Robert Genn's Twice-Weekly Letters

Identical twins

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:06:06 PDT

Identical twins
May 24th, 2013

...Recently, Steve Koch of Gresham, Oregon wrote, "A friend experienced a situation where a painting of his was sold and then another client came forward and asked to have an identical one. I'm concerned about the artist's reputation and any problems the first client might have with the deal. What's your take on this?"
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Too much stuff!

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:06:08 PDT

Too much stuff!
May 21st, 2013

...Recently, Ed Kissane of Wantagh, NY, USA wrote, "I'm constantly fighting a flood of paper that comes into my life. I have a bedroom and a studio and I try to keep the areas clear but it grows every day like a giant amoeba. I try to downsize but I'm losing. The piles of paper diminish my time at the easel. (Magazines, book reviews, etc.) There is always something to read and once again the creative moments lose out. Any suggestions?"...
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The art of negative thinking

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:07:57 PDT

The art of negative thinking
May 17th, 2013

...Recently, I had the opportunity to look over the shoulders of two painters who were giving demonstrations on the same day. The first was almost deliriously positive and bubbly about his work, his wonderful life as an artist and his prior successes... The second demonstrator spoke less and, when he did, it was mostly about problems he was having...
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Patience

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Fri, 17 May 2013 03:34:18 PDT

Patience
May 14th, 2013

...Recently, Jil Ashton-Leigh of Steveston, B. C., Canada told me about a wise Chinese art instructor who looked at her painting of the Fraser River and said, "Your mind--it is too fast." He told her to sit by the river for 30 minutes each day--no camera, no cellphone. "When you observe the river then you will come to know it," he said. If you're interested...
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The disappearing blue

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:29:10 PDT

The disappearing blue
May 10th, 2013

...Recently, Barbara Hawley of Madison, Virginia wrote, "The blue colour in an acrylic painting I did in 2009 has disappeared! As I have several brands of acrylics in my paint box, I don't know which one is the problem paint. Living in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, it's important that the mountains are blue! What do you think?"...
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Daily studio rituals

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:57:13 PDT

Daily studio rituals
May 7th, 2013

...Much has been written about the creativity-stimulating rituals of writers because, well, they wrote about it. Balzac drank 50 cups of coffee a day, Hemingway drank to write, prolific novelist George Simenon (400 books) made love to over 10,000 women (to be fair, his second wife said it was closer to 1200). Good stuff about regularity in painters is a little harder to dig up...
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About space

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:59:52 PDT

About space
May 3rd, 2013

...Back around the turn of the 20th century, household gadgets, from sewing machines to new fangled vacuum cleaners, were decorated with floral or other motifs. In those days, people thought things looked better when they were covered with busyness. Sewing machines themselves were sometimes made in the form of dolphins, angels or even snakes...
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The Holmesian artist

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Fri, 03 May 2013 00:39:57 PDT

The Holmesian artist
April 30th, 2013

...Deducing info from minor nuances, in the manner of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's perceptive Sherlock Holmes, is a prime skill for artists. "You see, but you do not observe," says Holmes to his sidekick Dr. Watson. Looking at the work of many artists, I'm convinced that not a few are on Dr. Watson's side of the office...
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What brainwave are you on?

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 09 May 2013 21:40:32 PDT

What brainwave are you on?
April 26th, 2013

...It's all about how fast your neurons are firing. In Theta, it seems the neurons fire less often but more effectively, perhaps reaching out to more distant or irregular synapses. This quality firing, in theory, unlocks metaphors and unlikely combinations that are the basis of creativity and invention...
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First prize

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:51:10 PDT

First prize
April 23rd, 2013

...The other day I was rummaging through some old schooldays papers--report cards, notes from girls, etc, and I came across a blue card for First Prize in Junior Watercolour. Scratching my brain and reading the material on the card, I realized this was my first recognition beyond my family and school that I was an artist...
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Straightforward advice

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:16:27 PDT

Straightforward advice
April 19th, 2013

...Yesterday, Carolyn H. WarmSun of Montclair, California asked, "Do you ever do telephone consultations with artists? If so, at what price and how are they arranged? I am imagining us both on the phone in front of computers where you can see my website as we talk. I'm looking for straightforward advice...
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The decline of 'flow'

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:31:57 PDT

The decline of 'flow'
April 16th, 2013

...Yesterday, Katarina Vlasic dropped by to show me a carload of 12" x 24" paintings by her 7- and 8-year-old second grade students. Katarina is a popular art teacher who divides her time between two schools...
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A fireball artist

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:25:24 PDT

A fireball artist
April 12th, 2013

...Cory Trepanier of Caledon, Ontario, Canada is an example of an artist who goes it alone. Cory has achieved remarkable success and popularity without benefit of dealers or galleries. He's what we like to call a rugged individualist. Like most self-made folks, he has some ideas on how to make it. In his own words, here are a few...
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When do ideas happen?

