Motivation and inspiration

Yesterday I got an email from my best friend and the topic was motivation.
She wanted to know if I had trouble staying motivated.

I remember at my studio in the UK that people would stand in my doorway and say-
'I feel really unmotivated.'
But I don't think that was the real issue.
They WERE motivated because they too were in their studios but they were confusing motivation and inspiration.
Motivation is when you perform an act to fulfill a desire or need.
Like you're hungry, so you are motivated to find food.
After you eat, you need to poo, so you are motivated to find a toilet.
Later on, you're tired so you are motivated to find somewhere to lay down and go to sleep.
You wake up the next day, you draw a picture which makes you feel hungry so you are motivated to sell said drawing so you can eat and start the eat/poo/sleep/draw cycle again.

Inspiration is something entirely different.
I see inspiration as falling through a hole in the top of the head and landing in the feet.
Inspiration comes from how I am wired up, how I was brought up, what I have seen in my life thus far, how I receive information through my senses.
How I react to situations and how sensitive I am to my surroundings.
The root of the word inspire is to breath and by paying attention to everything and everyone I encounter in my day, I am in some way inspired.
I breath in and I am breathed into and whatever I produce is like an exhale.

I am inspired by many things-
I am inspired by family disputes.
I am inspired by people who do things selflessly for others, like my friends Denise and Bob who foster children.
I am inspired by the homeless people who walk around the streets of San Diego at night with shopping trolleys collecting rubbish for recycling.
I am inspired by light falling on yellow houses.
And most of these will end up in a drawing in one way or another at some time.

Motivation and inspiration are in league.
I am motivated by hunger to find food.
I am motivated by the need to poo to find a toilet.
I am motivated by weariness to find a bed.
And I am motivated by inspiration to make art.

Here, look at this, a potted story of translator Allison Wright’s life so far.

It's called Scatterlings, and the book contains 45 vignettes giving the distilled version of 50 years of existence in quite a few different countries on this Planet. Each very short story has its own cartoon illustration by me, Toni Le Busque.
You might find bits and pieces of yourself in here.
At the very least, you will find bits and pieces of Allison, and a couple of other people, too.

Have a read of the preview and then buy it.
It's a good read and you can colour in the pictures if you like.

While I was drawing this a young woman stops and starts to talk to me.

While I was drawing this a young woman stops and starts to talk to me.
When I look around to respond I she she has a very pretty curly-haired toddler, with very snotty nose, with her.
The mother tells me the toddlers name is Matilda and so I offer Matilda the chance to handle one of my pastels and make some toddler-like marks on my paper, while her mother and I talk.
It eventuates that the mum is from Germany, Stuttgart, and the dad is from Mexico, both of them trained musicians who have just come back from Europe to San Diego, via Tijuana.
We talk a bit about the food in America and then she offers me some pie.
'It's an American recipe, my first try at one,' she says, 'and it has peanut butter in it.'
'Doesn't everything have peanut butter in it?' I say, and as baffled culinary outsiders, we both laugh,
We talk on a bit about how much we like San Diego, what her husband and her hope to do job-wise, and that Matilda is learning English, Spanish and German.
I tell the mum I am learning Spanish and she tells me hers is very bad.
Then, after Matilda runs up off the street, the mum chases her, bringing her back and telling me the child is tired.
I give the mum, Anita, my business card and she tells me how much her husband wants a tattoo.
'I can sort him out,' I tell her, and then we both decide it has been a fortuitous and pleasant meeting and that we will get together again for sure.
'I'm happy to meet lots of people,' I say, 'I could be here for months and I am taking the opportunity to meet people and get lots of art done.
Then, parting, I tell her, as she is a classically trained musician and all, that I have a dulcimer at home and she should come around and have a look at it.
'Great', she says, 'let's meet again,'
'For sure.' I call out, turning back to my view and drawing, hoping to finish before another ridiculously inflated SUV pulls up in front of the house and blocks my view.

 Go to my shop and see my art and buy

White San Diego House-Approx A4 Original soft pastel on black paper £100.00

While I was drawing this a very tall SUV pulled up, hesitantly, in front of the house.
Then, for probably 7 very tense minutes, while the car crept up and down the street, I thought my drawing session was over.
But eventually, the driver seemed to settle down and decided to park just beyond my view.
I watched the driver, a very short woman with very long permed-looking hair get out.
For a few moments she stood at the car door, looking down and then up and then down and then up the street.
By this time I had put my pastels down and I was frowning, wondering what sort of internal challenge was facing the poor woman.
Eventually, bored by her indecision, I went back to my drawing and didn't even notice when later on she drove off.

