CherylAnnHillsArtist

People who share your values are part of your tribe. As a creative, these people are your true audience. I read Seth Godin, Brene Brown, Simon Sinek and Malcolm Gladwell and their wisdom has certainly helped me to streamline my thinking and therefore my actions in my art business. In thinking about my true values I came across an article by Brene Brown It lists human values and prompts the reader to choose only two, just two that we hold as most important. I’d first selected authenticity and integrity, but then after researching those found that if one has integrity its not possible to be so, without authenticity. So now I have Integrity and Courage as my most important core values. Are you surprised that Creativity isn’t on my list of two? Well, it is because creativity requires courage, lots of it. So, its there, its just contextual. I believe all humans have equal value – with equal rights regardless of culture, language, gender, age, income or whatever other “category” human...

Nobody starts making art because they think it will be a great way to earn a living. Many start creating as young children. Being a Gen-Xer, traditional gifts I received as a child were colouring books and crayons, pencil crayons and sometimes watercolour paints. Once we started school we were often introduced to other materials, glue, scissors, construction paper, and finger painting.   Some of us embraced the opportunity to express ourselves and were deeply invested in our artwork even at a young age. For me, it was a means of expressing my feelings. I was (still am) painfully shy. Very unsure of my place in the world. My time spent painting and listening to my favourite albums in my room growing up were happy times for me. I was lucky to find joy in an activity at such an early age. And even though my life’s journey was not a straight path I am equally fortunate to have found my way back to that early joy now as an adult. As a child, I’d never considered that my artwork co...

 I wanted to write this fresh from my trip to Whitefish Falls in Ontario Canada. I booked my cabin early in winter and did some initial planning and research to prepare myself for the week away in Northern Ontario. Little did I know that this trip would result in a feeling of finding my place both in the world at large and within myself. There are other ways to get to Whitefish Falls, my choice was to drive up and along a route that borders Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. Once out of the rat-race that is the cities of Hamilton, the GTA and Toronto weaving through the 6 lane 400 series highways you come upon views that likely you’d only seen previously in paintings. Pushing past the popular area of Muskoka’s you can visibly notice the landscape change as you drive further and further north. When people talk about the Muskoka area and how much they love it, I will often comment “keep driving”. I too used to feel that area was the best it can be. Now I know, keep driving. (of course...

Bet you thought I forgot? I kinda did… here’s what happened: So, about a week ago I took a drive around on a nice Sunday afternoon to see what’s what. On the way back up the expressway hill I heard a pop and then my car got really loud!!! I called the garage the next morning to make sure they had booked enough time for my oil change next week because now I needed some exhaust work. So, for a week I decided not to drive it much to avoid doing any more damage, plus the weird stares from people on the street. Did you know that when you can’t have something or do something that had always been available to you, now suddenly your insane brain decides that thing you can’t have and is exactly what it wants?   I wonder if humans are the only species that think like this.   So, all last week I kept thinking, “gee if I could just go to…oh wait right I can’t”. I caught myself daydreaming about going to a waterfall one evening to do a painting. Oh yeah, right…the car! I had made lis...

Failure. It’s a word we’ve been conditioned to dislike. It makes us uncomfortable. For some it can be the source of sleepless nights and hours of therapy. Yet, failure is the doorway to progress. If we never fail we cannot grow, move forward, improve, and eventually excel. It’s a big topic. And it tends to draw mostly negative connotations but as noted, without failure there are no successes. Ask every single successful person if they’ve ever failed at something. The answer is always YES. Its not the failure that will hold us back, its how we respond to failing. Let’s read that again: Its not the failure that will hold us back, its our response to the failure. That’s the really hard part. Our natural response is to hide the failure. Cover it up. Put it into the back of the closet. If it’s a terrible meal you made, you throw it out. And tell no one! Those of us who are creators are told “only put your best work out into the world, never show your failures”. That’s terrible advice....

