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Gwenn Seemel two white swans art making — painting process for Swans

This is where I share the story behind my work: the discoveries and the disappointments as well as the pressures and the pleasures of the creative life.

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2022

10/04 How To Friend People When You’ve Quit Facebook and Instagram
09/22 The Dreaded “You Should”
09/15 Singing Rainbows for a Puffin Foundation Grant
09/08 The Breath in a Painted Portrait
09/01 The Secular Prosperity Gospel
08/29 Pride Socks Tiger T-shirt
08/23 The Happy Medium in Art: Neither Propaganda nor an Empty Image
08/16 Why I’m Quitting YouTube
08/09 By Comparison
08/02 Social Media Is Bad for Art
07/26 Making Art When the World Is Ending
07/19 Why You Might Want to Join Mastodon (Or Why I’m Happy I Did)
07/12 Overthinker
07/05 What $24 Means to Me
06/28 IRL > Online
06/22 Holding onto a Rainbow
06/15 “Is Gwenn Seemel a Lesbian?”
06/10 After Janet Sobel: On Jackson Pollock and Text-to-image AI Art
06/06 Every Little Thing
06/01 How Do You Embody Pride?
05/16 New York City Art and My 19^th Artiversary
05/11 Elevating My Art Practice
05/07 When Art Only Makes Sense with the Help of Your Community
05/02 Art That Saves the World
04/22 Film Star for a Week
04/15 Catching a Cold (and a Clue) during a Pandemic
04/11 Celebrating Our Queer Planet and Shad Fest 2022
04/08 The Accidental Poetry of the Universe and Portraiture’s Powerful Extremes
04/05 Archaeologist of Play
03/30 Bleeding Heart of the Earth
03/25 Calling All Allies
03/15 Dominic Murphy’s Fecal Face and My Return to Adolescence
03/13 Walking this Path with You
03/10 The Future We Need
02/22 Extending Your Mind
02/17 32 Chews
02/09 Quitting Instagram and Facebook: The Perspective of 8 Artists
02/03 Proud of My Stripes
01/28 Live Painting for My Life
01/20 COVID’s Effect on Thinking (Even When You Haven’t Had It)
01/15 How To Get Over an Art Block
01/10 Childfree, Meatfree, Godfree, Genderfree
01/05 What I Learned Living Six Years in Conservative America
01/01 A Series Painted over Twelve Years

Gwenn Seemel humanist artist — photos by Gwenn Seemel

2021

12/20 Observance
12/16 Web Free-point-oh: NFTs, DAOs, the Value of Art, and the Cutest Kitty on the Internitty
12/08 Art Anxiety
12/06 Hi, I’m Gwenn Seemel.
12/01 Human Light
11/29 A Body of Work Taking Shape
11/26 Rest
11/21 How To Buy Art Like a Boss
11/17 How To Get Art Opportunities When You’re Not on Facebook and Instagram
11/11 Naive and Proud of It
11/05 What It Means to Be a Humanist Artist
11/01 Gift Cer-sticker-cate!
10/29 The Elephant in the Room
10/24 Artists Sunday = Planet Earth’s Funday
10/17 Why Artists Charge More for Custom Art
10/14 My Art on Handmade Karina Davis Bags
10/08 Mining My Favorite Insult
10/05 Read or Die
10/01 Online Open Studio All the Time
09/24 Uncopyright and NFTs: David Revoy’s Dream Cat-pocalypse
09/22 Toxic Positivity Versus Thoughtful Positivity
09/18 Communing with Fireflies
09/13 Why Artists Hate Putting a Price on Their Art
09/08 Always a Non-native Speaker
08/31 We Are All Influencers
08/23 How to Find and Follow Artists When You’re Not on Instagram
08/18 Back-to-school, Pandemic Style
08/13 If We’re Doing It Right, It Looks Like We’re Overreacting.
08/10 For the Love of Masks: A Sticker Sheet!
08/07 Getting Some Quality Input after a Whole Lot of Output
08/04 Tiger Fun and Brenda Dunn
07/31 Making Art More Accessible with a Simple Adjustment
07/27 Yearly Patronage to Make Your Budget Happy
07/21 Finally Ready to Let It Go
07/20 Getting Personal and Feeling Pride
07/19 A Lesson in Marketing from the Road
07/15 We Are All the Children of the Public Library.
07/03 The Only Way I Can Stop Myself from Painting
06/29 Diamond Painting: A New Way to Make My Art Yours
06/22 The Patriarchy Made Me This Way
06/17 Riva Lehrer and the Intensity of True Portraiture
05/30 Art IRL at the Princeton Public Library
05/28 Just Use It: A Message from Italian Street Artist Alessia Babrow
05/27 Venture Café Philadelphia: The Art Business Isn’t Like Any Other Business
05/25 Scientific Proof That an Artwork’s Success Is Arbitrary
05/22 Art Is Like Parsley
05/17 Art Mommy
05/16 The One Thing You Must Do When You’re Deleting Social Media
05/10 How Many Fans Will Make You a Real Artist?
05/04 Thank You for Taking Care of Yourself
04/29 Figuring Out Who Will Like Your Art
04/26 Art as Trust Exercise
04/20 An Artistic Kinship
04/13 The Long-term Effects of Censorship on Artists
04/09 Speaking (Online) at Venture Café Philadelphia!
04/05 Always Queer, Always Questioning
03/29 My Endo Journey: How I Got a Clean(ish) Bill of Health
03/23 Monthly Artistic Mail for You and the People You Love
03/19 The “I Got My COVID-19 Vaccine” Stickers and T-shirts
03/16 The Anti-Instagram Off-Facebook Update
03/12 Stupid Like a Geranium
03/07 What You Need to Be a Successful Artist
03/02 The Memory Card Game (But for Art)
02/26 Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Masks
02/20 What a Painted Portrait Really Says About You
02/17 Mirror, Mirror
02/11 The Good, the Bad, and the Best: Releasing Your Art from Copyright
02/06 Lacking Simplicity
02/01 GIF Gifts
01/20 A Perfectly COVID-19 Art Theme: Time Soup
01/15 #ArtsWorkersUnite #ArtsHero Letter to the Biden-Harris Administration
01/12 Roundup of Political Art Made during Trump’s Reign
01/10 Shout-out to the People Who Understand My Art
01/04 The Art Business Lies I Refuse to Tell (And Why I Hate the New Jersey Department of Labor)
01/01 Not Boring

