Music, woodworking and painting
 

I wanted to ask how many of you make music or do woodworking. Many artists I have known have done one of these two seemingly unrelated activities.

Funny you should ask...
 

Well, I guess I'll start the replies.

I started out with all types of arts as a kid and my first love was music. I started at 8 with piano and soon learned guitar. In junior high I played three different horns. In high school I learned sax and flute. In my 20's and 30's I played around the Southeast in bands and soon learned several other intruments, 15 in all. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, but I always secretly wanted to live as an artist, not a musician.

I put all of that aside six years ago and now concentrate on portraits. I own a few special instruments and still correspond with some famous and not-so-famous acquaintances.

Not exactly music or woodworking, but I was a dance teacher for 13 years. That was in a previous life! ;)

Renee Price

Music and wood
 

When I'm able to, I play the Irish harp. I've been blessed to be able to play professionally, and in church at different times.

As far as woodworking is concerned, I'm working with my harpmaker in Ireland to decide which woods would work best for the instrument he is building for me. Luthiers and other instrument makers and repairers must have an extensive knowledge of woodworking.

Music, woodworking and painting
 

Interesting question. I admit I love woodworking. I'm better at painting, but if something simple needs to be made or fixed, I'm up for the challenge. My husband thinks it's funny that he has a wife who asks for tools or saws for Christmas (I share, so he buys them).

My oldest son is a very gifted artist and is also a very talented bass player.

Gina

I married a wonderful man who sings like an angel. He is a tenor, has done everything from high church-like stuff like Ave Maria, to Barbershop Quartet, and of course, weddings. Our daughter has inherited a beautiful singing voice. She tried out for, and was chosen, to sing in her high school Madrigals. She's 15. Grandma plays the piano and the whole family often sings 4 part harmony. It's fun.

My husband also owns a Shopsmith and loves woodworking. We buy Woodworking magazines, and I tinker with a scroll saw and paint figurines now and then. And the big thing we did was build our own house. We contracted out very little.

Unfortunately, our main incomes are not in any of these fields. However, one can dream, can't one?

Uncanny
 

You see, it is true. I make some of our furniture. I traded a wood supplier once (a painting) for several wide lovely planks of highly figured walnut from which I designed and made my daughter a cradle. I buy "Fine Woodworking", too.

I played the viola for 8 years, but alas, it sounded awful. It seems that I have an "eye," but not an "ear."

As to woodworking, funny that you should mention it. About 15 years ago, I took up wood carving with a passion. This short-lived hobby lasted about a year, but it was lots of fun. I still have my carving tools handy in case the urge to make something out of wood creeps up on me.

Music and woodworking
 

Well, I play guitar (I was in a band when in college), and most of the furniture in my home is of my making. This Old House and New Yankee Workshop are my favorite shows.

I own a very old (1740) home and have done all the woodworking in the renovation of that home. My wife kids me that I will spend $300 on a router and bits to build a table when I could just buy one that would do for $200. But really anyone who has priced quality custom-built furniture or colonial reproductions can tell you that you can't really buy that for $200.

So, I think it was my expensive champagne taste, combined with my beer budget that has more to do with my woodworking than any desire to be a furniture maker.

I am always going to antique shops just to find furniture to copy. I actually went into an art store with a pad and tape measure to copy a very expensive studio easel. The salesmen just stood there and watched me as I measured and drew and even took part of the easel apart so I could better see the construction. I then put it all back together, thanked the salesmen and walked out.

I then went to a lumber yard that had local red oak at a good price bought what I needed and built my own studio easel. I had to spend a bit more on the hardware but even using the best red oak it still cost me less then half of what the one in the store cost.

My latest creation was a model stand with mortise and tenon construction and raised panels. One of the panels opens for a storage drawer. So I guess I do both woodworking and music as well as art.

P. S. I think the music thing was to meet girls more than a desire be a great guitar player. After all, that is how I met my wife. : )

I played the piano as a child, and took to it well, but didn't develop the discipline (hours of scales) to become good. What I love to do is arrange and rearrange my enviroment. I'm constantly redecorating; my home is a collage of vignettes, everchanging. I have found that I'm moving in that direction in the yard as well, with plant textures, etc..

See
 

You can't make this stuff up! Myers-Briggs says it's the "ISTJ's (artists/craftsman types).

I hold on grudgingly to my "N", though.

For anyone who doesn't know, Myers-Briggs is a personality temperament test based on Jung. There are four basic categories, each represented by a letter. The "N" to which Tim refers means an intuitive person, as opposed to a sensing person (as shown by the "S" in the ISTJ Tim mentions) and is the part of the test that shows how you prefer to process information.

