I’m particularly fascinated with the following segment:

The other day I was asked, “What makes a successful artist?” . . . That’s a really complicated question, I could be giving you a lecture. There are so many processes of validation, legitimation, different benchmarks of credibility which are not just financial . . . Rather than waffling on about that, I just said, “A successful artist is one who doesn’t feel bitter.” And I really, really believe that. There are multi-millionaire artists who somehow feel bitter about their lack of recognition, and then there are people who are doing their own thing and finding emotional satisfaction in it.

Hearing the statement “A successful artist is one who doesn’t feel bitter” is another instance of someone else clearly articulating a mish-mash of thoughts that have been rolling around in my head — about my own work and from the perspective of a creative catalyst, thinking about other’s work.

Most artists I know personally, now, are not bitter (as far as I can tell). They are like me, day-job artists who pursue their craft and concepts because of a subconscious, driving impulse. If that impulse is ignored, if we bottle up those ideas and don’t find time to work with our hands, we become cranky.

However, it doesn’t take me long at all to think of some of the personalities in my college studio courses and think “Yup, he or she might be bitter.”

Personally, I would like to be able to live off of my creative impulses, which means I will have to somehow gain recognition in order to sell. The impetus for the recognition is, though, to be able to do what I love, what I’m skilled at and what that subconscious drive relentlessly pushes me to do.

It’s not to gain personal notoriety. The goal is not narcissistic, where I can see bitterness easily taking over.

Video via Savannah College of Art and Design’s deFINE ART series.

So about six months ago I started messing around with felt (still three-dimensional) and nihonga — a Japanese technique I first heard of about six years ago now when introduced to Makoto Fujimura — after my wife gave me a starter set for my birthday. For Christmas I received some powdered graphite, another new medium for me that has shown real promise in helping me portray the kinds of light and spatial nuances wood and clay may not be best suited for.

Prior to last year, it had been an unfortunate long time since I played around with a new media, since I let myself approach a piece of paper with no other intent besides learning. I felt pressure to produce something for a reasonable portfolio (a goal I had set for myself) every time I sat down to create something. I wasn’t setting out to create something Mighty Ugly while engaging in this recent playfulness, but if the paper ended up being ugly there were no worries.

As much as discipline is important to being a successful artist, so is playfulness. So here starts a new series of my recent ugly works, starting with this felted cloud from my very first foray into felt, four plus months ago.

Tanja Butler’s Mondrian and the Magi

Not Christmas specific, but festive and wonderful!

Sock Situation by Sandy Skoglund, 1986

Harbin International Ice & Snow Festival

Nativity with Candles by Tanja Butler