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THE SPIRIT IS WILLING, BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK
Today was a somewhat rainy day. The type of weather that brings out that kind of particular melancholy that leads me to the thought, "Today is a great day to play some piano."
I'm not a good piano player by any stretch of the imagination. I'm more of a guitarist that happens to "strum" the ivories on occasion. Think of John Lennon's "Imagine" being the absolute farthest reach of my skills and you've got the picture.
I just "knew" I could sit down and write a song. Songwriting is one of my hobbies, and I'll admit the muse doesn't strike me often in that regard, but I felt like I had "one in the chamber" today. I quickly finished off my lunch and headed for the basement of the Community Arts Center, with a Post-It note pad in my hand and forty-five minutes left of lunch hour still ticking away - plenty of time.
I turned on a digital piano. Played a few chords... changed the tone from the default grand piano to an electric piano...nope...a jazz organ...nope...a marimba...nope.... I finally settled on something that sounded like a cello and played a few more chords before I decided I wasn't in a digital piano kind of mood. I scooted over to a real piano and played what few chords I have in my piano repertory... still nothing. Then I attempted humming a few words to a simple progression, trying not to sing out too loud. When you're only "strumming" a piano, the last thing you want to do is get caught by someone who thinks that you know what you're doing. They might want to listen or even worse, they might have requests... but, I wasn't there to play piano. I was there to write a SONG. I tried scribbling on the Post-It note with a free pen from one of those cash advance/payday loans companies... nope. Apparently free pens aren't good pens, I thought as the pen gouged into the paper, but left no ink.
Why couldn't I get anything to happen? My spirit was willing. I knew I had a great idea lurking just beneath the surface, but somehow it slipped away. Although I didn't get a song, I did scrawl out a simple bassline and I got an idea for this blog - Inspiration.
As artists, how often do we approach our craft with all the confidence in the world that something absolutely amazing will happen, only to fall completely flat? We spread our arms wide to embrace the muse, only to find that, to use a variation on a now common phrase, "she's just not that into you."
The problem is that artists, like athletes, can get out of shape. If you've ever ran a 5K, 10K, or a marathon, you know that there is an intense level of training involved. You can't just decide to run a marathon and start training by running the full 26.2 miles. You work your way up to it, day by day and mile by mile. If you slack off on your training, you have to work your way back up to the intensity where you left off. If you haven't run in three years, you'll be surprised to find that your body is not as cooperative as it once was.
Inspiration is the same way. If you haven't been regularly creating and honing your art, you will find difficulty in the creative process. If you're out of shape creatively, finding the perfect subject matter will end up being a frustrating mess. The new ideas that once came so easily will find ways of somehow seeping through the cracks.
Chuck Close, one of America's leading contemporary artists - famous for his larger than life portraits, once said -
"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself."
Chuck has a condition known as prosopagnosia, also known as "face blindness"- he simply cannot recognize faces. His giant portraits help him to better identify his subjects and friends. Close also suffered a seizure in 1988 that left him in a state of paralysis, but he completely revamped his style to overcome his limitations and still manages to make some of the world's most incredible art. Given this example, I find myself wondering, "What's my excuse?"
I need to stop waiting for inspiration. I need to get inside the artwork and plow forward, and inspiration will no doubt follow. Too often, we fall back on excuses - too tired... too poor...too old...etc and we never reach our potential. We want to "run marathons" and "cross the finish line" in terms of our art, but we don't want to stay fit and train to be able to accomplish our goals.
Put in your time. Hone your craft. Even though you can't make a masterpiece every time you visit your studio, a bad day making art is better than a good day waiting for it.
Brandon Long
Programming Director
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Welcome to Artists Only, a newsletter produced by the Community Arts Center in Danville, Kentucky with the artistic audience in mind.
We'll keep you posted with tips from working artists and gallery curators, exhibition opportunities, and must see exhibits - all within a short drive of the bluegrass region.
Please let us know what you think about our topics and what you'd like to see in upcoming newsletters! Email your feedback to
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Be aware that you do not have to accept every job, commission, or opportunity that comes your way. Some might be absolutely perfect for you while others may not. You only have so much time - choose wisely.
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Art and love are the same thing: It's the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.
Children make up the best songs, anyway. Better than grown-ups. Kids are always working on songs and throwing them away, like little origami things or paper airplanes. They don't care if they lose it; they'll just make another one.
Tom Waits
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
As many artists know, dark beginnings lead to colorful ends.
Every artist was once an amateur.
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Community Arts Center
401 W. Main,
Danville, Ky.
now through through Saturday, Sept. 27
Weathered and Reclaimed
Bluegrass Patchwork
mixed media by Marco Logsdon
My Year with Monet: Paintings Inspired by the Impressionist Master by Donna Forgacs
Here, There and Everywhere photography and digital art by Geri Trinler
Open Mondays - Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Free admission.
Learn more.
UP NEXT
Horizon: Contemporary Landscape
Oct. 1 - Nov. 14
Artists Reception: Thursday, Oct. 9, 6 to 8 p.m.
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CALL TO ARTISTS: HORIZON CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE 2014
The Community Arts Center proudly presents Horizon: Contemporary Landscape, an annual exhibit designed to test the limits of the term "landscape," blurring the lines between traditional and experimental works. While many artists portray classic landscape paintings, others delve into more abstract realms, submitting everything from collage and photography to mixed media and cast metal sculpture. Deadline: Sept. 2. Learn more.
VISUAL ART EXHIBIT OPPORTUNITIES
Creative Art League of Jessamine County (Nicholasville, Ky.) is currently accepting exhibit proposals for its new gallery space. Email Constance@GulletteLaw.com for more info. Deadline: Ongoing.
