In response to Robert Genn's "Love your Name"

I've had my share of names in this life time. When I started painting I was Weisel. Weisel quickly turned into Weisel-Keisser then just Keisser. Then I moved on to Keisser-Jirik which became Jirik. I took a break from painting, but not name changing. I was glad to skip that next name and go directly into Jirik-Guichu. Alas I have settled permanently on Guichu. My husband is real happy about that, too. There was a time between Jirik and Guichu when I seriously considered changing to O'Malley. I hadn't ever met an O'Malley so I thought it would be safe - thankfully I didn't. I would have ended up with Jirik-O'Malley-Guichu, or maybe Weisel-Keisser-Jirik-O'Malley-Guichu. Talk about an identity crisis. My advise to all female painters is to pick a name and stick with it. Collectors will take you more seriously and your personal life won't be plastered all over your artwork.

2nd Day of my New Year

Today I want to talk about "BE BACKS". A lot of you artists have probably evolved from the weekend fine art shows to dealing only with galleries, but you must be able to remember the "BE BACKS".

In Early December my "FOR SURE" customer said he wouldn't have money for the painting he was buying from me until after December 31st. Okay, my first reaction was, Hum Bug, there goes Christmas. It hadn't flashed at me yet. I still had it in my desperate 'I need that sale' mind set that after Dec. 31st meant January 1, 2009. A few days passed and it hit me. He may be a "BE BACK" kind of guy. (Did you catch that 'may be'? I'm still holding out hope.) I mean really, what does after Dec. 31st really mean? Does it mean January 1st or April 16th or August 21st, 2054?

It wasn't that long ago, (well about 15 years, but who's counting) when I was sitting in a park with my easy-up and paintings taking a tally of how many BE BACKS I had talked to that day. All of the artists would get together at the end of the day and compare lists. I guess you had to be there. It was fun. I would want to say, "when will you be back?" Five minutes, three hours, tomorrow, NEVER!

I had such a tremendous day yesterday. So many incredibly cool people have joined me on Twitter. So I took inventory. Instead of stressing over my BE BACK I can slip over and listen to Mike Dooley, founder of TUT.com remind me that my thoughts become things. Just listening to him makes me driven to think January 1st, 2009 not 2054. After I center my positive thought process I can jump right back into Alyson Standfield's book "I'd Rather be in the Studio". Then I'll go to MCHammer's site and listen to poetic music while I paint.

It's going to be another great day. You have one, too.

Comment on Robert Genn's "Channeling Negative Energy" Dec.12, 2008

Getting together with family isn't my most anticipated endeavor. I'm the one in my family who always wants to make nice. But during the holidays I'm put to the test. Two years ago I did a painting between Thanksgiving and Christmas. My husband finally begged me to take it down. He felt so much anger coming from it that it was distracting and depressing to him. I tried everything I could to cheer it up, but the drama just wouldn't go away. Gesso was my only option. I do think that stress and conflict can produce some powerful work. Perhaps, for many of us, painting is our way of escaping reality. During times of high stress, the strength that it takes to shed it comes out in our work.

Art Jury Competition

One Step Up From Third was accepted into the Fall/Winter 2008 show.

Today is the beginning of my New Year. I'm a bit early, but I have to get started. I've decided to create boundaries this year. I'm setting aside 4 hours a day for art. No phone calls or interruptions will be allowed except emergencies which will come through on my cell phone. That's an easy one since only four family members have that number and I have told them of my plans so they know not to use it unless it is a dire emergency. That will be up for interpretation I'm sure.

This sounds harsh to those around me, but it's more of an exercise for me. I need the discipline of not answering the phone. I need to concentrate on building my business of art. Whether it involves reading other art blogs, working on my website, studying the business of promotion or painting, I will be doing it between 11am and 3pm, Monday through Friday every week this year. I will leave open the days I clean my parents house and I'm sure there will be some days I will need to go there to fit things. But I will try to make it before 11am or after 3pm.