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:41:38 PDT

When do ideas happen?
April 9th, 2013

...Recent research, aimed at finding specific triggers that result in good ideas, better solutions and bouts of creativity, has confirmed my own favourite times when stuff happens...
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The alchemy of art

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:26:06 PDT

The alchemy of art
April 5th, 2013

...Painting is not a witch's brew. With applied curiosity and reason, a dedicated student can grasp the processes. Often straightforward and practical, the best processes are the ones you figure out for yourself...
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Pied beauty

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 04:03:57 PDT

Pied beauty
April 2nd, 2013

...After my Spinoza letter last week, a number of readers wrote directly--most of them "got it" and a few didn't. Thanks so much for extending this friendship. I'm deeply honoured. One of Spinoza's noted ideas is...
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Spinoza and me

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:19:28 PDT

Spinoza and me
March 29th, 2013

...You might wonder what a 17th century Dutch-Jewish philosopher has to do with art. For me it all started in Philosophy 101 at Victoria College. Roger Bishop, our prof, had brilliantly taken us through Plato, Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Rene Descartes, but when Baruch Spinoza came up I found my kind of guy...
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The downside of isolation

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:22:43 PDT

The downside of isolation
March 26th, 2013

...A fellow I know, whose name will go unmentioned here because he doesn't want to be seen hanging out in lousy company, lives alone in a sunless forest. He's a regular latter-day Thoreau, and he's been at it for twenty years--never been to McDonald's, doesn't have TV, and boils his own socks. You may know the type...
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The root of passion

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 18:21:57 PDT

The root of passion
March 22nd, 2013

..."What is passion?" If all the creativity coaches put their heads together to try to figure out the main question they get asked, that would be it. If there was an easy answer they'd all be millionaires, and so would their clients...
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The arrival of the MOOCs

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:49:06 PDT

The arrival of the MOOCs
March 19th, 2013

...MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses. Respectable institutions like Harvard, Stanford and MIT have signed on. The benefits of traditional classrooms are being sacrificed, say some educators, and many in academia don't like the MOOC's profit motives. This argument sounds funny coming from tenured professors...
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The story in art

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:19:08 PDT

The story in art
March 15th, 2013

...At the end of the remarkable film, "Life of Pi," we are given the choice of two stories. One story is believable and quite predictable, the other implausible and wonderful. It's easy to choose the wonderful, implausible version. We need good stories. "And so it is with God," says Pi...
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Current art-pricing trends

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 20:38:20 PDT

Current art-pricing trends
March 12th, 2013

...Over the last while, another raft of emails has come in from artists wondering about pricing. Some new trends in pricing also require that I update. I'm dividing my comments between artists who sell through galleries and the ever-increasing Internet-empowered artists known as "self-sellers." Two different price lists are required...
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The art of demo-doing

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:58:39 PDT

The art of demo-doing
March 8th, 2013

...You need to have your stuff ready and squeezed out. Quickly tell everyone what you intend to do and how long it might take. Brief demos are best. Tell people to feel free to blurt out questions as you go along. Make it clear that a question asked by one person is often the same question on the minds of others. Keep preliminary...
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What's up in the mountains?

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:46:03 PST

What's up in the mountains?
March 5th, 2013

...At a show last fall, "The Bugaboos and Other High Places," a collector briefly stood in front of me and asked, "What is it about the mystique of mountains, and why are mountains such a perennial subject for painters?"...
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The IKEA effect

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:06:47 PST

The IKEA effect
March 1st, 2013

...The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias where time and effort enhance affection for the work. It's named after the Swedish manufacturer whose products come in boxes with "some assembly required"...
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The tribe

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:23:13 PST

The tribe
February 26th, 2013

...In "The Wandering Who?" Gilad Atzmon tells of the day in his youth when he first heard the saxophone of Charlie (Bird) Parker. It was on vinyl and from the only record store in Jerusalem. Young Gilad studied that disc night and day and then purchased his very own sax. The "miracle of music" was to take him to an International career...
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The personal touch

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:27:03 PST

The personal touch
February 22nd, 2013

...I know this may sound perverse, but I think artists should consider giving their work such a personal touch that future fakers will really have to scratch their heads before they might knock one off. As I mentioned, order is valuable--primer, underpainting, glazing, scumbling, re-glazing, final impasto...
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The new switcheroo

