Your Inner Child and Art

"Got Your Goat," oil, 60"h x 20"w, ©Jill Banks 2013

I'm borrowing today ... some sage advice for the artist and those trying to unlock the artist within from the Robert Genn Newsletter, this installment written by Robert's daughter, Sara. For an image, I'm using one of those paintings in which I was practicing my inner child. (My painting from today is still a secret.)

"Science fiction author Ursula Le Guin wrote, "The creative adult is the child who has survived." Wise artists practice daily with their inner youngster, and the task doesn't lighten with success. Your child may slip into the shadows when more pressing professional concerns take hold. Alternate modes of play can be just the antidote. You can have fun chasing the tingles reserved for a novice. Making strides in areas unencumbered by hard-won expectation feels effervescent. By switching into child-mode, shuffling the cortex, we remember our innocence, when we knew less. These are the essentials of continued aesthetic discovery.

Sincerely,

Sara

P.S. "It is a happy talent to know how to play." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Esoterica: Learning a new thing is a shortcut to joy and informs your area of mastery. Last summer, I took a sailing lesson. Gathered on the dock of New York's 79th Street Boat Basin were a UN peacekeeping ambassador, an advertising director, a Columbia University Fellow, and me. We all found tying a bowline to be a real stumper. Eyes twinkled, mouths curled in amusement. You could almost hear the bigger brains chugging with new rhythms. Out on the Hudson, catching gusts and inner sensations, we tacked into the wind, closed our eyes, and let the children take turns at the tiller."

To read the whole article, go to http://clicks.robertgenn.com/childs-play.php.

Sara's right. There is something magical about learning new things -- and by now, I occasionally suffer from those hard-won expectations. 

Vow to try something brand new to shake things up. Forget about being good at it. See if the kid in you survived.

Sign Up for Classes and Workshops that Start January
Mastering the Business of Art -- two-day workshop January 4 & 5
Still Life in Oils -- Tuesdays, 10am-1pm (Full with wait list)
Portrait Painting -- Sundays, 1:30pm-5:30pm
All taught through the Great Falls School of Art (1144 Walker Road, Suite D, Great Falls, VA).  See the Classes page on my Web site: www.JillBanks.com. Don't wait! (Please. I don't want you to miss out.)

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com 
Email
Phone: 703.403.7435
Artists Atelier, Great Falls VA website: GreatFallsAtelier.com 

Events
See the events page on my website.  Thanks!

Richeson75 Birds, Animals and Wildlife Online Exhibition "La Chien de Grange," my painting of the (magestic) Giverny barn dog was chosen as one of 75 outstanding artworks for the Richeson Birds, Animals and Wildlife exhibition now viewable online at: http://www.richeson75.com/wildlife/index.html

Squares Show in the Gallery

See me at the Artists' Atelier, the studio I share with 14 other artists at 1144 Walker Road, Suite G, Great Falls, VA. Open Wednesdays and Saturdays, noon to 4pm and whenever an artist is in. Squares is up until the end of December -- with work in a variety of mediums from members of Great Falls Studios. We had a great turn-out. Come see! Reception: Saturday, December 21, noon to 4pm.