"26 Short List Stories"
Sometimes we get so bogged down in life, that we cannot see the forest for the trees and we lose perspective and our sense of self. Here is a short exercise that I picked up from Scott Dinsmore, founder of LiveYourLegend.net. It is an exercise where you describe yourself, and your life, in "26 Short List Stories" from A to Z. The point being, taking stock and getting to know yourself better by reflecting on your life. You simply take each letter of the alphabet and write a quick 2 or 3 line story from your life based on that letter.
When you go through the exercise you realize that life is fluid and we really are the sum of our experiences. I initially struggled with a few letters but once I got into the groove it was a lot of fun. I challenge you to do the exercise for yourself - you will be amazed at what you have done and accomplished over your life!
Here is my list:
A - Art & Architecture - Since I was 18 years old, I have spent my entire career, working in Architecture and Art. One of my career highlights was designing my brother's house. Doing this little short list stories exercise reminds me, that I am truly lucky, to be able to have not one, but two creative careers.
B - I traded my car in last year for the coolest folding bike ever, made by “Brompton Bikes” in England. This is by far the funkiest piece of engineering that I have seen in a very long time. I love it, and I am much healthier to boot!
C - Cuba - We have very lucky to have travelled to several countries in Central America including 4 times to Cuba. Poverty is a real problem throughout the Caribbean and Cuba certainly is no exception, but there is something truly unique with Cuba. The people of Cuba may have economic poverty, but they do not suffer a poverty of spirit. Cubans are a proud peoples, and they are some of the most highly educated in the world. There is music, art and culture everywhere. It is a truly remarkable place - I can totally understand why Hemingway spent so many years in Havana.
D - Domed Stadium - In 1986 I spent a year working on the SkyDome Project in Toronto. It was very cool seeing the pouring of the first footing of the stadium, which in retrospect was larger than the apartment that I lived in at the time!
E - Eyes - My Dad always told me that the most important thing in life is your health. This became really clear to me (no pun intended) in my early twenties, when I developed a full traumatic cataract on my right eye after being hit with a hockey stick playing pick-up. As an artist and Architect I was pretty freaked out. I am very thankful that I live in Canada with our health care system.
F - Frederick Franck- I stumbled across a book by Frederick Franke in a used bookstore in Burlington Vermont. “Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing” has changed my life!
G - Gallery/Studio - I operated my own studio gallery in Ottawa above a prominent contemporary gallery (Cube Gallery). For the two years that I painted at the studio, I was incredibly prolific. Once a month Janice and I hosted an open house which coincided with a First Thursday Gallery Walk held in Ottawa where I displayed my new paintings from the month before. I loved it - it was a blast. It was a two year experiment, something I had to try. The economics simply didn’t work out as I had hoped, but the way I look at it, nothing ventured, nothing gained!
H - Harlem - My brother Tom, lived in Manhattan in 2008. He called me up one day and asked if I wanted to join him in a hockey tournament in support of minor hockey in Harlem. I jumped at the opportunity and found myself playing with the Queens University alumni team on outdoor ice, at the north end of Central Park. It was truly surreal, hanging out on a beautiful spring day, downtown Manhattan, playing ice hockey. Only in New York can you find Donald Trump’s name on the side of a Zamboni on an outdoor rink!
I - Indy Races -I had the privilege of meeting artist Gerald McLaughlin, purely by chance at the Toronto Molson Indy Race in 2000. Gerald had an art show selling his and severalother artist's work. We immediately hit it off and had a great chat about art in general. I never really thought about it when I returned to Ottawa, but a year later Gerald phoned me and invited me to participate in the 2001 Indy Race Art Show. Little did I know on that first meeting, that I would join Gerald in multiple art shows in Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver over the next 6-8 years. I consider Gerald to be one of the truly inspirational people that I have met, and cherish his friendship.
J - Jasper to Banff Road Race - When I lived in Calgary, I used to run. One of the partners in in the office that I worked was an avid runner and we entered a team into the Jasper to Banff and Banff to Calgary 24 hour relay races. Of course, me being me, I always picked the leg that no one else wanted - which meant 20 km up a mountain. I was certainly not a great runner, but my stubborn nature prevailed and there was no way I was going to give up. I ran the races three years in a row and always got stuck with that that same leg up to the Columbia Ice fields.
K - Kimberly - A year end tradition in Calgary was to rent a couple buses go skiing with friends on the final weekend of the season in Kimberly British Columbia. There was one particular morning where I found myself alone, the first of our group on the chairlift, the first run of the day. It had dumped all night so the powder was amazing. It was warm enough to ski in a light sweater, but still snowing huge flakes. Riding the chair lift, the air was so completely still that you could actually hear your heart beat through the silence. It sounds like a cliche, but the silence was in fact deafening! It is funny how such a seemingly insignificant moment can create a twenty year memory.
