Art, the Plan, and Pain

This was written in July 2017

I am sitting at my computer at 12:35 am on a Sunday morning.

I am feeling distressed due to the inability to participate in a local painting event through the Central Ohio Plein Air group.

At age 36 I still have anxiety about making the right choices. I am particularly sensitive as to whether God has approved or ordained my decision. Is He leading me? Is it wise?

Transparency

The lack of action that others see in my life is due to fear.

I think all self-inflicted pain is created from fear.

It is easier to sit under pain for fear of hurting someone else than it is to preserve yourself.

It is bad enough that I do not have a functional car. But the reason I missed this particular event had nothing to do with a car. I might've been able to get a ride if I reached out. This was not where fear had been so intrepid. No, I value my time off and the freedom to flow around and do what I think is necessary on a day off.

The problem is, Sunday is not a day off. It is a working day for me this week. I will have to leave for work in around 12 hours. Working Sundays create treacherously long weeks and I have six of them up until now.

The fear that is under my skin is not fear of doing bad work on my required Sunday or the days that follow. The fear is whether I can move beyond my current situation and survive. More importantly, can I swing for the fences and thrive.

But I am not afraid of proving myself or the work to get there. I have faced off those demons before and defeated them.

I will relish the journey if the payoff is good.

I am scared to death of the gaps. Will I survive? Will I land on my feet? Will I get buried alive? Who will save me should I fail?

Yet God has a plan.

I try to absorb as much wisdom as I can from His Word. I don't always understand His Word, let alone how to apply it.

The pain of not knowing is what I must face down and take another swing for the fences and stand on the rock of the Word of God. 

Today

The pain of not having adequate transportation is still present, today, nine years later. 

How do I deal with it differently today, than I did back then?

Some tools for the artist in distress

• Take a breath
• This problem can be solved 
• Cost is in God's wheelhouse, he has millions of unforeseen methods to get wealth to you
• Do what is in your hand
• Who can you reach out to for help?
• Be teachable
• Come up with a plan
• Create thought experiments to mitigate this from happening again
• Trust God with the outcome
• Do some art

Resolve

You can get through the pain of not having. You can solve the problem. Just don't do it alone. Without trouble you would have no inspiration for your art. That tension allows you to God and yourself differently.  So, today, resolve to be a problem solver. Resolve to learn what you can. You are more than your problem and you have much to do beyond this momentary trouble.

How To Write A Good Goal Question

First off, I'm not claiming expertise on this concept of question writing, but I believe I have a good foundation to give you more than enough to start with.

For 3 years I conducted interviews in my art group, Visual Sanctuary. I tested and re-tested certain types of questions. Some questions required broad answers and some specific. Some questions required most of an evening to unravel and others were just redundant.

The process of writing a good question is more of a one-two punch with refining over an exact science. Little in life is actually an exact science.

I turned the question asking process of interviewers on myself after I read Zig Ziglar's Biscuits, fleas, and pump handles. It was liberating.

Advice-issuing friends and family often press you to state your goals in a nice squared-off corner response, but people who are not systematically wired just get frustrated with that.

Instead of getting caught up in the have-to's of goal writing, just ask a question about where you want to go.

Goal setting questions must:

• Always start with who you are
• Always start with where you are
• Always start with what your passions are
• Always start with what you want to accomplish

• Always maintain an element of uncertainty
• Always seek something beyond your current situation
• Always be flexible with on-coming circumstances
• Always involve you in a story you find interesting

You can answer these eight criteria in one or two simple questions, but probably not the first time you try. Be gracious with yourself and take the time necessary.

For the record, it took several dozen business, art, and career books to get me to this point. The process took over 5 years (half the time from college to the present) to discover how to do this.

You must be at a point in your life that you desire more than your current situation to be successful at this process. Without that passion driving you, failure will frequently snuff out your flame.