There is also the Keirsey test, which I believe is an offshoot of Myers-Briggs. Keirsey divides the personality types as follows (not sure if Myers-Briggs uses the following narrative categories or not:

Guardians
Supervisor ESTJ
Inspector ISTJ
Provider ESFJ
Protector ISFJ

Artisans
Promoter ESTP
Crafter ISTP
Performer ESFP
Composer ISFP

Idealists
Teacher ENFJ
Counselor INFJ
Champion ENFP
Healer INFP

Rationals
Fieldmarshal ENTJ
Mastermind INTJ
Inventor ENTP
Architect INTP

Search on the web for either Myers-Briggs or Keirsey and you'll find a ton of information, including sites where you can take the test. There's probabaly some free tests, but for $25, you can take the test here: http://www.discoveryourpersonality.com

I'll keep my "N" also, Tim (Myers-Briggs tested me twice as an INFP and Keirsey as an INFJ). Now, that would be interesting to find out the personality of of real artists and see if they mainly fall in certain categories, but that sounds like something that calls for a new topic.

Now back to music, woodworking and painting.

Accommodating an overseas transfer "cost" me my shop space (and the usefulness of the higher-amp 110V power tools in a 240V country) several years ago and interrupted guitar construction training from an Idaho luthier, and it was that loss of a hands-on creative outlet that probably led to my taking up painting. I'm sure there's a much more interesting, if not necessary, connection between those pursuits than the choices and accidents of commerce and geography. Doesn't seem universal, though, as many wonderful painters seem to have little skill in, say, matting and framing their work.

I've built some large pieces of oak furniture (Woodsmith plans) and an 8-foot wooden sailboat (Nutshell Pram from Woodenboat plans), but I've had the most fun building musical instruments from kits or plans, including the acoustic guitar I play (Martin D-45 kit), a Celtic lap harp, dulcimers (both Appalachian and hammer), and banjo (don't ask, I can't explain it). I refurbished my grandfather's violin (of "fiddle" pedigree and use), but never played it very well.

I find days without the addition of music to be almost painfully incomplete. I almost always paint to music. I've done the "years of piano lessons" (wish I'd kept it up!), trombone in high school band, guitar for some 35 years. Most of what I play on guitar now, I wrote (it's a clever ploy on my part to keep folks from knowing straight away whether I've made any mistakes.)

I got into letterpress printing and hand bookbinding about 15 years ago and found that printing, illustrating, and binding your own work was nearly as much fun as . . . well, okay, not quite that much fun. Depending. (And a signature of pages waiting to be sewn with linen thread never says, "Oh, I don't know, where do you want to eat?")

Ironically and even with considerable misgiving, I found that I had to let go of some of my music and wooworking in order to concentrate on painting. I can still get my "fix" by playing Bach in the studio, and building my own frames.

Just to skew the research, Tim, I'm a hopelessly confirmed, thrice tested INFP.

Cheers from The Road, somewhere in Montana tonight,
Steven

Great to have you back on the board, Steven. We've missed your witty repartee and insights! How was/is your journey?

Wow, Steven you really are a Jack of All Trades! A friend of mine is interested in taking up hand bookbinding. At this point he's looking around for lessons and materials. Did you learn it in the States?

Are you back to stay?

Michele and Rochelle,

Steven is still traveling. He just popped in for a solitary post. We'll have to wait patiently for his next one.

Rochelle,

I

Well, Rochelle, you know the rest of that adage - Master of None.

There are those who would characterize my multiple pursuits as neurotically compulsive behavior, cultivated to avoid dealing with deep-seated emotional issues. My spouse has recently offered the characterizing observation that I am "easily distracted". Without revealing the context, I can report that she wasn't offering a compliment.

Perhaps some of the folks who have contributed to or visited this thread can comment on whether a breadth of experience trumps depth, or whether more personal satisfaction is realized through focus upon a narrower range of interests, and the realization of excellence in one or two. I suspect that the best of the professionals whose work graces this site are not spreading themselves thin across a varied vocational topography.

Hmmm. I tested INTP and I'm a bit of an amateur architect. Actually, there is strong evidence to support the connection between architecture and artists. If you follow your art history you will see that many of the Italian Renaissance artists were also architects, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci being the most well known and prolific.
So I prefer to call myself a "Renaissance man" because of my many interests, instead of a "Jack of all trades" that way I avoid the second half of that "the master of none".

