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An Interview With Visual Artist, Sharon Cory

December 10, 2015 by tprochera Leave a Comment

sharon paintingHey guys!

This week I wanted to open things up a bit and share some new perspectives. I thought it would be fun to get into the mind of Sharon Cory, a brilliant visual artist a painter, to be specific – who once hailed from Winnipeg, Manitoba but has recently relocated to Emerson and has been able to enjoy a thriving career through her art. So, asked her a few questions about her inspiration and her creative process and here’s what she had to say.

Me: When did you discover your love of painting? What attracted you to the medium?

Sharon: I’ve been making things with my hands since I was four or five. I remember that behind our house on Waterford was a factory that made upholstered furniture. There were always heaps of fabric pieces stacked outside in the garbage and I used to haul bags home to make crafts with. Things like doll purses and clothing. I would set up a table on the street and sell to the neighbourhood kids. As soon as I started school, I discovered the world of art materials and I was off and running. I learned from comic books how to shade, and use colour and all my spare time was spent looking at art and trying to copy how it was done. My grandfather was an artist and photographer, and although I was young when he died, I grew up knowing that it was a legitimate profession, although making a living at it was hard. I was the class artist throughout school, but was dissuaded from going into fine arts in university by the guidance counsellor because no one could earn a living at it, which was obviously a common theme. I went into architecture instead, but after the second year, realized that the fine arts faculty was where I should be. I had no interest in painting at that time because I fell in love with pottery…..it was just like being a child again, I spent all my time making things. But eventually I realized that it was the glazing I really enjoyed, the surface decoration.

Me: When did you first begin to identify yourself as an artist? When did you choose to pursue your craft in a professional manner?

Sharon: By my mid-twenties, I was sick of school, dropped out, still missing a few credits and got a job. After working for a few years to pay off student loans, I started to paint. By this time I was married and started having kids. I found that it was pretty easy to make painting a part of the daily routine and the kids were just as involved with their own art projects right alongside me. It was a very easy step into realizing how intrinsic art was to my life and when I sold my first painting, I felt like it could become my profession. It was probably another decade after that I felt like a serious artist, that is, I wanted to make, not just pretty pictures, but work that reflected who I am and how I felt about the world.

Me: On your website you refer to your family history, how your parents came from Lebanon, and speak about the Syrian refugee crisis and how we should be supportive and welcoming of these people in their time of need. You then include a series of works that seem to reflect on this topic and what the refugees are experiencing. How important is it for you to make a statement in your work? Do you always strive to convey a message?

Sharon: For the last twenty years I’ve felt like I’ve found my voice as an artist. I’m confident that the things that interest me visually are of interest to others and that I have the skill to interpret my impressions and opinions. Now that I’ve reached this stage, it’s impossible to go back to a perhaps more innocent kind of Art….you know, little children running through meadows of flowers, for example. There’s nothing wrong with that and often I paint something simple just for fun. But I see the world a certain way, I feel the hurt of war and victims, refugees, people who have suffered injustice. Painting these feelings helps me, in a cathartic way, to accept my powerlessness to right the wrongs.

At the same time, I feel life is wonderful, how people struggle to survive and raise their children is a beautiful process and by recording it, I can share in their struggle. We are all refugees in small ways….we live with fears and anxieties that make us feel like our life could collapse at any time and we have to be prepared to flee to safety. It’s all part of the process of growing. Many of my themes are centred around how women handle these stresses, because of course, that’s what I know.

I really feel it keeps me sane to play out these themes in my work. It’s the particular conversation that I want to have with people who look at my art. That answers question 5. The role of Art is to enable people to have a view into the many aspects of the world that they might not be able to experience physically. That’s why it’s timeless. We can look at a vista painted by Leonardo and feel like we’re living in Renaissance Italy.

Me: Your work has been widely displayed in galleries and you have been commissioned by a number of businesses and organizations. And yet, you also mention on your web site that you have no interest in promoting yourself. To what do you attribute your ability to have a thriving career without all of the self-promotion and hitting the pavement that so many artists dread but feel they must accept as part of getting themselves out there?

