Case for Not Setting "Goals"

It might sound like a strange topic but do we really need goals to succeed? Most of you (and I) will say, of course! This quote by Bill Copeland  puts it very succinctly:

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score”! 

Without goals we will just float around and have no anchor to hold us to a vision! Our goals might be small or big, but I would say that we do need them, right?

Well, I came across an article in a blog I follow (Zenhabits), which states that we really don't need a goal to succeed! Actually, according to the author, setting goals limit us and binds us to a single path and kills spontaneity. Having a goal that was relevant for us a year for even weeks before, might not be relevant anymore. And doggedly following that goal will only make us miserable! This quote by the author sums up the crux of the whole article"

"Being liberated from goals means you will always be excited about what you’re doing. And yes, you’ll accomplish things. You’ll get somewhere great — you just might not have known you’d ever end up there when you started."-Zenhabits

The Zenhabits author, instead asks us to "focus" on what we want and that will help us get it (um, we need something to focus on : a goal, perhaps?). By being excited about something is enough to get it done! 


I find this article contradictory. Focus to me is the handmaiden of goals. We need something to focus on! Maybe what the author means, is that we should not "laminate" our goals and put it on the mantle? That we should leave some room to evolve and as we change so would our goals? I agree  that we should stay flexible but  I can't agree that setting goals should be chucked all together! Specially for simple mortals like myslef! Without a beacon I would just flounder and probably sleep all day!!

So, what do you think? Should we set goals for ourselves or learn the art of "focusing" to get what we want?

Accidental Artist

Are artists born? Or are they made? I have been dwelling on this question, on and off for a long time......Was Leonardo born an artist? Cezanne left his job to become an artist.......Did these artists (and many many others) knew what they wanted from the very beginning or art somehow sneaked into their lives? I can assure you, I am no closer to the answer than I was 5 years ago..... But I have come to the realization that art making is the result of an unique temperament. A temperament that seeks something out of ordinary! Whose daily existence is infused with excitement for creating something new..... I have always felt an unfulfillment in whatever I was doing. There was always an yearning for something "more". My parents always told me that, this was because I had ADD!! It never occurred to them or myself that maybe my imaginations needed an outlet and without  the outlet it festered and made me feel disconnected from  the world around me!

Candies, 18"x18", Oil on Canvas

When at last I stumbled into art, I found a a measure of peace. I could leave home without leaving at all! I could lose myself in daydreams without seeming dimwitted. And being paid for my dreams, is an added bonus!!  I wonder how other artists feel... Did all of them know, they wanted to be an artist from the time they could hold a pencil? Or was it a slow realization? Or was it something like what happened to me? Like suddenly colliding with art and losing oneself? I know this post is sort of a  rambling one and I might not be making much sense...... But I really want to know how you feel about it....... How did you become an artist?

Painting with Pigments-Pastel

I am a restless soul. I wish I was not..... I wish I was one of those people who are  consistent in their art. I, on the other hand thrive on challenge. Just when I started to feel I am sort of getting comfortable doing mixed media paintings/collages, I jumped into a completely new medium, Pastel!! I was a pastel "virgin", so to say! Never really worked with this medium before. We had to take pastel in collage as a mandatory course but I am sorry to say, I learned nothing from that class! First of all the teacher was not enthusiastic and as a result the course was more like a chore rather than being a pleasurable experience!

I wanted to really learn this medium and thankfully I met Claudia Post, a master pastelist, exhibiting  at the same gallery where I show my work! Under her guidance, I am learning so much!! I had no idea that you can actually paint with pastel! We used turpentine with pastel to actually block in the shapes before we went into the" pastel"(hatching, scribbling, pointillism, etc) aspect. Once washed with turp, the under painting doesn't look that different from a oil painting in its initial stage.......I learned that pastel can be used as flatly or  as texturally  as we want!

I love to draw, so  drawing with color appeals to me!. Combining my love of color and drawing to create an artwork seems like best of  both worlds. The fact that soft pastels are mainly pure pigments, can give a painitng such depth that it fascinates me! It is just a start but I am going to pursue the medium till I get comfortable with it and its many nuances. The  response I am getting for my pastel work is very encouraging and that will keep me going! Not that I will stop my mixed media works! It will always be my primary medium..... They appeal to me for completely different reasons! I can use unrelated objects to make a cohesive painting and at the same time do my share, in a very small way, to recycle products that has been relegated to trash.....It is such a cerebral enterprise, like solving a puzzle and who doesn't like puzzles??

Onto the studio for me and a happy creative week to you!

