Your Art: Nature vs. Geography
My very favorite sister in the whole wide world just visited! (OK, she’s my only sister, but she’s pretty cool none the less.) Her family came as well — they too, are pretty cool.
I grew up on the east coast (outside of Philadelphia). A few years after finishing college, I moved to Oregon with my family. We moved a few times and when I got divorced, you couldn’t get me on a plane back to Oregon fast enough. (We had only been back east again for 8 months so Portland was really ‘home’ to both my son & I.) So I’ve basically been in the Northwest for 14 1/2 years.
My sister has moved around as well, but has been back in PA for 7 years.
During their visit some very interesting things were said. My sister mentioned to her daughter that she packed a lot of “earth tones” since she was coming to Oregon where “people are very outdoorsy”. She also thought her “hippie” shirt would fit in well.
I smiled and filed these comments away.
Even though we grew up together, we do dress very differently. My mom likes to say I live ‘in the land of fleece’.
We went to dinner with some of her husband’s colleagues from work who were visiting from Kentucky. I filed away more interesting comments.
The wife said she was glad she didn’t put much makeup on as people were very ‘laid back’ and ‘natural’ here. They thought everyone would have stared if they had dressed like they would have back home.
This leads me to wonder: if geography has that much effect on how you dress,
does geography affect your art?
Is your art inspired because of who you are, because of where you are, or a combination of the two?
I don’t have an answer for you but would love to hear your thoughts. It all just got me wondering…
~ Have a creative day!
Tara
Help! My muse has gone AWOL!
Art is a funny thing… it is hard to schedule around a time frame. I have heard that many people are successful at that — writers who get up and write at 5 am no matter what. I’m a firm believer in just DOING but sometimes it gets stuck!
What do you do when your creative juices start sputtering instead of flowing?
I have decided my muse might be at the beach. Or perhaps she hoped a plane to Paris. I wish she gave me her itinerary so I would know when she will return!
It’s not that I’m not getting anything done, it’s just that it has seemed harder the past few days. What do you do when that happens? (seriously, what do you do??? Suggestions welcome!)
I remind myself that this is my pattern. It happens every once in a while. It usually means I just need a mental time out. Go read a book. Have a movie marathon day. My muse will be back, I know, but I always have a teeney-tiny-piece of worry that she won’t.
Be sure to give both yourself and your muse a break sometimes. Maybe planned vacations will help eliminate unexpected interruptions in flow! 
Have a creative day!
~ Tara
Who else wants to earn a living while painting in their pajamas?
Earn an income doing what you love – I can teach you how. (soon)
I just got back from an Internet marketing workshop with gurus Pat O’Bryan and Craig Perinne in San Antonio. I went thinking I wanted to develop some online art-related products to help with my branding and create another income stream.
When it was my time to tell my story, I quickly discovered that there was more interest in the licensing side of what I do instead of the products I could create. Other people in the group wanted to learn how to earn multiple streams of income from their artwork—basically, what licensing is and how to get started.
Using my marketing background and experience, I’m going to do a few eBooks that will put the basics in one place.
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