Sharon: It used to be the role of galleries and art agents to discover and promote artists whose work they felt was noteworthy or memorable in some way. Somewhere along the way it became more important to promote art that would make money and now things are way out of whack. Art has to have a gimmick to get noticed so artists have taken to promoting themselves. At some point you start feeling like a hooker, so I’ve concentrated on building a body of work and getting it out there by looking for a niche that I could fill. In my case, I found that I could paint recognizable scenes of Winnipeg that were still arty, and sell them to businesses. One or two clients led to ten then a few hundred, etc. Word travels quickly when there’s paintings hanging on the wall. To be successful, though, I had to develop a business attitude and look at my art as a product. This is anathema to most artists, but I could live with it as long as the commercial product was balanced by my own art. I looked at it as my day job that was still a lot of fun, because I was painting after all. I also set parameters for myself. I promised never to produce a painting that I would be embarrassed to sign. I refused to copy anyone else’s work or style. And as much as possible I avoided the middlemen of galleries and agents, and dealt directly with my client base.

Me: And last but not least, do you have any words of wisdom for those just starting out in their creative careers?

Sharon: I’ve spent a lot of time helping artists learn the tricks of making money at their art careers. The best thing they can do is put together a body of work before they start to sell. Through this process they’ll find out who they are, what they have to say, and they’ll get a lot of the embarrassing stuff out of their system. They have to brand their art , make it stand out from everyone else’s and that is a hard thing to do. They also have to find their market, the clients that will appreciate their vision. The world is flooded with good images, because of the net. Seeing good art everywhere can be intimidating and make a young artist feel like they have nothing new to say, so they end up copying. But if you look at the world of music, it’s easy to think that all the good songs have already been written so why bother? And yet, along comes a new hook, a melody that is completely new, a rhythm that hasn’t been heard. In art it’s the same. Technology has only added another way of looking at the world and opening our eyes. On a practical note, I’ve met thousands of artists who have a hard time selling anything, because they’re setting too high a price at the beginning. They want to jump in at the levels of established artists selling in galleries and it just doesn’t work that way. Start low and rise gradually as you get better.

 

I’d like to thank Sharon for her wisdom and insight. I know I was inspired!  To learn more about her work, you can visit www.sharoncory.com .

Have a great day!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blogs about music, canadian composer, canadian music, composer blogs, creative inspiration, creative living, painting, Sharon Cory, swimming tigress music, tips for artists, tools to create, visual arts

A Curious Mind – The Book And The Thing

November 6, 2015 by tprochera Leave a Comment

Hey guys!

So, I recently had the pleasure of reading A Curious Mind by Brian Grazer, the highly-respected and spiky-haired producer behind TV shows such as 24 and movies such as The Da Vinci Code and Frost/Nixon.

Grazer attributes his success in work and life in large part to his curious nature. He’s not afraid to ask questions and he intentionally seeks out inspiration and understanding. For decades, he has made a point of finding people whom he considers to be interesting for their life experience, their knowledge, and going to great lengths to arrange meetings with those people to learn from them in some way, shape or form – from Fidel Castro to Oprah Winfey. He calls these meetings “curiosity conversations”.

While I was reading this book I thought to myself, how curious am I? Certainly, I would consider myself an intelligent person and I read a fair amount, But how often do I let myself follow the breadcrumbs? How often do I seek out information from people? And when I am engaged with others, do I really dig in and ask questions or do I just sit back and let the other person talk, sharing what they will? What could be gained from that new mindset?

And so I thought I would try really digging in and approaching every interaction with a truly curious mind and I realized that I had been missing so much! There was so much to learn that I was letting slip by because I wasn’t as engaged as I could have been.

It’s rather new development but I’ve already been inspired by it and have noticed a difference in my creativity. I have been asking more questions of people and where they come from and it gives me new ideas to think about. When I come across something that intrigues me, I’m trying not to put it in my back pocket and say, “Oh, I’ll check it out at some point,” knowing that I probably never will. I’m trying to follow up and check it out.

Could you be more curious? What do you think would happen if you saw life as an adventure, something to really explore and investigate?

When you approach life with curiosity, you can be taken down roads you never expected. And, as a creative person, the new and unexpected is always fun, isn’t it? So, let’s take a page out of Brian Grazer’s book – literally! – and begin cultivating our curious minds!

