Why is it important for artists to be curious? Our brains love questions.
It gets bored when it feels like it knows all the answers. Whenever you feel like you’re getting bored with your art, it’s not that you know all the right answers. It’s that you’ve stopped asking good questions.
Curiosity is a gift children can teach us. My granddaughter, Emilia, is 9 months old. She visited us recently and I was amazed at her inquisitive nature. Everything she was looking at was new. Her facial expressions were priceless. The excitement, the giddiness, and the squeals that would come out of her mouth just from looking at a dog, a flower, or a butterfly are priceless. Oh… to have that freedom of expression once again.
But we can have that freedom – we artists need to have this emotional expression whenever we look at a scene we are about to paint. Get your adult brain out of the way, grow your curiosity/awareness, and let your child-like wonder of discovery and adventure come back.
Awareness is like the sun; when it shines on things, they become transformed.
When awareness shines on the scenes we are painting, objects become shapes and forms; and even beyond that, they take on adjectives that describe their attributes; and even beyond that, these attributes trigger emotions deep within us, emotions that connect us to a story. And these stories connect us to one another.
The Power of Three
Three is probably the most important number for humans, but especially for artists. There are so many occurrences of the number three.
Three main values: light, medium, and dark.
Three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue.
Three secondary colors: orange, green, and violet.
Three elements of color: hue (color), value (brightness), and chroma (brilliance)
Three grounds: background, middle ground, and foreground.
Three measurements of time: past, present, and future.
Three-dimensional space: length, width, and height.
Threes are everywhere. I challenge you to add yet another triptych to your artist tool belt. Words. But not just any words. Three specific words that act as good triggers for your mind, spirit, and soul.
These words I like to call taproot words.
Find your taproot.
It’s an approach to art, and life in general, that reignites childhood passions and brings those same joys into your artist’s adult life.
Go back to your childhood and remember those events or moments that got you super excited. Remember the moments from your best days? What happened that made them remarkable? To get to that taproot of pure gold, ask Why? 5 times. What was it that made that moment stick in your memory?
Here’s one experience from my childhood. Yours will be different.
For me, it was moments of exploring the prairie down the street from where we lived. As children, we played all sorts of games with friends, deep into the night.
Whole volumes can be written here on all the things we did as kids. They were mostly legal… But for the sake of brevity, we’ll leave it at that.
Why? #1. It was fun and exciting with elements of danger. We battled it out in a game of manhunt; we had great adventures and discoveries, all there in various forms of capture the flag.
Why? #2. Because it elevated my adrenaline, it got my blood pumping. The thrill of adventure, storytelling, role-playing, drama, and discovery. Struggling as a team, or winning or losing as a team, made what we did as individuals so important.
Why? #3. I enjoyed using my mind, my imagination, my creativity, and my body, all together to solve problems to help my team win, make deeper connections, and make a difference in the outcome of the day.
Why? #4 When we had quality connections, when the story ended well, when new discoveries were made, life was good and it was worth the effort. It had a purpose. There were reasons for the sacrifices. There was a purpose for the pain. We created an experience worth sharing, worth remembering, worth living, and worth repeating.
Why? #5 Because when life is worth living, we grow closer, deeper in love, and ultimately, more deeply connected with our Creator/the Universe.
Now, I take this taproot of three words. For me it is…
Discovery
Connection
Story
and I carefully bring these forward into my adult artist world. These three words for me drive every sketch I design and every painting I make. It also drives every workshop I teach.
These three words are my taproot, planted and nurtured in my youth from amazing parents, family, and friends, and nurtured into adulthood by a loving, beautiful bride and three amazing children. These three words drive my choices in creating art by Discovering new Connections to build compelling Stories.
Life and Art are indeed adventures to live, with battles to fight, and beauties to rescue.
Curious to know… What are your three words?