Caution:Artist at Play-Artwork by Shana Rowe Jackson

  "My life As a Painter" Self portrait 20"x20" Oil © Shana L Rowe Jackson 2013   One of the things I love the most about being an artist is being able to set my own hours. This is great in theory, but not having a set plan for the day can often lead to procrastination and cause important tasks to build up, which will become over whelming. I don't want my passion to feel like too much work!! So to try to curb this at the end of each day I make a mental list of the goals I want to complete the next day. These goals can be something as little as putting a hanger on a painting, doing a blog post, or entering a new contest to as big as starting a new painting. I also factor in house hold chores on my list too. The important thing is to do something to promote and support my art each day. I find this helps me plan out my day a head of time so that I can do something creative each day, and not get over whelmed by how much I need to do. Doing a few things each da

  One of my favorite things about being an artist is doing series work. Often times I don't start a piece of art planning to make it a series but once it is finished, I love it so much that I want to do more like it!! Series work is great for the collect-ability factor. Patrons want more of what they love, a series is a great way to give them that!! I personally like to work on many different subjects, so doing series work helps me to make many different bodies of work, which is really helpful when you have a hard time defining your "Niche".   A series is a group of pieces that are linked in some way. Like doing the same subject at different angles or colors, or a repetitive concept. My newest series is a progression series, which follows a hot air balloon on its journey. In each piece the hot air balloon is a little bit farther along on its journey. I have three in the series so far and have at least three more planned!! A series can range anywhere from three painting

   Inspiration is an artist's best friend, but at times it can also be an artist's worst enemy. When I am inspired I feel like I am on top of the world, but even being inspired has its down sides, like lack of sleep, and an obsession with a certain project that can take over my life. The only thing worse than being inspired is being uninspired. When I am uninspired, in a slump, I don't even feel like myself, I'm depressed and irritable. I second guess my artistic talents. It is one of the worst feelings a creative type can go through. These ups and downs on the roller coaster of creativity is one of the main reasons I think artists have a history of mental illness. Just saying ;).  "Inspiration-The Musician" Part of my "Be Inspired" series © Shana L Rowe Jackson 2012   So how do you get out of it? How do you break out of the slump? The best way is to keep on keeping on. It is so easy when in a slump to just give up and say you are throwing