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:00:58 PST

The new switcheroo
February 19th, 2013

...Many collectors have favourite galleries where they tend to buy their art. Other collectors grow to dislike a dealer and prefer to buy somewhere else, even though the art they fancy is right under their noses. It works both ways--many dealers now ship stuff to other galleries and split the commission...
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Theft

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:08:26 PST

Theft
February 15th, 2013

...My first theft happened when I was in my twenties. A thief distracted a gallery owner, grabbed my little painting from the gallery window, and fled down an alley. Close to mine in the window had been a valuable painting by one of Canada's celebrated dead artists. Mine looked similar...
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Beyond judgment

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:40:10 PST

Beyond judgment
February 12th, 2013

...In 1975, Tom Wolfe wrote a perceptive little book called, "The Painted Word." He was trying to understand for himself what made the New York art scene so difficult to understand, and how, in his opinion, bad work could so often be touted as good...
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Generic versus specific

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:18:37 PST

Generic versus specific
February 8th, 2013

...Exiting from the films at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, we hand in our ballots. Each attendee is asked to rate each movie between one and five--five being excellent and one being poor. I couldn't help but think of a similar system for paintings in art museums...
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Creative Darwinism

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:23:45 PST

Creative Darwinism
February 5th, 2013

...Collective crits usually don't work very well. There's a tendency to be kind, supportive, gracious, inclusive and pleasant. To grow in art you need to be a rugged individualist who pilots your own spaceship...
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Your art in the movies

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:16:20 PST

Your art in the movies
February 1st, 2013

...Recently, a fellow painter phoned to tell me that one of his galleries had asked him to sign a "Motion Picture Exposure Agreement." From time to time the dealer might rent his work to motion picture productions, take a small fee and give little or nothing to the artist. "It's good publicity," said the dealer...
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The Matthew Effect

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:11:30 PST

The Matthew Effect
January 29th, 2013

...The Matthew Effect can be applied to art. Historically, would-be artists who didn't learn the basics of drawing, composition, colour and form, put themselves at a disadvantage. But with the widespread democratization of art...
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The weak link in the virtuous circle

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:44:35 PST

The weak link in the virtuous circle
January 25th, 2013

...Widely available programs offer systems and information to build artistic success. Well-meaning non-artist counsellors can omit or gloss over the part of the virtuous circle that deals with product quality...
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Grand Ceremonial Bonfire?

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:26:45 PST

Grand Ceremonial Bonfire?
January 22nd, 2013

...Your key manager, working with your executor, should have the power to release work in a timely manner--over a period of years, if necessary. Your elected dealers, to be effective, need to be given a certain amount of control, long-term security and monetary benefit. Appointing several dealers is preferable to just one. Your will should also stipulate...
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The Stendhal Syndrome

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:55:41 PST

The Stendhal Syndrome
January 18th, 2013

...The condition was first described in 1979 by the Italian psychiatrist, Gaziella Magherini, after studying more than 100 cases among visitors to the Uffizi in Florence. A concentration of particularly beautiful art can cause rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations...
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Anatomy of a curve

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:31:47 PST

Anatomy of a curve
January 15th, 2013

...In visual art, the curve helps manage the movements of viewers' eyes by keeping them within the picture. As well as making a work of art more voluptuous and appealing, the curve is the most effective device for leading the eye to centres of interest...
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A new vocabulary

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:03:46 PST

A new vocabulary
January 11th, 2013

...English is lacking when it comes to expressions of specific situations. In the particularly rich language of Japan, for example, "tatemae" means what you pretend to believe, and "honne" means what you actually believe...
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Catatonia

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:14:36 PST

Catatonia
January 8th, 2013

...Catatonia isn't the name of a Cunard liner or a Welsh rock band. Catatonia is a kind of lethargic stupor and a sense of "why bother?" In extreme cases a patient may sit or stand for hours in the same position. Even when physically moved or adjusted by someone else, these folks often retain whatever position is given them...
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Consecutive numbering

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 18:20:02 PST

Consecutive numbering
January 4th, 2013

...Around the turn of the year several artists wrote asking about the numbering of works. While you can start doing it any day you choose, January the first seems to be the day of choice. Questions arise...
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Over the risky cliff

rgenn@saraphina.com (Robert Genn) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:11:52 PST

Over the risky cliff
January 1st, 2013

...Being largely self-employed, we artists don't have the problems of group stubbornness or committee incompetence. In gratitude and joy we make our private mistakes in an atmosphere of personal reflection, even in the face of self-doubt...
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