But this is life and in life, we roll with the punches. 👊🏻 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 I got some news yesterday that hit me harder than I wished it did. The exhibition that I have been working on for the past year... POSTPONED (no date in site yet) 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 The short story is that the gallery building is owned by the government. The government came in and decided that this building would be perfect to hold November elections from now on. So my exhibition dates have just disappeared. 💥💥 I have spent months and months on this: 👊🏻 developing a new concept 👊🏻 researching 👊🏻 photography 👊🏻 drawing and executing 👊🏻 Literally THOUSANDS of hours of work. (this is not an exaggeration) And now I have a whole new body of work that still needs to be finished but has nowhere to go. 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 🥊 Now what I MUST do....... Finish these works. Because I know if I walk away now, I will loose the connection to the message. Then I will have to protect them and store them. That starts the time clock ticking. Most exhibitions do not allow work older than 2 years. OR... Do I put them for sale on my website? Do I risk selling them and breaking up a cohesive body of work? Do I say 🖕🏻to the gallery and cancel? What have you had that you put a TON of effort into that didn't go as you expected? How did you move past the feeling of disappointment?

So I was chatting with Michelle today and she asked me to post about this book, so here goes. Quite a few years ago, I read "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", and it was a significant benefit for me. There were times I would be able to draw really well and other times that really felt like forgetting how to do something. I didn't know if it was associated with mood or what. This book talks about the left and right brain, and people can debate the specifics about what is literally left-brain or right-brain, but that misses the point. Anyway, helping people stop drawing in symbolic mode (spatial relationship, too) and start drawing what they actually see. While this might seem like some parlor trick, the point is to help get your brain to draw what it sees. When we go to sit down or walk through a door, our mind maps out how long or wide things are so we don't walk into them or so we can sit down correctly. However, when we try to draw, what we see is rarely that same distance. If you draw a foot-long bench at an angle on paper, it might barely register as an inch. Walk around that same bench, and its width will seem smaller if you draw it accurately on paper. Yet our mind knows it's the same length. That gap between what we know and what we see is exactly what this book addresses. For me personally, this book helped me out so much because I have had a very analytical brain for the longest time, and I believe that the analytical can push the artist brain out of the way, so to speak. It's almost like I have to relax that part of the brain and get it to go to sleep. So, while I am drawing, I am not mixing in budgeting or analytical things in my head because I want my creative side to have full control at this point in time. Anyway, this post is pretty long. There is probably a lot more I could talk about here, but as long as you are trying to draw from reference or real life and you are struggling, this could be the book that unlocks something for you. I should mention this isn't just a theory book. It has actual exercises you work through. Oh, and you don't have to keep drawing upside down for the rest of your life ... Practicing it teaches your brain how to do it well enough that once you switch back you can just kind of do it, though, like anything, it might get rusty without use over time.

I am just gonna leave this here 👀👌✨

Being “artistic” is NOT something you’re born with. I used to think creative people were just built differently. At one point, I even decided left-handed people had some secret artistic advantage… and I had been dealt the wrong hand. Literally 😂. I am VERY right-handed. 🧬🧬🧬🧬🧬🧬🧬🧬🧬 🧬 🧬 I have OCD traits 🧬 I like structure 🧬 I like organization 🧬 My house is usually neat and clean 🧬 I don’t wear mismatched clothes 🧬 Not exactly the artist stereotype 🧬 🧬🧬🧬🧬🧬🧬🧬🧬🧬 And yet… my paintings for thousands of dollars. What changed? I stopped trying to “be creative” and built a process that actually works for my brain. Step-by-step. Repeatable. Predictable. More like following a recipe than waiting for a magical unicorn to smack me with inspiration. What do you think? Do you believe you were born creative? Lets discuss this.

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