10 More Great Tips for Artists 2 – Cricket House Studios – 2008

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10 More Great Tips For Artists – 2
©Cricket Diane C Phillips, 2008

1. Go through the house, office and studio – sharpen every pencil – make sure anywhere with a writing surface has a cup of pencils, pens and an old-fashioned hand held kid’s pencil sharpener. Place some sheets of clean, un-lined paper nearby, plus posty notes and 4×6 sheets of unlined paper to make thumbnails and notes.

2. When paint tubes are near their end, cut them open and use the last of the paint directly from the casing or scape out with palette knife and use from the palette. Save the lid, cause sooner or later . . .

3. Place paint cloths, paper towels and cloths filled with thinners or turpentine into old metal coffee cans with lids. Keep out of reach of children and away from foodstuff until ready for disposal. Be sure and mark can with red electrical or paint tape and label with marker what it is.

4. A piece of rubberized, textured shelf liner cut 4″ square is good for opening paints, paint jars and tubes, jars of medium and varnishes. Pliers, if used, must be held firm but with gentleness or they can rip the paint tube and press the lid and tube lip beyond recognition.

5. Baby wipes will take almost any paint off hands including oil paints, acrylics, alkyds (which are very nasty) and acrylic mediums – as well as some glues. Masking fluid can be cleaned up with dawn dish soap and a baby wipe. Brushes dipped in dawn dish soap and water before use in masking fluids will allow the masking fluid to be removed after use.

6. Dawn dish soap will take oil paints and other paints, except alkyds, off hands and out of brushes. Xylene and toluene based enamels must have their own thinners to be removed from anything. Do not use dawn dish soap or toluene based thinners on natural bristle brushes because the natural oils in the hairs are also removed and the bristles will eventually disintegrate. Do not leave brushes in water, turpentine or thinners for any extended length of time. Glues that hold bristles can dissolve and are compromised. The bristles will then release in the painted surface as it is being created. The bristles can also give way entirely from the metal casing that holds them to the handle..

7. Old brushes with dried paint make perfect tools to create certain special effects in painting surfaces. Don’t yell at the kids and don’t throw them out. Set them aside in a cup or box with similar tools for special effects when painting and sculpting.

8. When stores go out of business – there is a lot of unusual shelving they also sell – make them an offer. Also, hair salons’ shelving and store displays make good additions for studio  storage. Cabinets from kitchen remodeling can be acquired and cleaned, resurfaced, painted or glued with new formica pieces. Countertops can be added pre-made from the hardware store or from cabinet shop remakes. Any solid door or old table top can be placed on top of several cabinets for a worktable.

9. Some design markers (professional grade like ad agencies and illustrators use) can be reconstituted by placing alcohol or acetone (nail polish remover) into a shallow dish and placing the tip into it to absorb the carrier. Some art markers can be reconstituted with water, alcohol (or mineral spirits and/or painting mediums). Use of pigments are available in a new form with the latter and are no longer appropriate for children to use.

10. As new work is being created or experimental ideas are being explored, take digital photos or scans throughout the process at different stages. Viewing them on the computer gives a better view and a different understanding of what is being conveyed in the paint. Then, the process can continue with the additional information during the creation of the work.

Happy Painting!

The Sun’s Dance With The Sea – Cricket Diane 2008

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In this painting, I am exploring the action of the ocean waves and the light of the sun on the sea. I love the motion of the sea in this painting. This is extreme freestyle painting in that it is an emotionally charged work with dynamic flow. That is what I like most about it. The day I created this piece there were seven or eight other pieces created and only this one has the sun dipping its toes into the waters of the sea at the horizon. I love that.

About Cricket Diane C Phillips – 2008

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 Daughter Kasha was building a website for me and this is what she wrote:

 

Cricket House Studios is the creation of the artist Diane Cricket C. Phillips. Diane has been an artist for nearly half a century. Her work has been shown nationally as well as locally. Currently her work is available for purchase on ebay.

             Diane has struggled through out life trying to get her art out there. She has done many Art shows, Galleries and various other things. Eventually a friend suggested that she sell her art via the internet. Ebay was the easiest platform she could find that would allow her to access the world and get her art out there.

Diane also has several blogs, some that include The Got-No-Mo’-Money guide to good home living, Tips and Tricks for Artist and Youtube instructional videos on how to paint happy ocean waves. Diane’s current project is the Baby Crickets – trading card size that you can hold in your hand art and the Plant A Green Thing – Save The Sea campaign. Her small apartment has slowly been taken over by all the art that she does and that seems to “just happen”

Despite all this it would seem that Diane is still looking for “new and inoventive” ways to get her art work out to the people” She says. And that there never seems to be enough hours in the days to do all the things that she wants to.  But never less Diane has stated that she will continue to do what she does best and hopefully those people who want the unique, the wonderful and the completely original art will be able to find her and buy it.

By Kasha Phillips-Lewis, 2-26-08

“She is right – I have spent all of my life painting and creating everyday. My parents believed that before being born, a child would take in the information around them and consequently, intentionally subjected me to art and music before day one. That said, I have spent the better part of forty-nine years being involved with art, writing, music and creating everyday. Either we were studying it, talking about it, looking at it or doing it each day. It seems appropriate to me that my home is my studio wherever I am. There are pencils and paper even in the bathroom for writing and art pencils for drawing in every room. There are pencils in the kitchen, just in case and sometimes, I write, draw or paint at the kitchen counter standing by the kitchen window.”