 

Have a great day!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blogs about music, brian grazer, canadian composer, canadian music, composer blogs, creative inspiration, creative living, curiosity, curiosity conversation, curious mind book, inspiration, manitoba music, music blog, oprah winfrey, swimming tigress music, tips for artists, tools to create

Challenging Your Thoughts – Reminding Yourself About Who You Are

October 29, 2015 by tprochera Leave a Comment

artist 1Hey guys!

Okay, today’s blog is going to get a little bit deep and I’m hoping it will inspire all who need inspiring. That’s what I’m all about, after all!

So, I am currently working on some new career opportunities and have been sending out e-mails etc. as you do. As I was sending, I felt in my gut that I should actually be contacting people directly and all of that instead of the “To Whom It May Concern”, general company inbox thing but I’ll admit it, I was nervous for a number of reasons. I mentioned my activities to my sister, the fabulous life coach extraordinaire, and she, of course, brought up the fact that I should be digging deeper and making the connections.

I actually started shaking as I listened to her talk on the phone.

I told her that, even though I have read countless stories about positive interactions with big, important people, I kept hearing rejection in my head. I heard people saying, “Oh, everyone who talks to me wants something from me,” or, ”You music people, always bugging people, scrounging around for a gig,”

And it occurred to me. How much of this negative thought process, this perception of how others will react to me, is about how I might see myself and how much is a result of society’s perception of artists, or at least what I consider to be society’s perception of artists?

I felt, in my mind, that people who did not identify themselves as creators saw creators in the stereotypical “starving artist” light. Artists were the ones begging others to notice them – please listen to my album, please read my book – because what they did was of no real value – a fluffy little luxury, really – and, at any point in time, there would be millions of others trying to do the same thing. No matter how much I valued what I did and knew of its intrinsic worth in society – I can’t imagine what the world would be like without music or film or storytelling – I never thought that others, even those in the industry in a more executive capacity, would see it that way. I assumed that, in meeting with a film producer for example, I would be told, “You are the tenth person who has approached me about this today. I’m tired of all you people thinking that I’m going to give you a job.”

Do you ever feel that way? Do you feel like others may not see what you do as worthwhile so you are afraid to approach them for fear of rejection? Am I the only one?

I realized at that moment that this was the belief I had to abolish if I was ever going to get where I wanted to go.

To achieve great things, you must take some bold risks. You can start off slowly, taking baby steps towards your goal, but, as the momentum builds, you are going to have to do some things that scare you, like making that first phone call to somebody you really want to talk to but have felt might be out of your reach. And if I was going to do that, I had to adopt the belief that they might actually want to talk to me. I had to believe that I was worth their time, had something valuable to contribute, and that they would also realize this. True, I had to be prepared for the fact that not everyone may say yes, that my reaching out may not come at the most opportune time or my work might not be to everyone’s taste, but I had to have faith that there would be a place for me out there and there would be someone who would welcome what I had to offer.

So, if you catch yourself feeling this way, like others may not see you as being worthy of their attention so you don’t even try, I invite you to challenge this thought. I have put together a little affirmation of sorts that you may want to use when you feel those doubts creeping in. But feel free to make up your own!

 

I am a talented artist who creates out of love for the good of all.
I have something valuable to contribute to the world and I need not fear reaching out to others so that I may share it.
My creativity is a gift from the Divine and it will blossom in the right place at the right time with inspired action and faith.

 

There you go! Use as you wish, have a fabulous day and keep on creating!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blogs about music, canadian composer, canadian music, challenge your thoughts, composer blogs, creative inspiration, creative living, manitoba music, music blog, positive thinking, swimming tigress music, tiffany prochera, tips for artists

The Ins and Outs of Crowdfunding

September 23, 2015 by tprochera Leave a Comment

kickstarter screenshotHey guys!

 

I hope you’re having a great week so far!

As you have may have seen in the last couple of posts, I have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for manufacturing a limited quantity of Ladybug Crossings CDs to start things off.

