Stopping

Trust that as an artist there are many times that you must stop. By stopping, you end something, and simultaneously begin something new. By stopping you say no more to sitting down, and you begin your creative work. You end a relationship. You start a new one. You finish a project. You pick up another. Life is always going at a fast pace. In order to create, to find your own voice, at some point, you have to know how to stop.

Often times, we have a negative association with "stopping." We think "red lights." Danger. Stagnant. An End. Or that we're quitting (and quitting is "BAD"). But without "stopping" we don't know that we need to quiet the everyday chatter and begin our creative work. We don't know how to put down the day job and pick up our art. Or to let go of the things that are hindering us from what we really want to do.

Stopping is like saying "no." No more compromises with our time and art. No more negative thoughts and procrastination. No more mindless existence.

What are things in your life that you need to stop? What are projects you need to complete and end? What are the jobs, housing, hobbies, activities, projects, or time-intensive activities that you need to stop?

Now breathe long and deep. Conscious of every breath. And STOP. Can you hear your own voice now?

Winter Cleaning

While we know it's still technically winter (and gosh, the weather most definitely agrees), we decided that we needed to do a major clean of our studio/apartment. While we are not super tidy people, there gets a point where clutter, reclaimed art supplies that were never used, and various other things make it difficult to work.

We actually believe that your workspace should fit your own working styles and levels of tidiness - if you're a super neat person, then keep your space that way. If you aren't, then let those paint spots go uncleaned and do your thing. While we don't believe it's necessary to keep a super-clean-white-glove-passing workspace, we do believe in cleaning house once and a while in order to allow for more work and new inspiration to move in.

Going through piles of sketches and preliminary drafts, even stacks of finished paintings, can be very interesting. We actually found some fairly old drawings, and it was interesting (and reassuring) to see how far we've come since we first started pursuing art seriously. While some of our old work we're definitely going to keep, we've also made the decision to recycle a lot of it.

If you end up hanging onto your old work, it's hard to move past it. There is a definite fear that perhaps you might never never do a sketch that good again, or that you really did a great job getting a likeness down. However, as an artist you should always be looking forward, and you should strive for having your best painting always being the next one you're working on.

By cleaning out a lot of older work, you're making both physical and emotional space to create more. Besides the physical constraints of not having all that much space to paint new things (or to store finished paintings), if you still are holding onto a lot of old work, you're going to have a hard time to move on and really let yourself go in your next work.

Monkey + Seal will also be having a sort of house-cleaning super sale on a lot of their old studies and paintings from years ago later in February. Don't get us wrong, we love these paintings and some we would love to keep, we just don't have enough space for new ones. This is probably one of the rare chances to score original Monkey or Seal paintings at an affordable price. Stay tuned and we'll definitely keep you updated!

Anyone else doing some winter/spring cleaning? How do you keep your workspace fresh?

9/11 Heartbreaker

We were approached a while ago to do a review of a comic called "9/11 Heartbreaker" and while we read it a while back, we finally got around to writing out all of our thoughts.

9/11 Heartbreaker, by Craig Staufenberg is quite the poignant read. We think that it's more of an illustrated novella rather than a graphic novel (as it's can lean a bit text heavy), but the storytelling is the strongest part of the comic, so no worries there. Bouncing around in time, the comic reads as a collection of memories and they way historic events have tremendous reverberations generations later.

The style of the art fits in with the conversational tone of the piece, and the book, in a very Tomine-like style of storytelling, leaves you with a quiet sense of reflection and hope. It was an enjoyable read, offering a very personal look into the way that 9/11 has affected us as a nation. There are also great parallels to other historical events, as well as a haunting look into the current state of the country in the midst of an economic recession.

Our biggest criticism of the book was that we wished it was longer as at times the integration of text and image could have been stronger, and the book would have only been made stronger by lengthening the book and adding even more storytelling frames. Also, the handwritten text, while adding to the charm of the book, can be a bit hard to read at times.

The book is available via physical copy as well as a pdf download, and for $2.99, it's definitely worth a quick download. Check out out at the author's site www.memoryisfiction.com (scroll to the bottom to order!).

Take a Step Forward

Here at Monkey + Seal, we think we're off to a pretty good start for 2011. We just published two free guides to help other artists sell their art, and bum-ba-da-dum! We're here to announce that a full course on how to start selling your art is in the works. It'll be at least a few months worth of materials, advice, how-to's, worksheets, and more, starting from the very beginning, assuming that you're starting from scratch.

Anyhoo, we just wanted to take a bit of time to talk about the necessity of moving forward. Often, we think to ourselves "Only if X was true, we could do Y." But in reality, we are probably making excuses for ourselves.

Sometimes the "X" seems like it's something that we could never get. Whether it's a million dollars, or job security, or more free time, or feeling less tired after work, we always seem to talk ourselves into thinking that there will be a better time to do something. "If only I could save enough to quit my job for a few months, I could finish my portfolio." "If only I had more energy after work, I could work on my art." Phooey, we say.