“In every room where I live, there is art being created. Workspaces are everywhere for creating art, music, writing, sculpture and bits of different inventions sit here and there. The underneath sides of tables hold supplies and paint is always out ready to be used with canvases, boards and papers within hands reach to use. I have files of source materials and research for each thing that I do. Some is nicely filed and some obviously not because it is in process for something. I have to admit, though, this year I intended to stop creating and toss all of it out the door, but no! Maybe I should have and found something better to do that is easier but I didn’t, mostly because I hated to be wrong about it I suppose. Anyway, here I am again, fiddling with it – creating everyday and working to get all of it to the world that has absolutely no use for it. Sometimes, I wonder if any good will come of what I create. I really do.”

– Cricket Diane C Phillips, 2-28-08

 

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Cricket Diane Quote of the Day –

“The only real choice is which obsession to indulge. The obsession of creating is the healthier choice.”

– quote from Cricket Diane C Phillips, 2008

Lessons from the Real World – Cricket Diane – 2008

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Lessons From The Real World
By Cricket Diane C Phillips

In the course of our human lives, we can choose much of what we do, but not everything. I think sometimes whether having been able to choose so much of it, could I have done better? The answer is, “I don’t know.”

I used to be so sure I could’ve done better, made better choices, pursued better avenues and now, I’m not so sure. Everything has brought me to this point. It feels infinitely stupid to be concerned about it anymore.

Because of both the choices I’ve made and those I had no hand in but lived with anyway, I’ve learned a few things:

1. Don’t ever ask God to give me the wisdom of a wise man or to make me wise. And never ask for patience.

(Do you have any idea what it takes to become wise? It isn’t going to be pretty.)

2. Don’t ever let someone else make a decision for me simply because I don’t want to be the one to do it.

(If they appear ignorant of all the facts, they probably are. You know, too, you won’t see them living with the results of the choices they made for you.)

3. Don’t ever follow the suggestions of anyone who wouldn’t, couldn’t or doesn’t do what they’re suggesting.

(Some things sound good on paper or are bound to be knowledgeable sounding that don’t work in real living. If you notice – they’re saying it, but not doing it – how would they know if it works or not?) Living is an applied science.

And,

4. Don’t ever limit myself to what I can do alone by myself.

(You aren’t in a world unto yourself nor by yourself in the world no matter what it seems. The range of what you could do extends far beyond what could be accomplished by you alone.)

Open Process Creativity – Cricket Diane – 2008

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Open Process Creativity
By Cricket Diane C Phillips, 2008

As a creator, it is always tempting to only include good things in a project – to only do it right and struggle against difficulties or failures. It is truly counter-productive. It takes all of it to create a new thing that has, “never been done before.” The process requires “good” things and “bad” things to accomplish the task. It requires using the “not right” ways when appropriate or weaving them into the project when they happen by mistake. Errors must be somehow accommodated – by embracing them, struggling against them, incorporating them or using them later for a more appropriate use, time and place. All of it is necessary.

To circumvent the process by defining what works or does not work because it is “good” or “bad” or “right” or “wrong” before acquiring practical knowledge is a waste. This process is not intended to follow in the footsteps of another, but to break new ground. Open judgement is the course to produce results or, at the least, suspended judgment and subsequent analysis is needed. To learn what works, it must be tried. To do so risks failure. To not do so risks incomplete or inaccurate results.

The creative process in this form is an inclusive process. Rather than excluding what doesn’t work once those are discovered, they are embraced, analyzed for components and set aside to be carried forward in something somewhere. They are kept in reserve. And, if they produce results in the project that are desirable, then mistakes and failures are kept. It is an inclusive process.

This type of creator’s process is different than producing a theory and then using known elements to support it. In the first place, there is no theory to create a support to accommodate and in the second place, there is no working premise at the beginning of the process. There are goals, sometimes constraints of time and variables to consider but that is all. It is an open-ended question and an open process of creating solutions to fit those specifics.

Captivation of the Sea – Cricket Diane C Phillips – Cricket House Studios – 2008

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You Can’t Grow a Sugar Tree With Sugar – Cricket House Studios – 2008

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You Can’t Grow a Sugar Tree With Sugar –
©2008 Cricket Diane C Phillips, Kasha Phillips-Lewis, 2-23-08

Its true, you can’t grow a sugar tree with sugar or grow even a great tree with sugar. When my daughters were younger, they would ask, “why does shit happen?” I would answer, “because a good strong tree doesn’t grow from sugar. Sweet soil would kill it and rot it from the inside.” It does take a lot of shit to grow a good tree of strength that lasts through years and years. A tree that has grown through hardship in good, rich soil full of manure, will withstand nature’s fury, her droughts, her onslaughts of moisture and deprivation of nutrients, but a tree grown in sweet soil will die in short order. “Good” is a term of judgment that must be given context. You can’t grow a sugar tree with sugar.

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Cricket Diane Quote of the Day –

“You can’t grow a sugar tree with sugar.”

– quote from daughter, Kasha – repeating my quote from years ago back at me, Cricket Diane C Phillips and Kasha Phillips-Lewis, 2008

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Cricket Diane Quote of the Day –

“The best walk of all is one that doesn’t have to be made.”

– quote from Cricket Diane C Phillips, 2008