I painted a sigil in the top left.
I’ve got a book of sigils, which I’m really into, esoteric stuff, and it’s probably not in my art enough. Whether I 100% believe in it or not is another thing, but I do. I’m totally open to things like that.
So this book of sigils, it’s got a circle with symbols inside it. So this one was to ward off evil according to the book, the Book of Sigils.
So I put that in the top left and I don’t know why I chose that. Whether the characters in the piece looked evil to me, but this is the one I picked.
More painting, more painting, more painting, which is the thing that I love doing, that we all love doing as artists.
So I managed to go and have a painting session this week. And we had some little guests with us. So it wasn’t a full immersive painting session, but it was painting. And I’ll take that.
Thanks Beth Raps for the inspiration; a video of the painting process below. It’s still work in progress:
I wanted to talk a bit about my interiority. It’s a big word for me. Around doing kind of automatic painting, painting without a plan, painting from feeling, whatever you want to call it.
There was no plan really for this piece.
And, yeah, so I was building upon what was there from last week, putting some new layers on. And I started painting infinity symbols all over the canvas, more circles.
And I was enjoying it. And then I had the idea to scrape across the background with, it’s like a children’s sponge type thing. And I scraped across.
None of it matters
And then it felt like it was, like I fucked it up.
And then I started to doubt myself. And I was thinking, it looks weird now, and I don’t know where this is going.
But I’m still sitting with it. None of it matters.
I can throw it in the bin if I want to. It’s not that I’m going to waste the canvas, but I can paint over it if I need to.
I’m really intrigued to see where this goes over a longer period.
Most of my paintings have a plan. And it’s painted within a few hours, in itself, self-contained kind of session, or maybe two sessions.
So I’m going to carry this one on. And report back how I feel about it and what’s going on with it.
I’ve had this other series in my head which is more planned, which is fine.
I try and catch myself when I have black and white thinking. Because I’m like, oh, I should be doing it all flowy and freely and that’s what artists should do.
And then a part of me wants to have some kind of plan. And I like having reference images to paint from, and I enjoy that too.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
There’s no rules in art.
Don’t hire humans
So I want to paint this series about how AI is replacing human effort in many ways. And it’s happening quite insidiously, I think, because I use these tools a lot. I see how the capability changes.
So I saw these ads online. I can’t remember the name of the company. It will come to me, but I’ll mention it below.
And it shows these provocative billboards. And it says, don’t hire humans or something like that. Hire one of our AI agents for x amount a month.
And I found these different billboards and tube adverts that people share. And I really wanted to paint them. Because a very, very up to date kind of thing that we’re experiencing, and I wanted to document that.
On the whole I feel positive about it
Because it’s something I’m interested in and also ever so slightly concerned about as well.
But on the whole I feel positive about it. In terms of giving people the tools to create things. And to get rid of basically the mundane work that we don’t like.
I think if artists get it right then they can have their dream of painting all the time. And a lot of the other stuff, you can have an assistant help you with that.
I don’t know how that’ll look, but I want to paint that series next.
So I’m going to start doing that soon and then also carry on with this regular moon painting. I’m not sure what it’s called, but it’s got a moon in the top left.
The kind of meditation around the whole thing and reflection is, I think, a good thing for artists to reflect on what they’re doing. And what comes out of their psyche onto canvas.
I think having that perspective, and of course using it as a therapeutic tool as well, is always incredible. And never ceases to amaze me.
I’ve joined a Skool community
So I’ve joined a Skool community. And if you haven’t heard of Skool, you have been sleeping under a rock. Because it’s people saying it’s like the Amazon of courses.
I know Amazon gets a bad rap for being greedy or whatnot. But Skool has become such a trusted brand for having a course on it. The brand is so strong that it gives your course credibility.
What I’m going to do is learn how to set up my own Skool community where people pay a certain amount a month. Which I haven’t decided how much that would be yet.
I’ve thought about doing this before. But the meta thing about joining this Skool community about how to set up a Skool community is the guy who set it up has done this himself multiple times in multiple Skool communities.
And he’s got a process on how to do it.
And I think it speaks volumes when you’ve done the thing yourself.
Anyone can have a Skool community
And part of the inspiration for the guy who set up Skool is that they’re basically saying anyone can have a Skool community. They call it a hobby plan. So it’s like $8 a month to run your own Skool community.
And it’s got an easy way to add your own courses, like your own group calls. Which is built onto the platform, so you don’t have to use Zoom, which is amazing in itself. Zoom Pro costs more than that a month, I think.
And I can see myself doing that, because I like helping people. But I don’t know what the exact topic is yet. I know, obviously, there’s the topic of art, but I don’t want to teach art.
Maybe I could teach how to be an artist or how to set up a website as an artist. Or I don’t know.
But the thing that has inspired me about this particular community is he’s got a kind of framework to help you do that.
And the first idea that comes into your head isn’t normally the best, because there’s so many different angles you can use, so many different things you could teach.
And there’s a bit of kind of market research that comes before that, which is important. I’ve looked into business for years, and it’s like entrepreneurship.
Most people have got it backwards
Most people have got it backwards.
Like people think, I’ll offer my products and services and hope that the right people will find me.
But what I found is with successful businesses, ventures, it doesn’t matter what size it is, you’re finding a niche. I don’t want to say niche. You’re finding your customers. You’re finding your market, sorry, of people who want the thing already.
So that’s where the market research comes in. You know that a certain amount of people have this issue. And you’re there to help solve that.
And it sounds so simple. It’s like we often miss the most simple thing for whatever reason. There’s not any fault of our own. We might be too busy.
We might just think there’s another way of doing it.
But if you stick to that kind of golden rule in business, find people who want the thing, or which is another way of saying, find the problem that multiple people have. And then solve that problem by charging an amount for a Skool community.
We’ve all got that inside us
And we’ve all got that inside us. Like we’ve overcome certain things. It doesn’t have to be a business one either. It could be how to play guitar or how to paint watercolours.
And I didn’t want to do a painting one because I don’t know how I paint. I don’t follow techniques, as you know.
But I’m sure there’s a lot of people reading this who do have like repeatable skills. And they can teach that to other people.
So I’ll share the link below to have a look at Skool and you’re welcome to give it a go if you want.
And yeah, I’m excited about this.
I’ve created a product to help artists set up their own solo shows
I’ve finally created a product. And I always have to go on a tangent where I’m kind of putting myself down a bit.
But in the past, I’ve always doubted my abilities, even though other people say that I can do quite a lot of good work and whatnot. But I’ve never really known what to create a course around.
I had this idea, because I’ve set up lots of exhibitions. It seems it’s easy to me, because I’ve done it many times. And I’ve overcome the hurdles and the pitfalls and all that.
So I wanted to present to you, before anyone else, my solo kit.
It’s taken from all of my six years, how long has it been? 2019, six, seven years, getting back into art, setting up many solo exhibitions and putting that into a guide.
So anyone who’s been a bit shy about sharing your work, or having exhibitions, or fed up with waiting for galleries to show the work for you. This is a way that you can take your fate into your own hands.
So I wanted to share it with my Substack readers, 50% off. So if you have a look below you can check it out. And please give me feedback on it because I’m very open.
Cream of the Crop readers get 50% off with code SUBSTACK50 until Wednesday 21 October: https://slart.me/solo-show-kit.html
And it’s got a money back guarantee. So if you give it a go and you don’t like it, just give me a shout. And I’ll refund your money, no questions asked.
Fianlly, I’m still planning the Salon of the Rejects, and that’s coming up soon, so you’ll be updated.
My comments are always open. Will reply to every comment.
So that’s me for now, over and out,
SLART.