Same here. Then I went right-brain and she went left-brain and only occasionally do the twains meet. But I digress. My now 14-year-old son is on his second electric guitar (I have my dad's Gretsch, but I've always been unplugged) and is trying to put a band together amongst his pals in Taiwan. Cool.

I've always been quite fascinated, from a distance, with New England. I'm not unaware of your climate, but what's the art world like up there in the northeast? Should I be planning a studio in the land of little north light, or in Taos?

Best wishes,
Steven

Craftsmanship
 

As a child I had the piano lessons, the ballet lessons (Mom thought it might help) and always had to be drawing and making stuff.

After working in the insurance industry in Hartford for 20 years, I quit when it just wasn't making sense to me any more and I thought I should pursue art on a full time basis, while I still had the energy for it. So I learned how to use watercolors, pastels and oils. Then I became obsessed with clay after moving to Florida. After spending five years throwing, trimming the ultimate foot rings, firing pots, and building small sculptures, I arrived at the level where I could produce some well-crafted ware (no longer called stuff).

Skipping a lot of personal stuff - we moved, I gave up the kiln and haven't replaced it yet, but have rediscovered painting in an entirely new way. Going through this craftsman phase has given me an appreciation of the well-crafted painting that I wouldn't have had before.

If I had a place to put a wood lathe, I'd love to have one of those too.

So, although my path is winding and my education never complete, my goals are still within reach.

New England is loaded with artists and it is no accident that we are here. The filtered light up here is similar to (and as spectacular as) what I've seen in Florence and the Netherlands. At least take a peek before you move to Taos. Despite (or maybe because of?) the weather, it is lovely living in picturesque New England.

Sounds greet, Karin. My "sailor side" is lobbying heavily for a coastal locale, and since I've always been a northerner, I guess I can deal with snow shoveling. I was in Florence about 6 weeks ago, so I have a pretty good image of the light you describe. In fact, my current commission is for a landscape from Tuscany (for which, obviously, I'll have to rely on reference photos and memory.)

Thanks, and cheers,

Hi Steven and everyone,

In the picture of life which can at times seem quite foggy, we wait for the fog to clear to know what was just a foggy dream and what is really here. The overall composition plan will be a determining factor in what we see. What others see is for them to say. Is that metaphoric enough?

Anyway, let's make the best of what's before us.

New England
 

Well, Steve, I must say that I have never been to Taiwan - closest I've been is Hawaii. So I kind of envy you. I was born in Connecticut, visited most of the United States, as well as lived in Alaska, Virginia, California, New Orleans, Philadelphia and now back to New England in Massachusetts.

As for art in New England, it runs the gamut from modern to country landscapes and seaside light houses for the tourists. There are more than a few major portrait artists that call New England their home, including Richard Schmid and Howard Sanden, as well as many others.

New England can be a great place to live as an artist. There are more than enough wealthy clients (doesn't always seem that way but they are here) as well as galleries and museums. Would I recommend the area over the other many equally nice areas? Not really. For one thing, housing is expensive and gets worse the closer to the major cities you get. And it can get downright impossible for all but the most successful artist to afford in some areas. Taxes are becoming a problem in CT and MA. And although I don't personally find this a problem, others have told me that that the market elsewhere in the US is better for portraits than here. I can say this: if you like hot summers and cold winters and don't want to move about to get both, New England will give you a healthy dose of both.

To me, New England is a very conservative area, although politically, it is fairly evenly divided Democrats vs. Republicans, compared to some states swaying more one way or the other. Seems to be a holdover from those early puritan settlers.

I have always liked the rural areas of New England as well as its proximity to New York and Boston. But if you are not from rural New England originally, no matter how long you live here, the locals will never really accept you as a local. But that is not much of a problem, since for the most part, New Englanders like to keep their privacy, and will let you have your own; so as long as you don't bother them they pretty much will let you live your own life however you want. In the end it is personal preference. You may love it here, or you may not, but could you make a go as an artist here? Of course you could. Are there benefits? Sure. Downsides? Of course; even paradise has its downside. Well, maybe not since it would not be paradise, would it? So I will say even the closest to paradise I have seen, Hawaii, had drawbacks.

In closing, sure Steve, you're welcome here. I will even extend an invitation to lunch on me if you are ever in my area. And you can join our life drawing group anytime you like. :)

Thanks, Michael, I very much appreciate the invitation and I'll endeavour to take you up on it next time I'm in the area (perhaps next Spring -- you do have "Spring" in New England, don't you?)

