CherylAnnHillsArtist

 Does social media have a reset button? Maybe a factory reset?? I unwittingly participated in a self-experiment this week; I spent way way too much time consuming content on social media. My profile is found on just three, Insta, FB and YT. The bird one I see as being a bit to confrontational for my tastes, at least that’s my impression so I'm not on there. Oh yeah and the clock one, I use that one too. Speaking of impressions; does anyone really know what that means? After 7 days of scrolling, swiping, streaming and clicking over 5hrs a day on social I’ve noticed a few things.   A lot of people speak really really fast. Sometimes being selective about the words you use, slowing down and expressing personal emotion are more effective at telling a story. Or maybe its just me. I like things simple. Right?   I hate sales, selling and having someone sell or be salesy to me. Yuck. Its just icky to me. Could be just me feels this way. IDK   The social accounts I am m...

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...

Its somewhat a tradition in spring to go through the stuff you’ve accumulated and make decisions on what to keep and what to sell, giveaway or discard. As I’ve become older there is often less things I need to discard because I’ve taken more care in what I choose to include in my stuff. Curating your own stuff is an interesting journey sometimes. Each thing may or may not have some sort of significance, a particular memory attached to it. Stuff that has no emotion attached to it is easy to discard. Stuff that has happy memories even if the thing is no longer useful might be more difficult to include in your spring yard sale.  But its just stuff. And in the end, none of it will be coming with us. An internal spring cleaning is also important for us to do occasionally. Sometimes we carry around ideas, beliefs, thoughts that once may have been true but now are no longer true nor useful. When we continue to carry around these untrue beliefs they will often bog us down from moving forwa...

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...

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 ...

Have you heard the myth that oil paints are toxic? This is absolutely false . I’ve met many artists even recently who have either never tried oil paints or stopped using them simply because someone told them that using oil paints would have detrimental effects on their health. Is this misinformation keeping you from trying this amazing medium? Here are some actual FACTS! Oil Paint is NOT toxic The generalization that artists oil paints are toxic has kept many from using this most loved medium. In fact, unless you eat the oil paint (probably not a good idea) there are NO ill effects from using most oil paints. Oil paint colours are rich and juicy and provide artists with brilliant colour that glows and achieves life-like results without the use of solvents. Its simply a matter of learning HOW to use them. Myth 1: Artists Oil Paints are Toxic This misinformation is fairly common. However, the vast majority of oil paint is not toxic. In fact, unless you eat your oil paint (w...

Its Sunday morning and I’m scrolling thru my social media feed looking at work from fellow artists and a question pops up in my brain; “is my work art or a product and which one do I want to produce?” Its an interesting debate with many opinions on all fronts. I think what really sparked this debate in my brain right now is the rejection letter for a competition I entered. The jury comments were related to poor drawing and color use skills. Interesting considering my intension for my work is not to replicate the object before me in a realistic representational manner but instead to express a feeling and show the effect of light in nature. So, my work will not display the high realism drawing and life-like color but instead express abstract ideas of nature. So, here’s the thing: should an artist follow current trends and constantly be changing their approach to suit a buyer’s market? Or should an artist follow their heart and produce work that expresses in their terms and through thei...

 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...

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...

Here’s some stuff I’m working on for this coming season and year. It will blow your mind!!! Look at me!! Its only been a few weeks since my last post!!!! (pats back lightly….) I have made a list! Yes indeed. Lists are good. They make your brain see the thoughts on a paper and then feel guilty if you don’t follow thru later. No but seriously it’s been proven that if you write with pen on paper your thoughts, ideas and plans you are more likely to not only remember them but also commit to doing them. Plus the act of checking off or crossing out the item when it’s completed is really quite satisfying (apparently your brain sends a little endorphin “feel good” packet )   So write stuff down. Or at least try it if you’re not already doing it. Alright so my list includes a whole gamut of art projects I want to start and complete over the next 4 months as well as things I want to learn. First off; my list included updating my website and linking this blog to it. Check mark ...

First; I hope this blog finds you well, and if not; I wish you a speedy recovery. Our Prime Minister speaks of us living in an unprecedented time .   That’s a statement that could be exciting or terrifying. What we do as a species right now will forever be examined by future generations. I’ve been trying my best to remain non-judgemental as things unfold. We are human. We will make mistakes. Everyone experiences stress and cataclysmic events in different ways. This often depends on our past life experiences and how we process strong emotions. Some will lash out, some will hide in fear, some will reach out to help others, and some will pretend nothing has changed. I was struggling with my creative process prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Now I feel all creative energy drained from me. The damn weather has been cloudy and moody for the past week now too; which really doesn’t help. Being stuck inside isn’t a huge big deal for me. I prefer my own company on most days...