Brain Injury and a Near Death Experience (NDE) Sparks Visions for an Artist

Many artists have been deterred from realizing their fullest potential. Multiple obstacles might stand in their way: poverty, illness, injury, lack of support from family and partners, isolation, and/or little or no recognition for their work. How do artists who have strayed from their paths get back on track and continue to pour passion, time and energy into work that sustains their spirit and beautifies the world?

For this particular artist, Heather Ifversen, a life threatening head injury, caused by a fall in the bathtub, forced her to closely examine her life and dramatically change it. Brain trauma and a near death experience (NDE) and her subsequent convalescence and recovery awakened her enough so she could begin to live an authentic life again.

Ifversen's story is extraordinary and deserves to be told. She has chosen to illustrate this experience through narrative paintings. These paintings detail a profound and magical vision of the cosmos, and energies within it, which constitute the web of life. Central to her story is her self, and an astounding evolution which occurred during a period of six months or so, when she was contacted by beings made of light. Ifversen is still uncertain if these beings were real or a creation of her mind. Yet she seemed to have an ongoing conversation with them that had the effect of infusing her life with a new energy and most importantly - a drive to continue to create art. In her visions, which occurred during her waking hours, she first begged these light beings to help her regain life and full consciousness so she could come back and mother her girls, Isabella (12) and Finn (7). Slowly, as her consciousness began to reconstruct itself, and her motor skills, speech and portions of her memory returned, the one thing she was able to do in her bedridden state was to draw and paint again. "I strapped a paintbrush to my hand," recalls Ifversen, "and I began to paint the visions I saw in my head."

As she returned to life, she also reclaimed her identity as an artist. Her life as an artist had been eclipsed and almost lost as a wife, mother, caregiver and social worker. Tenaciously, like someone possessed by energies beyond her control, she clung to this identity that had always been hers. For these light beings who revealed to her the complex web of energies that form a backdrop to our existence had given her one more chance to live - and she was not going to waste it.

The work which was completed while recovering from brain trauma includes a staggering 60 paintings - completed during Ifversen's six month recovery. This art documents the strange and magnificent powers that lie behind the central truths of our world. Some may be inclined to be skeptical of Ifversen's story, but many, including energy workers and neuropsychologists might just be delighted by her revelations.

Anyone who travels the magical planes, works in the realm of faery magic, studies the mysterious pathways of the brain, or deals directly with people who have had Near Death Experiences (NDE) knows when these energies appear to be at work. In the case of individuals experiencing a 'normal life' -- a finely cloaked exterior often keeps them hidden from view. Perhaps the ordinary person is too distracted, or consumed by other matters, to see them as clearly as Ifversen has. The light beings she describes in her paintings are real enough to be painted.

According to Ifveren and others who've had these types of experience, these light beings work behind the scenes of the everyday, mundane world. Ifversen was walking between this world and that one for an elongated period of time. Having lost her ability to speak, read, or write, she chose to paint this reality. Happily, she returned to her brush, canvas and palette and used what little strength she had then to record her journey.

Elizabeth Kirwin is the creator and founder of FairesInAmerica.com, a website that gives insight into the fairy culture of the United States, a branch of neo-paganism that is on the rise. Kirwin is a professional writer, performance artist and Organic SEO specialist. Visit http://www.fairiesinamerica.com/ or email info@fairiesinamerica.com.

View the original article here

Knowing The Frustration of Being An Artist

The progress of an artist is a continual self- sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality. - by Eliot, T. S..

Know what you do well.Know what inspires you.Know that small changes in your habits make small changes in your art.Know that big changes make bigger changes.Know that you are an artist.Know how you feel about your subject.Know what your art means to you.Know that the more time you put into it, the more it grows.And, know that you are not alone.

We've all heard about the artists' world having so many ups and downs. It's not just in the world of shows, acceptances and rejections or selling a painting or not, it's also in the emotions of making of our art. We have good days and bad days in creating. Some days go so smoothly, we approach the easel with confidence and turn out a wonderful painting with ease that we are proud of. The next day, we feel like we step up to the easel with a lack of confidence and have to wipe that canvas off a couple of times. On those days it seems as though we'll never get where we want to go with our art.

As artists we always strive for perfection, but know that we will probably never achieve it. But, you mustn't admit that, then you surely will never achieve that ultimate goal. Once you admit that you will never create the perfect painting, you will have stopped or at least limited yourself as an artist. So, how do you come to grips with the idea of knowing that you will probably never achieve what you aspire to and be happy with the work that you do? I have always had a tough time with this. It seems as though I am happy with my completed painting for about three days, then I look at it thinking I can do better or I would do it differently now. I find it really difficult on the paintings that I set aside for a show to ship off later. I always seem to find myself thinking, "If I did such and such to the painting, it would be a better painting. I now box them up so that I am not tempted to touch them.

I keep wondering when the time will come that I will be completely satisfied with my paintings or does that time never come? I know that I have to accept my paintings for what they are or I would never be able to move on and paint the next one. And that is what keeps me on the road to improving as an artist and striving for that perfection that I know I will never achieve. I have come to the conclusion that I have to look at each painting and know that it was the very best that I could do at that moment in time and that is a good thing.