Gwenn Seemel indie web artist — photos by Gwenn Seemel

2020

12/26 The Gift of Memories
12/21 From A to Z
12/14 How To Start a Patreon for Your Art
12/08 #LifesaversFanArt: What Is Your Favorite Part of Wearing a Mask?
12/01 #LifesaversFanArt: We Are the Guardians of Our Galaxy
11/24 #LifesaversFanArt: Send Out Some Winter Cheer, Pandemic Style!
11/21 Pressing Pause on My Painting Practice
11/17 Connecting Versus Collecting
11/12 Mask Giveway!
11/08 Where Were You When You Heard the News?
11/06 Public Art as Placeholder for Better Times
11/02 An Open Letter to Those Who Say They’ve Got Nothing to Hide
10/29 Canceling Facebook and Instagram without Offending People
10/26 Why Artists Are So Bad at Marketing Their Art
10/21 My Name Is...
10/20 #LifesaversFanArt: Why Wouldn’t You Wear a Mask to Protect Moi?
10/13 How Deleting Facebook and Instagram Is Changing My Art
10/07 What Do a Buddhist Leader, a Monster, and Three Kids Up Past Bedtime Have in Common?
10/05 Facebook and Instagram Cheat You Out of Your Creativity
09/30 Why I Am Deleting Facebook and Instagram
09/28 Beavers Build Ponds, Not Dams
09/23 The #LifesaversFanArt Campaign Is Catching On!
09/21 Conversations with Myself
09/17 Why I Am Comfortable Making #LifesaversFanArt Despite Copyright
09/15 Hug Your Artist Friends
09/11 #LifesaversFanArt: With the Novel Coronavirus Comes Great Responsibility
09/10 #LifesaversFanArt: Don’t Pik-achoo on Pika-me
09/09 #LifesaversFanArt: How Far I’ll Go to Keep You Safe
09/08 #LifesaversFanArt: SpongeBob SafetyPants
09/07 #LifesaversFanArt: Social Distancing, Frozen Style
09/06 #LifesaversFanArt: Wear a Mask, You Must
09/05 As Neat as a Pin
09/03 The Raven, the Elephant, and Mixed Media
08/28 Fan Art and Patreon Palooza
08/27 Super Affordable Prints
08/21 How Do You Occur in the World?
08/18 The Not-so-secret But Still Very Special Deals on My Art through Patreon
08/14 Your Worth Is Not Determined by How Much Money You Make
08/10 The Ultimate Proof That We Are Amazing at Working Together
08/04 The Thoughtful Rule-follower in Me Acknowledges the Thoughtful Rule-follower in You
08/02 Do You Believe in Xylophrogs?
07/30 Being a Slow Art Maker in a World Moving at the Speed of Memes
07/23 Getting Started without Knowing How You’ll Finish
07/16 Making Art while Everything Falls Apart
07/14 Virtual Party for Baby Sees ABCs!
07/11 A Most Artistic Baby Name Book
07/07 Baby Sees Book Club
06/30 Why We Should All Be More Queer
06/19 I Want to Celebrate
06/18 Half Dead
06/14 For Your Safety, Because Pandemic
06/08 Lacking Patience
06/04 A Rainbow American Flag
06/01 Why I Painted 676 First Names
05/25 Gratitude for the Me Who Got Distracted
05/19 Doing the Thing I Said I’d Never Do
05/16 How To Love Your Art #17: Define the Word “Love”
05/09 Chasing Joy
05/04 How To Love Your Art #16: Celebrate It
05/01 How To Love Your Art #15: Introduce It to All Your Favorite People
04/26 How To Love Your Art #14: Don’t Let Jerks Near It
04/23 How To Love Your Art #13: Don’t Claim the Copyright on Your Work
04/20 How To Love Your Art #12: Take a Break from It Now and Again
04/16 My First Food Art
04/13 How To Love Your Art #11: Charge a Lot of Money for It
04/08 How To Love Your Art #10: Give It Away
04/05 The Snake Philosopher and the Madness of Meaning
03/30 Sexual Assault on Zoom and a Not-so-live Studio Tour
03/28 Art in a Time of Mass Suffering
03/25 For the Love of Stickers
03/23 How To Love Your Art #9: Inventory Your Pieces
03/20 Artists and COVID-19: One Way to Keep Your Career on Track
03/16 How To Love Your Art #8: Document Your Work
03/13 Touching Elbows
03/09 How To Love Your Art #7: Play with Your Self-expression Versus Communication Ratio
03/02 How To Love Your Art #6: Decide on What’s Right and Wrong in Your Art
02/24 Understanding the Artist Behind the Work You Love
02/20 How To Love Your Art #5: Figure Out What Worries You Most
02/17 How To Love Your Art #4: Determine What Parts of It Make You Happy
02/13 Making Space for Reconciliation: Kate Powell’s Celebration of a Brand She Adores
02/10 How To Love Your Art #3: Talk About It
02/07 All Press Is NOT Good Press.
02/03 How To Love Your Art #2: Learn to Appreciate Other Artists’ Work
01/27 How To Love Your Art #1: Identify Art That You Find Boring
01/20 Why I’d Like to Have a Lot of Money
01/13 Reaching for Something More with My Jellyfish Tendrils
01/09 Being Inspired Instead of Jealous
01/06 Know Her Name
01/01 An Exquisite Tension

