The Summer 2014 Issue: Let There Be Light
May 16, 2014 Inspirational Art, The Polymer Arts magazine news
The Summer 2014 issue is just about done. It is presently due to be released the first week of June. Here we have a sneak preview of the cover with a bright, reflective necklace by Silvia Ortiz de la Torre:
You can look forward to a ton of great, in-depth articles–
- Designing with Light in Mind
- Creating the Illusion of Light
- Luminous Landscapes Technique
- Luscious Liquid Clay Glazes
- Putting Sealants to the Test
- Lighten up: Taking the Weight out of Big Beads
- Controlling Photographic Light
- Grabbing the Internet Spotlight
- The Mobile Polymer Studio
- The Clay Report: What’s new, what’s best, what’s out there.
- They Love Me Not: Creating Success from Failures
- … and more!
We just sent out renewal notices so if you got that, don’t hold off renewing any longer. The mailing list for you to get the issue when it is first mailed out will be put together this coming week so renew and get it first!
www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscription_ordering.html
We’ll resume our exploration of cellular formations in the next post today!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
What Your Customers Are Buying
March 2, 2014 Ponderings
Edit to Post:
It’s almost funny how the posted quote image here not only highlights the issue of copying but is, as it turns out, a derivation of someone’s words (unattributed in the image as you might note.) I was able to find someone who gave Rebekah Joy Plett the credit for the quote so I could give credit but then Tracy Holmes sent me a Facebook post she found from the artist on this and the original words. I am posting Rebekah’s original words here but am not taking the prior quote image down because it is the link to this post for the email notifications (which will allow people to come here and see the correction) and so that you can help notify others of the misappropriation. If you see the second image below, please let the post person know about the original quote posted by Rebekah here: http://goo.gl/kRCxD7.
Okay here is the actual original quote:
And here is my original post:
I was going to make this a short and sweet post today, just a good quote to give you a little something to consider. But there has been quite the conversation online about a subject that this quote poignantly highlights. So first, read this nice little letter to the potential customer. The sentiment is fantastic.
Words by artist Rebekah Joy Plett … “You are buying a piece of heart, a part of a soul …” Great words, not just for the buyer to hear but for the creator to consider as well. Are you actually selling part of your heart or soul? Or are you selling someone else’s?
Yes, we are touching on the subject of copying here as well as giving credit. Over at the “Ask Harriete” blog, there is quite the conversation going on the subject and I have had several people ask me where I stand or what I think about it. Since I too have been having a lot of conversations concerning this subject in the last couple months, I actually have quite a bit to say but not in the same vein as what Harriete is discussing.
My conversations have primarily revolved around how to clarify what is stealing due to the upcoming release of an article in the Spring 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts. The article is titled “Stealing Talent”. Linda Stiles Smith bravely agreed to interview a number of artists for me , artists who teach and/or publish and regularly have their ideas appropriated–sometimes copied, sometimes worked by others into their own original pieces. In an effort to try and clarify what it means to copy and how to properly use what we learn from each other, we created a summary of what the artists interviewed said. Here’s a bit of a sneak peek that will also give you a chance to chime in on the subject since there isn’t a response option in a magazine:
Rules for Giving Credit
1. Do not teach a class or tutorial that someone else has developed presenting it as your own.
2. Do not directly copy someone’s design and call it your own – for any reason.
3. Do not copy and sell printed images or materials, tutorials, books, techniques of another artist.
I also chimed in with a few thoughts of my own. Here is the abbreviated version:
As for when to give credit, consider whether what you are using is design or technique.
Design is the art. It belongs to the creator.
This includes the choices one makes about form, color combinations, line, pattern, etc., as well as the combination of these choices. So, you do not copy someone’s designs—that is their art and their voice as an artist.Techniques are like tools in your tool box.
This is the how-to aspect of working in the material. You don’t need to list where your ‘tools’ originated when you sell something, but if you are teaching or posting your work you have an obligation to say where you your ‘technique tools’ came from. It would be unfair to keep aspiring clayers from being able to access the original source and it repays that artist for giving you the tool to work with.
