What Do Creative Poeple Look Like?

What makes us creative? Where does it come from? What are the differences between creative types and everyone else?

Introversion - appears to be most important for occupations and endeavours that require isolated work and thoughtful consideration. Typically, creative scientists and artists are introverted. Studies show, however, that commercial creatives (advertising, marketing, etc.,) tend to be extraverted. How can we explain these differences? The work of an artist or scientist will often involve long hours working independently (in the studio or the lab), such that a predisposition to favour solitude holds the creator in good stead


Neuroticism- appears to be particularly elevated in "artistic" domains. Such that poets, artists and designers are often more emotionally sensitive. Why?


The answer may be tracked back to the notion of what we consider art and artistic products to be "for". If we run with the idea that art "exists" in order to generate emotions in the viewer or recipient. Then... if artists are more emotionally sensitive, they are in a better position to understand emotion and convey it through their artistic products to evoke emotional responses in the beholder.

I find these things to so true in myself. And the source of numerous "issues" in my life. I find things very easy that involve art or spacial relationships. But more left brain activities I find puzzling or impossilble, like math or words.
 I think the reason I connect so well with horses is they are emotionally sensitive entities as well and I can communicate with them via movement or thought.

I am very curious if these things ring true with other artists as much as they do me. Please leave a comment with your opinion or experience.

Threes

I have noticed threes. I had three paintings sell this last week and I am currently in three treasuries. I don't think I've ever been in three treasuries at once.
    
Here is the Blue Treasury featuring Dreams of Flying.
This one is called Deep Water and it features Water Horse.
And the last is Moody Blues also featuring Dreams of Flying.

I also have three horses, but have decided to re-home one of them. The mustang I got for one of my grand daughters I have been trying to retrain for almost a year. He hadn't been ridden in a while when I got him and tossed his head. I had his teeth floated, changed bits and started him at groundwork like he didn't know anything. He is 16 sweet and beautiful.

In the arena he does great but take him out in the pasture and he falls apart, fights the bit and generally has a temper tantrum. I thought he was buddy sour. He has done better this spring so I had my hopes up. Terra, my other grand daughter rode with me on Missy and Paula came to ride her horse Dolly. We took them all out in the pasture and Flash was terrible. It was a constant fight and riding in little bitty circles to keep him from bolting back into the arena. Missy hadn't been ridden since fall and was perfect, same with Dolly. I fought with him for four hours.
I laid in bed that night and tried to figure out what else I could do with him to make improvements as he had been a pretty decent kid horse in his past. I ultimately decided I didn't want to work with him anymore. He was never gonna be the horse Haily wanted and I need to focus my training on my young paint Miami.

I am going to try to find him a good home and look for another horse for Haily.

Cobalt Blue Treasury

Dreams of Flying has been featured in this fabulous cobalt blue treasury.

I love, love , love this color blue. I use it often in my paintings. I had fun looking at these wonderful shops, all members of Design Style Guide.

You can check it out here.

A great big thank you to Christina over at Mashed Potato Mosaics.

And as always you can see Dreams of Flying and my other work at Lancaster Art.

The Virtual pARTy

The Virtual pARTty paintings for March were done from a lovely photo by Linda Shantz.This is the original photo and I must say although it is a beautiful photo I was not crazy about it as a reference source for a painting. I cropped it drastically but still stayed pretty close with the photo. I am not very pleased with the result and feel now if I would have veered farther away from the source or used a different medium it would have been a better painting.

My contribution is called "Hay?" and is a 4"x11" acrylic on canvas. While it is technically passable it just doesn't have any pizzaz. This will motivate me to push the limits a bit farther next round and see if I can do better. To see all the paintings done for this pARTy (and there are alot) check out the Virtual pARTy blog.
I have been working on some small watercolors I'll be posting in the next day or two so stay tuned.

Dichotomy

The dichotomy in my life is very obvious some days living here with the elderly parents and dealing with their rental property business.

Yesterday it was a meth lab. Yikes! The drug task force arrested a young couple who had been in this house just a couple of weeks with a nine month old baby. WTF are people thinking.