L - Lahr - I spent my last year of high school in Lahr Germany. It was the height of the cold war, Russia had invaded Afghanistan, Europe was in transition, Punk Rock was king and I spent a lot of time bombing around Germany with my friends looking for the next beer fest and rock concert. I even got to see the Boomtown Rats in a seedy little German bar, long before Bob Geldof was a household name. All in all, I drove my Dad nuts, but it was a really fun year. Funny how karma works - I now have 5 kids between 17 and 23!
M - Cascade Mountain - For anyone that has ever been to Banff Alberta, Cascade Mountain is the peak that dominates the view from the main street. A good friend of mine Chris, an Architect in Calgary, and I, decided to hike the mountain. We actually had only intended to hike to the tree line and certainly were not dressed or prepared for anything higher. We ended up at the summit sipping a beer taking in the most breathtaking 360 degree view I had ever seen. Its not as impressive as the big mountains of Nepal but it was certainly a memorable experience!
N - Naval Reserves - As a teen I entered the Canadian Naval Reserves. I spent a summer in Victoria British Columbia and even spent 4 weeks on the Canadian Destroyer HMCS Yukon. At 16 years old, I thought this was pretty cool time - even if I was sea sick for most of it!
O - Octoberfest - 1979, a friend and I, hitchhiked to Munich for the Octoberfest only to find ourselves without a place to stay - so we slept two nights on the train station floor with hundreds of other teens from around Europe. So when my daughter took off to Vancouver at 17.....who was I to criticize!
P - Provincetown Massachusetts has become one of Janice and my favorite places to visit. Cape Cod is a truly magical place, so much so that it is the only place that I have seen Janice cry when we left. P-Town is a truly eccentric place, home to generations of artists, playwrights, musicians and of course fishermen. It is the most liberally minded place I have been, where just about anything goes. You have to see it to believe it, but you must have an open mind.
Q - Never Quit - Sometimes life throws wicked curve balls at you which make you want to just give up on your dreams. As I was working on my web page last evening, I was quite surprised at just how many paintings I have done over the years. I filed photos of close to 300 paintings completed in the last ten years. This does not include the dozens that I have sold, given away or donated that I no longer have photo records. Life as an artist is tough - you need a thick skin to deal with the critics and well meaning people telling you that you are dreamer, wasting your time, that you should be doing something more productive, that you will never make money at art, blah blah blah blah blah! Well, I never quit, and as I reviewed the 300+ paintings completed, I got an immense sense of satisfaction. Even if I never make another nickel from my art, I will still paint. Painting is simply what I do.
R - Russia - This is a small world story. On one of our trips to Cuba, we went on a jeep/river excursion where we toured around a fairly remote jungle. We were grouped with another Canadian couple in a small speed boat for the river tour. As usual, conversation went to careers, where we live etc. etc. It just so happens that the husband was a Canadian Engineer, working for a Russian Oil Company in the oil patch in Western Siberia. I immediately found that really interesting and stated that when I lived in Calgary (another oil town), I once worked on the design of 600 bed Children’s hospital for the City of Niznevartovsk in Western Siberia. It was a time of transition in Russia, when many Canadian Engineering and Architectural firms were building infrastructure projects. So the small world part of the story - here I am, on a speed boat in the jungles of Cuba, talking to a complete stranger who happened to live in Moscow, about construction processes in Western Siberia, and he throws out a name of an Architect he knew in Russia, who just so happened to be my boss in Calgary when we designed the hospital. There truly is only six degrees of separation!
S - Skokie Lodge, built in the 1920’s is a back country ski lodge, located near Lake Louise ski area. The only access is by horseback or hiking. I went with friends on an winter hike to the lodge, 5-6 hours over two mountain passes. What struck me about Skokie Lodge were the night stars. Being so far from civilization, there is no light pollution. Growing up in cities, I had never seen the milky way in all it’s splendour. I have not seen it since. Vincent Van Gogh captured the stars perfectly!
T - Trenton - I spent my pre-teen years in Trenton Ontario, an small town on the north shore of Lake Ontario. I think everyone has a place from their childhood that resonates with them for life. It was a time of innocence. I only lived in Trenton for a short time between Grades 5 and 8. Interesting that 40 years later, I am still in contact with those same kids that I hung out with when I was 10.
U - University - I spent two stints in University, first at Carleton University in Ottawa and then at the University of Calgary. My years spent studying had a profound affect on the way I think and go about my life. I became a life long learner. No piece of paper can ever replace that.