Gwenn Seemel in her studio — photos by Newsweek and Gwenn Seemel

2019

12/23 Celebrating a Decade
12/16 Shout-out to the Kids with “Weird” Names
12/09 “Put Your Art Out on the Sidewalk to Sell It.”
12/02 Report from the Social Media Afterlife
11/29 Looking Closely at Art
11/25 Literacy = Love
11/18 My Alphabet Starts with U
11/14 Free Frida: The Case of Nina Shope and Frida Kahlo Corporation
11/11 A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
11/07 My Understory
10/30 Translated into Italian
10/28 Consumers ≠ My Audience
10/21 A-B-C 1-2-3: The First Steps in My New Body of Work
10/17 Making Art Whole
10/14 The Gentle Client
10/10 End Times Ideation and Our Collective Potential
10/07 The Calm before the Creative Storm
09/30 Goodbye Social Media (For a While Anyway)
09/23 What I Learned Running a Kickstarter Campaign
09/18 The Not-So-Lonely Artist
09/16 Making Portrait Drawing a Little Easier
09/09 Sticker Collector Club: The Coccyx
09/07 Ethical Consumers and Independent Artists
09/05 You Are (Not) the Center of the Universe.
09/03 The Inspiration Behind My Animal Alphabet Book Collaboration
09/02 What Pleases Me About Figurative Art
08/31 On Being a Childfree Artist Who Is Making Art for Children
08/28 Why I Need $9000 to Create an Animal Alphabet Book
08/26 When You Are Already Bright
08/25 A Good Deal on Originals
08/22 Animal ABC Book Collaboration: Embedding First Names in Art
08/20 Precious
08/19 The Kickstarter for Our Animal Alphabet Book Collaboration!
08/14 Sticker Collector Club: Fairy Hands!
08/12 Please Stop Apologizing for Your Art
07/29 A New Kind of Series
07/25 I Have Beheld the Promised Land for Artists, and It Is Not the United States of America.
07/22 How Art Lovers Can Help Fix Art World Inequalities
07/17 A Small But Meaningful Gesture
07/14 Painting a Black Person’s Portrait Versus Painting a White Person’s
07/11 You Repeat Others More Than You Think, So Please Repeat Thoughtfully.
07/10 Join My New Sticker Collector Club!
07/08 Working from Photos to Paint Portraits
07/01 The 2 Kinds of Art Patron
06/26 Why Artists Rip Each Other Off (And How We Can Stop Them)
06/24 How to Take Care of an Acrylic Painting
06/17 Smearing Pigments
06/12 Tips for Painting Portraits from Other People’s Photos
06/10 Wedding Portrait!
06/07 Name That Copyright Violation: Celebrity Portraiture Edition
06/04 Responding to an Imitation of Your Art: Amy Constantineau and the Case of the Double Llama
06/01 Let’s Play “Name That Copyright Violation”
05/31 It’s Working
05/27 #FixRedbubble
05/20 2 Methods for Dealing with People Who Rip Off Your Artwork: “Threaten and Tell” Versus “Kiss and Tell”
05/16 My Non-artist Résumé
05/15 Dear Redbubble: You Do Not Understand Copyright.
05/13 Why Do You Make Art?
05/06 Job with Justice Travel Log, Part 5
05/01 Why Artists Should Be Paid Every Time They Exhibit
04/29 Civic Sharing (And a Livestream About the Behind-the-scenes of My Art Appearing in Newsweek)
04/28 Job with Justice Travel Log, Part 4
04/24 The Window Character in a Series of Paintings
04/21 3 Good Things
04/18 How Many Childfree People Do You Know?
04/16 On Being an Art-making Grownup in a Child’s Life
04/15 Rabbitosaurus Regina
04/13 The Hello Kitty President Is Back on Display.
04/09 April Openings!
04/08 Job with Justice Travel Log, Part 3
04/02 What I Have In Common with the People Who Hate My Art
04/01 Special Sale: Queen of the Sky (Bald Eagle)
03/28 Job with Justice Travel Log, Part 2
03/25 Auction: Sensitive (Jerboa)
03/20 Job with Justice Travel Log, Part 1
03/18 Pay What You Will: Queer Queen
03/15 3 April Shows!
03/14 Dear Copyright: I Still Hate You.
03/11 Us Too
03/06 A Job with Justice
03/04 Magic IRL
02/24 Appreciating the Villains in Your Life
02/18 How to Turn One Dollar into a Bajillion Dollars
02/13 The Relationship between Choice, Freedom, and Privacy
02/11 Solastalgia
02/07 Why Artists Should Accept Charity
02/04 A Different Perspective
01/29 Perfect Portrait Subject: Sylvia
01/23 Perfect Portrait Subject: Caitlin
01/20 Perfect Portrait Subject: Katie
01/16 Precious Portraits
01/14 Unraveling
01/10 Pop-up Paywalls Versus Donation Doors
01/08 How to Overcome the Idiocy of Algorithms
01/03 Peeling Back the Layers
01/01 An Inscrutable, Intense, Infectious Joy

