Makin' Friends at Halloween

Happy Halloween :)

Art (c) Erin McManness 2010 - deviantart
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"Sing, with your head up,
With your eyes closed,
Not because you love the song
Because you love to sing,
Because you love to sing."
- Copeland

If I ever won the lottery, I wouldn't buy stuff like a nice car, or designer clothes, or expensive jewelry.

I would travel the world and draw. everything.

We are who we are.

Anyone who knows me knows that I've been sort of in a slump lately. I'm usually a very motivated, go-get-it person. Lately I've been tired, uninterested. I haven't been me.

I forgot how beautiful the world is, how many good things we have in this life. How beautiful, unique, and different people are. And why things are right that way. It took awhile to sink in, but this past weekend I finally felt like I could let loose and have fun. I'm tired of being serious; I was made to appreciate all the joy in life. Sometimes you just need awesome people to rub off on you and smack some sense into you, even if it means dancing like an idiot under strobe lights in a crowd of drunk people. I forgot how it was to feel this way.

My greatest fear is to have a life of complacency. And above all else, I want someone to laugh with, someone who doesn't take life too seriously. After all, you'll never make it out alive ;)

Never thought a Kesha song would inspire a blog post. Lol.

And just for giggles, my jewelry met former President Bush!
Many thanks to my lovely friend, who was kind enough to share this with me! And to share my jewelry with Mister George!

‎"some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams. If you’re wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn’t love you anymore"

- gaga-ology

Best Motivation Ever

I am in a terrible art slump; I feel like I can't paint. Like my knowledge has evaporated. It sucks.

So, trying to motivate myself, I was browsing through the CA forums, and came across someone in a similar situation, in which I read this brilliant response, and knew I needed to keep it, share it:

From Joe Smith:

"Oh, enough with this patheticness!

every thread on here is turning into "i'm a sad emo who can't work up the energy to lift a pencil", where is this generation of weak artists comming from? is DeviantArt telling kids to eat paint chips or something, why is everyone so tired and burnt out? you kids are doing one drawing a week and feel depleted artistically, what the fuck?

eff' that noise! rip off your shirt, stand on your chair, pump your arm into the air. whip back your hair and hold your pencil aloft. the clouds will part and a beam of light will engulf you. golden big-tittied angels will dance around, as super badass looking aura flames shoot from your body. your pencil will start glowing and sizzling with power. AND DRAW MOTHERFUCKER!

you need to be 100% intense all of the time.
draw as though you have to deliver an ass-kicking ninja-style at any minute with your art skill. eat more beef jerky and use a rattle-snake as a condom.

GET PUMPED UP ABOUT ART"

After dinner I need to do this

Work in Progress for Auction Winner :)

Someone told me to call out bullshit when I see it, so I'm calling it out.

Okay, I've poured my second cup of coffee, and I feel like being honest.

I've been EXTREMELY cautious about putting this situation on the 'net, but I feel like I have to just get some things out. I'm terrible when I bottle things up, and it ruins my creative energy. Since this is my personal space, I feel I have the freedom to address this issue; I feel other venues are not the proper place.

I used to not be a person that believed in the "mysterious power of positive thinking", and maybe it was all the sunshine in LA that changed the chemicals in my brain, but I DO believe that having a positive outlook on life, business, my personal hobbies, etc takes you far. As the great Tarina Tarantino said,

"Attitude is everything and if you want to be successful in life make sure you have a good one."

I've been fed up for a long time with people who have bad attitudes towards others. A lot of people will claim that the "Art World" is a scary place, where people exist only to compete with you and knock you down. While there people out there that do do that, my experiences working in the industry in LA have led me to believe (and practice has backed up my beliefs) that the wise designers/artists will collaborate instead of compete. My boss and mentor was always telling me how important your friends are, and how helping them helps you. Plus, it's just the right thing to do. I also read a great quote the other day that I feel sums up the situation:

"It is a wise man who seeks help by helping, and not by threats or tricks"

I disagree with the notion that treating others and their work like dirt is "good for them". I am all for giving critical critique and pointing out the flaws and weaknesses in someone's work when they ask for an evaluation. What I don't agree with are personal attacks on the artist or the way they are progressing. Really, I ask, how does that help them improve? I have been in the center of a situation where my character is constantly called into question (and spread negatively around) by others who simply don't agree with me. What gives these people the authority to judge my character and make claim to "how I should do things"? I am constantly reading how I "avoid critique like it's poison" and other various "truths" about me personally. I am a little confused as to who died and crowned them with the Art World authority.

I guess the bottom line for me is that I get fed up with people like this; that I have the screenshots to prove how much one person just stirs up drama about me for no reason, for over the entire past month and a half when I have not contacted her directly or indirectly. It's pathetic. If this person were to spend less time worrying about me, and put use to that time to improve her work, her work would be so much better. What a waste of time to spend your whole afternoon drawing a picture to make fun of someone else. I'm sorry, but my art goals reach higher than picking fights with others and I simply don't have time to be devoting my whole afternoon to making a picture about you and how I don't like you for whatever reason. And the kicker is that I get to read fun things about me like, "Oh, she always makes everything about her." And I just chuckle, shrug and think, "Why go through the effort? You guys do it for me!"

What makes me just laugh is how these select people will go around saying, "WELL, if she would only listen to US, being the masters that we are, THEN she would improve; but she won't, so OBVIOUSLY she is doomed to die a slow artistic death, since she OBVIOUSLY doesn't get good enough critique anywhere ELSE."

I mean, LOL, really?

If you want me to listen to you and continue to take your abuse, give me a damn reason to. When you can't draw anatomy for shit, I'm not going to listen to you write condescending paragraphs to me about "the proper way to draw the anterior deltoid" and how I'm "obviously not familiar with anatomy at all". I'm just not. I'm also not going to listen to your "wisdom" after you continually take pot-shots at me personally, and back up the people (stated above) who spread rumours about me. I'm just not. You cannot make a sound argument that I shouldn't take things personally about my work when you continually make comments about me personally, and not my work. If you want to crit my work, fine. But keep your words on my work and I will listen.

I will get help elsewhere, from people who genuinely want to help me improve, as opposed to getting "help" from people who only want to knock me down a rung on their ladder by causing a shitstorm when I don't bow down and agree with their critique. The great thing is, I have already found people who are much more skilled and can offer better assistance to me. It is a fair question to ask yourself, "Why spend time being abused by amateurs who have nothing better to do, when you can receive valuable insight and direction from masters who truly see your potential and want to help cultivate it?"

I'll take the latter, thankyouverymuch.

All this to say, I am fed up, I call out this bullshit, and I'm moving on. I can't afford to waste any more time battling people who only seek to tear me down. For all others who have given critique, I am NOT saying that you must be "better" at art to give someone crit, I am simply saying that in order to have any credibility, giving critique respectfully with truly helpful intentions is a must. I love hearing everyone's thoughts about my work, and how I can improve. This is what keeps me going. Constant abuse, on the other hand, I don't need.

I am excited to move forward with my work. This situation has stifled me long enough, and I am putting it behind me. My ears are open to those who want to help, who can offer genuine assistance and suggestions, no matter who you are, where you are, or where you're at with your work. My ears are closed to specific individuals who have proved time and time again that their immature behaviour only spoils what small amount of credibility they had in my eyes.

The same goes for me: I make a promise to never treat another artist with abuse or immaturity. I promise to try my best to be helpful to others and to try and inspire them as others have inspired me. I want to be successful, I want to have a good attitude towards others, and I want to seek help by helping.

Thanks for reading.

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~ Dr. Seuss

"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary." ~Cecil Beaton