Pear and Citrus 12"x16", Pastel, 2011

Arrangement in Blues, 12"x16", Pastel, 2011

Green Jar, 11x14", Pastel, 2011

Creeping Shadows, 8"x10", Pastel, 2011

Overcoming Pricing Pain

Pricing a painting is painful. I am always at a loss about how to price my work. I can never figure out whether I am under pricing or over pricing.....Theoretically I know what I should be doing when pricing a piece. But when it comes right down to it, it is always hard. Most of us would rather just make art and not worry about the business end of it, but sadly we gotta make a living out of our art!

I think the first thing we should try when pricing is  to distance ourselves from our work.We should look around and figure out how other artists with our experience level (and doing similar works) are pricing their work. I mean, in the end people not only pays for a particular piece of art but our past accomplishments/experience as well. They want to feel they are not only getting a piece of art but also getting  bang for their buck. They want to invest in an artist who has been around for a while. We have to practically judge our standing in  the community where we are marketting our art and then price our's competively. My mom might think my painting should be priced in thousands, but seriously unless I am taking a broader view of the art community I am  are just setting up myself for failure.

I don't know about others but many times I end up pricing my art proportional to my emotional attachment to it. Just because an artwork has a special meaning to me, does not mean a thing to the dealers or customers! If we do that, we might end up looking like amateurs. This is something I am trying hard to overcome. If I charge $500 for a little painting because I love it and $300 for another, it will just make me look silly!  I have come up with a way to deal with this dilemma: I just don't put the work I am particularly attached to up  for sale! I assign it as "Artists Collection". Ingenuous, huh?!!

Over pricing can be avoided but what about under pricing? Specially emerging artists like myself tend to under price their work. We want to please the buyer and make a sale and end up treating our work as orphans! Again I think the best way to price is to look around and find out what artists of our experience/niche are charging.

 Recently, I chanced upon a way to price my work! What I am doing is actually giving myself a salary. If I charge say, $20 an hour and spend 10 hrs on an work, the price of the work will be about $200. And we might also want to add the cost of materials. That's a sensible approach, even though a little depressing. But when you are an emerging artist, you have to start somewhere. When I have acquired that experience and that CV, I will probably end up with a different formula to price my work.

 I was talking to another artist a few days ago, and  she told me how she prices her work. She calculates the square inches and multipiels that by 4 and comes up with the price. So, if the work is say 10x10, the price is 100x4=400. Of course there is always a little twicking involved. It seems like a practical way to do things!
So there! I would really like to know how you price your work.  Maybe that will give me some clues on pricing......!

Give Up, "Giving Up"

I am a quitter. I admit it! I give up all the time! Heck, one of my resolution for 2011 is to give up giving up! I quit dieting because I did not shed that 10 lbs I have been trying to lose for last 10 years......I quit art every other day when things don't go well! And so forth! But I think I have figured out how to keep myself grounded! These are few of the things I am trying out when I feel hopeless and ready to give up!

1.Walk away When  going gets rough and my head is ready to explode, I just try to walk away. Leave my studio and recharge my batteries.Take some time off to regain my composure. The distance really helps. I read and watch movies. I read somewhere reading novels and watching movies are the best ways to forget "self"! And that's what I have been doing! By virtue of our profession, I think we never really get a vacation! So I just give myself forced vacation where I don't' even allow me to come near my studio! By walking away I get a fresh take on things and stuff don't seem so`` hopeless!

2. Accountability Whether we like it or not, our actions affect others.And that can be a positive thing too.When I am feeling like chucking it all and walking away for good, I just think about how many people I will disappoint!. My husband is my biggest cheerleader and he had put me through art school at  great expense and sacrifice! And if I just quit, I will disappoint him the most! This is one of the most important motivator for me to do well. I want him to feel that he had not sacrificed in vain! I am sure there are people in everyone's life they don't want to disappoint. Maybe this is what they call accountability?!

3. Non perfection: All right, that might not be good English but this is what I am trying to say: giving up that desire for perfection can actually make us happier! At least that is one of my problems. When I am doing something I want it to be flawless! I  always have this picture in my head about how a finished work should look like! And when it does not,  it disappoints me. If this keeps happening a number of time, then I am on the verge of chucking the project all together. But, I am trying to focus more on the process than on the result. I hope this will reduce my disappointment if the work does not turn out as I want.

4. Baby Steps: Like I mentioned, I have this vision about what a painting will look like even before I have begun it! I think when we have a goal like that, it makes it harder on us and every time we don't realize the goal we feel bad about ourselves. But if we focused only on the task at hand and not try to obsess about the result , we might not feel like quitting! Taking small step towards big goals can be helpful because it would not overwhelm! I have to really try that.....Compartmentalization , I think is the answer. I just hope I will take my own advice!

