"How to Get Unstuck. Dealing with Creative Blocks"

This post is especially dedicated to the sweat dripping, hands wringing, nail biting, and eye tearing budding artists. Likewise, here is insight for the sleepy eyed old dog that refuses to learn new tricks.

If you ever asked, "how to get unstuck?” Well friends, this is how to deal with your creative blocks...

1. Turn off your television.

2. Set aside special time daily or weekly to create your art.

3. Set aside a special designated place to work, i.e. garage, attic, a drawing table, a place in your garden with a great view or any place where you can escape.

4. Get rid of idle web surfing. Make the Internet a tool, not an addictive drug.

5. Don't allow family, friends, associates and enemies to pull you away from making your art.

6. Find music that inspires you. "I love jazz!"

7. You must be willing to change your style. If you've been a plein-aire painter since Jacob was a pup, try something new. Paint an abstract or photo-realistic piece.

8. Find a mentor or coach.

9. Humble yourself. Follow the leadership of your mentor/coach.

10. Try a new medium. If you traditionally work in watercolor, try oils. You're a painter, but ceramics always fascinated you. Give ceramics a try.

11. Don't fear change. Read "Who Moved My Cheese."

12. Pray about it, and then get to work. God isn't going to paint the canvas for you. "Faith without works is dead."

13. Read art history.

14. Keep art journals containing your ideas, concepts, and sketches.

15. Don't allow the cost of art materials to justify not making art. There are student grade and low cost art supplies available. Also, if you sell your art pieces, you'll regain your initial investment.

16. Be disciplined and work faithfully. Eventually, you'll get excited and have lots of fun.

17. Have fun making art. If you look at it like a "job," you'll treat it like a job. You'll quit.

18. Fall in love with making art. No one should have to force you to do what you love.

19. Study children as they make art. They don't have too many rules. Kids are free spirits.

20. Don't be lazy. Most artists are lazy, so get up and get to work.

21. Don't allow your tattoos, piercings, colorful hair, drug usage, odd clothes and artist's lifestyle to represent you more than the art you create. Once again, get to work!

22. Find a favorite artist and copy their style. I promise you, you'll never be another Picasso, Rembrandt, or Norman Rockwell, but you'll be a better artist when it's all said and done.

23. Work in series, for example, Degas's ballerinas, Monet's haystacks, and Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Cans.

24. Visit museums, galleries, and art studios to gain inspiration.

25. Stop making excuses. "My cat had puppies." "If I had a studio like McRay, I'd paint." "One day when the world is at peace, I'll start drawing again." I know my examples are silly, but not far from the truth. I've heard excuses very close to those.


I hope this helps, McRay

"Creative Blocks?"

I've been asked many times, "Do you get creative blocks"? My response, is “no”. I may not have enough materials to produce all the ideas I have for art. For example, studio rent and taxes may be due. Oh and the babies need new shoes. All of a sudden, buying high dollar arches watercolor paper isn’t a priority.

Sometimes, I may be too emotionally and physically tired to work. I’m blessed with two precious children, but I must frankly say, “Small kids have more energy than I could have ever imagined”. Last year was wonderfully exuberate and painfully weighty. In 2008, my only sister, Shirley passed away. Sometimes the challenges of life bring me down. Yet, in the midst of my weariness, I find some way to express myself through my art.

Regardless of the circumstances, ideas abound. I believe there is no single correct pictorial solution. Unlike most painters who have a single style, I have a range of style and imagery through which I work. Jazz musicians, the southern landscape, female nudes, steaming coffee, and the black experience are depicted through expressionist, cubist, abstract, neo-impressionist styles. Openness and exploration rather than a dedication to a particular style best characterize these works. I use pictorial discernment which enables me to go from paintings with a lot of splash and spontaneity to images with a sense of organization and reason. Themes and variations on themes are used to empty myself of ideas and images.

The attempt to embrace a Picassoesque spirit keeps me on the road to reinvention. My various styles are not exclusive phases in an evolutionary process but options from which I select according to my expressive goals. For example, a jazz musician is painted stylistically different than a low country salt marsh. The emotions, sensuality, and concepts are disparate. Thus, the use of a new style is exercised. “I think great artists are constantly challenging themselves and changing in search of greater truth – look at Picasso and Matisse.” So, I press forth to faithfully continue to produce my paintings, drawings and collages. I refuse to use excuses not to work, but find ways to overcome the obstacles that hinder productivity.

"Smashing Success in Beaufort!"

This fall I was the guest and featured artist of the Fundraising Party of the Beaufort Historical Association. Saturday night at the home of Doug and Carolyn Brady on Front Street in Beaufort, sponsors of this year's event viewed and purchased several of my paintings. Proceeds benefited the ongoing educational and restoration projects at the Beaufort Historic Site. I was honored to participate in such a classy and grandiose event.

Likewise, I provided the Fall Party chairman, Ann Sloan, with a commissioned painting of Beaufort's St. Paul's Episcopal Church where her daughter was recently married. "Eric is a very talented and passionate artist," says Ann. I can frankly say Ann Sloan is a gracious, generous, and elegant lady, and it was a pleasure working with her. She helped make my BHA experience a delight.

My overall experience fell in line with my personal goals of stately luxury and professional prestige. Sponsors invested in my paintings and the BHA. The events were well attended. My family enjoyed themselves. I had a ball! Being in Beaufort was a smashing success!

"McRay Kids visit North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores"

This is how you mix business and pleasure. When I wasn't dressed up and hobnobbing with the hobnobbers as the Beaufort Historical Association Fall Fundraiser's featured artist, I carried my little darlings, Erica and Ethan, to the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

Genesis 1:21 states, "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good."

