Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letter
Insight and inspiration for your artistic career.

Dear Artist,

Yesterday, Bela Fidel of Scottsdale, Arizona wrote: "For the past few years I have been literally squeezing work out of myself. Ideas don't come and, hence, don't flow. I "tear" them away from wherever they are. Connection with the work is a luxury. I have even asked my spiritual guides for help. I don't take much time to quiet down. I don't trust my inner juices. How can I sit and quiet down if I need that time to squeeze work out? How can I relax if my brain is busy trying to cook the next painting, and the next?"

Thanks, Bela. I'd say you're an idealist in a self-examining and seeking mode--eager to connect and provide value to a fragile world. Congratulations.

Bela paints in a range of experimental styles and directions which she makes into reproductions and offers on the Internet. Her work includes oils and encaustics, abstracts and dream-like fantasies as well as tributes to flight, endangered species, and spiritual motifs drawn from Jewish and other mythologies.

Evolving artists often encounter a "crisis of belief." This means a failure of belief in the possibility of one's art connecting and being worthwhile, as well as belief in oneself as a creative dynamo. This crisis, which can lead to inertia and outright failure, is the penalty that comes with knowledge and understanding. It was ever thus, and it's part of the evolution of cultures.

To get those juices back artists need to reinstate a kind of blind faith in their mission and their capabilities. This may require some modification of goals and a shot of self-deception. While self-managed relaxation and re-centring may be necessary, more than anything it requires a resorting of priorities. Some artists opt for the maximum joy they can attain from the work itself, rather than trying to save the world. If all else fails there is always beauty. There's something to be said for beauty. Other artists see shallowness in beauty manufacture, and try to put more meaning and purpose into their work. We humans are marked by our capability of reinventing ourselves, and time and time again we evolve by these decisions.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "I'm in constant search for my truest expression. Each painting takes me to roads traveled and worlds unknown and provides challenges for growth and humility." (Bela Fidel)

Esoterica: It's been my observation that the cooking of idea-driven art turns out either over-cooked or half-baked. I'm not sure why this is, except that themes can be too much in your face. Take, for example, the commendable passion that many of us have for the fate of endangered species. Did you ever stop to wonder whether a realistic rendering of a beluga whale might work as well as a bloody picture of people cutting one up? These are the sorts of questions we need to ask, and they don't always lead to the sorts of answers we want to hear.

If you would like to read more information related to the above letter please visit the Where's the juice? clickback


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