V - Val D’Isere - I spent New Years in Val D’Isere France with my Dad and step mother. To this day, Val D’Isere is by far he most amazing ski hill that I have been on. Our New Year’s dinner was quite the event. It was a ten-course meal with the main dish being wild boar. As part of the ceremony, we all stood on our chairs, and lifted our tables high over our heads while the chefs paraded the wild boar platters, complete with apple in mouth. It was a feast to remember!
W - West Block - For the last 5 years, I have had the privilege to work as the Site Architect on multiple heritage restoration projects on Parliament Hill in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, including the West Block Rehabilitation and Restoration project. The Parliament Buildings are the most important heritage buildings in Canada and I have to pinch myself when I think that I have a key role in these projects.
X - Xativa - I was going to write about our trip to Xativa Spain, but Janice told me she got that story first and would expose me if I plagiarized her version of that trip! I will say however, that Xativa Spain is spectacularly beautiful.
Y - Yoga has become an important part of our life and Janice and I have been blessed with the opportunity to go to two yoga/meditation retreats in Costa Rica. The retreats were at the most southernly point in Costa Rica on the Osa Peninsula. When you are on the beach you look directly across the bay directly at Panama. If you want to experience a truly blissful state, take a week and go on a retreat. It will change your outlook on life.
Z - Ray Zahab - Occasionally in life you cross paths with someone who is truly inspirational. Ray Zahab is one of those people. Ray is an extreme ultra marathoner. He has run across the Sahara Desert, Baffin Island and to the South Pole. Ray and his business partner Bob Cox have created a foundation called Impossible2Possible (I2P), a non profit organization that inspires educates and empowers youth to take a leadership role to create massive change in our world. I have had not only the privilege of meeting Ray and Bob, but am going to participate in a fundraising capacity using my artwork to help their foundation. This is a really exciting opportunity for me to help out an unbelievable organization.
"Striving For a Minimalist Lifestyle!"
I turned around and saw Janice, sitting on the top step. A look of stunned shock was on her face. We were in full moving mode from a large 4 bedroom house, our home for the last five years, to a 2 bedroom condo. We had come to the painful realization that we had accumulated so much junk over the 5 years that we were drowning in stuff.
It was hard to believe just how out of control the accumulation of things had become. I guess we were so busy with our careers, raising kids, activities etc. that we were blind to the reality that every corner of the house was piled high. We avoided places like the back shed, basement storage and garage, all the spaces that became the dumping grounds for everything not being used, but not yet ready to be chucked. When it came time to purge, I was astounded. It was truly unbelievable how much stuff a family of seven can pile into a house in a few short years. We spent the better part of two months donating what we could to the goodwill and selling as much stuff online, through garage sales and consignment stores. We even had everything-must-go sales. As our moving day approached, we finally had to dump the junk and resorted to having several loads hauled away. It was quite embarrassing. I felt like we were on American Hoarders!
When Janice and I first contemplated the move to a smaller apartment condo, we took a serious internal evaluation to see if our current lifestyle is congruent with our desired lifestyle and overall goals. We both really love to travel. I am very passionate about my art as Janice is with fashion. We quickly concluded that we had become slaves to our things reducing our ability to focus our energies to the things that are so important to us. We realized that we had a huge anchor - one that we had to release. We were on a mission to purge......and purge we did! I even sold my car trading it in for a folding “Brompton” bike - seriously the coolest bike I have ever owned! I have now been without a vehicle for over six months and quite honestly, I don’t miss driving one bit. I seldom take public transportation opting instead for walking and biking. I am much healthier for it!
It was sometime around a year ago that I stumbled on the concept of the minimalist lifestyle through blogs like “The Minimalists” , “Zen Habits” and “The Hundred Thing Challenge.” These websites totally resonated with me, especially considering our recent purge. I had already started to, in a way, to re-jig my lifestyle, but these blogs really made me think seriously about where I want to go. I can honestly say that I likely won’t be reducing my life to a hundred things (although the thought did cross my mind), but we can certainly say we have reduced our stuff significantly.
Simplifying my life also meant getting rid of my studio. For two years I rented space above one of the better contemporary galleries in Ottawa, the Cube Gallery. It was a two year experiment to see if having a studio separate from my living space was viable. I have to say, having the studio was a blast! I loved having a separate place of my own to paint. It became a refuge from the day to day pressures of work and taking care of a house. The first Thursday of each month there was an "Art Walk" where all the galleries in the area stayed open late, offering wine and cheese and often live music or other special events. It was great - I had a built in one man show (and party) each month in my studio/gallery where I displayed my latest work and had a party to boot! It always turned into a late night event. Don the owner of the Cube would always drop up at the end of the night for a quick beer and play art critic with my latest work. It was a lot of fun and a sad day when my lease was due and I did not renew. Selling art is a very difficult business and when I did my reality check it was clear that running a studio/gallery part time was a loosing venture. The demands of a full time Architectural career made it impractical. I may not have been breaking even but I have zero regrets about giving it a shot. Nothing ventured - nothing gained!
