The best advice I ever received (other than "duck!") came from my parents who instilled in me the notion to never give up. In fact, my mother made a needlepoint for me, which is framed and on the wall of my studio. It says Perserverance Generates Success. The best advice I ever received from an art instructor was from Christopher Schink, who said Painting is not an outdoor sport! And, the best advice I give myself is Do it now! If not now, when? Today's post is wonderfully short. The "meat" will come from you: WHAT'S THE BEST ADVICE YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN?Saturday, December 12, 2009
The BEST advice ....
The best advice I ever received (other than "duck!") came from my parents who instilled in me the notion to never give up. In fact, my mother made a needlepoint for me, which is framed and on the wall of my studio. It says Perserverance Generates Success. The best advice I ever received from an art instructor was from Christopher Schink, who said Painting is not an outdoor sport! And, the best advice I give myself is Do it now! If not now, when? Today's post is wonderfully short. The "meat" will come from you: WHAT'S THE BEST ADVICE YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN?
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From my Dad, who was an artist and my greatest influence. He said: keep drawing!
I like the advice you've received. I think perseverance is important; I keep telling myself my time will come if I keep working! As a studio painter, I concur with Christopher Schink. And, "if not now, when"...helps get past procrastination! Insightful!
i think the best advice quote i read somewhere is "If its in you to do, then you just have to do it". For some reason this has stayed in the back of my mind and has propelled me to keep painting and learning and creating.
p.s. Great Photo!!
Some of the best advice I've been given is to be true to yourself, and that helps me stay focused on what's important to me in the art world. Staying open to new ideas, new techniques and teachings is also important as long as you stay true to who you are in the process.
I SO ENJOY your posts here! Thanks for sharing so much.
Some of the best advice I've been given is from my favorite teacher, Sandy Maudlin - the one I need to remind myself of daily is:
"Put the brush down and step back. Look hard at the photo, paint deliberately, not hesitantly. Know where you're going with that brush." I have that typed out and on my cork board in my art room.
The best advice I ever received was when my wife told me I'd better listen to her. I find that when I forget to follow that advice it usually hurts... ;-}
My parents had rules but I don't remember their ever giving advice, and I didn't ask. (My mother said I was 50 years old at birth which now makes me older than Methuselah, I think.)
I've thought about your question for several hours and I cannot think of an instance when I received, asked for, or gave advice--even to my kids. (Spousal advice does not count.)
Just checked out Methuselah--I'm not quite that old. He was 900+.
The best advice came from my Mother too--she was seldom home because she had to work two jobs! So --I was on my own a lot from a very early age all through school. She said over and over (when I got a chance to see her) "don't associate with losers! You are known by the company you keep!!" It's true, she wasn't around so she wouldn't have even necessarily have known if I was with the "wrong" people..but because she kept hammering away with that..I always did have friends who were of a good sort..no bad ones. To this day I seek the company of well adjusted people...no bad apples.
What a wonderful; post Katharine.
It is not advice but a teacher in high school named Mr. Spencer, who one day say my drawings on the wall in the art class and asked the art teacher who the student was.
Mr. Spencer felt I possessed certain qualities useful in technical illustration and architecture. Since I had a free period, I took up his offer to learn technical drawing and architecture for the next year and a half.
I owe much to Mr. Spencer, who with is own monies purchased necessary drawing tools for me that I still have to this day.
When I was in Europe, my first job was with a firm that did 3d technical drawings for manuals, showing how to put things together and apart, such as tanks and other machinery.
As much as I also owe Mr Crawford the art instructor, I am especially indebted to Mr. Spencer, a man whom i will never forget.
Warmest regards this holiday season,
Egmont
Friends: your free sharing about your lives and the type of advice that impacted you is uplifting! I went from joy to sadness as I read each and every comment. And, it made me reflect how wonderful and unique each one of you are. Thank you for making this post an important one - I can munch on these golden nuggets of wisdom for a long, long time!
Cathy, You clever girl, thank you for entering this post and allowing such wonderful input from your readers. Sometimes I just love the internet!
I tend to be a person who listens to their own inner voice. The best advice I received was from masterful Artist and Teacher Mike Bailey to start a blog. He said I wouldn't believe the difference between a blog and a website. I was very busy at the time but took his advice and my world and career have expanded beyond all expectations. I thank him all the time for the great advice.
Short and sweet from me today. Life goes back to normal tomorrow. A three year old is not very interested in Nana's blogging!
My best advise was "Trust your instincts, they never let you down."
I tried to remember this each time I felt frustrated or inept at something. My instincts have lead me excellent discoveries in art content and technique.
I forgot to add that my second best advice matches Sandy Maudlin's. It is something I have to remember when I get negative comments about my interests in content that might not be popular.
More great input! Thanks all :)
Thanks, PAMO ... all good advice!
Despite my earlier smart-a** answer I've actually been giving this question much thought. You're right, Hallie, spousal advice doesn't count...
I cannot think of any actual advice that stuck to me. Maybe it's the rebel in me... Maybe I just don't have a good memory for such... I'm really not sure.
There have been MANY people who have had an enormous positive impact on me over the years. Some of the obvious ones are: My baby-sitter, who when I was 4, sat me down with crayons and told me to draw a Charlie Brown soap dispenser created in me a love to draw... My 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Wilder, nurtured my love for reading... My Grandmother was the port in the storm that was my young life... An older friend, David Verlander, took a young man with no direction and helped him to find himself... Steve Brown, my printmaking professor was never satisfied with my ability to do just enough to get by... and my lovely wife, Laura, brought stability to a tasmanian devil.
I cannot remember any particular words of wisdom any of these people passed on to me, but their impact on me is none the less for it.
-Don
I'm very late to the table, but cannot resist anyway: The advice quote that finally got me moving was, "You can't change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight." I like that.
More great sharing and advice! Thanks, guys.
The best advice I've received is from master instructor Mike Bailey -- "It's only a piece of paper." That really appealed to my adventurous side and keeps me trying new ways to express my vision. There is not much to lose if something doesn't work out.
From my parents -- "Be the best that you can be." With 7 children and a modest income, they never let us think we couldn't reach our goals. Somehow we all got advanced educations. We achieved our goals and continue to seek out new ones -- it's a great family.
I don't know that this is the *best* advice I've ever been given, but when I first began sending out academic articles as a graduate student in psychology, I began to accrue rejections and negative comments from reviewers. My advisor, Dr. John Sabini, told me that reviewers were usually right in pointing to a problem in the work, but often wrong about what the problem was. That is, if they indicated that the findings weren't interesting, that wasn't necessarily accurate but it pointed to the need to highlight how the findings were interesting.
I find this helpful advice in receiving all kinds of critique. It allows me to hear what the person is saying without defensiveness, since I can see the critique as useful information about the perceiver's experience of my work, rather than having to agree or disagree with their evaluation of the work itself. That doesn't mean that critical evaluations don't still sting, but I try to remember to step back and see if there is anything in the feedback that I can use to improve the work.
I'm new to your blog, and I'm enjoying your exploration of creativity. Thanks for blogging!
HI Mary - Great advice from Mike and your parents! Thanks for sharing.
HI Deborah - I agree with your advisor, and I think this is a very good point to make. When I was writing my Master's thesis, my advisor stressed how important it was to find relevance in my work as well as possible applications. As I wrote in a much earlier blog, knowing how to use and filter criticism is a valuable asset to an artist. Thanks for sharing!
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