CherylAnnHillsArtist

 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...

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...

Its spring and the weather is beginning to warm and we’re supposed to be all happy and inspired and ready for a new season with new life and hope and all that stuff. But its not always the case for everyone. I think I struggle most with the changeover to spring/summer exactly because of expectations. Expectation of great things to come, happy happy happy. And I never feel I’m able to meet those expectations. So, I withdraw. Become stoic and reinforce my invisible armour. Yesterday I went plein air painting for the first time this season. I was absolutely uninspired. The resulting working was meh. Some dude on the trail behind me shouted out “those are the wrong colours”….. I didn’t flinch. Wrong for who? Is what I thought. Then a tiny teeny voice reminded me I do this for me first. This is, my paints are, and what my brushes produce, become an extension of me. Its me. On the canvas. Why would it be anyone else?? I will spend a lifetime learning about who I am, what I like, what I can...

You’ve already heard this; Stop selling on social media and start telling stories!! But very few are actually paying attention to this directive. So, I want to say first; I am not an expert . I am an observer of human behaviour and interaction and I have the ability to see patterns and shifts in patterns. My own communication style is; think - think - think – speak/write. And when I write, I will read and re-read before I hit send or post. I do this because I know that written language is not the best way to communicate in every situation. Written words lack context unless it’s provided. Written words do not indicate body language, tone of voice and facial expressions. This means that written words can and often are easily misunderstood . I belong to hundreds of groups on Facebook. In the past year I’ve seen a major growth in the number of small business groups . Based on the comments and questions I see I would guess the vast majority of these members are new to running a b...

 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’...

Its fall in the year of the covid and we’ve almost made it through what many are calling a most unprecedented time. As a citizen of Canada, I am especially fortunate having access to the basic necessities (that many take for granted); clean water, a place to live, clothing food and a safe environment. Falls colours brilliantly display the energy of nature’s life all around us. Yet for me October remains a reminder and a measure. While we probably shouldn’t dwell on the past, we should never forget it entirely either. Something about “those who forget are doomed to repeat…” I find myself pausing here , pondering whether this particular story to follow should be shared or kept hidden. But then I think about my own present convictions – a deep belief that when we share our experiences with others, we help others. I’ve read stories about ancient peoples whose culture is built on the knowledge and experience of their elders – stories are re-told and passed on to generations to follow. ...

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...