The Messy Studio with Rebecca Crowell Rebecca Crowell

What sorts of boundaries do you put around your studio practice? What new ideas are you willing–or not willing—to explore in your work? We all have limited time and energy, so how do you decide where to focus? Which new materials, media, or directions are worth pursuing? It’s a part of learning to sometimes spend time and resources on things that are off track or don’t really suit you. And a basic openness to change and growth is a very good attitude. But, letting yourself be pulled too often in different directions can keep you from committing to deeper involvement. Today we’ll talk about boundaries that are useful and encourage growth, along with thoughts about those that are either too tight or too loose.


When do boundaries make complete sense, and bring about focus and development in one area, and when is it good to let go of some of them and open new phases of our work? The answer is unique to you as an individual, but a key factor is if you have a solid base from which you can branch out. Every creative idea potentially has multiple forms of expression. Is it the right time to explore some new aspects of your work?


Some people are very drawn to whatever is novel. New materials, processes, techniques, and ideas can be a strong pull. But any change in your process takes time and energy, and it's worth giving some time and consideration to whether to take on something new. Are you avoiding commitment and going deeply into your ideas? Or you may be a person who sets very narrow boundaries about what new approaches you will explore. There may be a fear of losing sales or simply of failing at a new venture. A good middle ground is being open to change and willing to follow through on changes that seem worthwhile. Understanding your own position about boundaries requires looking at yourself honestly, and you may find a solid base that you didn't even recognize.


It’s a challenge to find the right balance of being open to new directions and being committed to certain ideas. But that point of balance is also very exciting and rewarding. It means you are heading purposefully in direction you've identified as helpful but there are surprises and good energy along the way. You’re excited by new challenges but also understanding how various ideas fit together, and seeing that the basic connection you have with your ideas is solid.




Thanks to everyone who has been sharing the show and donating! If you would like to donate to the Messy Studio Podcast donate here.
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When you buy art supplies at Blick remember to use our affiliate link to support the podcast! Bookmark this link and then you don't even have to think about it again. This is one of the best ways to support the show. It takes a few seconds and costs you nothing! The Blick website works exactly the same way, but we earn 10% every time you buy art supplies.
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www.messystudiopodcast.com/blick
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What's new at Cold Wax Academy?
What's new at Cold Wax Academy? You can now join the membership program on a month-to-month basis with full streaming access to all the great features offered, including Rebecca and Jerry's full-length video workshop and Jerry's Mentoring Messages and 12 Essential Lessons. Monthly memberships mean lots more flexibility for you--you can try the program out for a short time, or take a break when you need it. Live sessions will continue twice a month--and along with favorites like painting clinics, critiques, and guests, and as always, everything is recorded and available in the Member Library.


And there's more exciting news! Rebecca and Jerry have just announced the first ever online international exhibit of work created with cold wax medium. All styles and formats are welcome. The juror for the show is Dan Addington, of Addington Gallery in Chicago. To learn more, go to www.coldwaxacademy.com-- and click on the Call for Art button. While you are on the website, check out all the information abut cold wax medium and

It's once again the time of year when many of us make resolutions and set goals. We’ve talked about goals and plans at the start of the year in previous podcasts, but in this episode, we would like to recognize that sometimes having questions about what lies ahead is just as important. The nature of creative work means focusing on what we don’t know as much or more than what we do know. Most goals and resolutions are based on a logical evaluation of what we want to accomplish—and there’s nothing wrong with that. But today we’re going to talk about the importance of generating questions as much as we do goals and resolutions.


We base many goals for our life and work on assumptions about what seems like the right thing to do according to outside standards. But as artists we have a lot of independence and autonomy, and a big part of setting your own course is considering what’s right for yourself as an individual. It's also important when setting goals to leave plenty of room for the unexpected, and for exploring things you haven’t even thought about.


Underneath any practical goal or resolution is a question about why it is important. What is the motivation for making this resolution? Is it something you truly want, or is it instead something you simply believe is expected of you? It’s interesting to go to this deeper level with questions and see what you discover. You might find a clear and honest reason for your resolution, or you may discover that you lack a personal connection or motivation.


There is also a problem with setting precise goals and resolutions in an art practice in that there are always unexpected changes and opportunities. The conventional approach may keep you from exploring the more meandering path that many artists find valuable.


One of the joys of the art life is that you have the freedom to find the path that suits your own approach and focus. At this time of year it's good to give thought to what is right for you and get rid of any “shoulds” that are causing you grief. Goals and resolutions are best when they are personal and as flexible as possible, to allow for the unexpected.