It’s my first such campaign, it has been an interesting experience so far and I’ve realized, in talking with people, that not every is aware of how crowdfunding works or where to go to participate in it so I thought I would share some insights with you this week.

Some of this info you may already be familiar with, some perhaps not so here we go!

Kickstarter and other sites like it such as Indiegogo and Gofundme are what are known as a “crowdfunding” sites. A crowdfunding site is a place where can have everyday people donate directly to your cause or project . This is a much different process from applying for government grants where your project is judged by a panel and you submit proposals at certain times of the year and you may have to wait a long time to get approved, depending on what you are engaging in, and if you do get approved there are certain rules you need to follow . I was speaking with a writer who applied for a grant to write a novel and, yes, he received the funds and, according to the agreement, he was not permitted to actually start writing the novel for almost a year. With crowdfunding, you can create a campaign today and start receiving donations tomorrow. It’s just different ways of going about things with their own pros and cons, as you will see.

Different sites will have different foci depending on who their target demographic is. Kickstarter and Indiegogo, for example, are specifically designed to support creative projects so you wouldn’t start a campaign there if you were raising money for a family in crisis, for example. That’s more of a Gofundme kind of thing.

But if you were wanting to raise money to record an album or produce a film, these sites could definitely be an option.

It works like this.

First you have to clarify the goals of the project. You need to know how much you need to raise, exactly why you need to raise it and by what date. For example, I wanted to raise $3000 to design and manufacture some CDs by the end of September.

Then you set up a page on the site with details about yourself and the project. Potential funders need to know your past experience, what you are looking to achieve, etc. If you make a film, who is involved in the production? Have you produced a film before? What are you going to do with it once it is completed? The site recommends that you use a video to really help make a connection with your audience.

Once you have your details about you and project worked out, you need to put in some potential rewards – kind of like PBS! If someone donates $40, they might get a copy of the CD, for example. If they donate $100, you might want to give them a shout out in the liner notes as well. There are lots of options and it’s a great chance to be creative. I saw a musicians campaign where for a donation of x amount, she’d get together with you and play video games or something like that. And funders aren’t obliged to take the rewards and can always choose to donate just because. Awe!

But here are a couple of things to remember about this system.

  • Don’t forget the fees.

It doesn’t cost anything to launch a campaign but the organization that runs the site does take a small percentage of the money raised and they may charge you for credit card transactions etc.. It is a business after all! So, it’s important to take that into account when setting your goal amount. If you actually need $10,000 to complete your project, you might want to add another $1000 to cover fees.

  • Be real about the rewards.

Remember that you are trying to raise money for your project! If the cost of fulfilling on your reward exceeds the cost of the donation, you’re kind of missing the point of the whole thing.

On Kickstarter you need to indicate the scope of the reward – can you deliver on it international, locally etc.? I came across a campaign for someone trying to raise money for an album and, for a donation of $2500, they would put on a house concert. On the surface that might sound reasonable but, according to the specs on the rewards, he was willing to put on the concert anywhere in the world! So, if someone from Europe supported him with such a donation he would be committed to traveling there to perform. You add up your flight, hotel etc. and there goes your $2500!

So make your rewards reasonable to ensure that you still get something out of it.

Once you officially launch your project you need to gather all your resources and get the word out. Facebook, Twitter, ask family and friends. All of that. As you continue to work on your project – the planning etc. – you can post updates so your funders know that something is happening and you can get them emotionally invested in what you are doing.

There are companies who will, within minutes of launching your campaign, contact you offering their services, telling you that they have x number of thousands of Twitter followers and, for a fee, they will send out the details of your campaign to them.

I have not used these services as yet and I advise you to be wary of them. There may be legitimate people with legitimate contacts but you don’t always know where those tweets are going. If you can find a group that has real human followers that actively invest in creative endeavours it might be worth looking into but do your research first.

Here’s the catch with these crowdfunding systems.

If you raise enough money, you’re golden. Once the campaign is over according to the date you specified, and you have reached or exceeded your goal, the money is taken from the funders – usually through credit cards – and deposited into your account and you then go through the process of a) finishing your project and b) fulfilling on your rewards obligations. The rewards can obviously take some time because the album has to be recorded before you can send it out to anyone!

