Is your art stressing people out?

 Stress is related to the environment you live in. As an artist, the ideal is 

to live in calm, peaceful and intriguing surroundings where earth meets atmosphere.

Lida Van Bers

 Dreamer Dream No More

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/dreamer-dream-no-more-lianne-schneider.html

I know my title today seems like an absurd question, particularly if you pursue some aspect of the creative arts specifically as a mechanism to be an outlet for yourself, to be cathartic or therapeutic for you or in some way to relax after a stressful day or week. But it's possible that what works in a positive way for you is actually inducing stress in your viewers!! Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How could that be and what does that mean in terms of marketing?

Well first - let's look at color -

 

A new study published in Science magazine revealed that while the color red can help you be more accurate in your work, the color blue spurs creativity. For most people, red signals caution, danger or mistakes while blue suggests relaxation, peace and freedom. Blue is more conducive to imaginative problem solving while red stimulates attention to detail, recall and being "right." Sounds as if red is more stress inducing than blue - at least initially. 

"People are not aware of this effect at all," says researcher Juliet Zhu of the University of British Columbia, who studies how environmental cues affect behavior. It's entirely a subconscious response. The subconscious effect of color is a hot area of psychology research, in part because marketers try to use color to hook people onto whatever they are trying to sell.

What about straight lines versus curves? Our brains are actually hardwired to prefer curves - even in architecture! Time and again, when asked, people prefer rooms and buildings and objects that are curved rather than linear - watches with round faces over square ones, for example. We like rooms to have more curves than stark lines, even if we have to accomplish that by floor design, furniture style. etc. There's a fabulous article on architectural design and emotion here.

So what does all this have to do with whether the art we're creating is causing negative emotions or stress in our viewers and whether it's more or less marketable because of the choices we make? Even putting your images on a blue background can make a difference apparently according to researchers studying the effects of color on advertising. But, there's one more factor to consider...countless studies show that images of nature or that give the impression of nature in terms of color, curve and subject matter actually reduce stress and leave people feeling more positive. Here's a little test to see how your brain responds to certain images. Consider that your own response is likely to be the same as the majority of people who view your art...we may make fun of "pretty pictures" but apparently they sell for a very good reason - people feel good looking at them! Abstracts too that people can associate with natural curves and favorite colors are usually more popular than stark geometrics in colors associated with danger or darkness. At least, that's what the research suggests...I understand about the curves and nature but I'm not certain I agree about color. I think a good deal depends on hue and brightness and where on the spectrum your color palette fits best. I'm going to keep a close eye on what is selling over the next few days and see if they're right.

Overcoming winter S.A.D.ness

"In the depth of winter, I learned that within me lay an invincible summer."

Albert Camus

Winter Barn

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/winter-barn-lianne-schneider.html 

Seasonal Affective Disorder used to be laughed at as the hypochondria of...attention seekers, the lazy, or maybe just the "winter blues" - a harmless enough low feeling that will go away on its own soon enough. Even when I was younger and very active in the winter with snowmobiling, skating, winter parties at the sugar shanty, I still experienced this kind of "dread" as November approached. I'd say over and over, "I hate November." As the years went by, the dread got worse, the low feeling became real depression during the winter months. At first, I chalked it up to personal losses that had occurred in November or early December - my Dad's death, my husband's, my grandfather's. But each year, it got worse and I began to equate winter with the season of my life - that I was entering the "winter" of my life journey and while death didn't exactly terrify me, I wasn't in that big a hurry for it! Moving back up north after years in the south seemed to make things much worse - as my physical mobility became more limited, winters stretched long and drearier. The sudden change to Standard time in October (now November) would hit me like a ton of bricks as the daylight hours were instantly one hour shorter. I'd tell everyone I was going into hibernation and I'd come out again when the time changed in March! And off I'd go into what I called "my cave."