Thanks to everyone who has been sharing the show and donating! If you would like to donate to the Messy Studio Podcast donate here.
•
When you buy art supplies at Blick remember to use our affiliate link to support the podcast! Bookmark this link and then you don't even have to think about it again. This is one of the best ways to support the show. It takes a few seconds and costs you nothing! The Blick website works exactly the same way, but we earn 10% every time you buy art supplies.
​
www.messystudiopodcast.com/blick
​
What's new at Cold Wax Academy?
There are some important changes as 2024 gets underway! The big news is that Rebecca and Jerry have restructured their membership program and now you can join on a month-to-month basis with full streaming access to all features of the program. This means lots more flexibility for you--you can try the program out for a short time, or take a break when you need it. Live sessions will continue twice a month--and along with favorites like painting clinics, critiques, and guests, some new and exciting plans are in the works. Make 2024 your year to discover the excitement of working with cold wax -- or if you are already a member, to go even deeper into your painting practice.
For more info and to join CWA please visit www.coldwaxacademy.com
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Please visit http://www.coldwaxacademy.com for more information as well as basic information about using cold wax medium.
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Here is what a member named Sandy has to say about her own experience with Cold Wax Academy:
"Rebecca and Jerry have presented the most professional, authentic and structured approach to a creative activity I have ever come across. Their selfless sharing of all their knowledge and encouragement is a gift in my life unsurpassed."
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Also-- please visit https://www.espacioart.o

This is the traditional time of year to focus on gratitude for the blessings in our lives. And while gratitude can and should cover a lot of areas of life, since this podcast is mainly aimed at artists, today we’re going to consider some of the ways that we as artists can be uniquely grateful. These include being thankful for being able to do our work, for those who appreciate it, for opportunities that come our way, and for the personal growth we gain from creative practice. Art adds a dimension to our lives that is deeply satisfying and affirming, whether we do it mainly for ourselves or whether we bring it to the wider world or even make a career of it. Today we want to focus on gratitude for the ability and the passion we have for making art.


Spending some time to write about what your art practice means to you is a meaningful way to explore your grateful feelings for your art practice and the creative aspects of your life. We can all get caught up in the ups and downs of the daily situation in the studio but taking a pause to acknowledge its special importance to you is uplifting. This can include looking back to times when challenges and difficulties in your creative life have led to positive outcomes, and the ways that you have grown as a person as a result. Perseverance, trust, and belief in yourself can build up over time as you involve yourself in your work.


Gratitude can extend not only to what comes to us in personal ways but also to what we are able to share. Making art can be seen as a way of loving the larger world when you do it with a sense of gratitude and when you offer others a bit of your sense of beauty and rightness. Whether it is through exhibiting, teaching, writing, or speaking about your work, you can be grateful for having something meaningful to share with others.


The list of things for which an artist can be thankful is long; each of us has our own specific or personal thoughts and experiences, but there are also more universal aspects of the creative life that can be acknowledged. No matter what role art plays in your own life, it enhances your life now and on into the future with its benefits of ongoing involvement and healthy aging.




Thanks to everyone who has been sharing the show and donating! If you would like to donate to the Messy Studio Podcast donate here.
•
When you buy art supplies at Blick remember to use our affiliate link to support the podcast! Bookmark this link and then you don't even have to think about it again. This is one of the best ways to support the show. It takes a few seconds and costs you nothing! The Blick website works exactly the same way, but we earn 10% every time you buy art supplies.
​
www.messystudiopodcast.com/blick
​
What's new at Cold Wax Academy?
Fall quarter is now underway with sessions on Texture, Materiality and Process, Finding Time for your Work, a return visit with Gamblin representative Mary Tevlin, a painting clinic for works in progress, and the quarterly member critique. As always, Members are encouraged to take part in the online sessions, where lively discussions take place as Rebecca and Jerry respond in real time, But if you can't make it to the live sessions, remember that Cold Wax Academy Members have unlimited streaming access to over 100 previously recorded sessions --and now you can navigate the extensive range of topics with an index to easily find what you need.


By the way, you don't have to use cold wax medium to benefit from the content in these recordings. Artists who use other painting media will also find a wealth of valuable information --including effective use of the visual elements and composition, personal voice and intentions, mentoring topics like procrastination and work/life balance--and much, much more. For more info and to join CWA please visit www.coldwaxacademy.com
​
Please visit http://www.coldwaxacademy.com for more information as well as basic information about using cold wax medium.