However, if you don’t reach your fundraising goal, no money is transferred and you are back at square one. That is, obviously, the potential problem.

But even if you don’t ultimately raise the money, is it still an opportunity to connect with people and get the word out there. That’s why I did it. It was another avenue to reach out to people.

So, if you haven’t already tried it, explore a little, check out the sites. You might just find it’s a new way to make things happen!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blogs about music, canadian composer, crowdfunding, indiegogo, kickstarter, ladybug crossings, manitoba music, music blog, swimming tigress music, tiffany prochera, tips for artists, tools to create

Cross-Inspiration: Learning From Other Art Forms

September 17, 2015 by tprochera Leave a Comment

crossinspirationHey guys!

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about trying on other creative roles, suggesting that we often identify ourselves in a certain way and it can sometimes keep us in a box so it can behoove us, if you will, to try something new to inspire us and to see things from a different angle.

Today I’d like to talk about being inspired by art forms other than those in which we currently engage.

As a musician, for example, I am often inspired by the music I hear, by the elegant poetry of the lyrics, the unexpected chord progressions or the effective production of the recording. And, while I would never attempt to take from another’s work, it is only natural for a person to learn from the work of others in their field.

But I can also learn and grow as a musician from things that are not music-related. My musical inspiration can come from many places, and by that I do not mean seeing daily events as thematic material for my work. There’s more to it than that.

Sometimes dancing can make me think of music. Sometimes a scene in a movie can bring melodic motifs into my head. These are obvious pairings as most dance is performed to music and there is a musical score behind most films.

But it’s not even about these art forms working together in an expected way.

When I was directing a musical earlier this year, there was a character in the show who was a refined and, yet, passionate man of Russian background. I suggested to the actor portraying him that he view videos of the amazing figure skater, Victor Petrenko. I gave him this homework because I wanted him to sing and act like Petrenko skated, with that technical perfection infused with emotion that was both moving and mesmerizing to watch.

When you watch a great new film or one of your existing favorites, notice the pacing of the action of the dialog. Notice the setting. Can you use any of the stylistic or linguistic techniques to enhance your own work? What would the bold colours of a film from the 1960’s look like as a musical piece? Does a brush stroke in a painting make you think of a haunting cello line? Does that small statue of a little girl in the museum inspire a poem or, perhaps, an entire novel telling her story?

This is all about creating a kind of artistic synesthesia, if you will, whereby the different art forms inspire and fuel each other. More about synesthesia in a future blog post.

 

In Swimming Tigress Music news,

We are now well into September, the new lesson season. So, if you or anyone you know is looking to experience the joy of learning to sing, I am currently accepting students in person and via Skype for the upcoming year. You can find more information on the Music Lessons page on this site and then contact me through the Contact page if you have any questions.

 

Well, that’s all for now. Have a fabulous day!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blogs about music, canadian composer, canadian music, children's music, creative inspiration, creative living, kickstarter, ladybug crossings, music for kids, music teachers, swimming tigress music, tiffany prochera, tips for artists, tofaru, tools to create

Don’t Let The Tech Get You Down!

September 11, 2015 by tprochera Leave a Comment

frustrationHey guys!

 

So I had a blog post already to go for this week and then something happened. In my attempt to lift my laptop off of my ottoman on Wednesday, I managed to drop it. My foot broke the fall but, apparently, it was enough of a jostle to cause the back light to go out so it would boot up but the screen was completely black. I brought it in and, because of a few other issues that were already present, the fellow told me it wasn’t worth fixing and I should just get a new one.

So, for the time being at least, I was unable to post the blog but that’s okay because this scenario inspired a new topic altogether!

Now, this might get a little woo woo but I’m all about the woo woo so stick with me here.

Most of us use technology to create or at least support our creativity. Whether you write or compose music on a computer or you use social media to let your fans know about your next art show, technology is a part of what we do.

And sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes things go wrong at a critical moment when they really need to be going right. Your hard drive crashes just before your album’s about to drop. Your audio software won’t let you make the mp3 files that you need to send to a voice client asap.

At moments like that, thoughts can be going through your head like, “Maybe I’m not meant to do this. The universe is giving me a sign that I need to change my direction.” Trust me – I have had those thoughts many times!