American painter Gwenn Seemel speaking at the University of Quebec Montreal and making public art in Washington DC for Make Room — photos by the ADTE and Gwenn Seemel

2018

12/26 They Really Don’t Care
12/15 Gwenn Seemel Facts
12/08 The Middle Class Art Market
12/06 Repeat Face-lenders Program
11/28 What to Do When Your Art Is Rejected
11/25 New Site!
11/21 Caring Less About What Others Think
11/19 Living Gratefully
11/12 Pensive Pansy
11/05 Beginning Again
10/29 Flower Art Therapy
10/15 Picked
10/09 Another Seemel Photo Filter
10/01 Magical Doors
09/23 Beauty and Human Understanding
09/18 Special Offer for the Lenwoods in My Life!
09/17 How to Stay Creative
09/02 Community Is at the Core of Everything We Do.
08/27 My Artist Comb
08/21 The Tally
08/06 The Math in Art
08/03 Believing in Yourself
07/26 Painting without Planning
07/23 Preparing for Public Art in DC
07/19 Writers’ Group
07/16 The Power of Repeating Yourself
07/09 Painting Babies
07/02 Artists Who Work for Universities
06/29 Every Person’s Portrait
06/18 Congratulations!
06/11 Being a Jerboa
06/07 Not Like Any Other Business
06/04 Rage Drawings
05/30 How to Free Your Art from Copyright
05/22 Make Them Love You or Hate You
05/21 My First Business Lesson
05/20 Feedback for My First Show
05/19 When Your Friend Likes Bad Art
05/18 Perfectionism and Self-confidence
05/17 Comparing Yourself to Another Artist
05/16 Thoughts of a Baby Artist
05/14 Artists Are Magical.
05/07 I Am Not Independently Wealthy.
04/30 How to Know If You Copied Too Much
04/23 Feeling the Harmonies
04/16 The Song in Your Heart
04/11 “The People Who Don’t Get It Can Catch Up.”
04/09 Thanking Artists Who Inspire Me
04/02 Why Artists Need So Much Validation
03/28 The Tip of the Iceberg
03/24 American Ritual
03/19 Crosshatch Painting
03/12 The Success of Mediocre Art
03/05 Everybody Else Has It Easier.
02/26 Painting in a Traditional Realist Style Is Like Doing a Cover Song.
02/17 10 Years of Blogging
02/15 The Mistranslation of the Little Prince
02/12 Randomness
02/05 How Do You Make So Much Art?
02/01 Someone Left Their Hand on My Lap.
01/29 Jealous of Another Artist’s Career
01/22 My Complicated Rainbow Heart
01/19 Drawing a Cobra
01/18 Living Simply Is Part of Being a Full-time Artist.
01/08 Painting Bugs
01/02 All Art Is Political.

French artist Gwenn Seemel speaking at a conference in Quebec and attending an art reception in New Jersey — photos by the ADTE and David Vanadia