 

Free Art from my website.

Here, look, I'm offering free interactive and fun art.
I've written a little comic book, which you can download in PDF format, print, and with the help of the instructional video I have made, have your own piece of my free art.
I'll be releasing a piece of free art every week or so, so if you'd like to be ALERTED when a new piece is available, sign up on the FREE ART page.

ENJOY!

This morning, while I was walking the dog without the dog, a young man called me from across the street.
He was dressed entirely in ochre, and his hair and beard were long and he had a very full backpack on his back.
'Hey,' he said as he got close to me, 'you have a lot of tattoos,'
'Yes,' I said.
'Bea-uuuuuuutiful,' he said in an accent that sounded like Spanish.
'Where are you from?'I asked him.
'THE NOW,' he shouted out, and we both laughed.

Then he hugged me, and because he gave good hug, not one of those insincere cheek to cheek, hands hung loosely on the shoulder style hugs, I hugged him sincerely back.

Then, as we unhugged, he said-Hey, what have you got to teach me?’
'Uh,….dunno, not much I don't think,' I said, frowning and thinking.
Then he took my hand and started looking at the tattoos on the inside of my left arm and asking me if I ever felt bad for getting tattoos.
'No, and wait, wait,' I said, 'because I do have something to teach you,'
And, because I have the words ‘feed the good wolf’ tattooed on the inside of my left arm, with a coloured stripey arrow that points to a wolf’s face on my wrist, I told him the story of the good wolf.

He looked puzzled for a moment or two after I finished and then said to me-
'But what if the good wolf ever get in pain?”
'Hmmm,' I said, 'I dunno but I think a good wolf in pain needs to eat even more.'
'YES.' he cried out, smiling and putting his arms around me again and giving me a good Amy Waters-style hug*, which I returned.

- - - - - - - - - -
2 new drawings-
Look Beyond!
But how far and to where?
Only you and your eyes can decide, but if you like, let me know what you see!

These Are The Games That The Grown Ups Play.
Read in to it what you will!
Can you work out what music I was listening to while drawing this one?

Both 70x100cm.
Black ink, felt pens and gel rollerballs and Tippex and colouring pens and pencils on white paper.
Price on application.

*My friend who taught me to hug with sincerity and intent

Today’s good thing happened yesterday.

I was invited by Sonja to a card making party so I went.
Luckily I do things without thinking because if I had thought about it beforehand I probably would have been all judgemental and snob-arseholish about it thinking what I would find there would be glitter glue sticks, old copies of Marie Claire and cardboard boxes of scissors and crayolas.

But it wasn’t like that at all.

It was a table, approximately 4 metres long, maybe less, maybe more, I don’t know, covered with bowls of RUBBER STAMPS.

Amongst other stamps there was an Elvis stamp, a Dame Edna stamp, Empire State Building stamp, planet stamps, fish stamps, star stamps, insect stamps, naked men stamps and a hand-holding-penis stamp.

'If there are any of these missing after the party I'll be where you find them,' I said when we arrived, to the host, a man called Allan.

'Do we need to frisk you?” asked Sonja as we were leaving.
**********
This drawing is called Look Beyond.
Approx 70x100, maybe smaller, gel roller balls, stamps and colouring pens and pencils on white paper.

Pasquale’s garden.

My friends Joe and Jacqui have a new kitchen in their house.
Jacqui always makes tea in a tea pot.
Zeus the wonderdog is there under the table and now they have a big new kitchen island that Joe can stand behind and wipe while he talks kindly and with much care at me.
On the walls of the kitchen hang a lot of art.
I left these three drawings- The Garden, The Porch, The Poolside- with the Pasquales and they had best be hanging in that kitchen the next time I am there.
All A4 soft pastel on black paper

Justine admires my work.
Here she is seen in the act.

Your Very Very Dark Days

Tiny tweaks can lead to big changes.