Sharing this experience with my children was wondrous! I know those of you who have children understand the magic in their little eyes and the warmth in your heart when sharing these precious moments. They are truly priceless.

Enjoy, Eric McRay

"Beaufort, Baby!"

In October I was the guest and featured artist of the Fall Fundraising Party of the Beaufort Historical Association. The first gathering was a Thursday evening, private opening at the Mattie King Davis Art Gallery on the historic site.

The second event was Saturday night at the home of Doug and Carolyn Brady on Front Street in Beaufort. At both gatherings, sponsors of this year's event viewed and purchased several of my paintings. According to Patricia Suggs and Ann Sloan, the event was a success! I was honored to participate in such a classy and grandiose event.

Yet when I wasn't dressed up and hobnobbing with the hobnobbers, I was dressed down and having fun with my little darlings, Erica and Ethan. From our accommodations, graciously provided by the BHA, we could look out onto the Beaufort waterfront. The view was magnificent!

The true magic moment was when we shared the joy of viewing dolphins porpoising through the water outside our balcony window. It's times like these that I feel like a successful gentleman artist in a pair of sunglasses and the proud father of precious children.

I love my job, Eric McRay

"Adventures & Misadventures"

Well, I'm back in the studio with a little time to address my blog again. It's been a while since I've had the time to put my adventures and misadventures into words and pictures.

I've felt like Jules Verne's ambitious character Phileas Fogg from "Around the World in Eighty Days." I haven't been around the world, but it sure felt like it. At times, it felt like I've been to Hell and back.

Since mid October, I've attended the Beaufort Historical Association Fall Fundraiser parties as the featured artist... Then off to exhibit at the Philadelphia International Art Expo, as a guest of the October Gallery. Unfortunately, making stops in Washington, DC to visit a deathly ill sister and cancer surviving Grandmother... Then returning to NC to participate in the Artspace Collector's Gala and my first solo museum exhibition at the North Carolina Central University Art Museum.

This concludes with the horrific call that my dear sister and only sister, Shirley Gladney, passed away on Friday, November 14th, which was also my birthday. Less than five years ago, I lost my only brother, Arthur Jackson, to a carjacker's bullet.

It is often said, "Life is not fair." True, it's not and never will be. Jesus said in Matthew 5:45, "for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." I ask those that know the words of prayer, remember my family and my mother, Marjorie McRay. She is a just woman.

"BHA Announces 2008 Fall Fundraising Party Artist, Eric McRay"

BEAUFORT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
100 Block Turner Street, P.O. Box 363
Beaufort, North Carolina 28516

Kelsie Kirkland
PR/Event Coordinator
Phone: (252) 728-5225
Fax: (252) 728 – 4966
beauforthistoricsite@earthlink.net

As a young boy, Eric McRay, dreamed of being one of the greatest artists in the world. McRay, a native of Washington DC, received his Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree from the Maryland Institute in 1987. McRay relocated to North Carolina soon after, and since his arrival has become a major force in the North Carolina art community.

It was the artwork McRay allowed the Junior League of Raleigh to use as a fundraiser that caught the eye of 2008 Fall Party Chairman Ann Sloan. “The women from the Junior League gave such high praise of Eric’s art and his personality, that I spent some time getting to know his work, and was pleasantly surprised,” shares Ann. McRay’s vast amount of work of all different styles and imagery, lends to his likeability. “He has a little something for everyone,” states Beaufort Historical Association PR/Events Coordinator Kelsie Kirkland. “Eric’s work ranges from colorful coastal depictions, to jazz, rhythm and blues, to a coffee collection that makes you want to sit down and take it in. His work has been described as not something you see, but something you feel.”

McRay has been sharing his art throughout North Carolina since 1987, and was juried into Raleigh’s prestigious Artspace in 1998. Since his opening at Artspace, McRay has quickly become one of Raleigh’s most exciting artists. McRay is a strong supporter of many local charities, which has allowed him to share his passion while helping others.

McRay’s work has been featured in a number of publications, ranging from regional newspapers to Southern Living Magazine. He was named Metro Magazine’s 2008 Bravo Award winner as the top local artist in the “Standing Ovation” category in the July 2008 issue. McRay has his work in corporate collections that include Central Carolina Bank, Duke University Medical Center, NC State University, SAS Institute, UNC Chapel Hill, and Western Wake Hospital, as well as many private collectors locally, nationally and internationally.

“Eric is a very talented and passionate artist,” says Ann. “He is currently working on a commissioned piece for me of the church my daughter was recently married in.” McRay’s work will be featured at the Beaufort Historical Association’s Annual Fall Fundraising Party October 18, 2008, at the home of Doug and Carolyn Brady at 805 Front Street in Beaufort. Sponsors of this years event will have the opportunity to view and purchase McRay’s work in a private opening October 16, 2008 at the Mattie King Davis Art Gallery.

For more information on this year’s Fall Fundraising Party, how to become a Fall Fundraising Party sponsor, or to purchase tickets to the event call (252) 728-5225 or visit http://www.beauforthistoricsite.org/.

The Mattie King Davis Art Gallery is the oldest gallery in Carteret County and exhibits the work of over 100 local and regional artists. Gallery proceeds benefit the ongoing educational and restoration projects at the Beaufort Historic Site. For more information on Eric McRay’s upcoming exhibit, contact the Beaufort Historical Association at (252) 728-5225 or stop by the gallery Monday through Saturday, 10 am–4 pm, or visit www.beauforthistoricsite.org.