Travel Bug

In my personal experience, nothing creates inspiration like traveling does. It opens your soul and in some respects extends your life. I have traveled to over 20 countries and it has truly added to my overall appreciation for life. Here are some pics from a few countries I have had the privilege to experience.

(Africa – Sahara Desert, Morocco) That was my camel – his name, “Jean Claude Van-Dame.” We got on quite well. Though I swear his snorts were an indication that he was getting tired in his old age.

The silence when you walk out far enough into the Sahara Desert is amazing. Though I did hear our travelling buddy Chris (from Canada) yelling something about not being happy with one of the locals charging him too much for the camel journey we were under taking. I heard him yelling something about leaving the camp and threatening to walk home – back to Canada.

Chris walking back to Canada

Myself and Chris in the main street of Marrakesh Morocco. What a wonderland that town is. Oh, that’s us trying to cross the street. It’s around about 4:15pm there. Not bad considering we starting trying to cross the street at quarter to three.

This is me in the Atlas mountains after just having recovered from being very ill. Something I ate. We did not manage to get up as high as we would have liked simply because our bodies were still in a bad way. But we had a go.

Yes that is a snake around my neck – a real one – a live one (Main square – Marrakesh).  Steve Irwin would have been proud of me – god rest his soul. Though I don’t look that confident do I? This apparently, is a custom to warn of bad spirits. Ironic – I actually told the spirits a long time ago that I hope I never get caught with a snake around my neck.

Sitting with a few Aussie travelers on the roof in Marrakesh.

(Cairo – Giza – Egypt) Gosh, that shirt got some wearing. What a place. really amazing. I was surprised that the pyramids of Giza are right on the city’s edge. I had always imagined it to be way out in the desert. In fact there is a McDonald’s just down the road from the pyramids.

Police wanting to know where I bought the shirt?  Not really. In fact they asking us leave the pyramid compound. You see, they actually close the gates at 5pm. We were still in there trying to get photos of the sun going down over the pyramids. After a bit of bartering, they let us stay. All they requested from me was some ‘pens.’ Yeah, like as in ‘biro.’ Seemed like a fair deal to me, though I am not sure to this day why there was such big interest in Biro’s in Cairo.

(Dahab, Egypt) I spent a lot of my time in Dahab Egypt under water. How could you not? It has some of the best coral reef diving in the world.

Waiting for my diving partner.

Everything is wonderful under the sea

(California, USA) Hey go easy on my enthusiasm. After all, this is Hollywood! The hair you can comment on, sure. But not the enthusiasm.

Halloween sure is one hell of a celebration in this town. I loved L.A.’s enthusiam for it. This is my bunch of pals throwing a party especially fo the occasion. We had just just rocked into town and had nothing to wear for halloween. Quickly found something though. That’s me on the far left.

(Petra, Jordon) What an awesome place! Mind blowing. To think that they carved that out of the face of the mountain back when there was inadequate scaffolding and no overtime wage incentives.

I always get his one mixed up, but I think this one is called the ‘embassy’ and the other one, for which we had to walk quite some way up the up through the valley mountain, is called the ‘Treasury.’

(Palmyra, Syria) - Sleepy Sandy Plains Of History Definitely one of the most amazing places I have had the pleasure to experience. I think it was the calmness and the quiet of Palmyra that made it such a tranquil but eye opening experience. We stayed one night. The evening meal played havoc on my stomach for 2 days after. It’s amazing how your stomach holds such a grudge huh…for 2 days! Sheesh!

That’s me trying to get an ever better view

Luxor, Egypt – By Night (Luxor Temple)

A little foreboding but an amazing atmosphere to be apart of this historical land mark at night.

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Waiting For Inspiration

I haven’t studied a lot of art history, so I don’t know much about it. But I like to think that is because I am often too busy contributing to it.

In other words I don’t rely on the history of art to push me forward with inspiration. I don’t spend 2 hours flicking through artist memoirs or wandering around the local museum. Call me an ignoramus, but that’s just how it is with me.

It kind of bugs me a bit when some artists suggest to other artists the long way around seeking inspiration in order to get some work done.

I may sound like a bit of a spoilsport, but only people pretending to be an artist sit around, search and spent hours wandering through their local library or gallery trying to seek inspiration.

The active artist, the disciplined artist does not worry about it. They don’t get up and say, “Gosh, where will I get my inspiration from today.” He or she knows that they just have to rock up. They just have to clock in.

They just have to get their tail into the studio at 9am sharp or 8pm sharp – whatever the schedule is.

Waiting for inspiration is like sitting around waiting for the perfect partner to knock on the door. It’s just not going to happen unless you leave the house and interact with people.

