Books are a good thing. Books are going away, as we know them. Really ? Would we allow that to happen ? Newspapers are dying, book stores and libraries are closing. And nobody seems to care. The world of paper is being given up to the world of electronics. Saves some trees, I guess, but…

What is failure in art ? How can an artist fail ? Isn’t the very nature of art to create something that did not exist before ? If you create it, how does it fail ? Who has the right to tell you, the creator, that it is not worthy, it is not art ? …

Tension is important in art, sports, and life. Tension in sports and life build strength, endurance, and character. In art and photography, tension is right up there with great light and fearless composition in importance as to how the viewer’s eye is grabbed, held or moved, within or out of a frame. Tension is often…

According to Webster’s, to struggle is to resist opposition, to progress with effort or difficulty. Most artists struggle on a daily basis, resisting opinions, criticism, negativity [jealousy], trends, advice, etc. Artists constantly struggle between time, materials, learning their subject, finding their voice, new directions, the next level, an alternative path. Art is a struggle; art…

It is the end of the year. Another one in the can. Personal artistic inventory time. Was it a good year, as in productive, creative, and challenging for your art? Did you do anything different this year? Did you challenge yourself to grow as an artist? Did you do what you said you were going…

Do you have a creative palette? What does it consist of? What makes your work different from everyone else? What makes you who you are as an artist? What makes your artistic vision / voice extraordinary, unique? What ingredients do you play with? What actually goes into your work? Where does your art come from? …

I talk more about black and white than I do about color. I love black and white, the traditional darkroom, and the smell of hypo in the morning! I guess that makes me a black and white guy. I really do appreciate and enjoy color, don’t get me wrong, but I get more emotionally involved…

Artists must be fearless. Period. Fearless with light, composition, approach to subject matter, and process. It has been said that no passion so effectively robs the mind of all of its powers as fear. We must be strong and confident in our work and methodology. The energy that you give out is the energy that…

What is art? Is this the ultimate rhetorical question? Who decides whether or not something qualifies as “art”? Is one man’s art another man’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich ? Irving Penn said that a piece of cake could be art and he sold photographs of cigarette butts found on the street as art. Warhol…

As an artist you must always push yourself, take chances, look into the dark, challenge your unknown. Put yourself at risk, not in comfort with your art. Frances Bacon said that he worked much better in chaos and that “chaos breeds images”! He even painted on the unprimed, backside of canvas because the image was…

Most artists are emotional, passionate, stubborn, and extremely volatile. Many are unhappy, disreputable, self-centered, egotistical, and very demanding. There is an adage in the commercial world, “assholes and cream rise to the top”. Often this is painfully true. Doesn’t make it right. The truth is that the world tends to forgive and even overlook transgressions…

If you are truly an artist, it’s all about the journey. It’s never about the destination, because you never really arrive, do you ? There is always the next level, a new direction, another experiment, a variation in technique or process, a complete change of subject matter and / or approach, the “mistake” that leads…

Passion takes on many forms. It can be fruit, sex, artistic intensity. Good to eat, great in the bedroom, dangerously necessary in the art world. Yes, it is a dog eat dog world and a passionate artist is self-consuming, almost by definition. So, how do you not consume yourself ? How do you not destroy…

Most photographers are control freaks. Obsessive, detail oriented, consumed. They need to be in total control and are uncomfortable, unsatisfied, and unfulfilled otherwise. Most photographers are also perfectionists. Why? Do we live in a perfect world? Why do so many artists strive for consummate perfection in their work? Who determined perfection as a goal? Perfection…

K-Mart went to Vogue, or did Vogue go to K-Mart? Doesn’t matter. The reality is that K-Mart has a four page spread in the September, 2010 issue of Vogue Magazine. I know we are living in times when a lot of things don’t make sense but isn’t there something wrong with this picture? It wasn’t…

About growing old. Don’t. Refuse. Basta ! Who said you had to grow up? Artists should gain wisdom, experience, and technique over time while remaining forever young at heart. Uninhibited. Free. No rules. Fearless. Crazy. Chaotic. Always playing. Like a kid again. Creating with reckless abandon. Kids don’t hold back, they know no boundaries, they…

You’ve all heard about the box. Thinking outside of the box. Performing outside of the box. What about the box, exactly what is it? The box is what everyone else has done that pertains to your area of interest. The box encompasses your specific subject matter (ex. portraiture, still life, landscapes, narrative, tableau …) including…

Journals. Keep them. Write in them. Refer to them. Collect information in them. Information is going away. Information and imagery stored in electronic devices disappears. It implodes. It goes to cyber-hell and is lost. Finished. Basta. No more. We live in the age of electronic everything. and we can access more information than ever, yet…