This week I’m continuing to explore my new idea of Artistic Intelligence, based on the existing theory of Emotional Intelligence (EQ).

I’m currently defining Artistic Intelligence (AQ) as the ability to guide our thinking to change our behavior so we can make art. It’s about recognizing and removing the mental obstacles that get in the way of making the art we want to make. It’s the ability to notice, identify, and manage our mindsets while creating art. And we can break that down into three distinct skills:

1. Artistic Mindset Awareness:

• Noticing where our head is at.
• Ex: “Huh, I’m feeling… weird.”

2. Artistic Mindset Identification:

• Labeling what…

Over years of making art, essays, and classes, I’ve learned that our mindset is the most powerful and influential tool we have as artists. It’s not talent, or expensive pens, or a fancy art school education that makes or breaks our art. It’s our mindset.

But that doesn’t mean that we’re supposed to have a perfectly positive, everything-I-make-is-great attitude. That’s unrealistic, and at times, ignorant. Instead, I think the artist mindset we need is more similar to what psychologists call Emotional Intelligence (EQ).

According to Wikipedia, EQ is:

“the capability of individuals to recognize their own emotions and those of…

One of the biggest things holding artists back from creating their best work is the things they believe. There are so many commonly held beliefs in art, and almost all of them exist in a binary world. They lead us to believe there’s a right way and a wrong way, a good way and a bad way. And they delude us into thinking that if we just follow these simple rules — if we draw things the right way — we too, can make good art.

The other day I read an interview where a musician was asked the question “do you make music to process or to search?” The musician, Sasu Ripatti — also known as Vladislav Delay — answered the question by saying he uses his music more to process:

“…as a way for me to deal with everything that’s going on, good and bad… There’s a real load of emotion, but also all kinds of stuff that it’s necessary to get out.” –Vladislav Delay, musician

The interviewer, Ruth Saxelby, agreed and expanded on the idea:

“Yes. It’s a release of energy. Music and…

In a previous essay, The Pressure of Greatness, I wrote about an interview with the photographer, Keith Yamashita. He believes he’s spent his time well as long as he pursued a “beautiful question”. And ever sense reading that phrase, it’s really stuck with me.

Basically everything I do at Might Could revolves around trying to pursue beautiful questions. It’s what drives these essays, informs my courses, and guides my artwork. All these things together help me explore and develop my ever-expanding creativity philosophy.

Having that creative philosophy helps to remind me of the meaning behind what I do and why…

Learning to make our art is a process of learning many different things. As growing artists, we have to strengthen our technique, grasp the artistic fundamentals, develop an artistic mindset, harness our natural tendencies, create an environment for growth, and cultivate the motivation to keep going.

I believe this last piece — cultivating motivation — is the least considered, but perhaps the most important. We often don’t think about our motivation for doing something, but we are all motivated by something whether we’re consciously aware of it or not. We all have dreams, goals, and ambitions.

My general process with these essays is that I write the essay on Monday morning, then edit, format and send it out Tuesday morning. Recently, that schedule has been a bit difficult to stick with for two reasons. One: I now have a 4-month baby in the house. And two: I’ve been feeling pressure to write a “great” essay every week.

When people ask what I do, I usually say ‘I’m an illustrator and I teach online art classes’. I’m hesitant to claim the title teacher, because the typical art teacher treats teaching as a one-way street of preaching the only way to make art (i.e. their way).

What I really should say is, ‘I’m an artist and art facilitator’. I’m making art on my artistic journey, and I also facilitate artistic growth in other artists on their own artistic journeys.

Instead of declaring my way of making art as the best way and teaching rigid technique tutorials, I’ve developed a…