2017

12/26 My Hope
12/18 Painting the Naïveté of Men
12/14 Artists Who Don’t Want to Get Screwed by Companies
12/11 A PechaKucha Talk on Queer Art and Christian Supremacy
12/04 The Point of Activism
11/27 When Making a Gift of Your Art
11/20 Makeup Tutorial
11/18 The Best Dog in the Whole World
11/16 How Regular Microdonations to Artists Can Save the World
11/13 What Liking Art Means
11/08 Hello Kitty President
11/06 Don’t Forget
10/30 How to Start Promoting Your Art
10/23 The Grid Method for Transferring an Image
10/17 Me Too
10/16 How to Avoid Art Scams
10/12 Arty Items on Redbubble
10/09 Self-confidence as an Artist
09/28 Rules That Aren’t Laws
09/25 Antiracist Artist
09/18 Sunsets and Sunset Painters
09/11 Why People Commission Portraits
09/06 I Won’t Shut Up.
09/04 Important Artists and Self-important Ones
08/31 Drawing a Butterfly
08/28 This Is Your Brain on Affirmative Action.
08/24 Choosing between the Self-taught Route and Art School
08/21 The Rejected Artist
08/19 Angry Art
08/14 The Fine Art of Burning Bridges
08/13 Joyful Serenity
08/07 Seeing You, Seeing Me
08/03 All the Ways Artists Spend Money
07/31 How to Commission an Artist
07/27 Most People Don’t Want You to Fail in Your Art Career.
07/24 Are You Qualified to Be an Artist?
07/17 Inspiration for a Body of Work
07/12 Treating Endometriosis: Navigating the Doctor’s Ego
07/11 Among the Living and the Dead
07/10 Being Treated Like a Stranger
07/03 Studio Family
06/28 Round Paintings
06/22 Promoting Your Art Effectively
06/19 Drawing a Hawk
06/14 IRL Opening + Online Opening!
06/12 Surprise Portrait
06/07 Every Person Is a Work of Art.
05/29 Observation, Beauty, Imagination, and Why
05/25 Knowing Who You Are
05/22 Activism That Changes the World
05/18 Drawing a Rabbit
05/17 You Make a Difference.
05/15 Artists Shouldn’t Work for Free.
05/12 How Artists Decide What to Sell and What to Give Away
05/07 On Religion
05/04 Drawing Frida, the Bear, and the Television
05/01 Another Little Artist Secret
04/28 Being an Ally Is Scary.
04/27 Drawing Year
04/24 Respect Is Not a Scarce Resource.
04/20 Reuse
04/17 Why I Say “Fat”
04/06 Patreon and Supporting Artists on a Monthly Basis
04/03 Digging In
03/29 A Good Art Marketer Knows How to Listen
03/27 A Little Artist Secret
03/20 What I Want from Artists
03/06 Reading Books
02/13 Understanding Inspiration
01/26 My Heart Is Full of Rainbows.
01/23 Chicken Confidence
01/15 The Gwenn Seemel Photo Filter
01/09 A Successful Artwork
01/08 Why People Wear Makeup
01/05 How To Tune Out Useless Comments
01/02 I Am Queer.

art by Gwenn Seemel in Belgium and the French-American painter in her studio in Surf City, New Jersey in 2016 — photos by PointCulture Liège and Chris Seiz

2016

12/26 Being Like a Dog
12/22 Flitting
12/19 This Is How It Was.
12/12 Free Speech
12/05 Making It Automatic
12/01 Advice for Artists
11/30 How Much Is This Going to Cost Me?
11/21 Stopping Racist or Sexist Behavior
11/17 “It Is the Time You Have Wasted on Your Rose...”
11/15 Being a Partner
11/14 Compliments
11/12 It’s Because of You.
11/09 On Misogyny and Free Speech
11/08 Knowing What You Don’t Know
11/07 Enjoy the Silence.
11/03 Beautiful Belgium
11/01 How to Keep On Keeping On
10/31 Orthographic Projection
10/26 Daily Rituals
10/17 Creative Time
10/13 What to Do When Gatekeepers Are Biased (And Why I Don’t Write for Professional Artist Magazine Anymore)
10/08 In Belgium and in a Book
10/05 Prints on Redbubble
09/29 Irreversible
09/26 Shipping a Painting
09/19 In the Details
09/14 Repeater
09/12 Building the Ideal Studio
09/08 Sitckers!
09/05 From Childless to Childfree
09/01 Respect and Communication after Discrimination
08/29 The Professional Artist and the Hobbyist
08/25 Marketing Your Art and Sucking Up
08/22 Werewolf
08/18 Interpretation
08/16 No Thank You, Pessimism.
08/15 Bringing the Revolution
08/09 This Is What Discrimination Looks Like Sometimes.
08/08 The Link between Beauty and Death
08/05 Is Fan Art Real Art?
08/04 “You Think Too Much.”
08/01 A Portrait of Superstorm Sandy
07/28 Taking Flight
07/25 Doing What’s Best for Your Art
07/21 Making Money by Making Portraits
07/18 Painted Poetry
07/13 Celebrity Portraiture Is Boring.
07/11 Hurting an Artist
07/06 The Art Business Isn’t Like Any Other Business.
07/01 On Loving Amateur Artists and Staying One Yourself
06/27 Cleaning Up Your Art Documentation
06/23 Self-deprecating Humor
06/22 The Magic of Regular Microdonations to Artists
06/19 Happy Father’s Day
06/13 Painting and Photography
06/10 Painting Matt Burton
06/06 Mirroring and Repeating
05/29 An Animal
05/25 Defying Goliath
05/23 First Surf City Artwork
05/19 Jersey Girl
05/17 Sheree Keys and the Global Artist Academy: A Conversation About Pay-to-play Promotion
05/16 All the Ways That Artists Make Money
05/12 Being a Person before a Portraitist
05/09 Stress Is Good for the Animals.
05/02 Paint Layers
04/28 An Ontmoeting between MC Escher and Me
04/25 Unable to Talk About Art
04/20 Painting Portraits on Tote Bags
04/14 The Artist’s Vulnerability
04/11 The Problem of MORE
04/07 An Artist Instead of a Graphic Designer
04/04 How to Be the Perfect Artist
03/30 Art Is Not a Luxury.
03/28 Giving Advice
03/24 The Big Break Is a Myth.
03/23 Can You Trust Your Gynecologist to Treat Your Endometriosis?
03/21 Pastel Pretty
03/17 Complicated Kitties
03/14 Do Artists Need a Day Job?
03/09 On David Bowie, Fan Art, and Companies Killing Creativity
03/07 Not Everybody Loves You.
03/03 When an Art Writer Wants to Write About Your Art
02/29 How the Sausage Is Made
02/22 How to Do an Artist Talk
02/11 The Price of Being an Artist
02/09 Intuition
02/01 Targeted Art and Targeted Marketing
01/25 Monetizing Your Blog: Advertising Versus Patreon
01/18 The Portraitist’s Invisibility
01/11 Respecting Artists
01/06 Extraordinary Enough

art by Gwenn Seemel at the Joan Hisaoka Gallery in DC and how to make a living as as artist — photo by Charlotte Hager

