Naming “creative generalism” just lightened my heart and I sure wish I’d have landed on it myself, as a concept, as it would have prevented years of anguish about not seeming to have any focus with my art.
My husband and I have been doing art for 25 years now. We started off doing murals, clouds on kids ceilings, faux finishes back when that was a hot gig, then ventured into steel sculpture, eventually adding glass elements to it, then in 2019 we bought a Tattoo Shop lol. Regrettably, tragedy struck when I suffered a retinal detachment in 2021. I’ve lost most functional vision in my left eye and live with warped vision. There are no straight lines in my world anymore. Not where the road meets the sidewalk or where the wall meets the ceiling or on lined paper … obviously I have not joined the crew at the Tattoo Shop along with my husband and daughter because of this. I still very much enjoy mix media stuff and everything tends to wind up being an explosion of a floral collage. I’ve also started teaching girls aged 8 to 18 from my community twice a month on Thursday nights, helping them create boldly and confidently. I’ve just recently been inspired to write, as my husband pointed out once I tend to use a lot of stream of consciousness “storytelling“ as a background in some of my pieces. I’m 58, and sometimes I get stuck in my head thinking that I’ve never focused on one thing enough to really become recognizable as an artist. At the end of the day, I torture myself more than is necessary. A creative generalist is very freeing.❤️
What a great gift for your mom! I'm so glad I got to share in it. There are too may parts that spoke to me to mention. That Epstein line had me laughing out loud! So much inspiration here - I'm going to grab me some consistency today, and maybe place a few extra Field Notes books around the house. Thanks, Dave❣️
we are so aligned - thank you for this - telling my students tonight "Consistency must be scheduled"
I love that. Please do.
My son, my mentor! Thank you so much! Can't wait to discuss more. Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Happy to help.
Great weekend with you all! I am working on it and I have some questions. Talk tomorrow.
Such a wonderful post. Yes, parts of it sting, but not in a bad way and exactly in the right places. Thank you Dave 🙏
Naming “creative generalism” just lightened my heart and I sure wish I’d have landed on it myself, as a concept, as it would have prevented years of anguish about not seeming to have any focus with my art.
My husband and I have been doing art for 25 years now. We started off doing murals, clouds on kids ceilings, faux finishes back when that was a hot gig, then ventured into steel sculpture, eventually adding glass elements to it, then in 2019 we bought a Tattoo Shop lol. Regrettably, tragedy struck when I suffered a retinal detachment in 2021. I’ve lost most functional vision in my left eye and live with warped vision. There are no straight lines in my world anymore. Not where the road meets the sidewalk or where the wall meets the ceiling or on lined paper … obviously I have not joined the crew at the Tattoo Shop along with my husband and daughter because of this. I still very much enjoy mix media stuff and everything tends to wind up being an explosion of a floral collage. I’ve also started teaching girls aged 8 to 18 from my community twice a month on Thursday nights, helping them create boldly and confidently. I’ve just recently been inspired to write, as my husband pointed out once I tend to use a lot of stream of consciousness “storytelling“ as a background in some of my pieces. I’m 58, and sometimes I get stuck in my head thinking that I’ve never focused on one thing enough to really become recognizable as an artist. At the end of the day, I torture myself more than is necessary. A creative generalist is very freeing.❤️
Thanks for sharing your story, Mary Elizabeth. My publication may be titled Creative Generalist, but by all means, use the title freely for yourself
What a great gift for your mom! I'm so glad I got to share in it. There are too may parts that spoke to me to mention. That Epstein line had me laughing out loud! So much inspiration here - I'm going to grab me some consistency today, and maybe place a few extra Field Notes books around the house. Thanks, Dave❣️
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading.
What an incredible gift to your mother during Mother’s Day Week! My favorite part was stashing journals around the house like reading glasses. 🤗🙌
Legitimately, I’m buying her a bunch of Field Notes notebooks for Mother’s Day. Thanks, Jen.
Perfect!