been assigned. While the quality component is going to be a subjective exercise, determining the valuation should be more straightforward, particularly if the artist has a track record, said Alan Bamberger, an art consultant and independent appraiser based in San Francisco.
Bamberger, who has spent 30 years appraising art collections for clients, begins his valuation process by determining the style, period, size, scarcity, and standing of the work. He will compare the work against that of other artists of the same school or period. There are several databases Bamberger uses that list prices for millions of fine art pieces sold at auction, including artprice.com, art-sales-index.com, and artnet.com.
Next, he will study the artist's accomplishments, including gallery and museum showings. Any legitimate gallery will have a statement or résumé about a featured artist beginning with where he or she attended art school to a breakdown of exhibits, Bamberger said. "Those are things you want to look at," he said. "You should see clear-cut progression of events - each subsequent event being equal to or greater than the one before - all of which are moving toward museums."
Still, don't let an artist's coming show mist your critical eye. As Bamberger noted, there is a lot of "gaming" that goes on when an artist is about to have a museum show. Prices for an artist can spike, Jennifer Roth, director of Sotheby's Arcade Fine Arts division in New York, said. She pointed to a rise in secondary prices for a number of 1970s American minimalist artists recently on exhibit at a New York contemporary art show.
Collectors should expect the valuation process to become more subjective and harder to critique when an artist "comes out of nowhere and creates whiplash in the art community," said Bamberger. "This is when prices become very speculative and you have to be really careful."
One final point on both value and quality: Know the condition of a painting or sculpture. According to Roth, Sotheby's "loves to sell things that are not in repaired condition." Works that have been touched up are less valuable, she said.
Collectors who follow these steps afford themselves a lot of flexibility in terms of future trades on their collections. The global art trade, in general, is a liquid world.
The Mei/Moses Fine Art Index, created by two professors at New York University, calculates that fine art sold at auction has outperformed stocks from 1953 to 2003: Art posted a compounded annual return of 12.6 percent, compared with 11.7 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 index.
To get the full benefit of this liquidity, a collector might have to wait years to resell a work. Consumer demand for art runs in 20- to 30-year cycles, Roth said, citing that as the reason that sales of 19th-century European art are low and '70s minimalism is making a comeback.
Herein lies the opportunity for art lovers working to build a collection.
"There are speculative bubbles within an artist's career and the art world in general," Bamberger said.
One of the biggest speculative trends right now, Roth suggests, is the current run on Russian art.
Art collectors are a trendy lot. As the famed art critic Robert Hughes once wrote: "Most of the time they buy what other people buy. They move in great schools, like bluefish, all identical. There is safety in numbers. If one wants Schnabel, they all want Schnabel."
What if you hate the work of Julian Schnabel, the postmodern painter-turned-filmmaker? Will not having one of his oversized paintings in your collection somehow diminish its overall value?
An art collection, by nature, should be a highly subjective possession. Heidi Neuhoff, an art dealer and gallery owner in Manhattan, said, "A collection should allow your own individuality to shine."
What if your individual tastes fall outside the current norm? Not to worry, said Neuhoff, who has 15 years of art world experience. Collectors who buy quality works at solid values usually get their day in the sun. She cited the case of one of her clients, a newly divorced woman looking to sell a sizable collection of contemporary Chinese art. "She and her former husband purchased a lot of Chinese art before it became the thing to look at," said the gallery owner. The client, who wants to diversify her collection, came to Neuhoff seeking to cash in on her portion of the Chinese collection. Her timing could not have been better. Demand for Chinese contemporary art is on the rise, allowing Neuhoff and the client to sell an estimated $300,000 worth of paintings at a healthy profit ranging from two to four times the original value of each individual work.
There is a lot of due diligence that should go into building a collection, no matter how eclectic or staid, voguish or contrarian. Every painting or sculpture that goes into a collection needs to be fully vetted in terms of the quality of the work and the value it has been assigned. While the quality component is going to be a subjective exercise, determining the valuation should be more straightforward, particularly if the artist has a track record, said Alan Bamberger, an art consultant and independent appraiser based in San Francisco.
Bamberger, who has spent 30 years appraising art collections for clients, begins his valuation process by determining the style, period, size, scarcity, and standing of the work. He will compare the work against that of other artists of the same school or period. There are several databases Bamberger uses that list prices for millions of fine art pieces sold at auction, including artprice.com, art-sales-index.com, and artnet.com.