I spent the morning going into the contaminated house with the yellow sticker on the door and seeing the results of a small fire. I put up the eviction notice as they broke the drug policy in the rental agreement. Then I called the lawyer and tried to find out what are legal responsibilities are as far as clean up and decontamination, they didn't know. Next was the sheriff's office and DTF. I finally found out that the house had been released due to low contamination levels as it was a "one burner operation" as they called it, plus I guess they hadn't been there long. So it wasn't going to cost us $5,000 to get it cleaned up, whew. Next was the young woman's grand mother who was going to move her out as she is in jail. She was trying to get the baby out of foster care. This part was heartbreaking. I took her a key.

By this time it was after three and I still hadn't even started on what I planned to do plus I was stressed out

from all the drama. I take the rest of the day off.

I go to the barn and saddle my grand daughter's mustang Flash. I relaxed as soon as put my foot in the stirrup. We ride for almost two hours. I unsaddle Flash and groom the mares. As I brush off the piles of hair that fall to the ground I think about how the dichotomy in my life, the zen and the drama, remind me of this painting of Yin Yang Horses. Thank God for my horses.

Yin Yang horses is an 8x8  gallery wrap canvas available at Lancaster Art.

Heaven Bound

Heaven Bound

6x6

Available at Lancaster Art

This Spirit Horse started out being a palomino, at least that was my intention. The intention of the pony was lavender. Sometimes they just have a plan I am not aware of. So what can I do but go with the flow and be thankful there is one.

In real horse news I do not have a palomino or a lavender horse, but none the less they have me smiling

today.

I am still waiting for the lumber to finish the barn and have been called off to work on one of the family rent houses, laying tile floors. I didn't mind as it has been cold and windy.

Today the wind calmed and the sun warmed us up nicely. I took my grand daughter's mustang Flash out for a ride.

He is 

a very buddy sour horse . After having the winter off I had a plan and hoped for the best but prepared for a fight. Flash pleasantly surprised me with little fuss when I headed him out of the arena into the pasture. I took him as far as he was comfortable and a few steps farther before heading him back into the arena where Miami whinnied at him from the gate.(She was not helping.) Each time we left the arena he went farther. With out too much fighting the bit he ended up calmly walking half of the pasture. Tonka spooked him as we rounded one of the outbuildings and he jumped sideways. I kept my seat easily and he pulled himself together quickly.

I was pleased with his attention span and his try. It was probably because I told him if he would pull it together a behave for Haily he would only be ridden once or twice a month.

Miami seemed disappointed I didn't ride her today. It is a good thing she is looking forward to getting back to work. She is my green broke paint mare. She has new Old Mac boots we have to break in before I start riding her. So twenty minutes in the new boots tomorrow.

I wish I had some new boots.

Beauty And Whimsy Treasury

Dreams of Flying has been featured in this amazing treasury by Elizabeth Graf.

I am honored to be along side the beautiful works of art in this collection. Check it out here.

And for another treat check out Elizabeth's etsy shop here.

Re-homing Corky

I've been having some trouble with my dogs lately chasing my neighbor's baby donkeys. It is a very bad thing to have your dogs after someones livestock. I know I've had dogs coming up after my chickens, but Tonka has been able to keep them run off.

Corky would get the donkey chasing game started then Tonka would get in on it.

Corky came to me a year and a half ago after being abandoned at one of our rent houses with two puppies. She had obvious signs of abuse. I couldn't get her and the pups in a shelter so I brought them home. I gave the pups away and worked on training her as much as I could. She wiry and not very smart. The kick she took in the head from one of the horses nearly killed her and did nothing to improve her mental abilities. She switched from chasing horses to donkeys.

Tonka

Tonka is just a little over a year old and about ninety pounds. He is still an impressionable young boy. I have worried allot about her bad influence on him. She is not very obedient and he must be. He must also stay within the boundaries of the farm.

