Love is the spirit that motivates the artist’s journey. ~ Eric Maisel, Ph.D., author creativity coach

So how do you make a happy artist even happier? Give me a chance to make a difference in someone’s life show me the results says Artist Marti McGinnis who was happily creating a series of colorful, uplifting paintings when she found a dog in the woods who had been unwittingly dumped there. Her story was similar to mine in finding one of my best friends ever, Liberty, my little black lab that I found in the middle of the road six years ago when someone also dumped her, on Alfalfa Market Road.
Our stories are similar in that we are creative people who are happy in our work (Marti painting, me writing) so when something unexpected happens we are stopped in our tracks, not expecting a change, yet embracing it with joy.

Steve Lambert is an American artist who believes that “art is a bridge that connects uncommon, idealistic, or even radical ideas with everyday life.” During the last couple of years, Steve created projects such as The New York Times Special Edition (fake copy of the NYT, issued one week after Obama’s election including 14 pages of best case scenario news set nine months in the future …like IRAQ War Ends). This was a happy thought!
As a writer I am particularly appreciative how others express their truths in writing visual arts as well as dance theatre. However, I especially embrace art that lifts our spirits, makes us laugh, brightens our hearts, our homes, our offices.
In an article for The New Yorker in 2009, Caleb Crain wrote about “the art that arose from overwhelming suffering poverty of The Great Depression.”
From the invention of the screwball comedy to the self-conscious prose of James Agree, Crain explored the various— at times conflicting—efforts artists used to deal with the realities of the era.
Of this, Crain explained, “The classic Depression argument about art was between those who regretted its compromise by politics those who regretted its failure to take politics into account—between those who cried ‘agitprop’ those who cried ‘escapism.’”
Ok, so I admit ‘depressing’ art certainly has its worth historical perspective. But again, I am seeking happy art prefer the classical expression of horrific soul searching events in a museum.
Author Marti MacGibbon exclaims that happiness is a state of being. It is a way of thinking, a conscious choice. Lots of people think the “pursuit of happiness” is a linear process, so they live in a state of expectancy, or hope of happiness arriving…some day.
Well, today’s the day waking up to ‘happy’ art surrounding ourselves with art forms that boost our state of mind…that’s a great beginning to a dreamsicle kind of day!

by PAMELA HULSE ANDREWS Cascade A&E Publisher