Becky Joy is a nationally recognized artist specializing in sunsets, landscapes and still life oil paintings. Becky shares art tips, painting demonstrations and art business tips on her blog. http://beckyjoy.com/

View the original article here

Short Intro to Artist Takashi Murakami

Born in 1962 in Tokyo, Japan, Takashi Murakami grew up in a family where art played an important role. Murakami wanted to be an artist. He was particularly interested in Japanese animation and comics, and wanted to improve his drawing skills by studying at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He earned his bachelor of fine arts degree in 1986 and continued his studies to earn a master's degree in 1988 and a PhD in 1993. While searching for his own style during the early 1990s he began to teach drawing, working in the traditional style he had studied at the university. Meanwhile he became increasingly drawn to the world of manga and anime, and was fascinated by the concept of "kawaii", a Japanese term that translates roughly to "cuteness."

In 1996 he founded the Hiropan factory in Tokyo, a studio with assistants to produce his work, which later evolved into Kaikai Kiki Co., his large-scale art production and art management corporation. In addition to the production and marketing of his work, Kaikai Kiki Co. functions as a supportive environment for the fostering of young Japanese artists. Today he employs over 100 people in the US and Japan.

Takashi Murakami is popularly known as the next Andy Warhol. Like the American pop art icon, he fuses high and low, He merges fine art with popular Japanese anime films and manga cartoons. His works are often decorated with smiley-faced flowers. Others of his recurring characters are DOB and Mr. Pointy and several more candy-colored cartoon-like characters with large eyes and exaggerated body parts. Murakami seeks ways to incorporate popular trends into his works to create something of lasting value, as he explained in a 2001 article in Wired magazine: "I set out to investigate the secret of market survivability-the universality of characters such as Mickey Mouse, Sonic the Hedgehog, Doraemon, Miffy, and Hello Kitty." Murakami's goal is to create works that appeal to a broader audience than most fine art.

Murakami's methods produce paintings that have no depth or perspective; the images seem flat and two-dimensional. Murakami has dubbed this style "superflat," which is a tribute to the two-dimensional style of Japanese cartoons and a reference to high-tech devices as flat-screen televisions or computer monitors.

Murakami makes a clear brand, with his signature round glasses and wispy goatee. He is vigorously, ingeniously self-promotional. In the past few years, Murakami has swept across the US and Europe, receiving fawning media attention and exhibiting at big-name museums (among which the Louvre in Paris). In 2003 he teamed up with the fashion house Louis Vuitton to create brightly colored versions of the classic LV monogram on Vuitton handbags. They sold like hot cakes, generating millions of dollars. Some of Murakami's works are extremely high-priced creations intended for galleries or art collectors, but he also impertinently mass-produces merchandise, such as mugs, mousepads and T-shirts, featuring the characters he has created. Murakami states that art is "more about creating goods and selling them than about exhibitions."

You can follow Takashi Murakami on twitter: http://twitter.com/takashipom_en

Joke Vermeiren is co-creator of Artinthepicture.com, an art history site. You can find Takashi Murakami prints at Artinthepicture's webshop.

View the original article here

Simple Sketching Exercise To Free The Artist Within You

One of the biggest problem that's holding a lot of artists back is the tendency to over think a drawing project. I'm sure you've been there before. You stare at a picture forever not knowing where to begin and when you do finally start drawing, you agonize over every single stroke and curve. Erasing and re-drawing, erasing and re-drawing. The whole process becomes quite frustrating and your final art work is never as good as you'd like it to be.

This is the artistic equivalent of writer's block and the reason you (and so many other artists) suffer from it is simple: you are trying to draw AND edit yourself at the same time. Here's why this is such a bad idea: in order to draw you must engage the creative side of your brain but when you edit and critic yourself, you are engaging the analytical side of your brain. The two cannot both function at the same time. It is the equivalent of you trying to walk forward and backward simultaneously; the result is paralysis and you end up going no where.

Ok, so how do you break this all too common habit? One simple, yet devastatingly effective exercise is the "60-second sketch". The way it work is you pick out a picture of a figure that you want to draw and then draw it in 60 seconds. After 60 seconds, you HAVE to stop. Now obviously you're not going to be able to draw a very complete figure in 60 seconds, but that's the point. This exercise forces you to let go of any self-editing tendency and allow your creativity and energy to flow through. You stop obsessing about the details and begin to see the figure as a whole. This, by the way, is the key to adding life and emotion to your drawings. Do this exercise at least one time a day and you'll be well ahead of 95% of artist out there. (There's no excuse not to...it only takes 60 seconds!)

Here are some key points to remember when doing this exercise:

-Always keep your hands moving. If you slow down, you are only giving yourself a chance to slip back into an analytical frame of mind. (I like to act like I just drank a gallon of Red Bull and that my hand is possessed by some artistic demon)

-Make long broad strokes. This means you should be drawing not with just your wrist, but also your arm. It also helps to practice on a large piece of paper so that you have more freedom to move around.