I know this last paragraph has the potential to create some controversy because I do not say you do not have the right to teach or use a technique that another person has created. In the legal sense, you can. There is no copyright on technique (See rules 1 & 3 above as well). The gray areas comes not with someone using a technique but in HOW they use.
If an artist develops a technique and always applies it to a flat round pendant, someone making a square pendant would still be copying. However, if you see an artist apply the technique only to round beads and someone else uses the technique but creates square beads, most of us would recognize that it’s not quite stealing the design. Why? Because we recognize that creating a round bead requires a different technique than creating a square one and would likely require a variation on the application of the original artist’s technique, requiring different design and aesthetic choices. This doesn’t work for the pendant application because there is no difference in how the technique would be applied if all you are doing is choosing another shaped cutter.
Now, I in no way advocate taking someone’s work and just changing one aspect so you can call it your own. It doesn’t work that way–its still not your own. Read the quote above again if this concept of when it is not copying is unclear. If you are not making something that is of you–if all you are doing is borrowing from others–you aren’t making art, you are just reproducing and what you create is not that much different than any commercial product. If you are not making your own work, you are not giving your buyers the one thing that makes your work so much more valuable than a mass produced product … that little bit of yourself that imbues an object with meaning and personal connection. That is what buyers are paying for when buying art and handmade work. Don’t cheat your buyers. And just as important, don’t cheat yourself.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Preparing for the New Year
December 29, 2013 Ponderings, Tips and Tricks
I suggest focusing on the studio rather than the bank accounts!
In these days between Christmas and New Years, it is a great time to go through your studio, clean it out, and get yourself organized so you can start out the New Year fresh. Go through unfinished projects and decide which you are confident you will complete, and which you need to be resigned to never finishing, tossing them out or recycling them if you can. Go through your supplies and tools and make a list of what you need to replace or stock up on. Then you know what to use those gift cards and Christmas money for! And with after Christmas sales, you can make that money go farther … a lot farther. It will feel really good to start out clean, stocked and organized in the studio for 2014!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Making Friends with Failure
December 22, 2013 Ponderings
This is a bit longer installment than I usually have on Sunday but I think this strip by Stephen McCranie explains so well how silly it is for us to be so hard on ourselves, to expect perfection in every piece we create, and to miss out on the lessons we can learn from our imperfect creations. It is well worth the read. Click on the image here to see the entire strip. Enjoy.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Shininess is Catching
December 15, 2013 Ponderings
I don’t know that I need to add anything here. This is as simple as being enthusiastic about your creative endeavors or any other other myriad of wonderful things in your life. Smile and others will smile with you. Laugh and others will laugh along. Strive to do better in everything you do and you will inspire others to do the same.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partne
A True Sense of Order
August 11, 2013 Ponderings
Why do we, with all our yearning for the latest technology, for the clean and controlled, for the precise and permanent, find ourselves drawn to nature? I think John Burroughs has it right. For all the time we spend trying to control our world, I think we find true order and peace only in the random, cycling, uncontrollable but dependable elements in nature. Nature is where we are all from, and where we will return; and unlike anything we humans think up, is the one thing that always makes sense.
On Speaking and Listening
May 5, 2013 Ponderings
I don’t think this needs explaining but most days, it needs remembering. It even applies to showing and viewing art, critiquing art and supporting our community.
I hope you all have a lovely Spring Sunday.
Awesomely Simple Creativity
April 20, 2013 Ponderings
The quote below came to mind when I got, for the third time in as many weeks, a kind note from a reader telling me how much they enjoy the blog even though they don’t always agree with what I say. I so enjoy these comments. It means people are stopping to think.
I certainly can’t claim that what I say is “right” or gospel in any manner. We are talking about art here–a subjective matter with many right answers. The fun part is actually being deemed “wrong” and having people stop to say so. It means that whatever was said, whatever was done, was interesting enough to make someone stop and consider. And at the end of the day, that is truly the purpose of art, even when (or especially when) the observer thinks it should have been done differently.