Next, he will study the artist's accomplishments, including gallery and museum showings. Any legitimate gallery will have a statement or résumé about a featured artist beginning with where he or she attended art school to a breakdown of exhibits, Bamberger said. "Those are things you want to look at," he said. "You should see clear-cut progression of events - each subsequent event being equal to or greater than the one before - all of which are moving toward museums."
Still, don't let an artist's coming show mist your critical eye. As Bamberger noted, there is a lot of "gaming" that goes on when an artist is about to have a museum show. Prices for an artist can spike, Jennifer Roth, director of Sotheby's Arcade Fine Arts division in New York, said. She pointed to a rise in secondary prices for a number of 1970s American minimalist artists recently on exhibit at a New York contemporary art show.
Collectors should expect the valuation process to become more subjective and harder to critique when an artist "comes out of nowhere and creates whiplash in the art community," said Bamberger. "This is when prices become very speculative and you have to be really careful."
One final point on both value and quality: Know the condition of a painting or sculpture. According to Roth, Sotheby's "loves to sell things that are not in repaired condition." Works that have been touched up are less valuable, she said.
Collectors who follow these steps afford themselves a lot of flexibility in terms of future trades on their collections. The global art trade, in general, is a liquid world.
The Mei/Moses Fine Art Index, created by two professors at New York University, calculates that fine art sold at auction has outperformed stocks from 1953 to 2003: Art posted a compounded annual return of 12.6 percent, compared with 11.7 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 index.
To get the full benefit of this liquidity, a collector might have to wait years to resell a work. Consumer demand for art runs in 20- to 30-year cycles, Roth said, citing that as the reason that sales of 19th-century European art are low and '70s minimalism is making a comeback.
Herein lies the opportunity for art lovers working to build a collection.
"There are speculative bubbles within an artist's career and the art world in general," Bamberger said.
One of the biggest speculative trends right now, Roth suggests, is the current run on Russian art.
Art collectors are a trendy lot. As the famed art critic Robert Hughes once wrote: "Most of the time they buy what other people buy. They move in great schools, like bluefish, all identical. There is safety in numbers. If one wants Schnabel, they all want Schnabel."
What if you hate the work of Julian Schnabel, the postmodern painter-turned-filmmaker? Will not having one of his oversized paintings in your collection somehow diminish its overall value?
An art collection, by nature, should be a highly subjective possession. Heidi Neuhoff, an art dealer and gallery owner in Manhattan, said, "A collection should allow your own individuality to shine."
What if your individual tastes fall outside the current norm? Not to worry, said Neuhoff, who has 15 years of art world experience. Collectors who buy quality works at solid values usually get their day in the sun. She cited the case of one of her clients, a newly divorced woman looking to sell a sizable collection of contemporary Chinese art. "She and her former husband purchased a lot of Chinese art before it became the thing to look at," said the gallery owner. The client, who wants to diversify her collection, came to Neuhoff seeking to cash in on her portion of the Chinese collection. Her timing could not have been better. Demand for Chinese contemporary art is on the rise, allowing Neuhoff and the client to sell an estimated $300,000 worth of paintings at a healthy profit ranging from two to four times the original value of each individual work.
There is a lot of due diligence that should go into building a collection, no matter how eclectic or staid, voguish or contrarian. Every painting or sculpture that goes into a collection needs to be fully vetted in terms of the quality of the work and the value it has been assigned. While the quality component is going to be a subjective exercise, determining the valuation should be more straightforward, particularly if the artist has a track record, said Alan Bamberger, an art consultant and independent appraiser based in San Francisco.
Bamberger, who has spent 30 years appraising art collections for clients, begins his valuation process by determining the style, period, size, scarcity, and standing of the work. He will compare the work against that of other artists of the same school or period. There are several databases Bamberger uses that list prices for millions of fine art pieces sold at auction, including artprice.com, art-sales-index.com, and artnet.com.
Next, he will study the artist's accomplishments, including gallery and museum showings. Any legitimate gallery will have a statement or résumé about a featured artist beginning with where he or she attended art school to a breakdown of exhibits, Bamberger said. "Those are things you want to look at," he said. "You should see clear-cut progression of events - each subsequent event being equal to or greater than the one before - all of which are moving toward museums."
Still, don't let an artist's coming show mist your critical eye. As Bamberger noted, there is a lot of "gaming" that goes on when an artist is about to have a museum show. Prices for an artist can spike, Jennifer Roth, director of Sotheby's Arcade Fine Arts division in New York, said. She pointed to a rise in secondary prices for a number of 1970s American minimalist artists recently on exhibit at a New York contemporary art show.