A Disciplined Illustrator

Since I decided to make this site about illustrating most exclusively I had a vision of providing information directly from my experiences as an illustrator. Unlike prior posts here and posts on the sister site TheOWLE.Wordpress.com this information is neither purely a narrative account of being an artist, nor is it purely knowledge based instruction.

My vision for Exempla Vitae is to pass on wisdom attained from pursuing a full-time career as an illustrator.

I occasionally do one shot watercolor class, but mostly my activities have been based in cartooning for Bacon Wrapped Frog (BaconWrappedFrog.Wordpress.com), freelance, plein air painting, and personal projects.

The goal I wish to achieve is to have passive income (ongoing), freelance work (frequent commissions), gallery shows (maybe 2 a year), and a business in which I get to collaborate with creatives from other persuasions on unique and groundbreaking projects and products.

An artist must be disciplined and learn not only the craft and creativity behind their work, but must learn to be quick and technical. An illustrator must learn to balance using their style and process in such a way as to please their client or themselves if they have a personal project.

My time is divided between learning from other artists, ala copying their work in studies; learning anatomy; drawing animals; cartooning; and executing freelance work for other people.

Make no mistake learning to illustrate is central. No matter if I paint from life or draw from my imagination it all plays a role in learning the art and craft of storytelling visually.

I use time first thing in the morning and a 30 Day Art Challenge to keep me disciplined. Squeezing time in never really works, but finishing what you start and pursing passion and purpose over duty works even better.

Duty works if your attitude is set in that direction. Yet, you cannot turn off your emotions when creating work. Daily steps have to be taken to pursue one goal.

Wise Artists

Grasping for wisdom is hard.

Wisdom is both intellectual and spiritual.

Knowledge stays with you in your mind. It is remembering.

Wisdom is driven from your heart to your mind.

You can know something in 2 ways.

When you know with your mind, it is knowledge.

When you know with your heart, it is wisdom.

Why is wisdom hard and knowledge easy?

Comparatively, wisdom is hard and knowledge is easier. Sometimes to have knowledge you must go and inquire. Interviewing can be easy, but direction is primary. Where do you go? Who do you talk to? This can be hard.

Wisdom comes with experience.

You have no head knowledge of something and yet gain wisdom.

We are in a society driven by head knowledge without moral character. In fact, we are in an information and even data driven culture. Base knowledge drives the culture.

The honest application of wisdom results in moral character.

If you are an artist, moral character will help you deal with your own issues and the issues that come from other people.

In the most difficult situation, you will make the right choice. This will result in favor.

Our moral character as artists will determine the content of our art.

The content of our art will change hearts and minds and will improve the world. 

Wisdom AND Knowledge

I have been experiencing a shift in my thinking over the last 5 years.

A lot of it has come reading the book of Proverbs written mostly by King Solomon and his cohorts.

Before, I thought that knowledge was enough to get by in life.

Knowledge is accumulated facts that make sense together.

You can collect facts, but have no real knowledge.

Trivia are seemingly insignificant facts.

More important, knowledge can be trivial if you do not know how to apply it.

Wisdom is the application and experience gained from applying knowledge.

Conventional wisdom is passed down or regurgitated wisdom.

People use common sense to determine if a choice lines up with the natural way of things.

Common sense is a bare minimum form of conventional wisdom. It is easily tested.

But who tests conventional wisdom or common sense anymore?

In ancient times, Israelites had prophets, judges, scribes, and rabbis. Hindu's had gurus. In the Greco-Roman world there were philosophers. Medicine men, wise men, and sages of all varieties helped guide day-to-day life.

They all pretty much had one thing in common...they derived their wisdom from the spiritual.

In the Christian church today we have pastors, teachers, evangelists, prophets, and apostles to guide in the same manner.

We have done a great job as artists passing down knowledge.

There is a lot conventional wisdom, facts, and studies passed around for the artist's benefit.

But, is there any real wisdom for artists to grasp? Can artists go above and beyond knowledge of craft and business to actually being people of moral character? Does moral character have to be private or can we let our wisdom shine?