Conflicts of an artist's mind

[dayakar]

Originally Posted by blumoon

dayakar,

What a lovely surprise when I opened this thread. Thank you for sharing your book. I see on your website your beautiful work, and also some more good writing. I loved the part about people, not galleries being moved by the works.
I have been very aware this last year or two about the poverty consciousness surrounding being an artist, so that compels me to work towards breaking through those barriers. It entails a lot of in depth work on my inner self-freeing the energy blocks, and inviting abundance into my life.

Hello Blumoon,

Sorry for my late response and Thank you for your appreciation.
Selling paintings is not the right option for a true artist. It is more or less selling yourself. It's better to use our knowledge of art in other areas where people need them badly for their careers. That way we can live as true artists.

Dayakar

[dayakar]

Originally Posted by Touch of Color

Beautiful paintings & writing. I can feel they come from a happy person. Doing what you like best in life.


Linda

Hello Linda,

Thank you. Finally what I realized in life is that happiness comes to us from understanding our existance. Painting is a very powerful tool to understand that existance. Because 'Becoming a painter means becoming a God' But here the only difference is God (painter) has to starve.

Dayakar

[blumoon]

Sorry for my late response and Thank you for your appreciation.
Selling paintings is not the right option for a true artist. It is more or less selling yourself. It's better to use our knowledge of art in other areas where people need them badly for their careers. That way we can live as true artists.

You're welcome. As I paint, it occurs to me that is what I am supposed to be doing the more. Monetary value is secondary-but we have to live. So in a way I think for me, it is better to think of "selling paintings" as allowing an energy exchange. If I am open to that, I am cared for. I create beauty and the universe looks after me. I cannot tell you how many times things have come my way as a result of this.
I do not believe we need to be imprisoned by the manufacture of our art for higher gain. When that is the focus it seems to remove some of the authenticity of creating meaningful work. This can begin very innocently. I would suggest a way around that, is holding our own integrity and keeping the flow open. Easier said than done, though. Still thank you for sharing your writings and thoughts.

[dayakar]

Originally Posted by blumoon

You're welcome. As I paint, it occurs to me that is what I am supposed to be doing the more. Monetary value is secondary-but we have to live. So in a way I think for me, it is better to think of "selling paintings" as allowing an energy exchange. If I am open to that, I am cared for. I create beauty and the universe looks after me. I cannot tell you how many times things have come my way as a result of this.
I do not believe we need to be imprisoned by the manufacture of our art for higher gain. When that is the focus it seems to remove some of the authenticity of creating meaningful work. This can begin very innocently. I would suggest a way around that, is holding our own integrity and keeping the flow open. Easier said than done, though. Still thank you for sharing your writings and thoughts.

Hello Blumoon,


I have seen your website. I felt your soul in your work. Your works are beautiful. I wish you success heartfully.


I have understood your feelings and artistic emotions. It is the character of a true artist. I was also like you once. Later I experienced that people who sell our paintings are not art lovers. They are merciless exploiters.Because of them we have to feel a lot of humilation and lots of pain.


Learning art in its true sense is a very diffcult thing. Comapred to Art, any subject can be easily learnt. That much difficulty lies in becoming an artist. But we have to suffer with all that knowledge and skills.Because people are not having much time to understand art. Without understanding you won't get passion. Not only to art, this philosophy applies to everything in this world. When people need art for their survival, then they will try to understand it. Till that minute they won't bother. For
this attitude we could not blame them also. Everybody is having their own problems.


Selling paintings is not a wrong thing. Everybody has to sell their work to survive. Being artists painting is our work. We have to sell it to survive. Otherwise how do we earn our bread and butter? But we can also sell our work in another form where it is needed. We do in another form where we may get more personal pleasure. This is what I meant.


Yes! Doing painting is a pleasant act. It's enlightenment.So I came to a decision that I have to live as an artist without selling paintings. In the end I achieved it.Anyway this is afterall my personal opinion or experience. Apart from this, becoming a dedicated artist is a great thing in life. Because one day it will help you to understand what you are, who you are. This is what, all those great saints tried to achieve throughout their lives.We artists will achieve that insight better than them.You are already on that path.

Wish you all the best.

Dayakar

[blumoon]

Thank you Dayakar. Your kind words give me hope. I must tell you, I have just had an experience which most certainly proves your point. I was rejected for a show being organized by a fellow artist, of all things. They apparently had decided only painters of realism would take part. As it turned out, the show did not go off well. To the organizer's surprise, it was the unknown artists who sold work, and the people wanted most anything but realism. The popular artists sold nothing, according to the organizer. Hmmm, and he is scratching his head.

[Larking]

very good read, and so insightful...

[Aldrin]

One of your students paid 500 dollars for a pair of shoes and she complained about paying 10 dollars per class to learn how to paint, her childhood dream? I hope you don't have too many students like her hehe

[kwhims420]

I love your paintings!!!!! They are magnificent!!!!I read all these online books except for the one I was interested in, Conflict in an artists mind, I might have been drawn to the word CONFLICT, because that is what the title of my last painting was, and I named it that because that is what the painting was to me! This book wouldn't open, it said the url could not be found, I tried several times, all the others I was able to read. Anyone else have any problems with this opening? Thank you Dayakar for sharing your books and your art

[dayakar]

Thanks for your appreciation Kwhims420.
' Conflicts of artist's mind ' is opening now. There was some link problem. Now it is rectified.