S.A.D. is actually very real for millions of people and for some, downright dangerous. According to the Mayo Clinic, those with severe depression from untreated S.A.D. should not ignore the symptoms. They can get worse and lead to problems if it's not treated. These can include:

• Suicidal thoughts or behavior
• Social withdrawal
• School or work problems
• Substance abuse

Treatment can help prevent complications, especially if seasonal affective disorder is diagnosed and treated before symptoms get bad.

So...what to do. See a doctor if symptoms persist - you may benefit from antidepressant medications but even if you don't choose this course, a health care professional will be aware of your condition and that's important. But there are lifestyle changes you can try as well - get special real daylight bulbs for your lamps and avoid fluorescent lights if possible. There are also actual light therapy boxes you can use several times a day to increase your exposure to daylight. Go outside - even if you aren't very mobile, bundle up and sit on the porch, the patio, a park bench and soak up the sun for a half hour. Get what exercise you can - you don't have to ski or snowmobile or shovel snow with a bad heart to get a little exercise to raise your serotonin levels. Get CREATIVE - that's finally what saved me. In winter time, I pour myself into my art and writing in between treks up and downstairs for exercise. I think about winter poetically instead of with dread. In fact...I wrote a long poem called, "Even Winter Has Its Joy" and you can hear me read it on this short YouTube video:

I hope you enjoyed that...would love to get your feedback though I apologize for the quality of the artwork - I've worked harder on that in recent years! The poem is from my last book, "Ecclesiastes for Sixty: Seasons in Solitude." 

 

Sea Story...a longing

"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea,

whether it is to sail or to watch,

we are going back from whence we came." 

~John Kennedy~

 

Between Sea and Shore

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/between-sea-and-shore-lianne-schneider.html

 

I've never lived by the sea really - close a few times - able to get to a beach on a day's drive,
but the sea fascinates me. Its power, its moods, its vastness...are somehow an endless source of inspiration to me in both my writing and my art. I think of an ocean in a storm and I'm reminded of the storms that life can bring to us. I see a lighthouse and I know that there is somewhere -
in a friend's heart, a lover's touch a light to guide me through. I think of the journey each of us is on...our own personal quest for peace, for truth, for wholeness...the journey of self-discovery -and it takes me to the sea.  

 

BETWEEN SEA AND SHORE

A late summer afternoon at the Cape,
sweet sounds abound - a gentle lullaby
of sea grasses sighing in an onshore breeze,
the slight swell of an incoming wavelet
spilling happily over ageless small stones,
little pebbles tumbling one over the other,
their gentle clattering friction masked by
the resonance of the surge as it splashes
into this quiet cove onto this shingled beach.
Wading out, I let the wave embrace my feet,
hearing against my legs the slight swash
of an ebbing tide and listen in my silence for
the softest shushing of a withdrawing wave
whispering its secrets to the sand, softly
planting goodbye kisses, wet and sloppy,
on a curved shoreline of shimmering stones.
What peace it is to stand here and be witness
to this eternal love between sea and shore.  

                                    © Lianne Schneider 2013         

 

          

Where do you find your inspiration?? 20 possibilities

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/ralphwaldo130588.html#3aXWtx5Q88lrMHjF.99

Sugar Palace

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-sugar-palace--river-road-blues-lianne-schneider.html

We've all run into it at once time or another - artists' block, writers' block - just plain creatively blocked. It's frustrating, even a bit scary. I once went six months unable to write a single poem and I was absolutely certain that I'd never write again. I joked about how my muse had gone on vacation and just decided not to return. But I was extremely distressed. I turned to art then tentatively at first, and was inspired by history, the blues, and certainly other artists. But the writer's block persisted and the creative block returned even about the art work. 

Maybe that happens because we just have too much on our plates at any given time and we need to withdraw from creative activities. That's what I tried to tell myself, at least.  But the truth is if we need to withdraw from creating...then it's not an essential part of who we are. Our art, our writing should be many things to us - therapeutic, cathartic, joyful, fulfilling - but it shouldn't be something we can just walk away from for months at a time without concern. Regardless of what our responsibilities are, if it's fundamental to our identities, then we have to MAKE time for it, no matter what. If that means getting out of bed an hour early or going to bed an hour later, so be it.

