No one told me it was Wednesday!

I can't blame this post being late on anyone, but I can say I was a little disappointed to not receive an email asking about my missing post yesterday. I will be posting something tomorrow though to try to stay on track and you get this post today. Yeah!

I don't believe in excuses. I believe that people have priorities and they get done what they feel like they must get done. If they really thought something else was more important they would do it. Would you agree?

You don't have to agree with me, but hear me out:
I think artists are a peculiar people. The ones that are really dedicated and can get by on caffeine will do all nighters because they have determined that making art and reaching a deadline is more important than sleep.

Other artists (Like myself) are not able to pull all nighters. Sleep is just more important to us than art making at midnight so what does that mean? It means if we want to reach those same deadlines we have to say "NO" to other things before that deadline so that we aren't forced to do all nighters.

The word "No" is just as powerful as the word "Yes". In fact it can be even more empowering. When we say NO to something it allows us the opportunity to say Yes to other things. Take a minute and think about your day. What are you saying No to and what are you saying Yes to?

Doing this exercise myself looks like this:

This morning I decided to say "NO" to waking up when my alarm went off. What that means is that I was saying "Yes" to being late to work. I was saying "Yes" to being more stressed at work. I was saying "Yes" to eating out since my lunch wasn't prepared. But It also meant I got to say "Yes" to an extra half an hour in my warm bed.

Hopefully tomorrow I can say "Yes" to my alarm clock so that I can say "Yes" to a better lunch than a hamburger off the dollar menu. So that I can say "Yes" to more money since I will be at work longer. I will also get to say "Yes" to less stress too!

Do you see how this works?

This principle works with your time, with your money, with everything!

Something that I have recently been able to say Yes to was taking an art class with J. Kirk Richards. He has been a wonderful mentor and boss for me this past year and when he offered to let me take his class with him this week I just knew that was what I was going to do.

To iterate I would like to tell you all the things I said No to, so that I could say Yes to this class. Every year for the last couple of years I have gone with a really good friend of mine to his parents house up in North Idaho. It is right on the edge of a beautiful lake. His parents have a boat, three wheelers, and not to mention wonderful company!
Here are some pictures of it!

This year I said No to that so that I could say Yes to learning how to paint better.
My wife also said No to this so we could say Yes to another week of work and the pay check that would come from that.

Here is a progress shot of what I have been working on in the painting class. It is a master copy of one of my favorite artists, James Christiansen.

Stay Tuned to my blog. I will be posting the finished product in about a week or so.

Also thank you for reading my blog. I realize that at this point most of my readers are friends on face book. I hope to share my journey as a maturing artist with some insights for everyday life. If you get something out of a post share it with a friend. Thanks.

Also if you have feedback for me please feel free to email me at guapolsen@gmail.com

Take Care

Artist Inspiration Collages

A couple of years ago for an art class I had to create a collage made up of artists that inspired me. The first one I did for school was filled with some really cool art, but lots of different genres of artists. I then had the opportunity to teach an art class yesterday and thought I would do that activity with my student again, but this time I really tried to focus on the artists that inspired me as an illustrator.

I thought it might be really fun to share both of my collages with you and maybe some thoughts on why I like the artists I chose.

This first one is the most recent one I made:

1- Tomie DePaola- I loved his fun shapes for people and big noses. I also really love his color harmony.

2- Maurice Sendak- Everyone knows where the wild things are. He has incredible fun little details on every page. His monsters are delightfully fun and his colors are really well controlled as well.

3- Scottie Young- This artist was introduced to me in High School and was on the cutting edge of drawing superheroes at the time. The picture I have here for him is of Wolverine. He has recently done a wizard of oz book with a delightful lion. I love his curvy lines and fun twists on things that I have see before.

4- James Christensen*- This man is a master of paint. His paintings are so smooth well designed. He has an amazing ability to put straights with curves and fun colors that work with each other to create a story of some sort of thing from another world!

