At last...life is like a song

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.

Hal Borland

 American Robin - Harbinger of Spring

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/american-robin-harbinger-of-spring-lianne-schneider.html

At last...finally...welcome SPRING!!!!!!!! The long cold winter is over at long last. Today I awakened to full sunshine, the cacophony of bird songs outside my window, the last patches of snow shrinking visibly by the hour - a reminder of the previous week's freakish one foot snow storm - and the spring bulbs pushing their leaves up through the newly thawed earth. In a week, there will be crocus and primrose and an early daffodil or two. In another, the tulips will burst forth and the hint of new leaves will appear on the lilacs and birch first. The hawks were circling the morning - perhaps looking at a new supply of field mice to feed their babies. It is spring - and like the earth, I feel reborn, renewed, prepared for growth.

Most people describe spring in terms of color and very often refer to the greening of the earth. I'm an oddball, I guess. I see the gold in spring before I ever see the green. This is what it looks and feels like to me:

SPRING IN GOLD

Whoever sees but green in spring

has not seen it early making

crazy patchwork quilts of gold

laced with yellowed snow.

Old-gold stubble of close-cropped corn,

tawny gold of last year's hay,

dew-topped first furrows, sun-gilded

creek willows easing green-gold brass

against the morning sky.

Tentative yellow-greenings, wary, watchful,

waiting for the season's promise - 

a shy bride on fulfillment's eve. 

© Lianne Schneider 2008

Yes, for me the season is golden first, warming my heart, brightening my thoughts, lifting my spirits towards the heavens. The gold of spring is the burnished setting for the jewel-like colors that will adorn the earth in just a week or so. But for now, I am content to bask in the golden glow. 

 

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.

Reflections on Happiness

“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” 

Abraham Lincoln 

 Reflections on Happiness

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/reflections-on-happiness-lianne-schneider.html

Back in 1962, cartoonist Charles Schulz wrote a little cartoon book and coined a phrase – “Happiness is a Warm Puppy.” [And yes, I’m old enough to have read it “live,” so to speak].  Times have changed since then and today we see people not only demanding their “right to be happy,” but running frantically in every direction looking for something to make them truly happy. From a very young age, they chase from activity to activity, gadget to gadget, relationship to relationship certain that the next thing or person they happen upon is going to be exactly what it takes to make them happy. Friends, spouses, loved ones struggle with depression claiming that they don’t believe they’ve ever been happy or ever will be. Someone I love very much tearfully exclaimed one day, “What is happiness – I have no idea at all what it is or where to find it.” I don’t make light of such despair – it’s painful to watch someone you care about wrestle with the darkness and be unable to help. All I could offer was this poem in response:

WHAT IS HAPPINESS?

What is happiness you ask me?

Far easier to say what it is not.

It’s not love –

though it can lead to it

or come from it.

It’s not joy –

which is a breathtaking kind of elation

born of full awareness,

an enlightened sense

of the rare and unique beauty

of the present moment.

Happiness is not found “out there,”

in the grasping after

or ownership of things or persons.

It’s not something earned or won

like fame or fortune.

It’s not some romanticized quality of life

represented by trilling bluebirds

or colorful rainbows.

It’s not something you get;

it’s something you are

and something you choose.

Happiness, like love and joy,

is a state of being

one chooses for oneself

regardless of circumstance or luck.

It’s a softening and

an opening of one’s heart and soul

that empties them of dissatisfaction,

sadness and regrets that

makes room for love and joy

to fill them up.

It’s a kind of calmness

rather than giddiness,

peace of mind and spirit

rather than elation.

It’s a contented sigh

rather than bawdy laughter.

Happiness is a general cheerfulness

about life and a gentle sense

of satisfaction with who you are.

It’s a stance, a posture we assume

in the face of difficulty or hardship,

a view of life as more good than bad,

more hopeful than despairing.

Happiness just is…

the space we contentedly

have the grace to call our own.

To someone struggling with the darkness of constant unhappiness, I can only offer what worked for me. I chose poetry and art to give my own sadness a voice and in doing so, discovered hope and light, joy and color in what had been a very monochromatic space. Try as I might, I could seldom let a poem end without a hopeful note, or allow an art work to remain too dark (I’m forever adjusting the brightness!). And now...I can say that I chose happiness when I chose art.

I don’t think I’m alone in finding light and color an element in what makes me happy. Take a peek at the incredible color and bold knife work of the unbelievably talented Mona Edulescu  as (EMONA Art) at Fine Art America. Her paintings absolutely delight my soul and make me feel totally alive – with happiness. I think Linus would very much agree. 

P. S. Speaking of happiness - I've just received my copy of Issue 1, Volume II of Woven Tale Press - featuring the best of the blogs and I'm delighted to say that I'm peripherally featured because one of my images appears in a blog by my beautiful writing friend, Lisa Jewell. You'll find her featured blog and my little sparrow image on page 37. The magazine also included an image of mine on the back inside cover from my art page at Trillium Gallery.