Art Wortd Coop

What do hearts, smiley faces, rainbows, butterflies and unicorns have in common? They are all sweet ornamental devices that my artist snob brain throws into a mental file folder that I have banished to the recesses of my mind.

So with that said, what do you do when a client insists on "hearts" in her background, with pinks & purples? Well you toss and turn all night long and wish that more clients would just let you do what you do best. Then you wake up in the morning and accept the challenge and you do your version of "sweet", you tackle "hearts" with gusto. You also pause and admonish yourself for being such an art snob, and you start to think about what the symbol of a heart must mean to your client. Her lovely girl Peach is no longer with her and for her the traditional symbol of a heart is the perfect design element to celebrate her tender love for her special pup. So now that you are feeling like a total jerk, you give her not just one sample with hearts as promised, but 6 on-line proofs with hearts and you even e-mail her a 7th option, hoping that one of your efforts will hit a home run ... still crossing fingers.

If you are an artist reading this pause and ask yourself if you have a few snobby areas in your brain that may be limiting your creativity. Just because something like the heart symbol may be overused in the world does not mean that you can't try to put your own spin on it. I often resist being over directed by my clients and yet sometimes the challenges they throw my way are the perfect solution for getting outside my comfort zone. I said on Monday I would try to work with new color combos ... well for me pink and purple are at the very bottom of my crayon box. I am really happy with Peach and the fun variety of heart solutions I was able to present to her Mom. She was totally right, hearts are the perfect solution for a background texture.