So what on earth do you do when absolutely nothing seems to inspire you, when you look at that blank sheet of paper or that empty canvas and don't have a single creative thought? Great artists and great writers have offered all kinds of advice - I remember reading something in poet May Sarton's journal where she said that no matter what she felt or didn't feel, she MADE herself sit down and write for at least one hour every single morning. It didn't matter if all she wrote were remembered lines of an old poem or someone's speech - she wrote whatever popped into her head for at least an hour. Sometimes, though, even such a disciplined approach won't work. 

Here's a great list of ideas for inspiration from the folks at ArtProMotivate:
"Feeling inspired can be tough at times, especially for artists who have a 9-5 job outside of art. We may be too tired to think straight, or distracted by our daily routine. In such situations, we have to search for sources of inspiration and creativity." Read the rest at: 
20 Art Inspiration Ideas for Creativity - Artpromotivate

Remember too that one of the most creatively inspiring things we can do is teach or inspire someone else. There's an old adage that says whatever it is you wish to learn, teach. Lead by example. In teaching others to plumb their own creative depths and find their own unique expression, we discover over and over again that the well of our creativity is bottomless. 

 

Midwinter - dreaming of baseball

"There are only two seasons – winter and baseball." 

~ Bill Veeck ~

                                                        former owner of the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox

 

Tinker to Evers to Chance

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/tinker-to-evers-to-chance-lianne-schneider.html

The poem, "Baseball's Sad Lexicon", also known as "Tinker to Evers to Chance" after its refrain, is a 1910 baseball poem by Franklin Pierce Adams. The poem is presented as a single, rueful stanza from the point of view of a New York Giants fan watching the Chicago Cubs infield complete a double play.

Chicago Cubs infielders Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance began playing together with the Cubs in 1902, and formed a double play combination that lasted through April 1912. Their consistently solid fielding and hitting led the Cubs to four National League pennants (1906-8, 1910) and two World Series wins (1907-8). In 1910, New York newspaper columnist Franklin Pierce Adams immortalized the three ballplayers in a short verse. The Cubs won the National League pennant four times between 1906 and 1910, often defeating the Giants en route to the World Series. In fact, the 1907 Chicago Cubs are often referred to as “the best team ever” and there is a book by that name that celebrates this talented team in its entirety.

Adams’ poem was first published in the New York Evening Mail on July 12, 1910. Popular among sportswriters, numerous additional verses were written. The poem gave Tinker, Evers, and Chance increased popularity. It has been credited with their elections to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.

Off the field, two of the three never spoke to one another – Joe Tinker and John Evers disliked each other immensely and no sign of rapprochement appeared until both were asked to visit Chance as he lay dying. 

  

"Baseball's Sad Lexicon"

These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,*
Making a Giant hit into a double--
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."**

* The term "gonfalon" refers to a flag or pennant, and Adams uses the phrase "pricking our gonfalon bubble" to describe the repeated success of the Chicago Cubs and their celebrated infield against their National League rivals, his beloved New York Giants.

** Reprinted in the book In Other Words by Franklin P. Adams (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1912)

Credit for the details of the story goes to Wikipedia (entry Tinker to Evers to Chance) and to the Baseball Almanac.

A complete departure for me in terms of subject matter – but the history buff in me couldn’t resist the challenge. The images in this triptych were painted using baseball card pictures taken by photographer Paul Thompson who owned the copyright only for the gold borders that surrounded the original cards. An article in the Smithsonian described the significant departure of Thompson’s portraits from those on other baseball cards – distributed by the American Tobacco Company among other tobacco companies. Thompson’s were chromolithographs which could be printed in color while earlier cards had been black and white.