Upon reflection, operating a studio/gallery was not consistent with my desire for freedom and flexibility. I was also painting large canvases in the studio - I love painting large scale paintings. It’s a very physical activity but it created a real dilemma - what was I going to do with all these large paintings now that we were going into a small condo. I had sold quite a few but had upwards of 150 canvases - some as large as 1500x1800mm. Renting storage was out of the question as this is just another financial anchor. There was no way I was going to stop painting, but I had re-evaluate how I was going to paint. I had to reframe what my studio was to become. I ended up removing all my canvases from their stretchers and storing them in my condo locker in plastic tubes. They are still available for sale, but will require re-stretcing, which any framer can easily do.
Over the next several months I found that I was spending much more time with my sketchbook. I started participating in several online sketching projects. I discovered the "Urban Sketchers" website and was immediately hooked on the concept of the Urban Sketch Crawl. I joined the group and I have now participate in several international SketchCrawls where artists from all over the world sketch on the same day and post their results online. I love the concept! We now have several artists here in Ottawa that get together for the events. The next SketchCrawl is in April for those interested. I also came across the "Sketchbook Project." Again this is a collective of artists from around the world who participate in a sketchbook project based out of Brooklyn.
What I have learned from these ventures is that I no longer need a physical studio. I have created my online store and (this) blog to display and talk about my work. I stopped painting large (well for now anyways) and now paint miniatures (5”x7” panels). I now carry a small 5”x7” “Guerrilla” pochade box that holds 2 wet oil paintings, a small sketchbook and some watercolours. My studio is now with me always, literally fitting in my backpack. My studio comes with me everywhere, even when we travel. It has changed my entire approach to my art. I no longer have to conceptualize the work - I simply sketch or paint what I see. It’s very liberating.
I have never enjoyed creating art as much as I do now - downsizing has changed my life.
As Janice eloquently puts it, “We downsized our things so that we can expand our lives!”
The SketchBook Project
For all you artists and sketchers out there, you have to check out "The SketchBook Project". This is a global art project where sketchers and artists from all around the world participate by completing a sketchbook that is provided to you. You simply have fun with your sketchbook doing whatever art project inspires you and send it to the SketchBook Project headquarters in Brooklyn NY. The sketchbooks are then digitized and put online and then taken on a tour. This year’s project will be touring eight cities: Brooklyn, Austin, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The sketchbooks will then return to Brooklyn where they will remain in the Brooklyn Art Library as part of their permanent collection.
The SketchBook Project is the brainchild of co-founders Steven Peterman and Shane Zucker. The Brooklyn Art Library, which they created, now is home to 18,000 sketchbooks from 130+ countries with a community of over 60,000 artists. Now that is some Power Networking! The SketchBook Project has evolved over the years and now includes weekly theme projects, photography projects, memoir projects ........the list goes on. They have no shortage of cool ideas for inspirational and creative projects.
This is the first year that I have participated with the SketchBook Project and it certainly will not be my last. You can check out my 2013 sketchbook on the SketchbookProject digital library here: "Greg Manley Sketchbook"
And as far as the tour, Janice and I have already booked our trip to Toronto where the Sketchbook project will be on display at the Gladstone Hotel. The Gladstone - the absolute perfect venue! This is one seriously cool turn of the century hotel that has been recently converted to an Art Hotel. They have studio spaces, gallery spaces and the Gladstone even has the longest running life-drawing class in Toronto. They have been holding weekly drawing classes since 1957! This past week they held an event “Brushes in my Wine” - pretty self descriptive - Painting and wine.... Hmm - Good combo! As far as the hotel itself, each room has a custom theme designed by a local artist and/or designer. Needless to say we are looking forward to checking out the sketchbook library offerings when they hit the “Big Smoke!”
So my recommendation to you: Contact the Sketchbook Project and order your sketchbook. You will have 30+ pages to fill with anything you want. Then you can brag to all your friends when your sketchbook goes on next year’s multi-city tour and becomes part of the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Library!
Convinced yet??
www.sketchbookproject.com
"Can't Decide What to Draw? Sketch People"
Can’t think of something to sketch or paint? Wherever you are right now, whether at work, on the street, in a cafe or pub, try this exercise. Take a few minutes. Close your eyes. Keep them closed for 2-3 minutes. Just sit. Try not to think about your thoughts. Just let them go. Listen to your breath. Don’t manipulate your breath to make it slower or faster - just listen to it. Count your inhales and exhales; 1...2....3....4....up to ten. If you lose your concentration and lose count, start again at one. When you get to ten, or have sat for a few minutes and feel calm, open your eyes.