Like we've said before, it all comes down to a matter of priority. If money is in the way, then I suggest you take a good hard look at your budget. How much do you spend on coffee, or eating out or on drinks? If a lack of energy is your issue, what sort of behaviors (like staying up late, or going out to party) could you cut out so you'd get more rest?

Often at Monkey's retail job, when he starts talking about the opportunity for people to take workshops, if they aren't interested, they usually give the excuse "I don't have enough time." Well, while this may be true for some people, Monkey seriously doubts it. How many hours do you spend on facebook, or watching TV, or playing video games? How many movies do you watch? The truth is not that they don't have enough time for workshops, but that they choose not to make time for workshops.

One thing to note is that while we highly endorse prioritizing your art (that's what we're here for, after all), we understand and recognize the need for a life as well. Sometimes you need that coffee, or need to take a break and spend an hour (or two) playing video games. We just hope that if you're really in pursuit of a more artistic life that you learn to strike more a balance between your art, other fun stuff, and the stuff that pays the rent.

That said, when you're going to sit down to work on your art, how many times do you let something (a phone call, or a text message, any sort of interruption, really) distract you? Now think about when you're hanging out with your best friend or you're on a date (an enjoyable one, that is), how often do you let something interrupt you in the same way? Chances are, not as often. While we don't endorse necessarily putting your art over the rest of your life, we do want you to analyze your priorities.

It is an amazing human quality to be able to somehow find a way to make things happen if you really want them to. If you can see your dream in front of you, all you have to do is take that first step, and you'll start setting things in motion that will make it easier for you to progress.

If you start managing your priorities today, you'll start to rewire your brain in order to make new habits and new routines that will be more conducive to your art. And if you think it's too late, you're wrong - it's never too late. It'll just be later.

Let us put it this way. If we could guarantee that if you worked hard for 5-7 years to chase your dream you would get it, would you start today, or wait a few years? You always need to start sometime, so why not today?

Happy Year of the Rabbit: Certainly a Friend of Monkey + Seal!

Hi Everyone!

Thank you again for another awesome year with us. We’re so happy to have a humble rooftop above us, brushes and canvas to paint with, and a tomorrow to look forward to. We hope you were able to reflect on your year with plenty of gratitude, forgiveness, lessons learned, re-commitments, and more space for a creative and adventurous life.

Here at Monkey + Seal, we have so many things to be grateful for over the past year. Through generous gifts, support, and chance meetings, we were both able to finish art school. We produced two successful gallery shows “Out of Place” and “Alienation.” (There have been talks for potentially a third show). We’ve both been individually scouted and booked for a collaborative show this June! Through all your wonderful responses, we’ve been able to blog three times a week and share our love of art, grow from one show a year to almost one every month, and offer more free guides to empower artists into making a living with their art. We’ve also ventured into our love of screen-printing and created some fun Tshirts. (We hope you like them too). Thank you to everyone who purchased our charity Tshirts, we’re very proud to announce that with your help, we were able to donate a subsequent amount to La Casa de La Madres, whose dedicated and constant work is to offer shelter, advocacy, and support services to battered women and their children.

Thank you dear old and new friends alike. We hope you’ll be along with us for the next phase of our adventures! This year, we’re looking to make a grand entrance in out-of-state art shows, publish a Monkey+Seal book, and perhaps dabble more into our love for animation. (Monkey also said he would take a dance class with Seal).

We would also like to always thank our readers and we hope to empower more artists to pursue their dreams by offering local workshops, words of wisdom, more free guides, and a more personal inner glimpse into our lives as working artists.

It’ll be a festive year! Without further a do:

Workshops in January

This January, we’ll both be teaching workshops at Big Umbrella Studios. To see the workshop schedule, please click here. Come spend time with us. It is our mission to make the classes affordable and a small teacher to student ratio. We’re very excited to see you flourish in your art whether through our class on with your own projects.

Free Guides

To start off the New Years, we’re giving out presents in the form of free guides. We're big advocates of artists in getting their art our there. Want to know how? You can download "The Psychology of Sales" and "7 Tips to Better Customer Service (for Craftspeople)." You can download the guides for free here!

Upcoming Monkey+Seal Shows

• Monkey (Rick Kitagawa) will be in a show in early March alongside with Grant Gilliland at Big Umbrella Studios. They'll be bringing the beasts back in their show "Bestiarum vocabulum."
• In June, both Monkey+Seal will be doing a collaborative split showat Oz Gallery in the Mission. Final dates TBA.

What are your goals for this year? What new horizons will you explore? What new heights will you reach?

“Unless you make the decision that things will be different, they most decidedly won’t be. This decision comes from a sense of hope and eagerness, and is centered in certainty that what you want is not only possible, not only probable, but inevitable.”

– Deanna Davis

2011 is Your Year!