THE PORTLAND ART AND HERITAGE FAIR: ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
The Louisville Visual Art Association seeks t wo-dimensional entries of works inspired by the Ohio River. Fee: $10. Deadline: Aug. 30. Learn more.
INTERESTED IN PLEIN AIR PAINTING? Artists in the Danville, Ky. area are forming a plein air painters group to capture the beauty and splendor of our surrounding landscape. If you are interested in joining the group or attending any of their upcoming paint outs, please contact Pat Fretz at 859-319-2008.
ANNUAL FALL ARTS FESTIVAL - MERCER COUNTY
The Arts Council of Mercer County presents the 6th Annual Fall Arts Festival Saturday, Oc. 11 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 12 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This juried event features original, handmade art and craft. The 2013 festival drew more than 2,000 attendees and is expected to be even larger this year given its new location in the heart of downtown Harrodsburg. Download an application online or contact Carrie Truitt for more information.
MICRO-LOAN PROGRAM FOR VISUAL ARTISTS IN JEFFERSON COUNTY
Louisville Visual Art Association offers a micro-loan program to artists who are seeking funds to further their professional and business development. Any visual artist over 18 living in Jefferson County may apply for a loan for any purpose that furthers the applicant's professional career. Learn more.
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR EXHIBITS
The Gloria Singletary Gallery at the Living Arts and Science Center in Lexington, Ky., invites a variety of artist proposals for 4 - 8 week exhibitions. Independent curators, collaborative teams of artists and individual artists are encouraged to submit proposals for exhibition. Learn more.
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REPURPOSED AND RECYCLED: WORKS BY KENTUCKY ARTISTS
Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea
Through Sept. 6
As today's world mass produces more and more goods, there are increasing amounts of discarded and leftover items and materials. Artists often see these discards as a great source of materials and inspiration, and use them to create new and exciting artwork. Learn more.
REMNANTS: Photography and Sculpture by Amanda J. Cawby. Melissa T. Hall and Page Turner
M S Rezny Studio/Gallery, Lexington, Ky.
September 2 - 30, 2014
"Remnants" is a body of work produced by three artists brought together by a common fascination with the scraps, mementos, leftovers, sentimental objects, and traces left behind by others. Sculptors Cawby and Turner use actual physical remnants from people's lives in their complex assemblages, while photographer Hall uses the idea of people's actions leaving behind a vestige or trace to fuel her conceptual images. Artist Reception: Friday, Sept. 19, 5 to 8 p.m. Learn more.
AMERICAN BALLADS: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF MARTY STUART
Frist Center, Nashville
Through Nov. 2
Although known primarily as a country music star, Marty Stuart is a master storyteller not only through his songs, but also through his revealing photographs. He has been taking photographs of the people and places surrounding him since he first went on tour with bluegrass performer Lester Flatt at age 13. His inspirations include his mother, Hilda Stuart, whom he watched document their family's everyday life in Mississippi. Learn more.
TAIYO ONORATO & NICO KREBS: THE ONE-EYED THIEF
Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati
Sept. 12, 2014 through Feb. 22, 2015
The Swiss-born, Berlin-based duo Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs (both b. 1979) respond with humor and wit to various traditions of modernist architecture, documentary photography and the heroic travelogue. By pecking at such constructions, the artists reveal a more whimsical, ironic, and subjective vision of the structures and technologies that shape the way we see and live. Their work simultaneously explores the subject of artistic collaboration, as well as the expansion of photography as an artistic medium. Though much of Onorato & Krebs' practice is photographic, the artists' engagement with other media-film, sculpture, sound -sheds the artifice of objectivity and documentation to revel in reconstructions of the world around us. Learn more.
CONVERSATIONS AROUND AMERICAN GOTHIC
Cincinnati Art Museum
Aug. 30 to Nov. 16, 2014
The Cincinnati Art Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago will collaborate in a historic partnership involving Grant Wood's two masterpieces, American Gothic and Daughters of Revolution. For the first time, the iconic American Gothic will appear in Cincinnati alongside the Art Museum's own Daughters of Revolution. Wood's iconic paintings will be combined with other quintessential works by artists of the Regionalist Movement including John Steuart Curry's Baptism in Kansas(Whitney Museum of American Art, New York) and Thomas Hart Benton's Cradling Wheat (Saint Louis Art Museum). Visitors will be encouraged to compare these works, stimulating lively conversation about the definition of "realism" as an artistic style, small town and rural life, stereotypes, nationalism, and what it means to be an American. Learn more.
THE DR. DONALD L. AND DOROTHY JACOBS GALLERY
Georgetown College
Permanent Collection
The Dr. Donald L. and Dorothy Jacobs Gallery at Georgetown College includes modern and contemporary works of art by international, national and regional artists, along with an outstanding collection of antiquities. Visitors will enjoy works of art by:
* Djawid Borower
* Louise Bourgeois
* Dale Chihuly
* Christo
* Thornton Dial
* Helen Frankenthaler
* Ernesto Gutierrez
* Jasper Johns
* Judy Pfaff
* Robert Rauschenberg
* Frank Stella
* Andrew Wyeth
* Georgetown College students, alumni and faculty
The gallery includes antiquities from China, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Indonesia, Liberia, Palestine, Peru, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam. Learn more.
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401 West Main Street
Danville, KY 40422
859-236-4054
Open to the public:
Wednesdays - Fridays: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Saturdays: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. |
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The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, provides operating support to the Community Arts Center with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved.
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