I am super excited that our annual SPARK Program starts this coming week! It is a 21day program designed to start or reenergize your artmaking. In the program, everyone makes their own SparkBook, so today, I thought I would share mine with you, along with a very cool idea about artmaking. I think you might find it helpful in evaluating your art.

In looking at the pages in my SparkBook, I noticed there are only two things often at play. One is the formal elements such as color, design, and even subject matter. It is all the things you think about as you make the art. I categorize this as all the information. The other category is everything that happens when you're not thinking so much, such as that spontaneous flow of color and markmaking. Often these are the "happy accidents" that occur along the way. I think of all of these as intuition. I see my strongest work is not dominated by just one of these but instead has a balance of both. It is easy to let information crowd out intuition or vice versa. But, again, you need a balance of both, and when you have it, the work looks richer.

Understanding this balance of thinking and letting go, can give you a new way to evaluate, change, and improve your art.

Do you look for this balance in your work?
Let us know in the comments.

Also, in a few hours at 12pm PDT TODAY, I will be doing a special live presentation all about how to get going in your art. I will be giving some art instruction and answering a few questions at the end about SPARK for those considering joining us this year.

I hope you can join me LIVE TODAY at 12pm PDT right here on our YouTube channel.

Super excited!
Nicholas Wilton

PS Here is the link to find out more about SPARK.
www.sparkartlife.com