But here’s the thing. The universe is not giving you a sign that you should quit.

If you have the desire to keep on, then you’re supposed to keep on. What the universe is telling you is it’s time to upgrade so things run more smoothly for you in the future. The universe is telling you to release the album next week when it will be better received because of some event that will make it the perfect time for your music to get out into the world. The universe is telling you that you might want to listen to that audio file again because you somehow failed to delete some profanities that you dropped after you made a mistake while you were recording.

And sometimes these things just happen because they happen.

When I was studying music at university, one of my professors said something I will never forget. He told us to not let our work be limited by technology. In that scenario, he was referring to the capabilities of certain software and how we can always find a way to do what we want to do but that advice applies here as well.

When you experience those crisis moments, after you’ve shed the necessary tears and cursed the gods above, sit still for a moment and ask yourself, if this wasn’t happening right now, do I still love my work? Do I love creating music/writing/making films? If you can say that, if you acknowledge that you still love the essence of the craft, than you are still supposed to be doing it.

Maybe there is a way of working that uses less technology if that’s more comfortable for you. Maybe it’s about upgrading your tools so you can work more effectively. Or maybe it’s about learning to be patient, keep calm, know that these things happen and you can work through them.

 

In Swimming Tigress Music news,

It’s September, the start of the new lesson season. So, if you or anyone you know is looking to experience the joy of learning to sing, I am currently accepting students in person and via Skype for the upcoming year. You can find more information on the Music Lessons page on this site and then contact me through the Contact page if you have any questions.

 

Well, that’s all for now. Have a fabulous day!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blogs about music, canadian composer, canadian music, composer blogs, creative living, ladybug crossings, manitoba music, music for kids, music teachers, music technology, swimming tigress music, techical troubles, technology, tiffany prochera, tips for artists, tools to create

Muse TV – How To Address Expectations And Questions From New Students

September 4, 2015 by tprochera Leave a Comment

Muse TV  how to deal with situations title image Hey guys!

So, this week I would like to present another episode of Muse TV!

If you haven’t see it before, Muse TV provides tips and tricks for musicians and music teachers.

This episode is called How To Deal With Expectations From New Students. As music teachers, we are presented with students who want to take music lessons for a variety of reasons and each student comes with their own expectations of how lessons should go and what they are looking to get out of them – the stories are really as numerous as the number of potential students!

I wanted to present some scenarios that I have encountered personally so help those beginning teachers who may not quite know how to respond to these expectations and questions – like, what can you say when a student tells you they just want to be famous? Or what if they don’t want to do warm-up exercises?

I hope you find this episode illuminating in some way! And if you have any other scenarios that you have experienced, feel free to share the story and how you handled things in the comments below! I’d love to hear what you have to say!

 

 

 

Well, that’s about all for now. Have a fabulous day!

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blogs about music, canadian composer, canadian music, composer blogs, creative inspiration, creative living, learn to sing, music teachers, singing lessons, swimming tigress music, tiffany prochera, tips for artists

The Beauty of Creative Cross-Inspiration

August 20, 2015 by tprochera Leave a Comment

crossinspirationHey guys!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I talked about trying on other creative roles, suggesting that we often identify ourselves in a certain way and it can sometimes keep us in a box so it can behoove us, if you will, to try something new to inspire us and to see things from a different angle.

Today I’d like to talk about being inspired by art forms other than those in which we currently engage.

As a musician, for example, I am often inspired by the music I hear, by the elegant poetry of the lyrics, the unexpected chord progressions or the effective production of the recording. And, while I would never attempt to take from another’s work, it is only natural for a person to learn from the work of others in their field.

But I can also learn and grow as a musician from things that are not music related. My musical inspiration can come from many places, and by that I do not mean seeing daily events as thematic material for my work. There’s more to it than that.

Sometimes dancing can make me think of music. Sometimes a scene in a movie can bring melodic motifs into my head. These are obvious pairings as most dance is performed to music and there is a musical score behind most films.

But it’s not even about these art forms working together in an expected way.

