Hi,

I've decided to consolidate my web sites to make things more manageable and focused.

So please go here to:

The Kitchen Table Artist

Thanks,

Barry

Always has been for me. Surrounded by friends or on my own I think of the year past and what's ahead. The Christmas celebrations enhance the sense of despair in me as they feel so empty. It must be in my dna as I have friends who really get into it all. But come new years eve I focus on the possibilities ahead, and that is a good enough reason to celebrate.

My past year has been in a state of flux. I think a lot of what I was working on will bear fruit in the year ahead. Working as an artist and writer, I can clearly see the need to setup a better way of organising my time and the work I do each day. Back when I was managing direstor of my design studio I did this as second nature. It worked very well, it had to, I was managing twelve co-workers as well as living as a family man with a wife and two children. Paradoxically now that I'm living on my own I've no one else to answer to, and that means self motivation and organisation is more important now than ever.

I've tried just letting go at times over the last few years and that ended up with large tracts of chilled out periods were I did good work but not a lot of it. By setting up my days better I can still let go but within a time frame. By letting go I mean not trying to stucture my days, 'going with the flow' would better describe what I mean.

I think from experience what works best is the freedom of 'going with the flow' but within a structure. I don't have unlimited time and I do have a lot of things I want to do, artwork, writing, travel, developing income streams etc.

So on this New Years day onwards I'm still going to 'live my life as an artist' but apply some of the skills I learned and honed as a managing director in my previous life. I'll let you know how this works out as I move into 2009.

This is one of the differences between being amateur and turning professional. A professional makes it work, with an amateur it either doesn't matter or they don't know how to make it work and refuse to find out. Turning professional is the moment you 'burn the boats' - no way back, defeat the enemy. Mostly that enemy can be ones own bad work habits, attitudes and fear. It is with me.

I can smell the smoke!

Best wishes for 2009 - Barry

Tags: Organisation

I haven't posted here all that regularly over the last month but for me, and this is the good part, I've been steadily working away on my art day after day in my studio in West Cork. Not only on my art as in painting and drawing, but also contributing to the artists group I'm a member of - Working Artist Studios in Skibbereen, Ireland. ( You can visit our web site here: Working Artists Studios )

Throughout 2009 I'm going to focus on what works and what doesn't in following my 'Calling' as an artist.

Many of my friends ask me how I'm getting on. I make a point of clarifying exactly what they mean. No surprise it's 100% about how it's working out financially for me - all this artist + studio + gallery stuff. Well so far it's truly a blessing to live and work as an artist. Financially it's been incredibly difficult!

I'm going to do all I can to solve this puzzle. My background is in commercial art, graphic design, illustration and commercial photography. In my past life as a company director, businesses paid good money to my company to help sell their products and services. In the world of art will people pay for work that could enrich their lives or has society become so focused on commerce that culture and the finer things of life are passed by in the feeding frenzy? The recent global downturn adds a further twist on the year ahead, especially in the life of an artist.

So in this year to come I'm going to write here in my blog about all of the experiments, discoveries, trials, tribulations and triumphs of making this incredible Journey work in all kinds of ways - and that includes financially. Perhaps you will contribute to it, perhaps you can learn from it, my wish is we all benefit from it.

I'm very committed to working and living as an artist - come what may. So 2009 should be quite a ride and you can read about it here.

Join me here on a regular basis as the this life experiment unfolds. Meanwhile in what ever place you are with your life I wish you all the Best Wishes of the Season that plus unconditional happiness. --- Barry

• Decide who should do what. Pick the best person(s) for the job and let them get on with it.
• Don't try and manage other members no matter how enlightened as to the 'best' way to carry it out you may think you are.
• Avoid having members who are closely related to other people in the group such as partners or family members. It's almost impossible for them not to have a bias in group decisions, discussions or day to day activities, no matter how fair minded they may think they are.
• It's often better to make progress through small incremental steps done imperfectly than to micro manage the 'perfect project' and drive everyone nuts in the process. If ever you doubt this think of evolution or better still think of feeding a small child solid food for the first time. (Make that anytime).
• Ensure when taking on a new member of the group that above all else they are a good, sincere human being. Look at their portfolio second. Then have a trial period of at least three months.
• Mostly it's better to move forward relentlessly with lots of small easy-to-do steps rather than one giant, resource hungry innovation. (Although these kind of steps are sometimes needed).
• Remember why you are part of the group and why everyone else is too. This will, and should, have a strong 'what's in it for me factor'. That's healthy and realistic. Ironically keeping this in mind maintains focus and keeps everyone together.
• Remember huddling around the fire on a cold wet night is more fun with others, especially if they can sing better than you!

