Crafting an Artful Life: Imaginative Musings on Creativity

Beauty, A Force for Good

I’ve been reading Alain de Botton and John Artmstrong’s book Art As Therapy, literally outlining how we could experience art to help us navigate life’s challenges and how we deal with them. Talk about revolutionary…The book’s basic idea is that, instead of museums offering sterile galleries organized as “French Impressionists” or “Italian Landscapes before 1600,”…

Behind the Scenes / Inspiration

“One Nation Under a Groove”

To All My Readers, far and wide, those who have been with me since I began blogging in 2003 and those many of you who have joined my list along the way, I hope you will enjoy this post in the spirit it is intended. It is rather unapologetically…me. Real, perhaps even raw, and as…

Behind the Scenes / Inspiration / New Work / Processes

Living on The Skuppet Show

My son Skyler has spent most of his life turning nearly everything into a puppet. By age 4 he corrected me regularly that his stuffed animals were actually puppets. I take responsibility since I was the first one to make them talk. Skyler learned nearly everything by example then always did his own thing with…

Behind the Scenes / Eastern Repousse / Inspiration / Teaching / Travel

Duende: the Mystery, the Risk, and the Fire

Back in the 90’s when I fell in love with the books and art of Nick Bantock, who wrote the introduction for my recent book Giving Voice, I learned of the power of duende. Described by Spanish poet Federico García Lorca,* “the spirit of the Earth […] the duende surges up, inside, from the soles…

Art Jewelry / Behind the Scenes / Books / Eastern Repousse / Instructional videos / Processes / Rings / Russian Filigree / Teaching / Videos

ME IN YOUR OWN STUDIO WHENEVER YOU WANT

Learn from the Master Who started the revival Although I primarily make my living as a professional artist, teaching is a huge love and a significant part of who I am. Seeing a lightbulb go on for someone else is as satisfying as making artwork myself. I’m also passionate about documenting nearly lost processes for…

Behind the Scenes / drawing / Inspiration / Processes

All Art Is Experimental (My theory of everything…which is mine…)

What if I came up with a unified theory of physics, that holy grail of all scientific theories that reconciles Newton’s Laws with quantum physics? It’s not really hard to come up with a theory. What’s difficult is coming up with a theory that is wholly plausible, even better that is provable, or at least…

Art Jewelry / Books / Eastern Repousse / Instructional videos / Processes / Rings / Russian Filigree / Videos

METAL TECHNIQUES OF BRONZE AGE MASTERS,ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING AND DOWNLOAD VIA VIMEO ON DEMAND.

IT’S LIKE HAVING VICTORIA ON DEMAND IN YOUR OWN STUDIO ALL 3 VIDEOS IN MY SERIES, METAL TECHNIQUES OF BRONZE AGE MASTERS,ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING AND DOWNLOAD VIA VIMEO ON DEMAND. You have the option to download the videos and watch anywhere at your leisure or stream them as needed. Each video has been extensively…