Un broken - wax, ash, wood, acrylic on canvas.

"Art is often made in abandonment, emerging unbidden in moments of selfless rapport with the materials and ideas we care about. In such moments we leave no space for others... But while other's reactions need not cause problems for the artist, they usually do. The problems arise when we confuse other's priorities with our own" - Art & Fear

"For the artist, the issue of acceptance begins as one simple, haunting question: When your work is counted, will it be counted as art?"

"The lesson here is simply that courting approval, even that of peers, puts a dangerous amount of power in the hands of the audience. Worse yet, the audience is seldom in a position to grant (or withhold) approval on the one issue that really counts -- namely, whether or not you're making progress in your work. They're in a good position to comment on how they're moved (or challenged or entertained) by the finished product, but have little knowledge or interest in your process. Audience comes later. The only pure communication is between you and your work."

Sketchbook doodle.

"Artists don't get down to work until the pain of working is exceeded by the pain of not working." -Stephen DeStaebler

"Making art precipitates self-doubt, stirring deep waters that lay between what you know you should be, and what you fear you might be." -David Bayles & Ted Orland in Art & Fear

"People who need certainty in their lives are less likely to make art that is risky, subversive, complicated, iffy, suggestive or spontaneous.  What's really needed is nothing more than a broad sense of what you are looking for, some strategy for how to find it, and an overriding willingness to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way.  Simply put, making art is chancy -- it doesn't mix well with predictability.  Uncertainty is the essential, inevitable and all-pervasive companion to your desire to make art.  And tolerance for uncertainty is the pre-requisite to succeeding." -Art & Fear

Art & Fear - Observations on the perils (and rewards) of Art Making. By David Bayles & Ted Orland.

"Making art provides uncomfortably accurate feedback about the gap that inevitably exists between what you intend to do, and what you did."

In process, based on original idea.

Final product, after "listening" to what was right for this piece.

"To all viewers but yourself, what matters is the product: the finished artwork. To you, and you alone, what matters is the process: the experience of shaping that artwork. The viewers concerns are not your concerns. Their job is whatever it is: to be moved by art, to be entertained by it, to make a killing off it, whatever. Your job is to learn to work on your work."

"The best you can do is make art you care about - and lots of it! The rest is largely a matter of perserverance."