It has occurred to me that I've been full of excuses to insure my failure. I tell myself that I must be there for my parents. Both of them have health issues. Then there are my grandchildren that I love and am happily responsible for 4 out of the 5 school days and nights each week. They need me to collect them from school and give them my attention. I can't leave out my husband who has a tendency to call me 4 or 5 times a day and I do have friends that need to tell me all their problems, too. Boundaries. That's the ticket. If I can do it so can they. There's going to be a bit of an adjustment period, but I'll let you know how it goes. I'm optimistic that all of us can make it through.

Negative interaction brings my creativity to a screeching halt. If I can discipline myself to not allow negativity or any interference into my life for 4 itty bitty hours a day I can only imagine how much I will be able to accomplish toward my goals.

Happy beginning of 2009 to all of you. Let me know what your goals are and we can all help each other sit up straight and get on with it.

Figures in my painting

I've been struggling with this idea for months now. It has been on my mind so strongly that what was to be a draped cloth ended up looking like a business suit with an invisible person inside. I'm an abstract painter. I absolutely love looking at your landscapes. I've tried to do a peaceful, serene, warm landscape, but it's not in me. I end up with odd shapes and lots of color. Even with what I do, I still wonder if I should place a person inside my fantasy. Perhaps someone struggling to climb that purple-striped mountaintop. I promised myself this week I would walk past my fear. I would venture into the 'what if I ruin my painting' fear and climb over that peak into the unknown. You have given me a challenge now. The painting I'm working on has a place for a figure to assist in telling my story. I hope I make you proud.

In Response to "Finding the right Gallery"

Your points are well stated. I've tried my best to paint to sell, but I find that the passion just isn't there if you are laying out paint with the vision of dollar bills blocking your creativity. Don't get me wrong, I'm in it for the money just like the rest of us. How else can we justify and finance what we love to do. But, I've known artists that stay or in my perception become stagnet because they have found what sells. Being true to your own style or signature isn't the same as staying with one look. That's the pinch. Doing art for the love of it and loving yourself enough to lose the fear of never selling it.

AJAS Juried Art Show

Jurists and staff of the American Juried Art Salon congratulate you. Your art that has been accepted into our 2008 Spring/Summer national juried show is 'Mist in the Horizon'.

New work

Check out my new paintings

Mist in the Horizon www.peggyguichu.com/works/186905
Ladder www.peggyguichu.com/works/186902

Paintings sold

I'm happy to announce that I sold 6 oils last week. Red Mountain, Graffiti I & II, Living Earth, Catamaran and Heat. Thank you Gina, owner of Kay-Lochausen Fine Art Gallery in El Paso, TX.

What My Art Means To Me

Creating my paintings is like composing music. I start with a chorus of colors, a stroke of the brush, and let the images tune in as the composition begins. Always trying new color combinations, wanting more than I’m capable of producing visually. Chasing that color spectrum from another world or place I went to, but couldn’t bring back. I want to break the rules and prove I’m right. And when it gets really terrifying to go any further I stop. Now is the time to listen with my eyes. I start turning it from one side to the other. One of the angles will reveal itself. I know there’s a message in there somewhere. I just have to keep turning it, working it and eventually I’ll find it. And when I do find it I fall in love. The love makes me work even more delicately, more meticulously. I’m fearful that I’ll blemish it. When the last brush stroke has been played I will hang it in the most visible place in my house and let it sing to me. I know that selling my work is what I’m supposed to be working towards, but the emotion of letting it go is sometimes overwhelming. I still feel sad when I think of my ‘Egret’ I sold 15 years ago. I miss him. I just sold ‘Red Mountain’ and I seriously feel as if I’ve lost something so precious to me. I cried when I left my watercolors at Jezebel’s Gallery knowing that I would never see them again. Some tell me to just paint another one, but they don’t understand. I will never be able to recreate ‘Red Mountain’ or ‘Searching for the Source’. They hold my secrets and their colors resonate a feeling of love to me. It must have something to do with the exchange of energies. My wish is that those that buy my paintings will have the same connection as I do. See the magic, hear the symphony , allow the light to reveal the secrets of my soul.