Podcast: Studio Tours


Being part of a studio tour is a unique opportunity to show your work in the one place where you feel most at home with your work, and where you have total control over what to show and how it will be displayed. It’s a time when you can meet people who are excited about what you do and of course, make direct sales and helpful connections. Especially when your open studio is part of an organized and publicized regional event, you can expect a steady flow of visitors, and the sales that result can be significant. What do you need to do to prepare for being part of a studio tour or open studio event? How can you maximize sales and connections, and keep your energy during all the preparations and planning? Today we’ll talk about some tips and considerations, and ideas for making things run smoothly.


The most important thing to remember is to pace yourself, because there’s a lot to do to get ready, and many different tasks to keep track of. But doing a little each day for about four-six weeks ahead relieves a lot of stress. Small accomplishments add up! The following is a list of tasks and the suggested schedule for getting ready for the big days.


Starting 4-6 weeks ahead
• Send out newsletter with all your info, and some photos of some of the work you will be selling. You will have a decent mailing list for this if you’ve been keeping a sign-up guest book each time you have had an open studio event in the past. If not, use whatever emails you have collected via other methods.
• Order new business cards if you need them, and maybe post cards or brochures.
• Start promoting on social media—you can post what you are working on for the tour, pictures of your studio, etc.
• Evaluate your inventory –will you show older work, only newer work, or a combination?
o Are there gaps you want to fill? You still have time to make new work.
o Do you have various price points for your work? Higher prices are not a bad thing if you have a track record, but some lower prices are also good.
o Are there pieces that need to be touched up, cleaned up, or worked over?
o Decide if you need any mats or frames—you should go for the best presentation you can reasonably afford. Off the shelf frames are fine—if you have things that will look best frames, frame at least a few so people can see how they will look.
• Order any other supplies you need for wrapping and protecting work that you sell, like bubble wrap and cardboard.
• Pricing—think about this as you go along, don’t leave to the very end especially if you plan to make some changes. Sit with your decisions for a while. Be wary of pricing too low. If you’re not sure, get some input from a friend or two.
• Consider what help you will need—if any—on the days of the tour and if you want help, line someone up now to give them plenty of a heads up. You might think about help for parking, wrapping work, watching over the food table, or just someone to keep you company and give you a break.
• If the studio is a group event help out willingly and where you can—you may have an assigned job or make other efforts where you see the need, like picking up trash on your street.


About 2 weeks ahead—
• Start cleaning and organizing if you have a messy studio.
• Put fresh paint your display walls and hang your work even if it isn’t really ready. That helps give you a view of how your studio will look and you can see what you have at a glance and what work needs attention. Consider how to group things and organize so it feels welcoming.
• Think about what food/drinks to serve—you can go easy on yourself by using packaged food or be more elaborate, but it is good to have something.
• Make sure you have a guest book, and a receipt book if you want to use one (handy for your own records.)
• Check that your Square account for credit cards and your Venmo account if you have one are working well—remember it is good

We may think of abstract painting as exploring the visual elements and the process of painting strictly for their own sakes, but that’s only one kind of abstract work. Many abstract artists have a more personal approach, in which aspects of their lives, memories and experiences fuel their work. They want to feel a direct connection between their inner lives and what they create. But finding ways to interpret these personal sources in abstract terms is a big challenge. Without obvious subject matter, how can you express an experience, tell a personal story, or evoke a memory? Today we’ll talk about some approaches to abstraction when very personal expression is the goal.


if you are an artist seeking this kind of personal involvement with your abstract work, a key is developing a meaningful visual language that feels connected to your own experiences. Personal visual language means the way you use the visual elements and composition that are most expressive to you. This can include certain color combinations or textural effects, kinds of mark-making, and considerations of scale or format. This is the result of lot of practice, building up aspects of it over time.


Working in a personal way with abstraction has limitations in how specific you can be in conveying your ideas. You might think of the process as setting a stage that invites your viewer into a certain evocative realm, for example something organic or nature-related, or a something that seems architectural. But a challenge in developing abstraction with personal meaning includes avoiding literal depiction and insisting on a particular interpretation. It's very easy to slide into imagery even if you decide you want to avoid that; finding a context for your ideas that is consistent in its degree of abstraction is important.