-Warm up by doodling or drawing long vertical and horizontal lines across a piece of scratch paper. As simple as this sounds, it will wake up your hand and make the exercise much easier and enjoyable.

Now just because you are engaging your creative brain, does not mean that the analytical side is not important. That's not what I'm saying at all! You just shouldn't be trying to hone both skills at the same time. But true greatness can only come when you have both creativity and a solid technical knowledge of your craft. In fact, by strengthening your knowledge of anatomy and the human body, you'll find that you'll be able to product these 60-second sketches effortlessly and that they will come out much more detailed and realistic.

One great tool for building your knowledge of anatomy is my ebook "Shortcut Secrets of Figure Drawing". It has TONS of illustrations of every human body parts for you to reference. It covers every parts in the human body and show them in perspective, from different angles, both in still poses and in movement.

You can get a FREE chapter by going to http://www.secretsoffiguredrawing.com/optin and enter your email to get free instant access to this 20-page content-packed chapter.

I guarantee it will improve your figure drawing faster than anything out there...and it's completely free. You'll also receive other great articles and useful tips about figure drawing. Don't worry, there's no obligations and you can unsubscribe at anytime!

Get Your FREE Chapter Now

View the original article here

Plein Air Artist Workshop - What to Take and What to Expect Once You Get There

The purpose of going to any workshop is to get away from the daily routine, find new ideas, meet new people, go to a new or different place and come home refreshed, inspired and eager to resume life again. That truly happens when the teacher is sensitive to the needs of each workshop participant, gives demonstrations appropriate to the needs of the class and the participant is open-minded and willing to change.

The artist who paints en plein air, a French term meaning "open air", is one who takes his/her easel to a location and paints some of the scenery. One question arises: Why subject oneself to sunburn, bug bites and the whims of nature when it would be easier to take a photo and sit in a comfortable studio and create the painting? It would, but the painting will not have the energy and feeling of one created on site. Photos are great references, but do not show the depth of field that one can see when out of doors.

Most plein air artists use oils for their paintings, although a few use watercolors and acrylics and even fewer use pastels. We will limit our discussion here to oil painters. If the artist prefers to use a small support, say 4" x 6" to 11" x 14", he/she often uses a Pochade box. This is a small box which contains paint, an area with adjustable clips which holds the support (usually a canvas board or other board), palette, brushes, and a place to store the wet painting during transportation. Pochade boxes come in various sizes and sit on an adjustable tripod. They are light but relatively expensive. The artist might also bring another bag for tripod, paper towels, apron, brush cleaner and a trash bag.

If the artist uses larger supports, she will generally use canvas and a French easel. Inside this easel is room for paints, brushes, brush cleaner, palette, paper towels, trash bag and apron. It has three legs that open, are adjustable, and support the easel for the standing or sitting user. It will also carry the wet painting even if it is very large. A French easel is heavy when loaded with supplies, but relatively inexpensive.

To transport your paintings back home if you paint small, separate cardboard boxes are available for transporting wet paintings and will store several paintings at once. If you paint on canvas and all the canvases are the same size, one method is to put push pins in, say, the upper left and lower right corners of each canvas, put the canvases face to face and tape the corners together using masking tape. Then put them back in the original boxes. (You may have leftover canvases as not as many will fit in the boxes now that push pins are between them.)

Typically, the day will begin with the class assembling and each person introducing themselves. The teacher will give an overview of the class, where it will meet and the time, and do a demonstration illustrating the lesson of the day. Afterward, the members are free to choose their location within a given area and begin painting.

At first this is somewhat overwhelming because the artist might have and 8" x 10" canvas board on which to paint and a panorama of sights from which to choose a scene. To make it easier, the artist has a few choices. She can make a few sketches in her sketch book as to how she thinks the scene will look when painted. She can also use a view finder which will block out all but the desired scene and move it around to get the optimum positioning. The view finder can be as humble as putting one's thumbs and forefingers together to make an opening approximately the shape of her support, or as complicated as a small plastic with a slide that alters the shape of the view from rectangular to square, depending on the shape of the artist's support.

Often the workshop instructor visits each painter once or twice during each session to offer suggestions. After all, he/she wants the painter to be pleased with the finished product. If the instructor has a critique session each day, that's a bonus! Each member of the workshop has a chance to comment on all the paintings created. A critique session can prove to be very helpful to the artist because the many members of the workshop often have ideas that are totally new to the artist. If comments are offered in a positive manner, the workshop participant can go home refreshed and inspired and eager to begin painting.

At Mary's Art, Inc. we have a large variety of original hand painted oil paintings on canvas. these inexpensive, colorful paintings were created en plein air (French for "open air") to capture the feelings and emotions of nature and bring them to you for your enjoyment. They are modern in style, somewhat abstract, and with expressionism overtones. Please visit http://www.murphyartstudio.com/ and find paintings your whole family will love.

View the original article here