Category Archives: Arts education

Branding

Written after reading another shameless suggestion that artists NEED brands. And apologies in advance for being such an ass. I think brands are just fine for the people who do prefer to work that way. That can be an honest … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Arts advocacy, Arts education, Creative industry, Creativity, Imagination, metacognition, Wittgenstein | 7 Comments

“What gets you up in the morning?” and other wisdom from the Linda Christianson workshop, acts one and two

A few weekends ago I had the good fortune to attend a workshop offered by Linda Christianson. She is not a stranger to me. She was, in fact, my teacher back in the day. Could that really have been almost … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Arts education, Ceramics, Creative industry, Creativity, Imagination, metacognition, Pottery | 2 Comments

The Darwinian fate of Dreams, redux

My blog just blew up yesterday as someone shared an essay written some 4 years ago. Thanks whoever you are! Its a good essay about the precarious lives creative people have, written after my worst ever sale. I encourage you … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Arts advocacy, Arts education, Beauty, Creative industry, Creativity, Ephemera, Imagination, metacognition | Leave a comment

More like Shakespeare

I was imagining that some folks who actually do well selling art would take my last post as an indictment of how they got there. The post had some general observations and conclusions that could be applied widely, but as … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Arts education, Beauty, Creative industry, metacognition | 2 Comments

How to parent artists

I’m not going to tell you there’s a right way of doing it, but there are different ways. We each have to answer these questions ourselves. Only, there are values we can hold that lead us in one direction and … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Arts education, Creative industry, Creativity, Imagination, metacognition, Pottery, Teaching | 2 Comments

Repost: Is the value of art a material object?

First posted August 16th, 2012 as “Is the value of pottery a material object?” (See the comments there for some good discussion. Feel free to add a new thread here 🙂 ) ———————————————————- The funny thing I’ve noticed in my time … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Arts advocacy, Arts education, Beauty, Ceramics, Creative industry, Creativity, Imagination, metacognition, Pottery, Teaching | 4 Comments

A Short And Fanciful History Of Value

I just posted this as a response in the comments to that guest post essay I published on my friend’s ArtsJournal blog: —————— Something to ponder: When I was an undergrad a professor made the point that in the ancient … Continue reading

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Editing, creativity, and evolution

I am writing an essay for a friend’s arts blog (one of the really HUGE ones in the field) and I’ve been nurturing the little beast for several weeks now. This has granted me a perspective on editing that might … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Arts education, Creativity, Imagination, metacognition, Pottery, Teaching | 1 Comment

Questioning quality

Is it better to play to our strengths than to repair our deficiencies? Is it better to aim high and fail spectacularly than to play it safe and survive unscathed? Is a weak subject well articulated better than an amazing … Continue reading

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Your art is a language

“Pattern recognition is a priceless skill that comes with practice, with the experience of noticing. Noticing what works, what you’ve seen before, what might not work. Because pattern recognition is so valuable, some people have erroneously concluded that the way … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Arts education, Beauty, Ceramics, Creative industry, Creativity, Imagination, metacognition, Pottery, Teaching | Leave a comment