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Artspiration

Life on Purpose

In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.~ Buddha I was to write a book, it would be titled Life on Purpose. Not that I really plan on writing a book, but I think that living […]

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Artspiration

Work with your seasons

…maintenance and care are necessary—without rest we cannot regenerate. These days I’ve come to believe that it’s natural for many of us to go through periods when we put words to the page and times when we can’t. These aren’t separate, distinct states; rather than agonizing over ‘writer’s block,’ maybe we can accept that we […]

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Artspiration

Thinking Long Thoughts

Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.~ Eddie Cantor Over this past week I was in a conversation and the quote “farmers think long thoughts” came up – meaning that farmers (and many […]

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Artspiration

Choose your Focus

Your hand concentrates for you. I don’t know why it should be so.~ Rebecca West I was recently reading about our Reticular Activating System (RAS). Apparently this network of neurons and neural fibers in our brain stem does a lot of rather important things – regulating our sleep/waking, breathing, heart beats, eating, walking… It also […]

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Artspiration

Tools for the Job

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe There’s something to be said for having the right […]

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Artspiration

Slow and Steady

Always do the very best you can. If you’ll just make a commitment to improving the quality of your work, incrementally, you’ll see enormous changes over the span of years.~ Tom Tischler I suspect you’ve heard the fable of the tortoise and the hare. They race and the hare gets such a large lead that […]

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Artspiration

The Definitions We Take Upon Ourselves

You’re an artist when you say you are. And you’re a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected.~ Amanda Palmer It’s interesting to hear the question intros we receive at the store – “This is a random question…” or “I’m not sure exactly what I’m looking for…” or […]

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Artspiration

Are your tools decorated?

Art is inextricably tied to man’s survival – not to his physical survival, but to that on which his physical survival depends: to the preservation and survival of his consciousness.~ Ayn Rand It seems that every culture decorates its tools. Bowls have intricate patterns inscribed or painted on them. Hand tools have decorative, yet functional, […]

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Artspiration

The secret, so often, is “practice”

Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.~ Chuck Close In the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he explains the “10,000 hour rule”. Roughly speaking – it takes approximately 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to become world-class at a skill. If you worked at something for 20 hours […]

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Artspiration

A Fair-ly Great Week

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.~ Pablo Picasso Last week/end was the La Plata County Fair. I (Matthew) was there all week, running the art gallery. It was great to see many of you enter your work and visit the exhibits. I was really impressed with the quality of the entries this […]