Conversations About Art-Making While Painting a Dipper

I made another bird on my livestream: an American Dipper. Apparently, it's one of the few semi-aquatic song birds in North America, living their lives among canyon streams and over open water. They were John Muir's favorite bird. 

I got two separate requests for an American Dipper from patrons who visited my booth--on the same night! I had to paint one. 

And while doing so, I met a wonderful married couple from the Czech Republic who where up late watching streams on Twitch. And while my livestream is at 1-4:00pm PDT in the US, it was a little after midnight their time. 

We had a delightful conversation about art and fear and disappointment while getting started. They listened to me describe my process. And one of them expressed some concerns about making art and how they struggled to draw from their imagination. Ultimately they weren't very excited about what they made.

It's hard to put yourself out there and let yourself make mistakes. It's hard to be vulnerable like that. It feels really frustrating to share something you care about only to receive a less-than-enthusiastic response, and be put in a position where you're being compared to others who have the benefit of practiced skill and time and experience. It's demoralizing.  

We talked about what it means to "copy" another person's work, how to avoid doing so, how to find projects that help you learn about your medium. I suggested doing a series of 100 Things. 

It was a good livestream. And I felt like I got to make an impact on someone. And that made me feel really good. 

Here's the livestream recording: 

The greeting card and print will be up on my website for sale very very soon!