When someone asks you, “What do you do?” what is your answer? If you’re like most of us, context matters. You might say one thing at a professional networking reception and quite another at a neighborhood block party. But how often do you answer, “I create art?” Part of living an art-committed life is fully […]
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3 Steps Off the Path of an Art-Committed Life
May 16, 2013 
66 Comments
It is one of my greatest fears. I have abandoned my creativity before; this blog is my chronicle of returning to an art-committed life and working to stay there. That is also a central theme of the travel memoir I am in the process of polishing to final. But it is so easy to drift away […]
Read moreGuest Post: Fine Arts, Creativity & the Aging Brain Positively Linked
May 8, 2013 27 Comments
Here at The Artist’s Road we promote creative thinking and doing at any age. Dr. Francine Toder has written a book based both on scientific research and individual case studies that not only supports the notion that a “vintage” brain can take up a new artistic passion, but that there are many benefits to doing […]
Read moreFive Keys to Living an Art-Committed Life
April 30, 2013 35 Comments
His story is simultaneously inspiring and horrifying. After ten years in the rat-race of London, James Rhodes returned to his true passion, the piano. He dedicated himself to achieving the mastery he had dreamed of as a youth. And now, after years of dedication and hard work, James is a concert pianist. In his essay […]
Read moreOwn Your Identity as an Artist
April 23, 2013 80 Comments
I savor the comments readers leave on this blog. But often they are apologetic in tone, along the lines of “I’m not really a writer,” or “I aspire to be a writer.” In the technical sense of the word “writer,” at least as I see it, these statements are a lie. They “wrote” a comment, […]
Read moreWhen Did You First Embrace Your Creativity?
April 9, 2013 27 Comments
There were many commonalities I found among the creatives I interviewed during my 2010 cross-country U.S. trip. One was that my interview subjects all discovered their own creative side at a very early age. Fortunately for them–and for us–they held on to that creativity, and didn’t let the “I can’t” and “I don’t” forces of […]
Read moreHow Technology is Advancing the Arts
March 21, 2013 11 Comments
Every artist on some level understands that the actions of an artist are dictated by technology. Before Gutenberg invented the printing press, writers were far more limited in page count with wound codexes. The sound amplification technology provided by a piano allowed compositions intended for far larger audiences than a harpsichord. We focus on Kindles […]
Read moreThe Importance of Creativity in Education
February 19, 2013 45 Comments
For the last decade I have repeatedly emphasized a correlation between the encouragement of creativity in childhood and professional, personal and economic success later in life. I have done so here on this blog, and previously as a think tank senior fellow and artist’s rights advocate. I have not been alone in this belief. I […]
Read moreImposing Deadlines on Your Work-In-Progress
February 12, 2013 42 Comments
One of the challenges of an art-committed life is that to produce quality art, you must meet deadlines. Sometimes those deadlines are self-imposed, with no fatal consequences befalling you if they are not met. I find myself wrestling with that challenge right now, as I look ahead to the finish line with my work-in-progress, a […]
Read moreMFA Nugget: A Fresh Take on How Artists Should Steal
January 5, 2013 12 Comments
MONTPELIER, VERMONT — The quote is attributed to Pablo Picasso: “Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.” The line has been quoted enough that it’s lost a bit of its oomph. But I liked how poet Ilya Kaminsky began his discussion of the subject in his informal talk here at my Vermont College of Fine Arts […]
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