5- J. Kirk Richards*- Kirk has let me be his art assistant for over a year now and I just couldn't leave him out. He has definitely influenced me. I have loved learning about how he thinks and getting to even do some of his under paintings for him. I would have a huge list of things if I listed all the things I have learned from him: the importance of hard edges and soft edges, having detail and when not to have it, warms and cools and much much more.

6- Dr. Suess- What amazingly fun imaginative creations from pen and ink! I have always been mesmerized by his fun shapes and characters. His colors have always been really nice and although bright they are controlled and limited.

7- Quentin Blake- This is a favorite artist of mine that illustrated books like Matilda and the BFG. his style is loose, but with a sense of great anatomy. He knows how to make some quick lines look like a person and then with some water colors he brings them to life. 

8- Shel Silverstein- Amazing Man. Don't look at the pictures of him though. He looks kind of scary. (: I love how fun Shel was with his poetry. His loose pictures that look like they were just scribbled out on a napkin, maybe even the napkin he used to write the poem on the back of, are so fun to see and take in!

9- Jake Parker*- Jake is a more recent addition to my lists of inspirations. He has a comic book style of doing art and has inspired me with his amazing caricature design as well as use of pen and ink. 

*For fun I put the stars in to show the ones I have actually met in person.

Below is the first one I did for my class:

Matt Wisniewski- I think I may have found this artist on Pinterest. I really love his stuff though. He is a photographer that takes pictures of people and then of mountains and other things and mashes them together. I love the details you can get in a photograph as well as this carefully and brilliantly placement of to pictures together to make one.

Gustav Klimt- "The Kiss". Klimt was an amazing painter that used really cool shapes, patterns, and color together.

Andy Warhol- This guy was kind of crazy, but kind or really awesome. I love the processes he used. Screen printing and other things. He was an artists really interested in getting people to think. I really like that about him.

Andrew Beck- Andrew was actually a friend of mine from High School and has gone on to be a graphic designer in Amsterdam. I really admire his fun style. He has great use of curves mixed with straights. He was wonderful textures and colors. I also really love how his images tell a story.

James Christensen! He made it on both lists. When I made this second collage I was looking at some of his more realistic work, but I still love him because he knows how to really paint!

James Nachtwey- James is a photographer that travels to distant lands and takes pictures that really move you. A lot of his work is done where there has been a war and sometimes right there in the gun fire. I really admire him for his work, but I could never do it because I value being with my wife and living more.

Zander Olsen- I think I may have found this guy on Pinterest too. He is an artist that makes installations out in nature. Doing this takes time, patience, planning and a really good eye for artistic things. He does it really well.

Bottocelli- This artist is an oldie but a goodie. He has some really fun repeating patterns in his paintings and was really good at controlling his colors and lines. I really admired his art when I learned about him in art history.

Ansel Adams- What a photographer! Great black and white images that are simply put, epic!

Andy Goldsworthy- Antoher Nature installation creator. This guy is based out of England I think and just puts tons of time, thought and planning into his images. I really like his stuff.

Jonathan Harris- Is a photographer I learned about while in collage. He travels to far away lands and takes some really cool pictures that tell some awesome stories.

Levi Jackson- Another High School friend. He is doing the installation projects with nature and it is really cool to see someone I know doing that sort of thing.

JC Leyendecker- I love this guys straight strokes! An incredible illustrator that I also learned about while in school. He painted at the same time as Norman Rockwell and even inspired Norman to become who he was. JC always painted from life and did an amazing job.


If you have read all of this I am super proud of you! I hope you enjoyed this post! I am sorry I have been missing this blog. I have been working on my final show for BYU and had some other projects come up as well. I will be posting my Senior project as well as hopefully getting back to posting twice a week. I am thinking that posts will go up every Tuesday and Thursday. So if it is Tuesday you should check the blog for something new and if it is Thursday there will be something new as well.
If you check on Saturday there might not be anything new... Unless you haven't checked since Thursday.

Thanks for Reading.