As I mentioned, I'm a northerner, but I can do the Gulf or Key West or coastal California without flinching. I love to sail, and though I've built Maine's Woodenboat Nutshell sailing pram, I've done 90% of my sailing in Minnesota and Montana, which will seem very odd to folks who think those are states made up exclusively of wheatfields. There are there plenty of inland and Great lakes, and those States are in fact made up as well of some of the most beautiful landscape painting subjects imaginable (except, of course, in New England.)

I don't think of lighthouses as "tourist" subjects, because I'm rather fascinated by them and have visited many worldwide. The single painting I've done of a lighthouse, on Cape Cod, is perhaps one of my favourites, not for the lighthouse but for the lucky and accurate capture of an early-morning fogbank that was burning off.

I've heard the bit about outsiders in upper New England getting the cold shoulder for a good while. Doesn't bother me. I take folks for who they are, not who they're descended from (I mean, we're all very accidentally the products of all manner of intentions, affections, trysts, deceits, and accidents, right?) and I don't spend a lot of time worrying about who accepts me into their company. There's lots of company in the world - though sometimes you have to do the work, to find it (and sometimes it catches you offguard - what fun!). We do the same thing in NW Montana, and I suspect the same routine obtains in the Ozarks and in the southern bayous and lots of other places. We still refer to properties as the Nelsson place or the Solberg place, even if it's changed hands a half dozen times, as if none of the interim owners ever really supplanted the homesteaders.

I've just in 24 hours returned from closer to your residence than mine, and have driven 13,000 miles in the past 12 weeks. Most of it has been through drought-plagued country, and it is now raining so hard here in my stopover in Minnesota, that I'll have to unplug the computer so it doesn't get zapped by lightning.

Best wishes and cheers,

I neither make music nor work wood, although as a college student I earned money singing in a coffeehouse (and playing rather poorly on a secondhand Goya classic guitar). Does being mechanical count? Through lack of competent and/or willing mechanics I had to learn how to service and repair my lovely little TR-3, and I'm also not bad on general computer troubleshooting, although the G4 seems a little less intuitive than my previous Macs.

In terms of geographical areas, NJ is usually not viewed as a scenic environment but our region is quite beautiful if you like marshes, rivers, and bayscapes. We are at the northern edge of many southern species' ranges and have fairly mild but often snowy winters and warm (make that hot, this year) humid summers. Were the Mason-Dixon line to be continued eastward we would be south of it. Portraiture is not highly sought after here but there are other compensations. I live on a federally designated Wild and Scenic river and the bird life is remarkably varied in our county because of our mixture of forests, fields, farms, marshes and waterways. It's a wonderful place. Our watershed also has a high proportion of the state's threatened and endangered species.

Which brings me to another question: how many artists are also environmentalists? That might be a more natural tie-in for landscape painters, but there sometimes does seem to be a correlation.

NJ and beauty
 

Well, Leslie, you're right. NJ gets a bad rap due to the refineries and view from the northern end of the NJ pike. But anyone who has visited the rest of the state as well as the Cape May area can tell you that NJ is not called the Garden State for nothing, and it most certainly has beauty. I attended college in Philly and spent many summer days on the NJ shore as well as some of the farmland northeast of Camden, NJ. I found NJ to have many attractive areas, and if more travelers would take the time to drive the back roads and not the interstate highways, they would see more of the beauty this country has to offer - not just in NJ but elsewhere as well.

Taos
 

I too have thought New England would be a cool place to live. I hope to spend some quality time out there this fall.

I taught a workshop in Taos last May and one week was just about the right amount of time there for me. It's very remote and the 7,000 people that live there are pretty much the only folks for a long way around. The huge city of Santa Fe is 1+ 1/2 hours drive away.

Great place to visit methinks, but I'd hate to live there. No one goes there anymore - it's too crowded. YB

Home-made palette
 

I don't know if this would qualify as woodworking, but somehow all those powertools my father used to keep in the basement when I was growing up must have impressed me!

I drew the outline freehand, and used an existing palette (one that came with my sketchbox easel) to draw the exact thumbhole pattern, so the grip would be right.

Then I rubbed it with linseed oil, and although I really should keep it cleaner, because it has been well-oiled, it's not that difficult to scrape off old paint.

It was easy to cut the wood with a hand-held jigsaw.

Wow! Me too!
 

Wow, that's kinda funny! I studied music composition in junior college, got a BFA in painting in college and now work in a frame shop for my day job. (I know, what a let down). I find I am working with wood more and more. For instance, I have a commission to build a set of Mission style book cases with a built in closet currently.