I have these little rules right in front of my desk so that whenever I am feeling like quitting, I can look up and see what I need to do! I have not quit blogging yet, see? They  just might work!What are your strategies? Let me know! Soon again, my friends!

Ways to Deal with Creative Funk

I have been in a creative funk all this week!! Seriously! All I have been doing is chatting on facebook and twitting! That too halfheartedly! The continuous onslaught of snow storms has not helped either!! After wallowing in self pity and lethargy, it dawned on me, that if I don't pull myslef out of this abyss, no one will! And I resorted to my true and tested methods of getting out of funk! I am not saying these are "methods to get your creativity going", but they seem to work for me! I thought I would share them with you too!

1. Read, Read, Read!  This is something that almost always gets me out of my lethargy! Popular novels  relaxes by taking my mind off daily cares! Heck when you are fighting Vampires and werewolves, who has time to worry about unpaid bills? Most importantly the books that are truly inspirational to me are my art history books! If you have read my blogs, you know that I am an art history buff! I even did a minor in art history! At this time I am reading a couple of books; one is What makes a Masterpiece, edited by Christopher Dell and another is Women, Art and Society by Whitney Chadwick. Jeez, those chicks had to really fight to get accaptance and to be able to do what they loved!! Wasting away precious time when I have been lucky enough to do what I love, seemed like blashphemy! This book was like a quick kick to  my backside!!

2. Spy, Spy! Yup, I browse the internet and spy on other artists to get myself going! Also I visit the museums and galleries to see what everyone is up to! When you  see everyone else is creating amazing art and all you are doing  is wandering the halls in  pajamas, it only makes you feel like a loser! Looking at other artists successes is the best way to start myself going!Okay, I admit, I suffer from artists envy! But it can be a good thing specially when I am being a mope!

3. Clean Clean Clean! Giving my studio and kitchen a good cleaning always makes me feel better! A cluttered studio, most of the time makes for a cluttered mind! So I cleaned my studio, and since I was in  the mood, I cleaned the kitchen too! With everything spruced up, my spirit uplifted and I felt like I can take on the world!
4. Supplies! Yeah, shopping for supplies gets me going! I don't know any artist who doesnt feel excited in an art store! As I am lucky to have an ASW store within 30 miles from my home, I spent a few hours there! After spending a few hundred bucks, you can't really not work in a good concience! Ahh, the smell of turpentine and linseed oil, the touch of paper and canvas! Sure fire way to get into creative bliss. A little expensive to get into it but heck, when you are feeling like I was, it is worth it!

5. Diversify! I have been working with mixed media collages at this time..... Since I have been feeling a little bereft of ideas, I decided to focus on separate medium to get myself excited! By doing drawings and little pastel works, I felt my spirit lifted! Pastel is a completely new medium for me and working with  pastel excited me so much, I forgot to mope!! In other words, when feeling creatively bankrupt, it is always helpful to delve into some other medium. The newer the medium the better! As artists we get so excited when mastering a new medium, it gets our creative juices flowing!

Temptation, Oil on Canvas, Ishita Bandyo

I am not saying these are going to work for everyone. But they work for me most of the time! And if it helps you a little all the better! Heck, if nothing works, then there is always candy to give us a sugar kick!! Until next time! Ciao.

Charcoal/Graphite

Head of a Horse, Graphite on Bristol Paper

Head of a Man, Charcoal on Paper

I think each artist chooses their medium because it suits their personality. I would sometime wonder why some one decides to work with graphic mediums and not delve in the beauty of color? But I now understand that some material appeals to our inner soul and that becomes our tools to express.

I have been doing some cast drawings for last couple of months, to keep my drawing skills going and have been using charcoal for that purpose. The rich black darks that you can get with charcoal is fabulous. Its velvety and smooth and makes a drawing striking with its richness. But one trouble that I have been having, is that, I can't get the smooth transition from one value to the next.I want the transition to be seamless! I have been asked, why would I want that, since the drawings are good as they are! But the thing is I want to learn how to do it! Even if I never do it again after I have mastered the technique!!

I decided to try graphite and see if I will be able to get that smooth transition through this medium. And viola! I could! I should be happy right? I wans'nt! I missed that darkness achieved through charcoal! The values transitioned beautifully in graphite but it didn't matter!I want my dark! I tried stumping and that gave me some richness but still it was not as dark as I would like to have! I guess, I can't have both at the same time! Or I need to seek out teachers who can help me with that! Sigh! Decide for yourself and your comments would be very helpful!