Collectors should expect the valuation process to become more subjective and harder to critique when an artist "comes out of nowhere and creates whiplash in the art community," said Bamberger. "This is when prices become very speculative and you have to be really careful."
One final point on both value and quality: Know the condition of a painting or sculpture. According to Roth, Sotheby's "loves to sell things that are not in repaired condition." Works that have been touched up are less valuable, she said.
Collectors who follow these steps afford themselves a lot of flexibility in terms of future trades on their collections. The global art trade, in general, is a liquid world.
The Mei/Moses Fine Art Index, created by two professors at New York University, calculates that fine art sold at auction has outperformed stocks from 1953 to 2003: Art posted a compounded annual return of 12.6 percent, compared with 11.7 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 index.
To get the full benefit of this liquidity, a collector might have to wait years to resell a work. Consumer demand for art runs in 20- to 30-year cycles, Roth said, citing that as the reason that sales of 19th-century European art are low and '70s minimalism is making a comeback.
Herein lies the opportunity for art lovers working to build a collection.
"There are speculative bubbles within an artist's career and the art world in general," Bamberger said.
One of the biggest speculative trends right now, Roth suggests, is the current run on Russian art.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Lovely Day
It's Thursday, and I am not coloring hair, what a concept! B's sister arrived in town on tuesday to look for homes to buy, I do not envy her, it's a tough market these days especially in the greater Seattle area. Hopefully she will find something nice, should probe to be a challenge because they are looking for a minimum of 5 bedrooms with a price of 450k or lower. Heck, an old tool shed in our old neighborhood could easily cost you 700k.
I have a few more e mails to respond to from clients, it is amazing in hindsight to see the effect you have on others, certainly after many years of a professional relatioship. One lovely client wrote a very long letter thanking her for the financial advice I have given her over the last year, she told me that I changed her life completely! Isn't that something.
I have much to do this month to get ready for school, mostly mental when you get right down to it. I am a bit short on credits to be considered a bona fide sophmore, so hopefully my advising session will put me on the right track...I do have a bit of fear of the fact that I may so overloaded with classes that I will drown, all in an effort to catch myself up. Time will tell, and I am going to work very hard to do a good job! When I was at cornish before, I just took all of it for granted and pissed away a free education. Now I want it so badly I can taste it, I think I am in a much better place than I was at 17 (hi Captain Obvious)to learn and excel at the real dream :)
I have a few more e mails to respond to from clients, it is amazing in hindsight to see the effect you have on others, certainly after many years of a professional relatioship. One lovely client wrote a very long letter thanking her for the financial advice I have given her over the last year, she told me that I changed her life completely! Isn't that something.
I have much to do this month to get ready for school, mostly mental when you get right down to it. I am a bit short on credits to be considered a bona fide sophmore, so hopefully my advising session will put me on the right track...I do have a bit of fear of the fact that I may so overloaded with classes that I will drown, all in an effort to catch myself up. Time will tell, and I am going to work very hard to do a good job! When I was at cornish before, I just took all of it for granted and pissed away a free education. Now I want it so badly I can taste it, I think I am in a much better place than I was at 17 (hi Captain Obvious)to learn and excel at the real dream :)
Friday, July 29, 2005
Artists I love
My mentor
http://littlejohncontemporary.com/McBain/index.html
Another mentor, wish we spoke more often.
http://www.raycaesar.com
Incredible paintings
http://www.davidsongalleries.com/artists/sundsten/sundsten.html
Phenomenal work
http://www.digitalatelier.com/artist.html
http://littlejohncontemporary.com/McBain/index.html
Another mentor, wish we spoke more often.
http://www.raycaesar.com
Incredible paintings
http://www.davidsongalleries.com/artists/sundsten/sundsten.html
Phenomenal work
http://www.digitalatelier.com/artist.html
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Why they buy
Mood: Reading
Listening to: Everyday is exactly the same ~ Nine Inch Nails
Reading: The Secret Life of Bees ~ Sue Monk Kidd
Watching: Art 21
For some of us it's a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Why do
people buy art? How do they choose? What motivates them? If I
had fifty cents for every time someone has asked this over the
past few years, I could purchase that new Bentley.