When I was directing a musical earlier this year, there was a character in the show who was a refined and, yet, passionate man of Russian background. I suggested to the actor portraying him that he view videos of the amazing figure skater, Victor Petrenko. I gave him this homework because I wanted him to sing and act like Petrenko skated, with that technical perfection infused with emotion that was both moving and mesmerizing to watch.

When you watch a great new film or one of your existing favorites, notice the pacing of the action of the dialog. Notice the setting. Can you use any of the stylistic or linguistic techniques to enhance your own work? What would the bold colours of a film from the 1960’s look like as a musical piece? Does a brush stroke in a painting make you think of a haunting cello line? Does that small statue of a little girl in the museum inspire a poem or, perhaps, an entire novel telling her story?

This is all about creating a kind of artistic synesthesia, if you will, whereby the different art forms inspire and fuel each other. More about synesthesia in a future blog post.

 

In Swimming Tigress Music news, I am excited to announce our that I have just finished the last track for the Ladybug Crossings album! The lyric video for Mr. Willywallywolowitz will be out shortly and I’m expecting the album to be released at the end of September!

Speaking of September, it is almost the start of the new lesson season. So, if you or anyone you know is looking to experience the joy of learning to sing, I am currently accepting students in person and via Skype for the upcoming year. You can find more information on the Music Lessons page on this site and then contact me through the Contact page if you have any questions.

Well, that’s all for now. Have a fabulous day!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blogs about music, canadian composer, canadian compsoers, canadian music, composer blogs, creative inspiration, creative living, cross inspiration, inspiration, ladybug crossings, swimming tigress music, tiffany prochera, tips for artists, tools to create

Who Are You Talking To? Knowing Your Audience

August 12, 2015 by tprochera Leave a Comment

who are you talking to rainbow pngHey guys!

Some time ago, I posted a blog called “Who are you as an artist?” which looked at what we want to represent as an artists and the message we wish to send.

Today, I would like to add to that conversation by asking the question, who are you talking to when you create? What type of person you are looking to reach with your artistic expression? The answer to this question will affect the way you create your art as well as the way you market it and release it into the world.

Of course, who we are talking to , or our “demographic”, may change from year to year or from project to project as we are constantly seeking growth and new experiences, which can also mean trying on new methods of creative expression. The point is, a performer of children’s music who decides they want to try their hand at writing a book for young adults will likely approach the work in an entirely different way.

You may not always have an anticipated audience in mind at first. When you first conceive of a book, you may simply have a vision of a character or a situation and not be quite clear as to how the story will evolve.

However, over time, you will hopefully recognize the story that you are trying to tell and have some concept of who that story is for, whether it be adults, teens, or children. You might also want to look at the specific type of adult, teen or child who will benefit from your work. Is it directed at a particular type of person – say, someone interested in sports or someone interested in spirituality? We can often be be inclined to think big and say our book or our music will appeal to everyone so as to cover all the bases and gain the widest possible audience but you are really doing yourself and the work a disservice and run the risk of the work being unfocused and, ultimately, not appealing to anyone.

Knowing who your audience is can clarify the language you use, the themes presented, the complexity of the work and much more so once you’ve got that figured out you may want to go back and make some adjustments.

This is not to suggest that you need to squelch your creativity or that you have to cater to anyone, per se. Rather, it is an understanding that certain language may not be appropriate for, or understood by, young readers or a song with many key changes may be complicated for younger ears. Or realizing that a certain demographic will appreciate subtle nuances, subtext and plot twists whereas another might be completely baffled.

It’s not giving in or selling out. It is creating something that people will enjoy and find meaningful. And that’s the goal after all, isn’t it?

As a singer and composer, I have a rather diverse musical background and I have enjoyed it all. But I have to remember that my style of writing in an operatic aria will be different in many ways from my style of writing of a pop song or a children’s song. The chord progressions will be different. The melodic lines will be different. I have had family members listen to a pop song I had recorded and tell me there is just “too much” in there – too many words, too much going on musically. It took some time for me to realize that, while some unique twists are fun and interesting, I was writing a song, not a symphony.