Take a mental note of your surroundings. I bet you will see it differently than when you arrived. Look at the people around you. look at how they are dressed. Are they young, old, black, white, asian, punk rockers, business men, professors, students? Try to guess in your mind what they do for a living, what they are like as people. If you have a sketchbook, quickly sketch the people you see. Describe what you see in sketches or text. Have some fun with it.
I am now sitting in a cafe. I will describe my experience:
I have my computer open in front of me. I put my earbuds in - I am listening a Rachel Brooke album - kind of solo honky-tonk. I close my eyes and listen to my breath. I make several attempts to quietly follow my breath to ten. I try to purge the monkey-mind. I sit quietly for the duration of one song on the soundtrack, and I open my eyes.
The table next to me is now occupied. It wasn’t a few moments ago. Two thin young men are sitting there - mid twenties or so. One has a closely cropped black beard, short dark hair, wearing a grey t-shirt with a light cotton cardigan, forest green corduroys. The other, sipping his caffe latte has a beige striped t-shit, jeans and rubber boots. Actually, both are wearing rubber boots, pants tucked in. We have had two days of wet snow so this makes sense, but they may also be very deliberately creating a fashion statement. My guess is that they are both young high tech guys as they are discussing networking and other tech stuff. The lady at the table opposite is well healed. Heavily ringed fingers, gold watch, pearl necklace, white button down dress shirt and black slacks. Her bobbed blonde haircut defied by the gray roots, appears to be expensive - probably cut at Renaldo's, an exclusive salon in Ottawa. It has that look. Her expensive tortoise shell designer glasses, perhaps a bit dated but tasteful, fill her face. She needs to use a lip liner as her crimson red lipstick is seeping up the wrinkles and lines around her mouth. She sits with two men. One is obviously an artist. He speaks of his studio and has the telltale paint on his jeans. The other man wears a heavy beige parka with a black knit toque pulled down to above his brow. He smiles but says little. The table behind him there are two women deeply engrossed in conversation. The one in the white tee-shirt is conscious of her weight as she quite deliberately tends to hide her belly with her arm. Her friend must be a heavy smoker judging by the deep set lines in her face, grayish complexion and bags under her eyes. The three young girls at the back wall, probably students, are all texting madly on their smart phones. The bearded contractor near the door, reading the paper could be an artist or a writer, but his green tagged CSA work boots and swarthy complexion give him away. There is a hipster at the cash, toque pulled back on his bald head just so (obviously well planned), heavy rimmed glasses - very Buddy Holly. There are two men, my guess professors, heavy set with gray beards, discussing Einstein’s theories beyond his famous treatise on relativity in the leather lounge chairs by the rear bookshelf, a library of the local counterculture and GLBT magazines . The guy to my right is writing a travel blog. Apparently he recently spent time in the Middle East. The workers behind the counter range in age from early twenties to mid sixties. I am curious to know if the older gentleman behind the cash is the manager or just an employee - he doesn’t carry authority in his body language. Definitely not what I would like to be doing at that age. I wonder what his story is. the girl at the barista counter is sporting a full sleeve tattoo. The lotus leaf on that sensitive bone of her elbow must have hurt like Hell. And then there is the most colourful fellow in the place. This guy must be, I would say, in his late sixties or seventies. His face is deeply lined, smile full of character. He is sporting a felt black bowler type hat, pulled down at the front just above his eyebrows. His ultramarine blue wool trench coat is accented with a bright orange and naples yellow scarf. His bold burgundy and black tartan pants are held up with a custom leather art-belt, and he is wearing hand made brown leather buckled boots. To top off the look, his hair is matted into waist length grey dreadlocks - Dreads that have probably been there since the 1970’s. he is talking to the lady in the white t-shirt, calling her “Sister” and discussing all the grooviness in the music hall across the street. He could be a vagrant or may surprise us all as a wealthy eccentric.
The point of all this is that we all tend to walk through life in a daze, a form of blindness to the world around us, when all we have to do is simply open our eyes and see it all in it's splendour. I am certainly no different. I walk 35 minutes to work every day and often I cannot recall anything from the walk. It’s as if I were unconscious. I now make a concerted effort to do one thing with intention - to see. Whether I am walking, biking or sitting in a cafe, I now do it with intention. I carry a sketch book with me always as a reminder to observe the world around me. It’s fascinating when I go back to my older sketchbooks, the memories of the moment, captured in a sketch come to the forefront. Unlike taking a picture with a camera, when you sketch you are forced to observe and see what is in front of you.