Isn’t that the truth! How many of your favorite pieces did you create accidently? I’d like to think we control our work more than that but truly, if you let the muse take over one tends to stumble and trip up and those very happy mistakes make for some lovely work.
Read MoreI was looking for something Easter-y but different and came across this image. Yes, a different kind of Easter Sunday theme, but as artists we do tend to do things a bit differently so why not be humorous today. There are reasons to laugh and be joyful even if you’re the odd egg out. But …
… in truth, that’s the best way to be! Go ahead and be a little odd, a little ridiculous, be human … just don’t be boring.
Read MoreThis holiday season, make your happiness. As creatives, we can be particularly good at this. If you can create something beautiful from a boring lump of clay, you can take something dull or difficult and create the joy we know exists in everything.
Read MoreHere I have my mantras for today but unfortunately, not my complete to-do list. With the Winter 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts magazine going to the printer’s in just a couple days, the last one about breathing becomes very important to remember!
Read More
When I first read this, I laughed of course. Then I thought, well, it really doesn’t matter. Even if you don’t consider yourself an artist — if you find something beautiful, your view is all that matters. But then I thought, if that’s true, why do we even have the concept of “good taste?” If we judge people’s choices are we not discounting their personal view?
Read MoreI know I quoted Picasso last week, but I really wanted to share this one other very succinct and powerful thought.
Inspiration can’t be easily conjured up but the real key to having those truly inspired moments is to be where you can act on them and where it will find you most receptive. That would be working on art. Even when you don’t feel inspired but you wish you were, get to working on something. Even if its just cleaning the studio. I can’t tell you how many projects have come out of just picking up and (trying) to put things away. Yeah … my studio rarely gets completely cleaned.
Read MoreI am a big proponent of constructive criticism. Unfortunately, there are many people in this world who don’t understand what that means. There are also many people who, unhappy with their own situations, project how they feel onto others. I am always hoping that everyone can find their happiness — and bliss — in the things they do, but until then, don’t listen to the negativity. Keep on doing what you do and love so much.
Read MoreThis may not seem much related to polymer or art, but I did find this on the site of an artist who works with polymer among many other things. Æ(Alexis) Pierre-Louis lives in Seattle and creates jewelry, paintings, sculpture, installations, video poetry, and writings. I discovered Alexis through a post on Daily Art Muse (which you should check out for great artistic inspiration) and although I do like the rings shown in this post, it was the story on her blog page (no longer being updated) that really got to me:
When Alexis was a little girl, she was afraid of a lot of things, especially the dark. After a bedtime story, her father would kiss her on the forehead and turn off the light. Within minutes she’d be howling and would dive into her parents’ bed for comfort. Naturally this situation could not last long. One day, instead of her usual bedtime story, Alexis’s father told her this,
Imagine how small and dull our lives would be if we allowed ourselves to be ruled by fear. Very small indeed. It’s a big, scary world out there, sometimes people can be cruel, and circumstances can seem larger than our imagination so that our dreams become nightmares filled with big, scary monsters. It’s natural to be afraid sometimes; the trick is not to become stuck in fear, and there is only one cure for that: love. Fear is like a big, scary monster. Love kills all the monsters. So the next time you see a monster, give him some milk and cookies, tuck him into bed, tell him a bedtime story, give him a kiss on the forehead, and say ‘I love you’, and watch your monster turn into your friend.
Fear is part of our lives. Maybe more so as artists because we face an unknown every time we sit down to our studio table. What will we make? How will it turn out? Will I succeed in creating what I envision? Will it be good enough? These fears can cause us to freeze up. But what or who are we really afraid of?
We are afraid of ourselves … afraid of our abilities and inabilities, of how we will deal with being judged be it by others or by our own person. So, I think Alexis’ father’s idea is great. When you are afraid, give your monster — yourself — some milk and cookies and say “I love you.” And then go and play with your clay.
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