 Focus. “Pay attention to what you’re doing” is a common phrase spoken by parents, teachers, and employers alike. Their good intentions bent on ensuring the outcome meets their expectations. But wait! What does it really mean to be focused?? As a kid, no matter how much I would focus on the thought, I still could never make that thing go away. Focus, when presented as simply thought (obsession) and directed on a desire or wish can lead to anxiety. That is a non-desirable outcome. Applied to my own life right now, focus means striping away things that are no longer relevant or important to me. Focus, when practiced in a healthy way is an action not a thought. Removing belongings, habits, routines, and even people that get in the way of and compete with my attention on what is most important to me, right now is the best use of focus. It’s interesting to note that when we are young (under 40) we tend to want to do more. More is everything. More is the epitome of success and inner ha...

I reset my schedule back to a 5am wake up time so I could have the cats fed, my coffee made, my brain awake by a 6am start in the studio. Of course, you all know, because you read yesterdays post, that my first act of the day is to write. And even though this is day two of a commitment made merely 24hrs ago, there was resistance. But where does the resistance come from? Great question! It’s likely different for each of us and likely stems from something in the past; a parent, an employer, a coach….   Some of us have a stronger need to forge out own path and we also tend to have greater resistance to things that we can perceive as difficult, painful, or not worth doing.   But our judgements are based on past experiences which are likely not true in our present, yet we cling to them anyway because we haven’t been able to replace those ideas and emotions with anything better. Yet.  My own personal resistance most often stems from a false belief “what’s the point” and the a...

It’s a big subject to ponder, expectations. What does it really mean to have expectations? Often it’s a preconceived notion that we imagine may come true. And as we know, when it comes to imagination there are endless possibilities. And too often our default is either to expect the worst or the best (less frequently). Seldom do we consider a neutral outcome, one that neither changes our world nor creates a ripple effect on the world beyond our own. Yet, if you follow a certain doctrine, every action does indeed cause a ripple effect regardless of whether or not we believe it. You only need to look at nature to see how one seemingly insignificant action can cause a ripple effect in an environment. For example, cutting down that old oak tree in the small forest behind the shed will affect the neighbouring trees, the plants that grow below it and the animals that once used the tree for shelter and food. Expectations tend to keep us from moving forward. We place a carrot somewhere in the...

This may be hard to hear for some however many people feel art has no value because they believe it does not contribute to the well being of society. There’s a misunderstanding that art and artists are somehow separate from the rest of society and only available to the privileged and wealthy. “ One huge reason art is not valued is because it is not accessible. It is treated not as a part of life, but as a non-essential feature of life, reserved for the few, but not for everyone. Art can and should be for everyone. By not valuing artists, we devalue art. Art encompasses both maker and object. ” This misnomer has created a societal culture that believes art is not important nor part of daily life and therefore can be forgotten and pushed aside with reduced budgets and limited resources when finances are stretched in an institution such as in schools and by governments and corporations. The pandemic and the resulting actions by governments have only further demonstrated their beliefs ...

 The early morning sun of a new day lights gently upon the shoulder of the slumbering artist as she awakens from her peaceful sleep with a smile and a heart full of gratitude and joy. Happy birds flutter in through the open door with cheerful chirps and begin to select her wardrobe carrying a gayly patterned dress to her. She smiles warmly and spins around with glee! “Thank you, sweet birds of the forest!”, she exclaims. As she twirls and prances around her room and towards her brightly lit sparkly clean art studio she wonders how she ever could be so lucky…………………. vinyl scratch……………. I don’t know about you, but this artist has not yet had the forest animals smile and dance around the room with her. A typical day for me begins usually at 5am with my alarm sounding and quickly followed by two more alarms with four soft feet and deep purrs nudging me awake so they can enjoy their First breakfast quickly followed by a snack of dental crunchies. This spring, I’ve made the commit...

 The year of 2020 has been one for the books, as they say. No one has gone through this unscathed. Just that simple fact demonstrates the interconnectivity of earth and everything on earth. And right there, I’ve already veered away from my focus for this blog post. Is it just me? Or has the ability to focus become extremely difficult if not impossible as this year progressed?? What did you read or hear that was not disturbing or controversial? The latest news is about steel monoliths being discovered all over the planet. Is it a hoax?? An advertising gimmick? Aliens???? Regardless it IS a distraction. Politics is a distraction. The stories and reports and ongoing discussions about covid, the environmental crisis, personal and business economic troubles, food, and water shortages; the list of distractions is endless. I watch “real” news maybe once a week now. Usually from our nations source. I try to avoid getting drawn into the drama everywhere on social media. In fact, I’...