These musings are mine and mine alone and certainly don't cover everything. They're also not from the group of artists I'm a member of. If you'd like to add your own suggestions or discuss these ones I'd really like to hear from you.

You can contact me here....

Following on from my last post, I've been mulling over what works and what doesn't for a group of artists. I've been a member of Working Artist Studios for four years now and I've seen the dynamics of the group fluctuate from outright hostility to full on enthusiasm. So here's a 'list of musings' from the frontline. (I really welcome feedback and suggestion on this subject).

Please Note - these are my 'musings' and are not those of any other member of the Group.

Possible Guidelines for an Artist Group

• Don't try and dictate - instead make a suggestion.
• Learn to listen.
• Have an open dialogue between members. Don't let anything mushroom into an 'issue'. To this end avoid leaving notes for others. They can be misread and can turn into a kind of toxic record keeping.
• Don't discuss any other member or group issue in a way that you wouldn't (or won't), do face-to-face with the absent member. To put it another way, don't gossip about other members!
• When proposing to spend money on a project be mindful that members of the group will differ in the amount of money they have available.
• Sticking a list of rules up on the wall doesn't work very well. There are endless possibilities leading to endless rules. Just look at the Euopean Union. Sometimes Guidlines may help which are at a higher level than rules. For example: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you', is a good start. In fact it may be all you need.
• Don't suggest anything you wouldn't be willing to follow through on yourself by taking action. That doesn't mean you should be the one carrying out the suggestion if you aren't the best person to do it. Instead it means you fully realise your suggestion, for someone else, will require their time and other resources. No small thing.
• Keep suggestions to within the reach of the resources of the group. Resources are not just money, resources can be: time, skills, money, knowledge, energy, motivation, experience and more.
• Don't hog the limelight. There is no limelight and you aren't any more important than anyone else.

Continued on my next post....

I share a building in Skibbereen with three other artists, called Working Artist Studios. Each of us have our own Studio and we share three Galleries. As a group we decided to rehang the Galleries and generally spruce the place up. My first reaction was a feeling of frustration at having to take a large amount of time off from drawing and painting. This frustration grew as the days for the re-hanging approached. But I must say once we all got going it turned out to be a very satisfying experience indeed. This is one of the many benefits of working within a Group. The support and motivation can be great, just so long as we all communicate clearly, thoughtfully and openly and don't let anything become an issue.

I think we all share a guarded optimism about the year ahead. Lot's of possibilities without becoming too carried away. One step at a time. We don't take on more than we have the resources to handle. And resources means, time, money, skills and motivation, it's not just money. It might be of help and interest to other artists groups to write more about how this group of artists functions as I think it takes a certain resolve and perhaps certain life experiences of sorts, to make it work and work well. Right at this time I think being a member of this group is a very positive experience. I would especially welcome hearing from other artists groups Internationally. You can contact me here. I'd love to hear from you.

Barry

Tags: Galleries and Studios

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I've been writing in my journal quite a bit about the subject of my last post 'How can I best not only survive but prosper as an artist'. Rather than to add more to the list started on that post, (as no doubt a lot more could be added), for me underpinning my work as a writer and artist is a clear sense of Vision and how my work my art connects with Spirit.

It's not done for commerce or as a distraction but as a Sacrament, allowing me in some very modest way to express the Mystery of life through paint on canvas, marks on paper or whatever materials come to hand on the day.

Following this Vision as faithfully as possible with no agenda compromised by what's popular or what sells.

Turn up, do the work and let go the outcome.

To be able to do this over and over again all the days of my life.

Amen.

Concentration - hours of work, working on programming the portfolio section of my new drawing web site ( http://www.barrysdrawings.com ). I even turned on the tv later in the evening to take a break and ended up working my way through it - the joys of a MacBook laptop. Tomorrow I'm getting out and leaving my computer at home, even if it's to my Studio to work on an almost completed large painting. Hope to have this drawing portfolio site finished by this coming Sunday. Keep going Barry, it won't program itself.
B.

Well not exactly a new web site but a complete redesign of the first Gallery site I put up around three years ago. This site is my main online Art Gallery http://www.crimsonsalamander.com

Next thing I need to do is to get up some new work onto the Gallery, which is waiting in the wings. Need to photograph three new large (48" x 48"), paintings along with some smaller pieces for this new site, but not to get ahead of myself. Meanwhile I managed to get in a small experimental drawing to keep in touch. Hard to stay in today working on my MacBook in such a bright, sunny, fresh, spring day.

Tags: website development

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Tags: art classes

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