Marilyn Fenn Studio

7/16/09 – Today I’m participating in a collaborative online project with other art bloggers. We are re-posting one of our favorite posts from our blogs. I chose to re-post some notes from art school from way back when, because I find these tips personally useful to review every so often, especially this year when I am exploring various other avenues in my creative process. Perhaps other artists will find some of these tips helpful, too.

Painting by Matthew Ritchie
“The Living Will”
2004
Oil and marker on canvas
88 x 99 inches
An idea that bears repeating – aim for a compelling, unorthodox originality…

Class notes from Reinventing Your Creative Process with Andrew Long, Fall 2007
I am so going to miss these classes with Andrew Long.  He said this would be a life-altering experience, and as grand a claim as that may sound, he wasn’t kidding.
My work changed fairly dramatically after taking the first version of this class [...]

Painting by Julia Mehretu
“Excerpt (Riot)”
2003
ink and acrylic on canvas
32 x 54”
Class notes from Reinventing Your Creative Process with Andrew Long, Fall 2007

Class notes from Poetic Non-Representational Acrylic Painting with Andrew Long, Fall 2007
The object in the painting – is it being an object vs. being a facsimile of the object? Does it have a history, a great hook, and richness, a fullness, or is it empty?
What’s the difference between this abstract piece of art [...]

Painting by Terry Winters, just because it’s so frigging beautiful!
Notes in response to the question “Why Do You Create the Art You Create?” posed in the class Poetic Non-Representational Acrylic Painting with Andrew long, Fall 2007
Thoughts and Quotes in response (from several previous classes at SAIC posted earlier in this blog):
An artist needs to be [...]

Painting by Joan Snyder
“Magic Meadow”
Class notes from Poetic Non-Representational Acrylic Painting with Andrew Long , Fall 2007
What do you think of when you think of a building?  Do you think of the structure underneath?   Why don’t they call it a “built”?  “Building” is a verb – a process.
Maxine Price – a fellow student’s [...]

Class notes from Reinventing Your Creative Process with Andrew Long, Fall 2007
Jackhammer your myths.
For me, consolidate my careers.  Think about validation.  Making money doesn’t validate your art (yes, but it makes it possible to spend more time doing your art).
Think about, art can be more fun w/o the business end of it.
Think about [...]

Class notes from Reinventing Your Creative Process with Andrew Long, Fall 2007
“One theory of education says that learning is not accumulating information but discarding what your mind doesn’t need.”
from this article in the NY Times

Class notes from Reinventing Your Creative Process with Andrew Long, Fall 2007
Are you what you paint?
Are you painting something external or internal?