56 - It's Been A Year!
Hello! Today is the one-year anniversary of the SneakyArt Post, and I am delighted to still have your time and attention.
In this past year, you have helped me become a better reader, thinker, and writer. Sharing my ideas with you has helped me also become a better artist and podcaster. So, thank you, dear reader.
In this week’s issue, I am going to share an exciting announcement, a discount voucher for my books and SneakyArt prints, and a new episode of the podcast.
If you like this newsletter, help me celebrate this one-year trip around the sun by recommending it to a friend!
Vaccinated
I got my second shot of Pfizer this weekend and, aside from one day of mild fever and chills, there are no adverse reactions. Yay!
This was the scene at the super-organized Canada Place in Vancouver.
They have you sit for 15 minutes after the shot, in case you develop an anaphylactic reaction. And fifteen minutes is the perfect time-slot for a quick sketch!
I got to the location early, to sketch a musician who plays an accordion right outside the entrance. He played a favorite song of mine - La Vie En Rose - just as I finished this drawing. After my jab, I put $5 in his collection box and thanked him for the music.
But I did not show him the drawing. That’s just our little secret. Shh.
Here’s my favorite cover of the song.
Ep 23 - Evolving as an Artist with Marc Taro Holmes
In this episode, I speak with oil painter and urban-sketcher, Marc Taro Holmes, about his evolution over the years as an artist.
Marc worked in the early gaming industry, when both games and design programs were rudimentary. Later, as an urban-sketcher, he started the Citizen Sketcher blog, led street workshops, wrote books, and continues to inspire thousands of artists with his annual events - OneWeek100People and 30x30 Direct Watercolor.
Over the past few years, Marc has retreated from social media, and started using oil paints on canvas in his home-studio. What caused this shift? What do oil paints offer him that watercolors do not? Does he miss painting outdoors? In finding answers to these questions, I learned that Marc’s story is one of continuous evolution, motivated by his interests, surrounding influences, and life circumstances.
Listen to Episode 23 on your choice of streaming service, or use the button below for a transcript + links to the conversation.
Evolution vs Intelligent Design
My conversation with Marc illustrates the difference between evolution and intelligent design, when applied to the trajectory of an artist. The evolutionary comparison is interesting to me because like all life on Earth, an artist exists for no other reason than sheer, stubborn will.
Intelligent design is a deliberate path, orchestrated all the way from simple beginnings to the complex apotheosis. This idea appeals to most young artists as the only proper way to become an artist. No matter how inexperienced or young, you have to know exactly what kind of artist you want to be, and what kind of work you want to make.
But as science tells us, and as experience teaches us, no life was built from intelligent design. Life grows by surviving accidents, by struggling against great forces, and by pivoting around adverse circumstances. From single-cell organisms to the incredible bio-diversity we have across the planet, every living organism was shaped by its particular environment, playing to its strengths, fortifying its weaknesses, seeking opportunities, and avoiding threats. No intelligent design can prepare for the unknowns of life.
Evolution is a peculiar struggle for an artist who must both resist and embrace their environment. They must ignore the naysayers and reject rejection itself. You must do what you want. But at another level, they must also let go of old ideas and plans, all those intelligent designs that they outgrew. You must go with the flow.
So, the big question is - Is it possible to evolve in ways that you cannot plan for, and still get to somewhere good? In our conversation, we have some good thoughts, familiar questions, and lived experiences.
Best of The SneakyArt Post
Starting with this issue, for the next 5 issues, I am going to devote a section to sharing past writing that makes me proud. One of my first goals with the newsletter was to write about art that I like. I wanted the weekly commitment to serve as a reason to read more, and therefore to understand better the works of artists who inspire me in various ways. MC Escher is one of those artists.
Below, a clever illusion (notice how the dark spaces between the fish are bird-shaped and vice versa), but also a commentary on evolution, the difference between light and dark in the natural world, and representation of the artist’s inspiration from Islamic tile patterns.
Escher was deeply inspired by Islamic tesselated tile patterns, after a visit to the Alhambra in Spain. He made lithographs to represent various ideas, a lot of which employed tesselations, or ‘infinitely repeating tile patterns’. I talk about this in Issue #1.
In Issue #2, I talked about Escher’s quest to represent mathematical infinity within the confines of a rectangular print. Escher’s work inspired many mathematicians, and sparked new ways of thinking about complex maths.
Discount Code!
Did you know you can order a high quality, fine art giclee print of any drawing I have made? Visit the shop in my website to choose from a selection of prints, or purchase the “Request a Print” item and ask for any print of your choice.
Use code - SNEAKYSALE - at checkout to get 15% off your order. You can use this code for prints and also for my multi award-winning book - SneakyArt of Eau Claire. All copies will be signed and numbered. Visit here to learn more about this book.
(At the moment, I am only able to offer shipping in US and Canada.)
A Sneaky Announcement
I’m making a new book! This month I started working on SneakyArt of Vancouver - a collection of essays and drawings about my move to this part of the world.
SneakyArt of Vancouver will be independently published through a crowdfunding campaign. Members who support my work monthly on BuyMeACoffee are part of this project, and will receive sneak-peeks into my writing progress and draft chapters in the coming weeks. My members are my focus-group from whom I shall also solicit criticisms and feedback about how the book should look. If you want to be part of this journey, visit my BuyMeACoffee page and become a member.
Did I mention members also receive FREE signed copies of the book when it’s published?
Ep 23 of the SneakyArt Podcast [Spotify] [Apple] [PocketCasts] [Web]
Citizen Sketcher, the blog of Marc Taro Holmes
That’s all for now. Next week, I’ll have some fascinating new commission work to share. I’m super swamped and should really be working a lot harder.
Thank you for your time and attention. See you then!
Congratulations, Nishant! Look forward to your new book and many more issues of this newsletter :)