I once painted a Dalmatian that was jumping up and kissing a
girl who was wearing a spotted dress. It wasn't anybody's
typical subject. Over a period of twenty years I sent that
painting to thirteen different galleries. Every time it came
back I shipped it off again to somewhere else. I liked the
painting. One fine day, surprise, surprise, there was a cheque
in the mail and a note that caught my eye--"Girl with
Dalmatian"--16 x 20--sold.
By telephone the dealer told me that the man who bought it had
a Dalmatian and three daughters. This confirmed to me that one
of the main motivators is simply "connection." Look at it this
way--paintings are on a quest to find someone. The darling
things are just seeking a little love. And if they don't give,
they don't get. It's my feeling that for every painting, no
matter how obtuse, there's somebody. But if what a work of art
has to give is pretty esoteric, like my Dalmatian, it might
take some time. And art that gives less may take until
doomsday.
Before I get ambushed for talking about "catering," I'll
mention some of the other reasons people buy. It's not that
anyone has to pay attention to any of this--in some ways it's a
waste of energy--but these are the facts: People buy because
they are sold--either by someone else or themselves. They buy
because they want to enhance their lives. Because what they see
reminds them of something. Because there's a story behind the
art or the artist. Because they want to get rid of
money--sometimes lots of it. They want to invest. They need to
make a gift. Their neighbors have something like it. They want
to look smart, sensitive or clever. They want to have something
on the wall. They already have a taupe chesterfield or a maroon
Berber carpet. They want to encourage somebody or become a
benefactor. Like a Bentley owner, they may just want to look
good. And last but not least, they may actually buy because for
some unknown, deep-seated, atavistic reason they can't explain,
they just can't live without it. These last are the buyers you
feel like jumping up on and kissing.
Best regards,
Robert
PS: "When you do a thing with your whole soul and everything
that is noble within you, you always find your counterpart."
(Camille Pissarro)
Esoterica: Popular, mature artists often find the going gets
easier. Collectors finally get the idea that they "need to get
a Bloggs." This is fortunate for Bloggs, who has paid his dues.
These collectors, who tend to be the wealthier holdouts, may
even pass up something better (and cheaper) by someone else, in
order to get the Bloggs they now think they ought to own. This
injustice is not lost on young artists. Youth has a wisdom that
age knows not of. Age has a cumulative advantage that
frustrates youth's dreams.
As always, used with permission from Robert Genn.
Listening to: Everyday is exactly the same ~ Nine Inch Nails
Reading: The Secret Life of Bees ~ Sue Monk Kidd
Watching: Art 21
For some of us it's a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Why do
people buy art? How do they choose? What motivates them? If I
had fifty cents for every time someone has asked this over the
past few years, I could purchase that new Bentley.
I once painted a Dalmatian that was jumping up and kissing a
girl who was wearing a spotted dress. It wasn't anybody's
typical subject. Over a period of twenty years I sent that
painting to thirteen different galleries. Every time it came
back I shipped it off again to somewhere else. I liked the
painting. One fine day, surprise, surprise, there was a cheque
in the mail and a note that caught my eye--"Girl with
Dalmatian"--16 x 20--sold.
By telephone the dealer told me that the man who bought it had
a Dalmatian and three daughters. This confirmed to me that one
of the main motivators is simply "connection." Look at it this
way--paintings are on a quest to find someone. The darling
things are just seeking a little love. And if they don't give,
they don't get. It's my feeling that for every painting, no
matter how obtuse, there's somebody. But if what a work of art
has to give is pretty esoteric, like my Dalmatian, it might
take some time. And art that gives less may take until
doomsday.
Before I get ambushed for talking about "catering," I'll
mention some of the other reasons people buy. It's not that
anyone has to pay attention to any of this--in some ways it's a
waste of energy--but these are the facts: People buy because
they are sold--either by someone else or themselves. They buy
because they want to enhance their lives. Because what they see
reminds them of something. Because there's a story behind the
art or the artist. Because they want to get rid of
money--sometimes lots of it. They want to invest. They need to
make a gift. Their neighbors have something like it. They want
to look smart, sensitive or clever. They want to have something
on the wall. They already have a taupe chesterfield or a maroon
Berber carpet. They want to encourage somebody or become a
benefactor. Like a Bentley owner, they may just want to look
good. And last but not least, they may actually buy because for
some unknown, deep-seated, atavistic reason they can't explain,
they just can't live without it. These last are the buyers you
feel like jumping up on and kissing.
Best regards,
Robert
PS: "When you do a thing with your whole soul and everything
that is noble within you, you always find your counterpart."