Great! Now I have your attention!! Remember the old commercials with the cool sing-along jingles and the terrifyingly large cartoon characters that would tell you why that thing was sooooo GRRRRReat!!!? Sadly, that type of marketing is gone. We’ve oversold ourselves and now no one wants to listen to anyone who asks us to buy this or buy that. Every second of every day is filled with sales pitches and marketing gimmicks. And we’re really good at scrolling past… Recently I read on social media someone’s post talking about the new generations (30 and under) and how they buy everything from Amazon, and no one can compete. I feel that’s only partially true. While price and accessibility have always been important to consumers; more often, we are looking for products that are made local, are socially or environmentally responsible and provide the best quality product for a fair price. I’m a Gen X and these things are important to me too as a consumer. There will always be those who sho...

When I think of things that define an artist the willingness to try is one characteristic that is prevalent. Willingness, as defined by the Oxford dictionary is: “ the quality of being happy and ready to do something ”. And try is defined as: “to make an attempt or effort to do or get something”. So basically, artists are often happy and ready to make an attempt or effort to do or get something. I see so many artists who are willing to try their craft, create a work and sometimes even share that work with others. But often those same artists are uneasy about sending that same artwork into a gallery call, or an art competition or even applying for a spot at a market to sell their work. Let’s pause here for a minute: Why do I feel its important to share your art? Simply because art is often an expression of joy, or sorrow, or whatever it is that the artist is feeling. (this is the same for dancers, musicians, writers etc) AND when you share your feelings/emotions you can...

As an artist I often consider and reflect on my thoughts and feelings towards my environment. This includes everything from my ideas about my art and how I make it, the foods I choose to eat to the types of clothes I wear, my ideas of my neighbours and friends and my choices in plants in my garden.   Sometimes my ideas and opinions of these things come from a lived experience. Sometimes these opinions come from the ideas and opinions of others.   Children often absorb the ideas and opinions of others simply because their own lived experience is brief. When our ideas are from lived experience, often prejudices can arise. Here is one example from my own experience. When I was a grade schooler, I was bullied by a boy who had red hair. Later in my 20’s it happened again, a man with red hair caused problems for me. So, for a long long time my thinking and feelings towards males with red hair were prejudiced based on these two experiences. Not long ago I met and dated a man with...

Love what you do. Sounds contrite, like some bumper sticker on the car in front of you that you stare at mindlessly during 5pm rush hour traffic on the 403 highways system in Ontario. But really, it’s an important 4 words that many of us ignore for most and sometimes all of our lives. are we happy? As we sit in the midst of the Covid pandemic considering our lives, what we’ve done, what we’re doing and what we want to do; perhaps some of our thoughts should consider; For many of us happiness is actually very simple. A few good friends, the basic necessities of life and doing work that we feel is meaningful and that we love to do. After being forced to self-isolate over the past several months these things should be fairly clear to us. Yet many of us will slide back into our previous unsatisfying lives when this is all over because we cannot nor will not see the alternatives we can build for ourselves. It doesn’t have to be that way. Artists can fall into the same tra...

What I’ve learned over the past 18 months, and a few things I already knew… Hard work, determination and never giving up : Three things I preached to my daughters and had to accept and hold to over the years especially the last decade. 5 years ago I was in the hospital for 16 days because I once again failed to take care of myself, my mind, my soul, my needs, my life’s path. I put myself last, as is my pattern that I learned early in childhood and have carried through. My brain works different than many and I can struggle with situations that are very clear to others. I know how I “need to think and react” yet decades of feeling and reacting the “wrong way” have created a deep groove that is difficult to navigate through and above. Not one to believe in limitations or disabilities I’ve found my own way to manage my feelings and while it may not be the “right way” it works for me if I let it. I have been told many times there are no coincidences . Each experience I’ve had over...