2015

12/30 Bad People and Good People
12/28 On VAGA, Copyright, and What Motivates Humans
12/19 Grandmotherly
12/14 Uncopyrighting Art and Licensing It to Companies
12/04 What’s Been Going On
11/27 Finger Painting
11/19 Multicultural Mum
11/17 Old Portland, New Portland
11/16 Friendship
11/09 Skin Tone in Painted Portraits
11/06 What Is Your Ultimate Goal with Your Art?
11/04 The Tough Little House
10/26 Are All Artists Just Pretending?
10/19 How Uncopyrighting Your Art Can Help You to See People More Clearly
10/15 I’ll Tell You Something That Makes Me Unhappy About My Body...
10/12 House Portraits
10/09 Making Art Happen
10/05 What’s Next?
10/02 My Female Colleagues Like It When I Call Them “Girls.”
10/01 How to Make a Living as an Artist
09/28 Why I Don’t Use Ads
09/17 TED’s Copyright
09/14 How to Do a Conference Talk as an Artist
09/11 My Last Portland Painting
09/07 Free Online Drawing Workshop for Artists and Amateurs
09/03 Roar
08/31 Repeating
08/26 Free Yourself!
08/20 A Jay for J
08/17 My New Studio
08/12 The Full Figure
08/03 Abstraction
07/20 The Teacher Who Never Taught Me
07/13 Tracing
07/06 Living Artists Giving to the Public Domain
06/29 In the Garden
06/24 How to Get an Honest Critique of Your Art
06/22 The Legacy of Mayor Charlie Hales
06/18 How to Love Your Art (and Yourself)
06/15 The Artist’s Path
06/08 Seventh Generation
06/04 Drawing and the Artist’s Hand
06/01 Meeting
05/27 Open Discussions and Public Shaming
05/25 Dire “Please” en Franglais
05/11 Questioning Your Paradigms
05/07 Accepting Donations as an Artist
05/04 Evolving in Public
04/27 How to Love Artists
04/23 Selling Art to Strangers Online
04/20 Getting Out
04/16 Happy Paywalls with Bob Ross
04/13 Painting Fictional People
04/08 Watching and Acting
04/06 Why Portraiture
04/02 Just a Visual Artist
03/30 Self-expression and Communication
03/26 A Letter to Copyright Warriors
03/24 Givens
03/18 Treating Endometriosis: Physical Therapy and Squatting
03/16 The Good Thing About Mistakes
03/09 Superhero
03/05 Treating Endometriosis: a Gluten-free Diet
03/02 Forgetting the Name
02/26 7 Reasons to Try Being an Artist
02/23 Commission Work and How to Define Boundaries
02/19 Please Help
02/13 The Antidote to Fear
02/09 The Third Peak
02/05 The “He” Problem
02/02 Handprints and Circles
01/29 6 Steps to Freeing Yourself and Your Art
01/26 Inside the Artist’s Soul
01/22 Being My Own Art Historian
01/19 Original or Special
01/12 The Psychology of Self-portraiture
01/08 I Haven’t Changed a Bit.
01/05 Together
01/02 Painting My Favorite Puppy

French-American artist and free culture advocate Gwenn Seemel at TEDxGeneva and working on the Kirk Reeves mural in Portland, Oregon — photos by TEDxGeneva and Ifanyi Bell