(Camille Pissarro)
Esoterica: Popular, mature artists often find the going gets
easier. Collectors finally get the idea that they "need to get
a Bloggs." This is fortunate for Bloggs, who has paid his dues.
These collectors, who tend to be the wealthier holdouts, may
even pass up something better (and cheaper) by someone else, in
order to get the Bloggs they now think they ought to own. This
injustice is not lost on young artists. Youth has a wisdom that
age knows not of. Age has a cumulative advantage that
frustrates youth's dreams.
As always, used with permission from Robert Genn.
Creative Efficiency
Cross posting some favorite Robert Genn weekly newsletters.
Mood: Reading
Listening to: Vienna ~ Ultravox
Reading: The Impossible will take a little while PR. Loeb
Watching: Art 21
Back in the dark ages I used to take whole days to stretch
canvases or build shipping crates. I rationalized that I
needed the exercise and the change of pace. One day I realized
that all I was getting was substandard canvases, shaky crates,
and blue fingers. It was really all about avoidance. I saw
that I needed to spend more time working up my ideas and
performing my art. And in my main focus--in those things that I
figured I did best--I had to be more efficient.
Creative efficiency powers creative acts. I've noticed that
artists who develop their own unique efficiencies--time-motion
improvements, paint-order expediencies, labour-saving
devices--tend to do fresher and more interesting work. Boring
art, I notice, is often performed by bored artists who happen
to be stuck in one process rut or another. At the risk of
leaving out some good ones, here's a short bombardment of
studio efficiencies that you might find useful:
Have your canvases or supports made to your specifications by
pros. Carry out dull jobs such as priming and varnishing in
assembly-line manner. Give thought to your current processes
and habits. Study your workstation to try to limit areas of
awkwardness. See that things are handy. Know your tools, their
individual wisdom and capabilities. Pre-mix colours when
possible and avoid the tedium of re-matching. Use glazes (if
appropriate) to tone down, pull together, or to execute
otherwise difficult gradations. Use rags, scraping devices,
sticks, sponges, etc., to add shorthand variety to your range
of effects. Never underestimate the value of sponges--they suck
up and they put down. Rethink the order that you normally do
things. Cut back on time-wasters--the procedural ones and the
two-footed kind. Do your work in a logical and yet creative
order. While you're at it, re-evaluate your workplace
furnishings. A hard, spring-backed, armless, rolling chair, for
example, can lessen position fatigue and other problems. Know
that your peculiar efficiencies keep you up front as captain.
Creative efficiency hones style.
"What could be?" is my question for all seasons. Here's another
for the studio wall: "Do I have to do this in the same way that
I've done it previously?"
Best regards,
Sponge Bob
PS: "Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the
noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists
in the elimination of nonessentials." (Lin Yutang)
Esoterica: Efficiency frees the creative spirit. The idea is
to clear the deck for maximum inventive flow. The idea is to
make it possible to let go and surrender to the "queen-bee
syndrome." "You cannot govern the creative impulse; all you can
do is to eliminate obstacles and smooth the way for it." (Kimon
Nicolaides)
As always, used with permission of Robert Genn.
Mood: Reading
Listening to: Vienna ~ Ultravox
Reading: The Impossible will take a little while PR. Loeb
Watching: Art 21
Back in the dark ages I used to take whole days to stretch
canvases or build shipping crates. I rationalized that I
needed the exercise and the change of pace. One day I realized
that all I was getting was substandard canvases, shaky crates,
and blue fingers. It was really all about avoidance. I saw
that I needed to spend more time working up my ideas and
performing my art. And in my main focus--in those things that I
figured I did best--I had to be more efficient.
Creative efficiency powers creative acts. I've noticed that
artists who develop their own unique efficiencies--time-motion
improvements, paint-order expediencies, labour-saving
devices--tend to do fresher and more interesting work. Boring
art, I notice, is often performed by bored artists who happen
to be stuck in one process rut or another. At the risk of
leaving out some good ones, here's a short bombardment of
studio efficiencies that you might find useful:
Have your canvases or supports made to your specifications by
pros. Carry out dull jobs such as priming and varnishing in
assembly-line manner. Give thought to your current processes
and habits. Study your workstation to try to limit areas of
awkwardness. See that things are handy. Know your tools, their
individual wisdom and capabilities. Pre-mix colours when
possible and avoid the tedium of re-matching. Use glazes (if
appropriate) to tone down, pull together, or to execute
otherwise difficult gradations. Use rags, scraping devices,
sticks, sponges, etc., to add shorthand variety to your range
of effects. Never underestimate the value of sponges--they suck
up and they put down. Rethink the order that you normally do
things. Cut back on time-wasters--the procedural ones and the
two-footed kind. Do your work in a logical and yet creative
order. While you're at it, re-evaluate your workplace
furnishings. A hard, spring-backed, armless, rolling chair, for
example, can lessen position fatigue and other problems. Know
that your peculiar efficiencies keep you up front as captain.