So I challenge you, wherever you are right now, take a few moments, close your eyes, and when you open them, draw, sketch or describe in text the first person you see. As an artist, there are an unlimited number of subjects right in front of us, if we choose to see them!
"The Meaning of Life is to see." Hui Neng (7th Century China)
"Take a Life Drawing Class!"
When I studied Architecture so many years ago, we, as part of our curriculum participated in a few life drawing classes. For those of you who don’t know what a life drawing class is, you basically attend a class with an instructor, or as a non –instructed open workshop, where a model (usually nude) is provided for you to draw. The point being, to train and develop hand-eye coordination to convey what you see physically in front of you to your drawing, sketch or painting.
In my opinion, life drawing is the most important part of an artist’s training. Life drawing is where you develop the skills required to convey what you see in front of you to paper or canvas. This is where you learn about gesture, proportion, line, shading and tone. As an Architect, you have to be able to conceptualize an idea in sketch form as a part of your development of a design. Drawing and sketching is an important part of the tool kit that the Architect has at their disposal to develop an idea and convey it to a client. Life drawing teaches you how to see and about visual communication.
The great thing about life drawing is that it affords the opportunity for total expressive freedom to experiment and explore different techniques and materials. Depending on the class you take, there may or may not be an instructor to guide you. I recommend for beginners that you attend an instructed class as the teacher will introduce you to many different approaches to drawing. As you become more comfortable with life drawing, open workshops are available at most art schools where the artist is totally free to explore their own approaches to the subject matter. Life drawing classes can be be quiet, contemplative, fun and engaging.
I recently joined an open workshop at the Ottawa School of Art. It was over 20 years since I last attended a life drawing class. The workshop was actually a Christmas gift to my daughter who is building her portfolio to apply to art college. Participating together in a life drawing workshop enables her to her to sharpen her drawing skills, build her portfolio and for me to spend some quality time with my daughter (Maybe a bit self-serving but I love spending 3-4 hours with my daughter every Monday evening).
The other nice thing about life drawing is that anything goes as far as materials. You can pretty much play with any materials you like - ink, pencil, crayons, pencil crayons, oils, acrylics watercolours and even an iPad. You have to check out some of the iPad Apps like Sketchbook Pro or Brushes - They are awesome! I decided that my materials of choice would be a small moleskin sketchbook and I would draw using only a fountain pen. This means that any mistake I make, I either have to work with it or abandon that sketch and move on - no erasing allowed!. If you are a beginner, start with a pencil, charcoal, conte and an inexpensive sketchbook or a pad of newsprint. You can pick up a drawing kit at your local art store including a sketchbook, set of pencils, a sharpener and kneaded eraser often for less than twenty bucks. I personally love the moleskin sketchbooks but they are a bit expensive. Most life drawing classes recommend inexpensive newsprint paper and charcoal or conte for drawing - its way cheaper and the drawings become less precious - if you make a mistake, who cares!
I have to admit, getting back into life drawing after so many years, I was a touch intimidated - my drawing skills were very rusty. Over the last decade or so, hand sketching has pretty much disappeared in the architectural world having given way to computer aided design and drafting. Personally, I really miss the hands on feeling of sketching on rolls of trace paper with a fat marker! Needless to say, I was really nervous - kind of bizarre considering I have been painting for so many years. So if you are a beginner artist and feel nervous about joining a class because you are worried that you may not be able to draw, well, join the club! Even the most seasoned artists will have off days where their drawings suck big time! One thing for sure though, once you get started and the first couple poses have been sketched and under your belt, you will find that you totally become so engrossed in what you are doing, it really doesn’t matter how well you draw. Its about the doing, not the final product. You will also soon realize everyone feels the same way.
Sketching and life drawing is very meditative. Frederick Franck calls sketching a “moving meditation”. He is so on the mark with that association - life drawing is very much a meditation. You become so hyper focused on the task at hand that all your problems, challenges at work or in life take a back seat. You will leave the life drawing session feeling relaxed, totally calm and refreshed - and you likely will have a sketch or two that you will really like to boot!
So I highly recommend taking a life drawing class. Go on your own, or take a friend. You will likely meet lots of new friends. You will exercise those drawing muscles you may have thought didn’t exist. You may find, as I have, that life drawing and sketching is very meditative. Take a class at your local art school or check out the local arts community. You may find that your city has organized events in commercial galleries, studios or even at a local tavern! The pub at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto has the longest running life drawing class in the city dating back to 1957. In fact tomorrow night the Gladstone is hosting an event called “Paintbrush in my Wine” – not a life drawing class but a painting class - pretty self explanatory. There are “Drink and Draws” in New York and “Sip and Sketch” events many cities out there. Lots of opportunities to get out there to meet new people, have fun and sketch.