My daughter and grand daughter wanted a dog so it seemed a great idea to send Corky to live with them. She is somewhat trained and will make a better house pet than a farm dog. I have wanted to re home her but needed to know she would be well cared for and happy.

Tonka and I both miss her already but she will come back for 4 days every other week when Terra comes to stay with me.

He is more focused so his training should go better.

Dreams of Flying and Healthy Horses

Dreams of Flying

11 x 14

Available at Lancaster Art

I am having dreams of flying and riding but spending day after day working on the barn.

I got the grazing muzzles for the horses and they look and smell awful. Good as grazing muzzles go but awful to wear. The rubber disks at the bottom are the source of the horrid smell so strong I can smell them as they sit in here to get color coded for each of the five horses.

I wonder how much resistance I'll get from the herd.

Tomorrow I will be able close them all in to eat and get their grazing muzzles on before being let out to graze.

The pasture has started to turn green overnight after a early spring rain.

Spring grass can cause founder in horses. Some are more susceptible. Horses that have foundered before, (I have one of those) older horses (there are two over 25) and overweight horses (there is one). The other one, the paint Miami gets sunburned and will have to be in the barn all day.

Gee what a group.

This time of year worries me for good reason and motivates me to work like a mad woman to be able to have a little more control over the food intake of these ponies.

Last year I kept them in a dry lot and let them out for short periods gradually increasing time on the pasture. Not only was it a full time job of moving horses there were some that caught on and didn't want to play.

I may have unhappy horses, but hopefully heathy ones.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. - Martin Luther King Jr

New Prints of The Witching Hour

The Witching Hour

5" x 7" print available at Lancaster Art

I was so excited when I got to the post office today and the prints were there. I held my breath as I opened them. They are gorgeous! The colors and clarity are perfect. I popped one into a 5 x 7 frame and it was fabulous.

So many of my lovely followers and customers have asked for small prints of the Spirit Horse series. The Witching Hour is the first one.

The barn siding is almost done. I have run out of lumber long enough so on to framing up Flash's stall and putting up the fence for the small adjoining paddock. The weather contines to be perfect. It makes working outside a real pleasure.

Another Day In Paradise

Dark Moon

available at Lancaster Art

Missy has perked up in this mild weather and beautifully sunshine. It's great to watch her trot around and feel so good. It's got me feeling pretty good too.

I worked at the barn all day putting up siding. I made an effort to use my right hand to hammer. I am ambidextrous and can do most things with either hand although I usually use my left hand when I paint. I' m sure not good at hitting a nail though.

A couple of years back I got thrown by a horse and had a terrible landing. I broke my back and  left wrist. I had to have surgery and have the wrist pinned together. I guess I healed up pretty good. It doesn't bother me unless I pound nails more than three hours a day.

Today I made a conscious effort to use my right hand. You can tell which hand I used by looking at the boards. The ones with all the gouges in the wood around the nails was my right hand.

It went slower and I still had to start the nails left handed but I did manage to get through the whole day without my wrist getting sore.  I have many more days to practice improving my aim.

It's a huge project.

Horse and Barn Work

Spirit Dreamer

8x10

available at Lancaster Art

My barefoot trimmer came this morning to trim all five horses.

He had made such a huge difference in the health of my mares hooves. He is now doing my mustang and Paula's two horses that live here.

 Her 87 year old mother was sick so she couldn't be here, but I managed to catch both her horses for their pedicure.

My step bother went and fetched me a whole trailer load of  lumber for the barn siding. The weather is getting very nice with sunshine and the mid fifties for at least the next several days.

It feels so good to spend the day in the sun again.

Only a few more followers till one of those pretty little ponies up in the right corner gallop away to their new home. Yeehaw.

Signs of Spring

I was so excited to see the first flowers of the spring blooming I just had to share.

I live in northern Arkansas and know many of you are a lot farther north. Letting you now I am sending warm air and wishes up to y'all that are still dealing with snow and really cold weather.

For me now it's time to get back to working on the barn and getting an adjoining corral built for the horses before the spring grasses come up with a vengeance.

So more quality time with my hammer for me.