Creative efficiency hones style.
"What could be?" is my question for all seasons. Here's another
for the studio wall: "Do I have to do this in the same way that
I've done it previously?"
Best regards,
Sponge Bob
PS: "Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the
noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists
in the elimination of nonessentials." (Lin Yutang)
Esoterica: Efficiency frees the creative spirit. The idea is
to clear the deck for maximum inventive flow. The idea is to
make it possible to let go and surrender to the "queen-bee
syndrome." "You cannot govern the creative impulse; all you can
do is to eliminate obstacles and smooth the way for it." (Kimon
Nicolaides)
As always, used with permission of Robert Genn.
Countdown
Hard to believe I only have 3 more days at work and then I am finished working as a professional hair colorist. It has indeed been a few years coming.
This weekend should be nuts, have the last day of work on Saturday and the girls return home to Florida at the butt-crack of dawn on Sunday morning. Peace, quiet and a clean house (well cleaNER) will reign once again in our household, huzzah! I can get my mind back again. And the girls are lovely at 8 and 11, but focusing on children completely for 2-3 months of ones life is not something I find fun everyday...I know, I sound like a cold hearted bitch, at least I am honest...If not in real life then here.
It has been bittersweet some days saying farewell to my clients, others I breathe a sigh of relief that I will not see again in a service capacity. Well at least I won't have to touch them again lol. This is much is certain, the next 3 days will be mentally and physically exhausting. I am very much looking forward to not having to use so much steroid ointment just to keep healthy skin on my hands from the onslaught of so many oxidative chemicals. Another Huzzah!
August is going to be nuts, with me helping mom de-junk and sort through a lifetime of memories (my childhood is buried in boxes all over that house). Should be interesting and again exhausting, Heck returning to Cornish should be a breeze after the madness of this summer. I told B that next year I will be in Italy lol.
B and I have been doing great at Weight Watchers, it's really fun to go with your partner. We both did suprisingly well at our weigh-in on Tuesday, considering we had gone up to Victoria B.C. for the weekend with mom. I have such a weak spot for any type of British pastry (think turkey pies and sausage rolls), thank goodness I don't have much of a sweet tooth.
Cleaning my house keeps my sane while the kids are here...It's a constant cycle of me following them around with a mop as they infect my lovely house with dirt and clutter. Well, it might not be that bad but it sounds suitably melodramatic, which is appropriate.
This weekend should be nuts, have the last day of work on Saturday and the girls return home to Florida at the butt-crack of dawn on Sunday morning. Peace, quiet and a clean house (well cleaNER) will reign once again in our household, huzzah! I can get my mind back again. And the girls are lovely at 8 and 11, but focusing on children completely for 2-3 months of ones life is not something I find fun everyday...I know, I sound like a cold hearted bitch, at least I am honest...If not in real life then here.
It has been bittersweet some days saying farewell to my clients, others I breathe a sigh of relief that I will not see again in a service capacity. Well at least I won't have to touch them again lol. This is much is certain, the next 3 days will be mentally and physically exhausting. I am very much looking forward to not having to use so much steroid ointment just to keep healthy skin on my hands from the onslaught of so many oxidative chemicals. Another Huzzah!
August is going to be nuts, with me helping mom de-junk and sort through a lifetime of memories (my childhood is buried in boxes all over that house). Should be interesting and again exhausting, Heck returning to Cornish should be a breeze after the madness of this summer. I told B that next year I will be in Italy lol.
B and I have been doing great at Weight Watchers, it's really fun to go with your partner. We both did suprisingly well at our weigh-in on Tuesday, considering we had gone up to Victoria B.C. for the weekend with mom. I have such a weak spot for any type of British pastry (think turkey pies and sausage rolls), thank goodness I don't have much of a sweet tooth.
Cleaning my house keeps my sane while the kids are here...It's a constant cycle of me following them around with a mop as they infect my lovely house with dirt and clutter. Well, it might not be that bad but it sounds suitably melodramatic, which is appropriate.
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