So get out there and take that life drawing class. You won’t regret it, and it will teach you to see the world around you in a completely different light.
Go Draw!!
"The Art Habit"
I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked “where do you find the time to paint?” It’s one of those questions that I never really had an answer for. Janice usually pipes in at this moment that I pretty much sketch draw or paint every day. Well, that is not exactly true, but it is close. Now that I think about it, it really is quite remarkable that I find the time. We have an incredibly busy household. Janice and I have very demanding careers, raised five kids, are involved with sports (both mine and kids), do yoga several times a week, I am learning the banjo and we have a busy social life. I fit my artwork and my writing into a pretty crazy schedule.
When I sat down and actually thought about it, I guess the only answer that comes to mind is that I have created "habits". We all are creatures of habits, both good and bad. I certainly have my share of bad habits, and I, like everyone else, have tried to make yearly resolutions but failed. I have however, been able to create a few, what I would consider to be, really good habits - well habits that make me happier at least. I am certainly no different than anyone else out there when it comes to habits, goals and resolutions.
For example, I used to be a pretty serious runner in my twenties. I ran half marathons and participated in several 24 hour relay races from Jasper Alberta to Banff and from Banff to Calgary. I stopped after a knee injury. My youngest daughter at 17 is currently training for a marathon. I seriously considered joining her, but now that I have passed the 50 milestone, as much as I would like to run, getting out there and actually doing it seems insurmountable. I can do it for a few days but then it just stops. Interestingly enough, when we downsized to a condo last year, I decided to ditch the car. I now have no vehicle and as a matter of principal I avoid our overpriced transit system like the plague. The result is that I walk and bike everywhere. I can’t develop the running habit yet am able to walk or bike a few hours each day. My foot/bike commute has become a habit - one that I now cherish.
I started playing guitar a few years ago when I was in my late forties. My high school aged daughter was taking guitar lessons at the Ottawa Folklore Centre - she was dating a pretty talented musician at the time. I guess the music didn’t grab her or she just found the process frustrating and decided to take a break from her lessons for her summer vacation. Knowing how difficult it is to get a good time slot, I decided I would take her lessons for the summer just to reserve her lesson time for the following school year. Long story short, she never took it up again and I just kept going with the lessons. Music certainly did not come easy to me. I am NOT a natural musician by any stretch of the imagination and I found it very frustrating. It took me a good year to actually do a bar chord. I loved it though. My guitar sat in our living room next to the couch and I pretty much picked it up every evening and just farted around with it. I found it very relaxing. I am sure I drove my family nuts but I certainly enjoyed it. I would play for five, ten, fifteen minutes or sometimes longer and just went into my own little world. Fast forward 4 years and I still play every day - not very well, but I can play a bunch of tunes......sort of. Haha, lucky for you it is highly unlikely that I will be playing in public for the foreseeable future! I now am torturing my family with the banjo I picked up on my 50th birthday - a gift to myself! The long and the short of it is that I created a habit - the habit of picking up my guitar and/or banjo every day.
A number of years ago I temporarily hung my hockey skates up after a number of injuries to my lower back. Janice was taking yoga classes at the time and she dragged me along to a class. This was way before it was the trendy activity that yoga is now, and there were very few men in the classes. It was kind of a date thing for Janice and I. It was around a year later and I was actively practicing yoga when I went to New York to visit my brother, who immediately took me to a Bikram class - Big macho hockey playing guys were both taking yoga for over a year and never told each other! I found it really amusing that we had never let each other in on our little secrets. Needless to say, if you go to a yoga studio today, the numbers are pretty much equal between guys and girls. What resonated with me with yoga is that the instructors always talked about it as a “practice”. A practice for each day. A practice that becomes a lifestyle. I now meditate and do some form of yoga most days. It has become a very important part of my life. I wanted to spend time with Janice and this was something we could do together. Before I realized it I had created myself a new habit.
So now when I am asked how I find the time to draw and paint my response is that it is a habit. I no longer own a television to distract me. I choose to sketch, paint, read and write over watching TV. I prefer to actively participate in an activity than to be a spectator. I sketch most days. I carry a small pocket sized sketchbook and my trusty Lamy fountain pen in my pocket always. I have reduced my art studio to a small 5x7 pochade kit for my oil sketches and a pocket watercolour set for sketching. Reducing my studio to something that fits into a nap-sac gives me the flexibility to sketch draw or paint anytime, anywhere. It has become a daily activity no different than playing guitar, walking to work or practicing meditation and yoga. I just do it. I don’t have to think about it. I simply have created the Art Habit!
What is your habit?
"So You Want To Be An Artist........."