Finding the essence of experiences, places, objects, or other subject matter is an important aspect of personally expressive abstraction. Essence means the most basic and pervasive qualities of something, the distillation of an idea. It’s typically the motivation behind wanting your work to be more abstract, because it helps your own responses to your subject be more powerful. You can express essence via any of the visual elements that seem related, and you can use them freely in compositions that are not literal in their depiction.




Thanks to everyone who has been sharing the show and donating! If you would like to donate to the Messy Studio Podcast donate here.
•
When you buy art supplies at Blick remember to use our affiliate link to support the podcast! Bookmark this link and then you don't even have to think about it again. This is one of the best ways to support the show. It takes a few seconds and costs you nothing! The Blick website works exactly the same way, but we earn 10% every time you buy art supplies.
​
www.messystudiopodcast.com/blick
​
What's new at Cold Wax Academy?
Fall quarter is now underway with sessions on Texture, Materiality and Process, Finding Time for your Work, a return visit with Gamblin representative Mary Tevlin, a painting clinic for works in progress, and the quarterly member critique. As always, Members are encouraged to take part in the online sessions, where lively discussions take place as Rebecca and Jerry respond in real time, But if you can't make it to the live sessions, remember that Cold Wax Academy Members have unlimited streaming access to over 100 previously recorded sessions --and now you can navigate the extensive range of topics with an index to easily find what you need.


By the way, you don't have to use cold wax medium to benefit from the content in these recordings. Artists who use other painting media will also find a wealth of valuable information --including effective use of the visual elements and composition, personal voice and intentions, mentoring topics like procrastination and work/life balance--and much, much more. For more info and to join CWA please visit

It’s what so many artists work toward—a solo exhibit or small group show-- when a large body of work is shown at its best, to an appreciative audience. Preparation for an exhibit like that can take months, even years. Slowly you produce the work, experiencing everything from panic to satisfaction as the finished pieces for your exhibit accumulate. It can be both a draining and exhilarating experience as you head toward the finish line. Finally, your show opens, and then what? You have a few weeks or a month of receiving congratulations and feedback, hoping for sales, celebrating when they happen, and then rather suddenly, it’s all over. Today we’ll talk about the aftermath of an exhibit, a time to process what you’ve accomplished and consider what’s next.


Exhibits are milestones in your art career, and it's important to take some time to process your accomplishment, by observing how you feel about the work that was exhibited. Take some time to appreciate seeing the work as a body, hanging together, and to consider what might be next. What has changed in your vision and intentions?


Many artists also experience a lull or creative block following the big push of having an exhibit. Although this can be frustrating, this downtime can also be beneficial as a time to rest and find your way back into your work. You may need to step back to gather new ideas and energy. Keep your long-term goals in mind but allow yourself some time off.


The issues of sales also tends to occupy you in the post-exhibit period. Friends will inquire, and your own finances may cause you to feel anxious about having some income from the show. But try to remember that sales are not the measure of a good exhibit. There are too many factors influencing whether sales happen to use them as a gauge of success.


Nobody but the artist really understands everything that goes into producing an exhibit. Your own perspective is the most important and that needs to be focused on the big picture of your work, what you've learned and where your work may be heading. There can be a lot of distractions around a show—sales, publicity, contacts, exposure. A lot of that is exciting and can lead to new opportunities, but in the end, you go back to your studio and work. You are not the same artist you were before you went through this process, and it's time to move on.




Thanks to everyone who has been sharing the show and donating! If you would like to donate to the Messy Studio Podcast donate here.
•
When you buy art supplies at Blick remember to use our affiliate link to support the podcast! Bookmark this link and then you don't even have to think about it again. This is one of the best ways to support the show. It takes a few seconds and costs you nothing! The Blick website works exactly the same way, but we earn 10% every time you buy art supplies.
​
www.messystudiopodcast.com/blick
​
What's new at Cold Wax Academy? As Rebecca and Jerry enter the fourth year of live programming, they are bringing a special emphasis to reviewing and consolidating prior learning, as well as to increased member involvement on a variety of topics like professional development, mentoring issues, and other questions posed to the group. As always, Members are also encouraged to take part in the online sessions, where lively discussions take place as Rebecca and Jerry respond in real time, And don't forget that Cold Wax Academy Members have unlimited streaming access to over 100 previously recorded sessions covering a broad range of topics. You don't have to use cold wax medium to benefit from the content in these recordings. Artists who use other painting media will also find a wealth of valuable information there, from the effective use of the visual elements and composition, to personal voice and intentions, to personal issues like procrastination and work/life balance--and much, much more. For more info and to join CWA please visit www.coldwaxacademy.com
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