2014

12/30 Artist Dean Russo in My Inbox
12/22 Piglets and Mudita
12/16 Taking and Sharing Process Photos
12/14 Say What You Mean with Regards to Image Use
11/17 What the Artist Adrienne Lewis Did for Me
11/10 Affordable
10/27 The Big Break
10/23 Doing “the Gwenn Seemel”
10/06 The Freelance Life
10/01 7 Lessons Learned while Doing Public Art Through the Regional Arts and Culture Council in Portland, Oregon
09/24 When the Regional Arts and Culture Council Lied
09/23 Craving Credit
09/16 The Copywrong in My Own Backyard
09/15 A Work’s Genealogy: Milt Kobayashi’s Influence on Nancy Rhodes Harper
09/12 You Made Me.
09/10 Testing for Trouble and Confronting Mortality
09/08 Why I Paint with All Those Little Marks
08/18 Artists and Leaders
08/12 Painting the Kirk Reeves Mural
08/10 Connect the Dots
07/30 Why Doesn’t the Kirk Reeves Mural Have Mickey Mouse Ears?
07/28 Scaling Up My Style
07/25 On Portraiture and Appropriation
07/21 A Very Personal Public Art Piece
07/17 How the Kirk Reeves Mural Is Funded and Why It’s Happening
07/06 Why I Am Painting a Mural of Kirk Reeves
07/03 Fonthill Castle’s Questionable Copyright
07/01 Artist Cindi Oldham: Interview About Art and Imitation
06/16 The Roles We Play
06/14 The Winner of the Owl and the Pussycat
06/05 Understanding Fear
05/26 The Hungry Artist
05/23 The Owl and the Pussycat
05/22 My TEDx Talk!
05/21 Failing to Paint Like Derain
05/18 A New Perspective on Originality
05/12 Writing an Artist’s Statement
05/06 My Talk at the AAAS
05/05 Citing Sources as an Artist
04/28 Why Artists Quit
04/24 Anger and Intellectual Property
04/18 How I Ended Up Talking at TEDxGeneva
04/10 Closed and Open at the Same Time
04/07 Adrienne Lewis and Me: 2 Painters, 1 Technique
03/28 Treating Endometriosis: Cookies
03/26 How My Style Evolved
03/20 The Allure of Hyperrealism
03/17 Why I’m Intimidating
03/10 How to Discount Art Properly
03/04 Dandelion
03/03 On the New Age Approach to Healing
02/10 Painting a Family Portrait
02/04 Cheaters Fear Cheaters.
01/27 2 Reasons Why People Buy Art
01/23 Commercial Use and the Free Artist
01/20 Tenacious
01/16 For Real
01/09 Workshopping!
01/02 The Dream

art by Gwenn Seemel in a Gap ad in Paris and the Portland painter in her studio in 2013 — photos by Claire Harai and David Vanadia

2013

12/12 The What and the Who
12/10 Translated into Chinese
12/09 David Hockney, Copyright, and the Five Stages of Grief
11/14 On Separating Artists from the Rest of Society
11/07 Where Religion Appears in My Art
10/31 Unsatisfied Portrait Clients
10/21 Training with Portraiture
10/17 The Fetish Photo Shoot
10/03 Why Artists Need to Learn About Copyright
09/30 The Alien
09/24 My Art in a Gap Ad
09/18 Being a Friendly Artist
08/19 The Dancing Argument
08/12 Using Portraits to Humanize
08/08 How to Start Selling Art
08/06 How to Publish a Book of Your Art
08/01 The Unexpected Generosity of the Public Domain
07/18 Surveying the Give and Take of Sharing Art
07/08 The Two Kinds of Criticism
07/01 Is Working from Photos Cheating?
06/24 An Art-writing Tip
06/18 Cross-pollination
06/17 On Being Picky About Who Buys My Art
06/10 Process Work
05/30 How to Write a Press Release for Your Art
05/22 Why I Can Write a Book About Science Even Though I’m Not a Scientist
05/16 10 Things Learned in 10 Years
05/13 Art Auctions and Artists Giving Back
05/06 The Artist’s Story
04/22 Drawing Me
04/10 How to Get Grants as an Artist
03/31 The Lie of the Artist’s Livelihood
03/20 Treating Endometriosis: Diet and Chinese Medicine
03/18 Drawing as Meditation
03/14 Treating Endometriosis: the Mirena Coil
03/11 Becoming an Artist
03/07 Treating Endometriosis: the Pill and the NuvaRing
03/05 Words and Images
02/25 Pet Portraiture and Pricing
02/23 The Real Danger in Not Standing Up for Yourself
02/17 What Artists Should Blog About
01/26 Deconstructing the Paywall
01/21 The Selfish Artist
01/08 Sucking My Thumb

Portland artist Gwenn Seemel on CubFluffer and her art at Place Gallery — photos by CubFluffer and Gwenn Seemel

2012

12/23 A Heartwarming Christmas Story
12/08 When People Take Photos of My Art in the Gallery
12/03 The Subtleties of Copyright: An Interview with Paul Kinsella
11/26 On Copyright Law and Being a Criminal
11/19 Why People Commission Portraits of Themselves
11/05 Choice
11/01 The Real Gift
10/29 How to Be a Professional Artist
10/27 Why I Don’t Shave My Legs
09/27 Purpose in Art
09/04 How to Make Portraits More Interesting
08/18 People Making People
08/06 Being an Adult, Being a Parent
07/29 Art and Pornography
07/25 Why Are You an Artist?
07/21 Art Therapy
07/10 Narcissism in Art
07/05 On Men’s Rights Advocacy and Feminism
06/21 We Can Be Giants.
06/14 Violent Tendencies
06/12 How to Price Art
05/16 Social Currency
05/14 Not Painting My Vagina
05/03 The Stupids
04/29 Smallness and the Artist’s Struggle for Immortality
04/26 Austin Kleon: Creativity, Copyright, and Superstition
04/25 Copyright Is for Scaredy-cats.
04/19 How I Paint My Portraits
03/26 The Pleasure of Panel
03/17 Ira Glass in the Looking Glass
03/15 Queer
03/07 Following Paintings: Gabe
02/20 I Don’t Do Drugs.
02/16 Dead, Tired, or Vital?
02/13 The Best Kind of Artist
02/06 Between Portraiture and Figurative Art
01/27 Following Paintings: Mary Anne and Katie
01/26 Taking Someone to Small Claims Court as an Artist
01/18 Becoming Peer
01/06 On Saying No and Saying Anything at All
01/01 Scarcity and Abundance: Let’s Talk About Copyright

art opening with Gwenn Seemel and her art in Lorena Kloosterboer’s book — photos by David Vanadia and Gwenn Seemel