“So you want to be an artist........“As in a starving artist........”You really aren’t that good you know........”Nice hobby........"You make a living doing this?”........“What exactly are you going to do with an art diploma?”.........“Why are you wasting your time - go outside and get some exercise!”.........“You should really stop wasting your life and go into High Tech.”........“You need to take a couple years and find your voice.”...........and my personal favourite from a dealer in Toronto: “You really should go back to school and learn to paint.”
WOW! When I think back on all the naysaying over the years, its amazing that I still paint. What is even scarier is that these comments are from people I know....well!
It reminds me of the old Harry Chapin tune where a child who paints flowers all the colours of the rainbow only to have his/her creativity driven out of them by a well-meaning teacher. German art theorist Rudolph Arnheim once stated that “every child entering grade school in this country embarks on a twelve to twenty year aesthetic alienation.” We drive the creativity out. We rationalize that these are frivolous children's activities and there is no place for them in our rational society.
I would say the same holds true today. The first programs cut in schools under the guise of fiscal restraint are art and music programs. The number of liberal arts universities and visual arts schools in particular, have dropped significantly in North America over the last two decades only to be replaced with Science and Engineering based programs - all to address global competitiveness and economic concerns . The remaining fine arts programs are becoming more technology based to cater to new industry sectors - CGI and the gaming industries immediately come to mind. I am not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, there is some very cool sh*t out there. I am simply pointing out that it is becoming more and more difficult to study the traditional fine art of hands-on drawing painting and sculpture. Even in my career in Architecture, the craft of drawing has pretty much disappeared. The ability of young graduates, with a Masters level degree, to actually draw, is quickly going the way of the Dodo. The technology has replaced the art. Laser scanning has replaced traditional mapping out and drawing. The computer takes care of all issues to do with perspective. There is not a single drafting table in the office that I am currently working and you very seldom actually see Architects (with the exception of us older farts) sketching any more. I really miss that hands on creative energy that came with drawing as you design.
So what does all this have to do with the comments at the top? EVERYTHING!
Every artist will tell you that their art is in their blood. Whether it is drawing, painting, sculpture, music or whatever, their art or craft makes up their very essence. Being an artist however requires a really thick skin and amazing staying power. There is no end to the line of well meaning critics out there that will pass on their opinion and usurp your passion. Societally we have become more conservative at the expense of the liberal and fine arts. Our cultural institutions are hemorrhaging. It is increasingly difficult to gain access to traditional galleries. All of these factors makes it extremely challenging for artists. It makes one wonder why anyone would want to be an artist in this day and age.
That being said, on the flip side, it is not all doom and gloom out there. Yes it does seem that we artists were on a bit of a sinking ship but there is this wonderful thing out there called the internet. A new frontier has opened up - one that is hugely exciting for artists. With every door that closes, there is a new opportunity that presents itself, and there are a lot of artists taking note.
My observations of the new (well not that new) phenomena of blogs and online websites are that the traditional fine arts actually have a new home. There are some absolutely amazing things going on in the virtual art world, right now, that we all can participate. There are some very cool online projects out there with participation by artists world wide. The two that I have actively participated and I highly recommend you check out are the following sites - sketchbookproject.com and sketchcrawl.com. These are two sites dedicated to the tradition of drawing and sketching where thousands of artists worldwide participate in a specific art project.
Sketchcrawl.com is a call to artists worldwide to go out and urban sketch on site and on the same day. The artists then post their results to a blog for all to see. The sketchbook project is the brainchild of a few artists in Brooklyn NY where they send out thousands of sketchbooks to artists worldwide to fill and return to an art library in Brooklyn. These are truly awesome concepts. I have discovered that there are thousands of like minded people out there that absolutely love art as much as I do.
So when someone asks me if I want to be an artist, my answer is Hell Ya! I love to draw and paint. Thats what I do. If I had listened to all the negative speak over the years I would have packed it in long ago. I don’t make much money through my art, but I do make some. What I love the most is the thrill I get when someone drops me a note asking me why I missed posting a new painting - that they missed it. Or when I am asked when my next drawing class will be held - because they enjoyed my last one. Or when I am totally stressed out at work and I stop at a local coffee shop and sketch in my pocket sketchbook (I carry it everywhere) and people want to know if I am writing or sketching - they want to see. Or when I see my sketchbook is traveling through six cities in the USA and Canada as part of the SketchBook Project and will find it’s permanent home in a art library in Brooklyn. This is why I paint, and draw, and why I want to share with this blog. This is why I am an artist.
And as for that dealer in Toronto that told me I should go back to school to learn to paint - Six of the ten paintings I showed him that day were sold online within two months, and the other four out of my studio shortly thereafter.
Keep Painting!