As 2010 comes to a close, Monkey and Seal would like to thank everyone for their readership, for supporting us as we grow, and for being with us on our creative journey. We'll be taking a holiday break and resuming blog posts on January 5th, 2011. In the meantime, we'd like to encourage everyone to take a reflective moment to think back on this year and start up the new year with a bang!

It's a good habit to access: think about what you did well, what could be improved upon, and what you hope and dream for the future. Are you living the creative life you were meant to and deserved to live? What were some of your artistic triumphs? What are concrete changes and steps you can make even now, to clear up more space and time for your art? and the dreams you had long since held and yet to manifest? If you were the person you were meant to be in the most ideal environment and person, what would you accomplish? Now how can you get there, with what you have?

Start as you are now. Wherever you are, with whatever you are feeling, and who you are now. Begin it now.

We are hesitant only because in the past we have broken so many resolutions and promises. That unfinished project, the unused clothes rotting away in the closet, that weight loss program we failed to stick to, that job we failed to go after. The mere thought of planning brings about shame and disappointments. But let us tell you a little secret: human beings since the beginning of time are biologically geared to inaction. It is natural to do nothing, rather than create, or exercise, or get up and do things. We like our cave, we survive in the cave. But this is all the more reason for why we need plans. We need resolution. We need re-commitments.

Make the choice right now, at this very moment to re-commit to an adventurous life.

The other secret to resolutions and planning, is that life is an ocean. As a navigator who charts your path in life, you constantly need to re-assess and adjust to the waves and changes in weather. Sure, you got off track with that "blank," (job, project, relationship, program, etc.) but simply, without any drama, get out your compass, find your course, and adjust your sails to put yourself back on track. The resolutions that fail are the ones that are rigid and unforgiving. It'd be easier to take small steps and allow for some slips, rather than charging and having an inflexible plan.

We know that taking action is scary - what if we fail? What if something goes amiss? Well, two things to keep in mind are 1)How bad can it really be if you fail, and 2)Failure is what success are born out of. Most empires aren't built on their first try. Rowland Hussey Macy (of Macy's the department store fame), started four stores which all failed before getting it right with what would eventually come to be a department store empire boasting over 800 stores across the nation. Even Abraham Lincoln ended up failing twice at a run for Senate before he managed to get elected as the President who would lead the country through the Civil War and oh, just completely end slavery in the United States.

Fear is natural and healthy (especially if you're being chased by wolverines), but as paralyzing as it can be at times, we need to learn to dissolve it and choose to take action. As much as we hope we inspire you with our blog and our workshops, we can't drag you out of your cave and make you create. We can't force you to apply for that job, or watch over you while you paint. All we can do is invite you to take the next step with us and commit to action. 2011 can be your year, so take hold of it and let's create something wonderful together!

Monkey + Seal are planning on bringing more guides, more workshops, and more cool stuff in 2011, and we'd like you to be right there along with us. So take a break (or two), spend some time with people you like, and we'll see you bright and early in the next year!

Making Your Stop-Doing List

While we all have our daily "to-do" lists, we sometimes advocate that people should come up with a "stop-doing" list. Just as important as getting the important work done is weaning oneself off of bad habits and reprogramming your brain to follow more productive habits.

While the occasional jaunt down the information superhighway is just fine and dandy, and thanks to Google a lot of reference is just a click away (although if at all possible, we recommend using your own reference), spending hours playing Zuma Blitz (*cough Monkey cough*) doesn't do anyone any good.

While we totally support fun little breaks and the like, we just want to address any major bad habits - and nowadays, many of these habits end up in the form of constant Facebook browsing or randomly selecting wikipedia articles to read.

Creating a stop-doing list is a good way to honestly evaluate what sort of behaviors and habits aren't working for you. If you're doing well and you're finding time to get everything done, then great. But if you aren't, it may be wise to evaluate how much time you're really putting into your work and how much time you're putting into reading Gawker or the Onion.

If you aren't sure what needs to go onto your Stop-Doing list, perhaps you should try to take notes on your day. How much time are you REALLY spending on your painting? How much time are you spending on marketing? Playing video games? Watching TV? Once you start taking notes of when you start and stop doing things, the picture becomes a lot clearer, especially when you figure out that your break has lasted for an hour and a half.

If you're doing everything that you want to be doing, maybe try making a Do-Less-Of list instead. That way you can more properly realign your priorities. Maybe take the comic book reading down from an hour to fifteen minutes a day. Maybe take out watching that extra TV show that you watch just because it's after your favorite crime drama. That's an extra hour and a half that you could spend working.

Alternatively, if you're hustling non-stop, maybe you might need to take it down a notch so you can actually enjoy life. Instead of spending that extra fifteen minutes writing an extra blog post, you could spend that time catching up with a friend.

We're not productivity fascists that want you to overwork yourself. The main point about budgeting your time and making evaluations about what you're spending your time on is to really think about what is necessary and focus on that. Whether you're overworked or overplayed, finding the right balance in your life is what it's all about.