Here is the link again.
http://www.maguntadayakarcreativeins....com/book4.pdf

-dayakar

[RVM45]

I reread your book on Painting last night.

I enjoy your Paintings, and your writings are full of Insight--not that I always agree.

As far as an Artist being able to live off his Art.....

Why do some people feel the need to Draw or Paint? Why indeed?

I came from a Family that had several Artists in the Family tree. I have always liked the idea of Art--but no one had ever accused me of having any aptitude for it. I never got so far as to dream about being an Artist.

Yet I was convinced that I had an Artist's Eye. Where my friends only saw sparsely covered Hills and Shacks and Shanties, Threadbare Locals, Junk.....

I saw a Certain kind of Beauty.

I was convinced that this was--by far--the easiest part. I felt I hadn't the perseverance to work diligently, for a very long time {15 to 20 years, in my mind} to even get something that I wouldn't be ashamed to show someone.

I started my Art "Career" in my Late 40s--somewhat by accident (Signed up for a Drawing Class, thinking that it was a Drafting class.)

But back to my question:

Here is an Appalachian Hill, a Rocky Creek, and a Small Falls.

I Could be content to sit there and Drink in the Beauty, and simply walk away with the Image impressed on my mind and soul--as indeed, I've done many times before.

It would be kinda Zen-Like to keep the experience to myself--and it would spare me the Mess and the Expense of working with Media.

I think, at the bottom, is the urge to Communicate.....

I can't show another my Beautiful Stream, even by taking him there. He'll focus on the Half-Dozen Plastic Bottles in the Creek, the Poison Ivy and the Dead Possum.....

To show anyone My Beautiful Stream, I have to Translate it.....

And even so, even if I'm a Gifted Artist, only a few--maybe one of a hundred--probably less--has the Mental Eye to Truly See.

So that's why I do Art.

That is my Compulsion.

That is my Problem.

I would like for someone--or several someones--to make it possible for me to pursue my Compulsion with at least a Reasonable Amount of Comfort and Ease.

Sure, I would like that--But by What Right can I Demand It?

Now there are other Folks in the World, When they look at a piece of Art--want to Posses it. They will sometimes pay ridiculous sums of money to Posses it.

Of course, a man might have two or more Compulsions. He might even be a Painter and an Art Collector.....

And much of his Knowledge base will support either Field of Endeavor.....

But Basically, we have to say:

My Joy, and my Forte', is to Create Art.

If, fortuitously, someone appreciates it enough to buy it.....

That is his Compulsion.

That is his Problem.

.....RVM45

[Bright Moon]

Love it! I found it very zen, which in my mind is the sign of an observant, clear mind that lives in the present moment...many people are unable to get this clarity in life and it brings forth many familiar insights into focus...I know these thoughts well but have never been able to express them in such a beautiful and wise way.
Wonderful...thank you!
(teeny suggestion: you could publish perhaps...further down the road?? but only if it feels good and true to you.)
:0)

[cstroh]

Wonderful story. If I were asked why I paint I would answer, "because it makes me feel alive"

[cuttineagle]

great book to read and so true!

[KrystalB333]

Thank you for sharing your book. It was a great read that expressed so many facets of what it means to be an artist and the ways in which others misunderstand some of our personal goals and why we do what we do. I look forward to reading more in the future.

Sincerely,

[robertsloan2]

Great little book full of fun and interesting anecdotes. Most of these conflicts are external. They're a collision between the onstage and backstage reality of artists. Your philosophy is interesting, not exactly the same as mine but that doesn't matter. What matters is that your shared experience of so many social and economic pitfalls is a word to the wise.

I think even the most successful artists have as big a learning curve beating through all those tricks and myths and ripoffs as we do learning to paint.

I loved your "shoes" anecdote about the cost of your painting classes! Yeesh! $10 a lesson is cheap! I'm looking at several hundred dollar workshops dreaming of having enough money to just take off and go to one every year or two and I charged $10 a lesson when my only credential was some before and after student drawings.

I can remember one class where I taught from a book I was studying. I was exactly one chapter ahead of the students boning up and practicing for a couple of days before class, then demonstrating after I did the lesson. No one complained because I was pretty good at explaining.

Maybe the hardest part is learning how to judge pricing when it's subjective. It's emotional. It's what the person who fell in love with that painting will pay. One thing makes a big difference though.

Doing payment plans opens it up to people who couldn't afford it just as much as keeping prices down - and in a better way. You're still getting a living wage for the work and they know they have something that valuable. Having very small works or sketches or prints available at lower prices can help too, but the big deep heavy stuff that took everything you've got has to be priced reasonably at market value.

Which takes self honesty looking at the prices for similar works by artists of about your skill level - same subject and medium, more or less style at least to degree of realism vs. abstraction.

People always said I was talented from the time I was a toddler. So I grew up knowing other people wanted my art. I was dead set on becoming a writer and every one of those people thought I stank at it and would never succeed. After a long learning curve I can write well and paint well. Both were equally right and wrong - I wasn't that great as a beginner, all beginners are loaded with talent and potential. I am a lot better now than I was and not as good as I will be.

Also don't throw out lousy older paintings because you can do better now. Collectors will want them later on when you're famous and see the start of your style in them, sometimes see more in them than you did.

I don't argue with people who love a painting I thought was a flop. I'll smile and take their money and trust that's a subjective personal opinion, as subjective as mine. I could be wrong about it being that lousy just as I could be overconfident about the one I think is my best.

Thanks for a great short ebook and an interesting discussion!