In other words, do whatever it is that you need to do in order to get the result you ultimately want. In the case of the artist, they just have to start working at 9am (or 8pm) whether it be scribbling, writing and planning – they just have to be in attendance and in front of the canvas,  so to speak.

This often requires you to work with a headache, with a toothache, without inspiration, after a bad exhibit, after a dispute with the phone company or hearing some bad news.

Yeah it’s hard, really hard some days. But it’s the only way to actively produce some solid results as an artist.

Are you still waiting for inspiration? Don’t wait, be proactive. Just try doing some work, you’ll often find it right there.

Power to you and your art!

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Stomping On Your Fear Of Failure

I once read a quote that said something along the lines of…

“An artist can’t really fail, because to be an artist is a success in itself”.

So in other words, the decision to be an artist is quite a brave one. It’s quite a bold move. It deserves admiration.

Some believe it’s not really their choice to be an artist anyway… it’s  an obsession that can’t be controlled.

In regards to failure…

It’s my belief; that you can only really fail if you stop doing what you do.

Energy V’s Profit

Let’s move our thoughts from the common goal that many artists wish to achieve for a moment, and that is to produce salable art.

I think the ultimate reason why an artist may quit is because they did not succeed in reaching a certain level of energy in their art – and not because they can’t sell their work.

I have tested this theory consciously. I discovered that my greatest frustration as an artist was in the struggle to develop a good level of energy when producing a piece of art. It was sometimes a battle because the piece wasn’t going in the direction that I wanted it to. It didn’t inspire me; therefore it had no real level of energy.

I think this is the biggest personal fight an artist has to contend with.

I also discovered something else; I was looking at my art, as I was producing it, through someone else’s eyes. Right there is the biggest cause of failure – trying to produce art in accordance to someone else’s expectations.

Working through some other persons expectations and not your own could well be likened to working with a fear of failure.

Note: Some commission work is based on the buyers input. But if it becomes the buyers project, then you have a real challenge. Avoid getting stuck in any project that does not inspire you. To produce something that doesn’t really have your heart in it, kind of goes against the whole philosophy of being an artist.

Don’t Fear Failure

So how do you remove this fear of failure?

It’s kind of simple really: Relentlessly work at maintaining your natural expression without expectation of applause, money or fame.

The problem for a lot of us artists is that we tend to complicate things. We live in a society that has raised us to believe; that if we don’t see an instant return on our efforts then we obviously aren’t doing it correctly or were simply not cut out for our chosen duty.

The thing is… you can’t really fail as an artist if what you are producing on the canvas matches the message in your heart. You can only really be measured by your commitment, not by how many trophies or ribbons you have.

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“I Just Don’t Feel Like It!”

Today is one of those days where I lack the real fire to get the work done that I know I need to get done.

The important thing is to try and battle through that “I just don’t feel like it” phase that often overrules our thinking and affects our actual reality.

A few years ago I was renovating a property and often felt struck by this “I just don’t feel like it” ailment too regularly.

(Before and after pics of the front of the house – I even did the roof!)

The problem was; I kept focusing on how much work actually needed to be done to finish the entire renovation instead of just focusing on the work that needed to be done for each given day.

The renovation was not just a simple clean up type of job either. It was a massive project that required the whole house to be gutted inside and out.

In fact, it was so big that when I bought the house some of my friends and family thought I had simply gotten in over my head. They looked a little scared for me when they had a look around the place. They could not see how I was going to fix this house up. As far as they were concerned, the house should have been knocked down and a new house should have been built on the block.

But I had a vision. I was prepared mentally. Almost.

So to cut a long story short… I often experienced days while renovating that property where I would have rather pulled my head under the pillows and gone back to sleep.

Some days were so hard to face. I knew what I had to do but mentally argued with my self about whether I should actually do it.

“I just didn’t feel like it”

But I always forced myself to at least put in two hours. That’s how I rationalised it to myself in order to break down the enormity of the project into achievable chunks.

When I experienced that “I just don’t feel like it” moment in the morning, I would lie and tell myself that all I had to do was put in just 2 hours… that’s all. Then I could go back to bed if I wanted to. But I had to at least show up on site and put in 2 hours.

Most days I ended up doing 10 hours or more.

I adopt this (lie to myself) philosophy in my art as well. I often tell my self, “If I can just go for a no excuses 1 hour of work, then I can throw my brushes down and go play guitar”.

Sometimes I actually do only last an hour. But the real value is in the discipline and commitment rather than the time allocated to do the job.

It’s not always easy. But it is worthwhile if you can get through those “I don’t really feel like it” phases.

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