Blame it on my ageing memory, but there’s a term that escapes me x on the tip of my forked tongue I just can’t put my locked up finger on. It’s a term for artists who use ‘the old ways’ to *conserve* them so they don’t die out. (I understand conservationist is ™d by the Planeteers and that museum types just hate it when you misuse the word.)

I’m talking about the folks today (as in 2026) who are still painting portraits glaze by glaze with stand oil or weaving T’nalak ~ or artists like Jandy A Carvajal, who I first fell in love professionally with for his borlas de pastillas (AKA pabalat, or pastillas wrappers cut out of Japanese paper which is what I tried to depict in the piece above (can’t blame a girl fer tryin ^^; )
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Being super fit isn't usually the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about what you need to be if you want to become an artist. That's usually an issue for like athletes, dancers, mountain climbers, or ultimate fighters.

But folks who sit down at an easel or a desk to paint? Not really, right?
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I think every artist documents their process one way or another, whether they share it publicly or not. The photos you see here serve as records of my process back at the *original painting factory* more than 10 years ago, before I started this blog or my social media accounts. I thought it was fitting considering I will soon have to leave my current studio and move back there.

But this post was actually brought on by my seven-year-old niece. She’d made me a video a few weeks ago showing me how she made Merry, a little jewel-like monster cleverly made out of a plastic water bottle and who I just couldn’t help falling in love with on sight.
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And I mean literally, like if you're sick (or worse, injured) (and you’re not ambidextrous) (or have a fantastic futuristic orthosis-type thing) AND not if you’re in a slump.

Being sick (as in ill or unwell) and being in a slump are probably the top two reasons you can't paint EEEVEN if you super NEEED to (as in need which will always trump want).
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About a week ago, during a certain, super nerve-wracking (for me) (always) thing, I was asked on the spot who my influences were, and which artists I ‘copied’ (my interlocutor’s words, not mine).

This was kind of a difficult question for me to answer; I mean, I know what has influenced my art, I’ve written about that here on the jillablog before. But who, exactly, well. I mean, I know who my heroes are, at least, and I guess it makes sense for someone you admire to influence you, even in subtle ways, that is, even if you’re not, like, outright copying the work of that person.
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​So I finally got around to renewing my expired content marketing certification (I know, like it shows, right ^^) And while I was at it I had to come up with blog topics and this was one of them ~ sort of like, ‘for your next blog’. So this is me kind of ‘giving truth to the lie’ ^o^

I do have a few thoughts on this, very personal thing ~ I think setting up one’s ‘painting factory’ as I’ve repeatedly, *affectionately* referred to it here on the jillablog ~ is like one’s toothbrush. (Or one’s hat, as H Marion Crawford’s Watson put it ^_^) Or having kids ~ none of other people’s business ^^

But you know ~ on the off-chance anyone who might just be starting out or wondering about how to go about setting up studio space ~ for what they’re worth, here’s a jillamonster’s two cents ^^;
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I had the privilege of participating in Ang INK’s latest exhibit called Guhit, Bulilit, Guhit! (Draw, Kiddo, Draw!) ~

I didn’t know it was going to be called that when they let me know about the show (thank you, Rex) ~ they just said ‘children and art’, and I can be, um, quite literal about these things, sometimes (read: I have no imagination 😅 )

I don’t know whether I’m saying this because I’m, me, or because, it’s true ~ I mean, what about the artists who work in pairs, or collectives, or, artists who have whole teams behind them? Like Michelangelo didn’t paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling all by his lonesome.

And even if artists didn’t have a team, there would still be the framer, or, the people at the gallery, agents, maybe, that kind of thing. Then, there are (obviously) married artists (sometimes to each other), or artists who have artist buddies. There are entire communities, too.

And what about orchestras or ballet companies, or bands? Writers have editors, and sometimes chefs have teams, too.

And what about the audience? Or the viewers? The listeners? The (pardon the parlance from my other job) target market?
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So yeah, I used to teach art ~ not at schools, as such, meaning, I wasn’t on the staff, or faculty ~ I would need a licence or I would’ve had to pass the LET (which is no walk in the park, and I have the deepest respect for anybody who’s passed it) for that.

Having made that full disclosure, I did spend quite a few years teaching art ~ in workshops, mostly (a few at a few schools, as a sort of art club moderator, I suppose you would call it). I taught kids, mostly, although I had taught babies (literal, months-old babies), teens, and seniors (as in older than me or as old as my mum and dad).

I taught classes (as in groups of students) and I taught one-on-one (or two, or three, if the student had siblings, or a cousin ~ usually in people’s homes. And I taught all sorts of things ~ drawing, arts and crafts, illustration, watercolour, acrylic ~ the last time I ever taught was an oil class at the museum (which was when I wrote this guide).

​If you saw The Incredibles, you probably remember E saying how she never looks back (dahling) because it distracts from the now. I also knew this famous artist once who I remember said something like, for example, if in 2024 he did, say, clay sculptures, this year he would say ‘that’s so 2024’ (and therefore he would no longer do it).

This particular post was brought on by something we were asked to do at INK in connection with the exhibit we had going (I think it’s still up at the time of writing) focusing on the creative process. We were asked to share old pieces that we didn’t like (from way back when) or pieces in progress we never finished.

Given what Miss Mode and what that artist dude said, is there, in fact, any value in artists looking back at what they’ve done before, apart from maybe, being able to make sure they don’t repeat themselves lol ~ heck they say Wolfie plagiarised from himself so WTH ^^