AI-generated image of a Cezanne-style painting

I don't know. Do you?

There's a part of me that's uneasy. No one likes the idea of being replaced.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about imagination. I've often wondered if there is a difference between creativity and imagination and what the relationship is.

"What was that? Where was I? What did I see again?" were my thoughts as I woke up for the umpteenth time that night. It was just before Thanksgiving and I kept having these dreams that wouldn't leave me. So as is my habit, I grabbed my sketchbook and began doodling furiously in the middle of the night trying to capture those images. And all I can hear is David Bowie singing in the background.

Sailors' Moon, the 31 in 31 Collection

Lately, the concepts of success and failure have been much on my mind.

"Hurry up and fail already, would ya?!" said no one ever. We're constantly pushed to succeed, put on our best game face, and get out there and win! What does that mean in the art world?

What happens to you whenever you look at a piece of art and say to yourself, "I've gotta have that." Why?

What made you decide you had to have "it"?

I've got a few ideas — will you explore them with me?

Thumbnail sketch for Whale Watching (The 31 in 31 Collection)

Do you find yourself repeatedly re-learning lessons you thought you already had nailed? Congrats if you're past that. Me? Well, I guess I'm still having to re-learn a few things about myself.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Eisenhower's quadrant of Important vs Urgent that Steven Covey popularized back in the '70s. The concept is that we waste time on unimportant tasks (regardless of urgency) vs. addressing the important tasks whether urgent or not. 

All my life I have battled with this. In high tech and marketing, sorting this out was much easier for me than what I face today.

In my world of fine art, being "original" is the holy grail, that which every artist seeks to be. It's what collectors crave, and what we humans see as rare and precious. But what is originality? And what does that mean in a digital world?

Most of the time people assume that when I say I'm "playing" in my art studio, they get this vision of me tossing paint onto canvas à la Jackson Pollock, getting paint everywhere and on everything. And I can understand where that perception comes from — Hollywood abounds in a myriad of artistic stereotypes: 

And it feels great! 

You see, every time I walk into an art supply store (or my "candy" store), I drool over all these exotic handmade papers from Thailand, India, and China. I had fallen in love with papyrus while I was in Egypt and I've been fascinated by paper-making processes ever since.

Long on my bucket list, Ghost Ranch was beyond my wildest expectations. No wonder Georgia O'Keeffe spent more than 40 years here. Every where you turn, you simply can't believe what you're seeing. In fact, back in the 1930's, nobody believed that O'Keeffe's paintings depicted the true colors of New Mexico. But then, almost no one from New York had ever visited there, including her famous photographer husband,  Alfred Stieglitz.

Hope, 12" h x 16" w, original soft pastel painting

Great question. And one to which I didn't have the answer for a long, long, long time. You see, I didn't think I was a creative person. I just did stuff. Doesn't everyone? So when I started painting, and investing in education and materials to do it well, I thought it was a frivolous pursuit. I couldn't have been more wrong.

One of the many things I have been struggling with since I've been painting full time is coming to grips with WHY do I feel compelled to paint. 

Most artists will give you an answer that sounds something like "I don't know how NOT to create." And that led me to a path I needed to follow.

Many collectors often ask me how do I pick the colors I use and why? In some of my painting videos you will often see me making a mark on a piece of paper off to the right of the paper. So what is this ugly piece of paper that's all marked up and why is it so important?

Sea & Cliffs, Renoir | Roses, Van Gogh | Mountain Scene, Bierstadt 

Photos courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Choosing art to put in your home is sheer delight. Don't let price be the only factor in deciding what to put on your walls. There's more to art than that.

Starry Night Over the Rhône, September 1888, Musée d'Orsay

On July 21 I was fortunate to attend the Immersive Van Gogh* show in Charlotte, NC put on by @LighthouseInteractive. Wow. WOW! It's taken me this long to recover emotionally and find the words to describe not just what I saw, but what I felt. Know this, if all I had were three words for you they would be — GO SEE IT! 

Watercolor painting in the "Art is in the Air" Event in Brevard, NC, June 2021

I returned from my trip to Florida in May feeling pretty rested and relaxed, when suddenly I was caught up in a whirlwind of preparation. I had two major events coming up: the "Art is in the Air" plein air event at the end of June and the Transylvania Art Guild's Summer Showcase in early July. I began to panic because they were literally back-to-back.

"Art is in the Air" Plein Air Event, Transylvania Times, June 27, 2021

What a surprise! During the weekend painting event, all sorts of folks were taking photos of the 24 artists as we painted throughout Brevard, NC's downtown area. The event was put on by the Heart of Brevard (the local business downtown association) and the Transylvania Arts Council. Never did I ever expect to see a photo of me in the paper, but there I am!

