Month: January 2014

The Story of Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea Black cat custom pet portrait drawing by BZTAT
“Sweet Pea” custom pet portrait drawing by BZTAT

Sweet Pea was a very special cat.

She lived most of her life in a parking lot, but she was greatly loved by her “Parking Lot Mommies” who tended to her needs and to those of the other cats who lived with her.

In recent months, her caretakers decided it was time for Sweet Pea to give indoor living a go. She adapted amazingly well, and she became the “Third Cat” of Dorian Wagner who writes the famed Your Daily Cute blog. That was no small thing.

Read the rest of Sweet Pea’s story here in my latest newsletter, and while you’re at it, why not subscribe?

I have a secret.

Top Secret Stamp by Artist BZTATI have a secret.

I must, right? I am an artist, and artists create things that no one else can create. We have insights and methods that are outside the reach of others, and we do things that inspire comments like, ” I wish I could paint like that!”

There has to be a secret if others cannot grasp it, yes?

The funny thing is, I don’t feel like I have a secret. What I do is just what I do, and I just go about doing it every day, enjoying the process most of the time. Sometimes the process is a struggle and not exactly enjoyable, but I do it in pursuit of an outcome that is ultimately satisfying.

Some of what I do is a matter of skill that has been carefully honed over the years. It is not so secret. Many of my processes are easily analyzed and revealed.

Other aspects to my process, though, are more conceptual and intuitive. They are less obvious and more oblique to the casual eye. I guess that these aspects are what intrigue people the most. They are also what make my work uniquely mine.

My point in musing about all of this is to let you know that none of my artistic “secrets” are intentionally guarded as such. I don’t purposefully create a mystique about my creative process and prevent others from trying to duplicate it. I am secure in my ability and my unique perceptions, so I do not fear that others will copy and achieve identical results.

That is the real secret.

Each person has their own personal identity that ultimately shines through in their art, so even purposefully attempted copies of another’s work reveals something about the actual artist and not the one imitated.

I like to help others discover their creative selves, and I enjoy sharing about my own experiences to facilitate that process for people. I am very open to sharing my techniques and processes in the hopes that others will use them as a way to explore their creativity and try new things.

So if there was one “secret” that I could reveal to help you in that process, what would it be?

Ask away in the comments here. Future blog posts will take up your questions and hopefully help reveal the secrets to your own creative potential!

Life is an Adventure!

BZTAT

Posted on Medium.com: I’m Becoming a Cranky Art Fuddy Duddy.

This article originally appeared on medium.com. See the article in it’s entirety here.

Pushing the Envelope

Anyone can revolt. It is more difficult silently to obey our own inner promptings, and to spend our lives finding sincere and fitting means of expression for our temperament and our gifts. ~ Georges Rouault

A couple of my friends recently went to the acclaimed Art Basel show in Miami, FL. Ever the social media virtuosos that they are, they posted photos of some of the most shocking and bizarre artworks that they witnessed there on their Facebook pages. I wanted to hurl. Perhaps that was the reaction the artists wanted.

I am happy to see my non-artist friends exploring the arts. I have to wonder, though, if it really enhances their cultural awareness to be exposed to the most banal aspects of human expression marketed as the “ Modern and contemporary art world’s premier platform for bringing together artists and their patrons in a way that is both engaging and personal.”

I went to art school in the 1980’s and was taught to be open to a variety of expressive forms and methods. I learned to excoriate Victorian attitudes that stifled artistic freedom, and I heralded groundbreaking artists who “broke the rules.” I was taught to appreciate anything that broke with tradition and was “non-representational”.

But lately, I find myself wondering, have we gone too far?

Read the rest of the article at Medium.com.