And I have found myself using a somewhat different singing voice with my children’s work. I feel young ears will relate to a sweeter sound rather than a big, booming opera voice. Not that the styles never influence each other but singing Doodley Doo with an operatic tone? I’m not sure how that would fly. 🙂

Similarly, if you are an artist who has been asked to create paintings to hang on the walls of a fine dining restaurant, the subject matter you explore might be different than if you were working on painting for a children’s hospital. You are setting the tone for that space and must be cognisant of how that space is being used and by whom.

If this is not a work for hire, which would already have a pre-determined home, once the project is complete it is a matter of knowing how to reach those people for whom your work is intended. An entire book could be devoted to the topic of marketing alone, of course, and certainly that has been done. But for the purposes of this discussion, I would like to suggest that if you have, for example, written a book on spirituality, you may find that there are many other ways to reach your audience outside of libraries and bookstores.

When you know who your work is for, then you can find creative ways to get your work out into the world. Does your audience use social media? Does your audience go to farmers markets? Does your audience attend Com-Con every year?

So, as you work on your next song, story, painting etc., think about who you want to reach and see if that changes anything. When you know who you’re talking to, they’re more likely to listen!

 

In Swimming Tigress news, I’ve just put up what will be the last lyric video from Ladybug Crossings for Loud! So much fun! I hope you enjoy it!

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blogs about music, canadian composer, canadian music, composer blogs, creative living, know your audience, ladybug crossings, lyric video, manitoba music, market your art, market your music, marketing, music blog, swimming tigress music, tiffany prochera, tips for artists

Sometimes It Just Takes a While – Give Your Dreams Just a Little More Time!

August 5, 2015 by tprochera Leave a Comment

Hey Guys!

So, most of us, when we take on a creative career, want to reach as many people as possible. As humble as we want to be, on one level we would love to have people all over the world singing our songs, reading our books, enjoying our paintings.

So when we put something out there, when we release our child into the world, we can become discouraged and dismayed if there isn’t an immediate response – if we don’t have Hollywood directors or major publishing houses beating down our door the day after the launch. I myself have boxes of books and CDs that I’m actually pretty proud of but, for a variety of reasons, have not as yet been commercially successful, though they certainly have inspired those who have been exposed to them. 🙂

I say they have not “as yet” been successful because I am well aware that circumstances can change.   I was recently watching an interview with the lovely Rachel Platten, the singer/songwriter behind the inspirational hit of the summer, Fight Song. She spent years working regular jobs and playing gigs until the wee hours of the morning and was on the verge of giving up when she came upon one of her old journals from her childhood and found herself inspired by this young girl who had such faith in herself. And now she’s performing in front of thousands of people every night all over the world!

Check out the clip from the show and I bet you’ll be ready to make your dreams happen!

 

I also want to share a tasty tidbit from Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday when she interviewed the fascinating Paulo Coehlo, author of the inspiring philosophical novel, The Alchemist.

Now one of the most popular books of all time, having sold 65 million copies, Coehlo will be the first to admit that The Alchemist was hardly a phenomenon when it was first released. The book had a slow start, to say the least!

After selling next to zero copies of the book over several months, he went on the search for another publisher..

Then, when the book was reissued, the word started to spread like wildfire, with A-list celebrities singing its praises, and history was made!

 

I want to say this. Certainly people can change paths and there may come a time when it would be best to move on to something else that will ultimately prove to be more fulfilling for you. But if you truly believe with all your heart that you are doing what you are here to do on this earth, do what you need to do to make sure you have a roof over your head and all that and give your dream just a little more time to percolate! You’ll be glad you did!

And don’t forget to add your two cents or a nickel to this conversation. Did you have a dream come true just when you were ready to quit? Did you just know something was meant to be even though you weren’t seeing the results you wanted right away and then suddenly it all came together? Let us know!

 

In Swimming Tigress Music news this week, I’ve posted a bunch more fabulous and fun material on Pinterest, including sheet music, demos and more, so check it out and enjoy!

Have a fabulous day!

 

 

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blogs about music, canadian composer, canadian music, composer blogs, don't give up, follow your dreams, inspiration, manitoba music, music blog, Paulo Coehlo, Rachel Platten, swimming tigress music, tiffany prochera, tips for artists, tools to create

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