Photo courtesy of Frick Art Reference Library


I was speaking with my dear friend Michèle this past weekend about libraries and librarians, and it reminded me when I worked at the Frick Art Reference Library (FARL) in New York City as a freshman in college. Then I happened across this article in The New Yorker "When a Museum Feels Like Home." "OK," I muttered to myself, "Can't ignore this any longer — there's a story in here somewhere."

For those of you unfamiliar with the Frick Museum in Manhattan, it was built by Henry Clay Frick, the founder and former chair of US Steel (not exactly the nicest guy in the world by our standards today).

"Oh no!" wailed Mom, throwing up her hands, "Oh my God! This is a disaster."
 

Typical words we would hear from my mother just about every day. Mom was a tad OCD ... she needed everything clean, precise, and in the right place.

When I first picked up creating art again after a 30-year hiatus, my inclination was to follow what I was most curious about. When I was young, and studying with Papa or the brilliant instructors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum of Art (among others), I had been "stuck" with using 2HB drawing pencils, charcoal, and if I was really lucky — I got to use colored pencils and acrylic paint. All of which I came to despise.  [Read on ...]

Most artists experience the ups and downs of creativity. It is an inevitable cycle and although you know it happens from time to time, sometimes it hits you without warning. Sometimes it comes on you gradually. For me, I had been struggling for awhile back in early 2017, but I didn't realize how much I was having difficulty. I chalked it up to being pressured with running my digital marketing agency and not having enough mental space to pursue my art. 

​Clouds Over Monterey by Mary Planding (c) 2020 

Clouds Over Monterey was created based on a watercolor I had done years ago one very early morning. I had had a difficult time sleeping (unusual for me). So I gave it up and headed along the Monterey Bay until I found the perfect vantage point for watching the sun rise.

Back in the late '80s / early '90s I worked at Apple Computer in marketing. At one point, my manager assigned me to put together a highly confidential product briefing for Mitsubishi. At that time, John Sculley was CEO and he was extremely interested in creating a strategic alliance with Mitsubishi. Needless to say, this was a very visible assignment with lots of pressure. [Read on...]

Happy Holidays 2020 by Mary Planding (c) 2020

When I was very young, we were constantly changing homes. It was the era of "Mad Men" and as a creative director on Madison Avenue, Papa was caught in a constantly revolving industry door. One day he was working on an account at Agency A. Next day the account went to Agency C. If he was lucky, he got a job with Agency C working back on the same account Agency A lost. If he wasn't, he had to keep pounding the streets 'til he found something.

It was Christmas week '66, and I didn't have any school. And like most kids, I was hoping to stay up later than my usual bedtime of 8 pm. My parents' bedroom was next door to mine and I had to pass it to get to anywhere else in the house. Papa had just checked to see that I was in bed, and lights went out. I wasn't there long before I could hear their television in the next room. It was the iconic opening song for Star Trek.  [Read on...]

As we approach Thanksgiving Day in 2020, most of us are looking for ways to celebrate amidst the challenges we face with a lethal pandemic raging around us. Thanksgiving has always been my most favorite holiday because it's not about giving gifts. It's about surrounding ourselves with those we love, telling stories, laughing, playing, and breaking bread together. [Read on...]

(c) New York City Ballet

"Grandma — look, look! The tree is growing!" I squealed. It was December 1961, I was all of five years old and I simply couldn't contain myself. We were watching George Balanchine's The Nutcracker being performed by the New York City Ballet. 

Visual artists need to understand how the human eye sees so that they know why, how, and what to put on a 2D surface for you to enjoy. Now having said that, everyone also has their own preferences as a viewer (and an artist). It is these preferences, or "aesthetic" if you want to use a fancy term, that is reflected in the art that you enjoy, buy, or display in your personal space. [Read on...]

Winter Song 2 and Winter Song 1 by Mary Planding (c) 2020

"Why aren't the birds dead?" I asked my (now former) engineer-husband as we were driving along the road. "You see dozens of them sitting on those electrical wires, but they never get shocked, they never die."

Pumpkins Galore, (c) 2020 Mary Planding, All rights reserved.

Every October I can't help but smile. It's my favorite month and my favorite time of year — fall. I love the smell of falling leaves. I love their beautiful colors. I  love how the wind makes the leaves fly around and the sound they make as they land on the sidewalk. 

"Papa, closer please, closer," I cried. We were in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and going through the Monet exhibit "Seasons and Moments." It was the spring of 1960 and I simply couldn't get enough of Monet's paintings. 

The ocean is my first love. It's one of my earliest memories — riding on Papa's shoulders as he'd walk along the beach hand-in-hand with my mom. Every free moment my parents had from their busy lives was spent on the seashore or on the water in sailboats.