2011

12/26 A Little Bit in Love
12/22 How to Put Hanging Wire on a Painting
12/12 Art in a Series
12/05 Good Photos Make Good Paintings.
12/01 Keeping the Faith as an Artist
11/29 Imitator? Yes. Innovator? Maybe.
11/17 Following Paintings: Lyndsay
11/13 Learning from Copying
11/03 The “Too Much” and the “Too Little” of Copyright
10/31 The List of People Who Told Me I Couldn’t Be an Artist
10/24 Paint-saving Palette
10/20 Following Paintings: James
10/14 Drawing a Wolf
10/05 A Conversation with a Disappointed Man
09/30 How to Stretch a Canvas
09/28 A Business Model for an Artist Who Does Not Use Copyright
09/27 Artists Who Believe in Copyright Are Like Tea Partyists.
09/26 How to Build a Stretcher for Canvas
09/21 Baby-raising and the Feminine Condition
08/22 Why I Make Art
08/17 Drawing My Mother
08/08 The Home Studio
08/05 Drawing a Shark
07/21 How to Commission an Artist
07/18 Your Favorite Kind of Animal
06/30 Magical Markers
06/02 Cultivating Self-confidence
05/31 Institutional Backing and Artistic Vision
05/05 Territory Versus Hierarchy
05/04 Do-over
04/27 Artists’ Contracts
04/21 Floor Work
04/13 Painting a Double Portrait
04/07 On Owning Culture
03/24 I’m a 711510.
03/07 Painting Versus Photography
03/01 Why Endometriosis Awareness Matters
02/12 Artists Are Future-makers.
02/07 I Sold My Soul.
01/13 My Copyright and My Copy Place

Oregon artist Gwenn Seemel on Art Beat and her art at the Northview Gallery — photos by Oregon Public Broadcasting and Gwenn Seemel

2010

12/26 Finished
12/16 Titled
12/08 Letting Go of My Art
11/29 Right and Wrong in Art
11/22 On Loving Wrinkles
11/10 How I Make Sure My Art Doesn’t Get Ripped Off on the Internet
10/28 For Art or for Money?
10/21 More American than You
10/04 Allegorical Portraiture
09/30 Painting Big
09/27 Between Life and Death
09/23 Putting My Face On
09/20 Common Portrait Mistakes
09/16 Where John Singer Sargent Gets Prickly
09/13 Art = Content + Delivery
09/12 The Small But Effective Act of Rebellion
09/01 Imitate This.
08/11 Raising Awareness About Endometriosis
07/26 Do You Call Yourself an Artist?
07/14 The 1960s Radical Separatist Feminist in My Head
06/21 On Being an Artist and a Feminist
06/14 Having an MFA Doesn’t Make You an Artist
06/02 How to Get Publicity as an Artist
03/26 Painting Portraits from Photos
03/01 The Expert Versus the Model
02/01 The Opposite of a “Painting a Day”
01/17 The Dregs at the Art Gym
01/06 “Thinking Outside the Box” Is Silly.
01/04 My Brushes

art by Gwenn Seemel and the American artist in her studio in 2009 — photos by David Vanadia

2009

12/23 In Defense of the Freelance Life
12/07 Granting Emergency Relief
11/30 What I Learned from Paul Missal’s Self-portrait
11/19 Down-to-earth
11/02 Drawing Life
10/16 How to Make Art on Commission
09/30 The Starving Artist and the Sell-out
09/18 Branding Yourself as an Artist
08/19 Photography’s Gift to Art
06/02 Learning from the Masters
05/13 Collectors or Patrons?
04/15 Sham Ibrahim: “An Artist’s Job Is to Tell the Truth.”
04/06 What’s in a Name?
03/10 Politics for Art’s Sake
02/26 When My Work Is Like a Steakhouse Dinner...
02/16 Legos and Cupcakes and Crayons, O My!
01/03 Buying My Work Should Qualify as an “Official Duty.”

painter Gwenn Seemel with a You Bag and in her studio in 2008 — photos by Kristan Seemel and David Vanadia

2008

11/03 Eye Like You.
10/26 Your Eyes Were Watching You.
09/27 How to Show Your Art
09/21 When a Presidential Candidate Is Like a President.
09/18 When a Presidential Candidate Is Like a Baby with Candy.
08/04 Portraiture for the People
07/20 My Disposable Thumb
07/07 The Difference Between Propaganda and Art
07/03 Paint Your Life
06/22 The Definition of Art
05/22 The Fine Art of Presenting Your Work
05/16 If You Don’t Document Your Work, You Never Made It.
05/13 Words, Words, Words...
04/23 The Look That Looks at Itself
04/17 On Being Part of the Transitional Generation
03/30 Denim That Refuses to Be Blue
03/20 Why Making Money from Your Work Makes You a Better Artist
03/19 Everybody’s a Critic
03/04 This, for Example, Is a Real Person.
02/23 What Is the Value of Art?
02/17 This Looks Like a Job for a Chicano!