Offering Encouragement

That is a very important point. The other point you brought to mind is to be sure that the advise you are giving is thoughtful. In other words, when a friend comes to you and asks, "Should I quit my day job and pursue my art career?" It would be very easy to say yes. It's likely that's the response your friend is looking for or why the question? So you say YES and he/she loses everything from the loss of income. Even a good friend may resent your advise. What I'm trying to say here is be careful with encouragement. We all know how hard it is to make it in the art world. By making it I mean making the rent each month on art sales. No one wants to discourage another artist, either. My husband reminds me constantly that most people don't and aren't prepare for truth. I still believe it is the best way to go. Tell the truth as you see it with your heart completely opened and your love large enough to lose for the risk of offering it.

Here are few words of wisdom from an old broad:

Judge no one
Listen to everyone at every opportunity you're given
Be authentic
Know that there is only love and fear in this world
Choose love

In response to Robert Genn's Reflexive Relaxology in The Painter's Key

One of my previous husbands was married previously to a lady obsessed by her father. She had been working on his portrait for over 10 years. That's a bit of mental disfunction if you ask me. I should have asked her prior to marrying her ex-husband. It could have been transference. Seriously, there's something almost sexual about listening to a southern man drawl his way through a story. I can surely pick out the art of a home born southerner by the languid brush strokes of their paintings. It's just luscious. On the other hand, I'm a fast paced Californian who is always asked to slow down so others can catch up. In the last month I completed 3 very large oils and I have 6 oils in different stages of completeness with 2 watercolors in the wings. My self analyses of that is that I'm going through a period of indecision. I think it's important to begin and complete a piece of work before you start on another. It feels like I've been interrupted before I finished my sentence. Perhaps this is a time of change or growth for me. I could just be stuck. Maybe too much going on in my personal life that distracts my attention. It could just be this time of year. I'm sure I need to slow down and breathe. Sit back and listen to my paintings. Light a candle and fantasize about laying out in a small canoe on a slow moving body of water with the sun seeping deep into my soul. That's where I'll discover my best work. That's where I can finish my sentence. There's a place for speed, but I find that in today's world we don't have to simulate it. Speed pushes us every single minute of every day to hurry up and finish whatever it is we are doing at the time. I crave the slow sensual drawl of a meticulous, thought provoked moment transferred onto canvas for all the world to enjoy. Here's looking at you kid.

In Response to Robert Genn's post on The Painter's Key

Didn't you find it fascinating and shocking how many thoughts ran through your mind at the moment that you realized your painting was stolen? The feeling of not understanding what you aren't seeing, the sadness, then anger and finally followed by the feeling of being violated were probably felt in less than 2 or 3 seconds. Several years ago, I had just moved into a cabin in the woods and had to leave quickly for an emergency surgery. While I was away the water pipes froze and broke completely flooding my garage. I didn't find out until I arrived home 2 weeks later. In the garage were boxes I hadn't moved inside yet filled with my watercolor paintings. All of them stained by the water. I wasn't supposed to do any lifting so a friend of mine came over and cleaned it all up for me. He said all the paintings had been destroyed and he had thrown them away. Several months later I visited him and there, tucked behind a piece of furniture in the corner of his living room was a pile of my paintings. When I asked what possessed him to take my paintings his response was that he didn't think I would care because they were damaged and if I ever became famous he would have something valuable. I took my damaged paintings back home, made a big bonfire fire behind my cabin and slowly burned them. Needless to say, the friendship didn't recover from the fire, either. If he had asked me, I would have given him the paintings, but he violated me in a very profound way.

Play the Game

In the 'Legend of Bagger Vance', Bagger says the game can't be won, the game is only to be played. Those words took me inside myself so deeply that everything stopped. What a concept. I'd never considered not working for the win. But if you take the win out of the game all that's left is the pure joy of playing. I'm a very competitive person so the concept is difficult for me, but I truly believe it's necessary in order to focus on the art and not the sale. I use that phrase as an affirmation to remind myself that I still have a game to play. A game that I can get better at and a game that never ends until I do. The other phrase that comes to mind in times of questioning is, "There is only love and fear." Like most I tend to notice and react to the fear more than I recognize the love, but I'm working on it. This is the year I have committed to moving forward in my art career. I understand now that I can't win the game, but I can give it everything I've got. Dealing with the only options that I have of love or fear breaks it down to a simplier, more compact playing field. It's just nice to know there are so many other deserving participants out there playing the game with me.