I was talking to Tall Lee one night and he told me he was writing his life story and that everyone should write one.
So I did.
However, I didn’t write a typical, long winded 300 page thing going into great detail about toilet training and school bullying and drunken escapades and sham marriages.

I wrote very short paragraphs and illustrated them accordingly.
Much less time consuming and much more amusing, for the author and the audience.

So now, I too think everyone should write their life story in this way.

In fact, coming soon are my friend Andrew’s The Truth, The Half Truth and Nothing Like The Truth.
He writes, I illustrate.

In the meantime, here, read some reviews of mine, Pictorial Recollections of a Life Partly Spent.

And now buy a copy.

You never know, you might be in it.

When the sun comes out, so do the pastels.
The first pastel of the season is a portrait of a plant my friend Andrew gave me.
I thank Andrew for the plant.
Who I should thank for the sun is not clear.

Remember being a child and doing something you thought really worthy, exciting, something that made you feel happy, pleased with yourself?
Like a drawing, and then you show it to an adult, or a teacher who proceeds to criticise, belittle and pick fault.
I was reminded of this today.
And then the following came to mind-

HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939)
“He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven”

So lets remind ourselves to encourage rather than embarrass, inspire rather than intimidate, delight in rather than dismiss.

And if you can’t say something nice, you can…..(see above photograph)

Today’s good thing was beginning a new drawing.
It’s a different size to what I usually do, but I found a frame with some mount in it so I’m drawing to fit the frame.
Approx 23cm by 58, I’ve asked Facebook friends for their favourite 4 letter words.
Bang
Fuck
Fool
Shit
Word
Good
Muff
Cunt
All the old favourites are there, along with pool and mate, from the lovely Shandy, always thinking laterally.
So, here is bang, as in ‘bang em under’.
The next?
Maybe baby….who knows.
But bang baby has a nice ring!
Bang
Baby
Ring
Nice
See, whenever you open your mouth, a four letter word falls out.

The idea for this drawing leaked out of an earlier work called, You My Friend Are a Four Letter Word And It Is Not Love.

'The shallow recover quickly. You cannot bruise a pillow.'

Someone spilled coffee all over a pile of my prints.
Rather than get mad, I got cutting.
I’m preparing new works out of old.
Like cutting the legs off a pair of jeans and patching the holes in the arse with cut up floral shirts.
Cutting, glueing, drawing and stamping.
These are a few of my favourite things.

I have made a decision and it goes like this-

If someone came to my art studio with a picture of say…Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows and asked me to do a drawing of it I would say no.

Fact is I can’t do what Van Gogh does because I don’t see things like he does.

I don’t ‘do’ what he ‘does’.

My skill set doesn’t match his.

So I would most likely send the person off to someone who could or would copy Wheatfield with Crows.

Alternatively I would say to them that I will do them a Wheatfield with Crows but not like the one Van Gogh did.

I would base a drawing on Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows, or I would look at a design they had drawn up and ‘collaborate’, but I wouldn’t try to copy it for them.

Because that’s compromise.

And if there’s one thing I do know about myself, it’s that when it comes to drawing I have never compromised.

I might not sell a lot, but I don’t sell out.

Anyway, the point I’m making is that I haven’t been applying that rule to tattooing.

Up until now.

I may not get a lot of tattooing work because of this decision, just as I may not sell a lot of drawings, but from now on, if you get a tattoo from me, you’ll know it’s an uncompromised piece of my art.

Because even though my tools and materials may change to suit my purpose, when it comes down to it, I am, above and beyond everything else, an artist.

Portrait of a Young Woman as La Giaconda (holding a can of Le Busque’s Vagina Soup)
I’m having a go at doing some ‘pop art’.
This is a portrait of my friend, Lauren Ottley.
I’ve posed her up as Mona.
There’s nothing secretive about Lauren’s smile, though.
It’s a proper big fat all encompassing teeth-bearing happy sign to the world!
She’s got a smile to rival that of Amy Waters.

On Friday my print from Alberto’s Family arrived.
It came from Berlin.
I bought it via The Cools Dot Com.
The painting in the ornate plastic faux-baroque 99p shop frame is a graffiti piece, done on cardboard.
I got this at the Oxford art fair.
It was free art from Time2panic (Google it)
I am gathering art.
When I blow this pop stand it’ll be with my stamp set under one arm, my tattoo machines under the other, and dragging a big red wagon full of art!