Robin Pedrero lessons & advice

What are the most impor­tant lessons you have learned about being an artist and sell­ing your work?

I have learned to value my art and time. To not let neg­a­tive talk infect my work or atti­tude. I weed toxic peo­ple, places and ele­ments out of my life. Stay pos­i­tive. Build a good com­fort­able rela­tion­ship with how money is exchanged for your art. Know how to han­dle a busi­ness trans­ac­tion, han­dle it pro­fes­sion­ally and keep accu­rate records con­sis­tently. I know that it is ok that not every­one will like my art or want my art.

What advice would you give to other artists?

Have integrity, bal­ance, keep learn­ing, fol­low pos­i­tive exam­ples, become a role mode, take courage, thicken your skin for reviews and cri­tiques, and breathe. Don’t be too des­per­ate for the sale.  Oh and pro­tect your health, mak­ing art can be haz­ardous. It is a gift to make art, stay well so you can share it.

Let’s fin­ish up with more about the rela­tion­ship between  musi­cal rhythm and tempo  the rhythm and tempo in visual art.

Rhythm is also a visual tempo or beat within the art­work itself. Rhythm is an art prin­ci­ple. Artists cre­ate visual rhythm by repeat­ing art ele­ments and pat­terns. The rep­e­ti­tion of ele­ments adds bal­ance and har­mony to art­work. Alter­nat­ing lights and darks gives a sense of rhythm. The shapes, col­ors, lights and darks are the instru­ments an artist uses to give rhythm to their cre­ations. Rhythm is a prin­ci­ple of design with reg­u­lar rep­e­ti­tion of ele­ments that pro­duce the look and feel of move­ment. It can be achieved through the care­ful place­ment of repeated com­po­nents which invite the viewer’s eye to jump rapidly or glide smoothly from one to the next. Rhythm is impor­tant to com­po­si­tion and har­mony in a work of art. Ele­ments can carry their own sep­a­rate rhythms; color rhythms, line rhythms, and form rhythms.

Let’s look at some pos­si­ble rhythms; the most com­mon type, visu­ally could be dark light — dark light — dark light or insert another ele­ment like a shape, line or color. There are alter­nat­ing rhythms. Pro­gres­sive rhythms occur when there is a grad­ual increase or decrease in the size, num­ber, color, or some other qual­ity of the ele­ments repeated. Rhythms can flow and also be ran­dom. “Rhythm is as nec­es­sary in a pic­ture as pig­ment; it is as much a part of paint­ing as of music.” (Wal­ter J. Phillips) My motto as I men­tor is “Pay Atten­tion” by that I call you to do what we as artists do, in our job we take time to look, really expe­ri­ence the moment in the present with all of your senses. Can you feel the rhythm?