Thank you, Ted

Thank you, Ted Orland.

This week I picked up a worn copy of your The View from the Studio Door: How Artists Find Their Way In An Uncertain World (Image Continuum Press, 2006) at the local library.

I have been reading just a few pages at a time. It’s one of those kind of books. (Orland, a photographer who lives in Santa Cruz, also co-wrote Art and Fear, which is also on my reading list.)

These excerpts popped out at me this week:

·         “One of the less advertised truths about artmaking is that it’s more important to be productive than to be creative. If you’re productive, your creativity will take care of itself” (p. 35).

·         “[The creative process] means finding your subjects (not someone else’s) and finding your materials (not someone else’s) and most of all it means finding a way to live your life a way to live your life so that you can engage again and again the things you care about the most” (p. 37).

Be productive. And engage again and again.

Thanks, Ted. This is the fourth attempt at painting my friends' yard back in Iowa. I haven't hit the sweet spot yet, but at least your words are providing the fuel for trying.