The Holy Trinity of Art Making: The Head, The Heart & The Hand

Balancing the Head, Heart and Hand

I don’t know when this idea came to me. It might have been in graduate school when there was a certain professor, who should have retired many years prior, was appointed to ‘teach’ one of my graduate classes. On the first day, he came to class with a syllabus that was dated 7 years prior and printed on mimeograph paper. No lie. Everyone in the class was furious that he would think so little of his job and well, of us as students, artists and future professors. We staged a coup and overthrew him as professor of that class. We all decided to draw up our own syllabi and create a class for ourselves that would benefit each of us as individuals at that time and we kept one another accountable throughout the semester.

I created a class that I would have liked to see in my roster at that time. Something that included feeding all the parts of me that were needed in order to build a meaningful body of work. Based on what I had been doing in my other classes, I settled on the idea that good art is made with 3 important features all working independently, yet in balanced conjunction with one another so that they come together in the end to make that amazing piece of art.

Basically, my 3-part theory works like this…Art begins as an idea in the head, flows through the heart and then out through the hand. When these three essentials are exercised regularly and perfectly balanced (give or take a little perfection), they culminate to produce a cohesive, conceptually-based body of work.

Exercising the head

The art starts in the head-we conceive of the idea, visualize it and even create it to a point all in our heads. Sometimes the work never gets past the head. One of my friends and I laugh that we need to actually make all the art we’ve created in our heads and we’ll be famous!

When the three parts are out of balance and there is too much of the head contained in the work, it turns out to be Conceptual Work (with a capital C, capital W), not to be confused with conceptually-based work. Conceptualism is a movement that began in the 60’s and still continues today. The basis of this movement was to explore and challenge the fundamentals of what was considered art. Interesting as a concept and an investigation, but did it/does this form of art create good art? You can certainly draw your own conclusions and opinions, but I’ve never been a fan. For me, if I find that the placard on the wall explaining the art is more interesting than the art itself, there is a problem. When the head is out of balance with the other two essentials, the work is boring and leaves me flat.

To build up your concepts, read books about the subjects involved in your work. If you don’t know what those subjects are, complete a Mind-Map to help you delve deeper into your interests, find books on those subjects and read on. Read this Art Bite Blog Post for a step-by-step on Mind-Mapping for Artists.

Exercising the heart by being inspired.

So once the head is spinning with new ideas and concepts, the next place to filter that idea out is through the Heart. The heart gives that cold concept some warm fire, gives it the life it needs to resonate with the viewer.
When the heart is out of balance with the other three parts and there is too much of it, the work lacks substance and becomes whimsical or just a decorative object-think Hobby Lobby Art and Home. No offense if your home is filled with Hobby Lobby, I have some Hobby Lobby myself in both of my homes and it works just fine. Understand that there is a place for decorative objects, but they shouldn’t be confused with fine art.

OTHER THAN OTHER ARTIST’S WORK, what actually inspires YOU to create art? What makes your heart race (in a good way) when you think about getting into the studio? What materials can’t you wait to get your hands on? What images do you photograph or collect for inspirational purposes?
I do want to point out here that you should definitely be looking at both contemporary and historical artist’s work, this is very important research and should both feed the Head and the Heart. However, what I’m trying to get at by asking these questions is for you to look to YOUR own art for inspiration in order to feed your Heart.

If you don’t know the answers to the questions above, you can find out by, once again, Making a Mind-Map. If you’ve already made one to find subjects for books to read, look at the corresponding visuals of some of those subjects or make a new Mind-Map specifically with visual inspiration, materials and process in mind.

Exercise the hand by mark-making everyday for 5-15 minutes.

So now that your Head and Heart are whirling in a fiery blend of conceptual ideas and visual inspiration, it’s time to create art in your own voice through The Hand. The development of this part of the Trinity is at the crux of all artist’s work, the thing that sets the art apart from everyone else’s. When the hand is out of balance and there is too much of it, the art shows very good technical ability, but not enough personality, emotion or expression. When there is too much Hand, it’s difficult to find the artist in the art and the work can leave the viewer with little connection to it.

The reasons for developing Hand in the work is three-fold; to create a body of work in your own voice, to create a personal connection to you and your work and to create a personal connection between your work and the viewer. For me, with a POV as a teacher, mentor and artist, there is only one way to accomplish these objectives and that is to make marks for 5-15 minutes daily, regardless of whether it’s a studio day or not. When you practice moving those parts of your body and brain required to make marks, everything else in your art making process flows much more smoothly. The more marks you make and the more frequently you make them, they become indelibly written on your brain, your movements in the studio become more practiced and you will approach the work with confidence and knowing.

To help keep you moving and accountable on your Mark-Making journey, I developed the class, Mark-Making as Practice starting on September 17th. The classes are very simple…Each meeting, we greet one another briefly and you are given a mark-making prompt to get you started. During your drawing time, the aim is to respond to the prompts with little or no thought. Just respond and keep moving. Once you’ve let yourself get lost in the process, it becomes a very relaxing exercise and you begin to lose the judgement that you normally put upon yourself. Check out the Mark-Making as Practice Webpage for more information, supply lists, testimonials and to register…or watch an Introductory Video about the class.


Want to learn how to combine The Holy Trinity of Art-Making to create a cohesive body of work? Join me and an intimate group of artists for my new class, Mark-Making as Content, starting September 19th. Registering for this class will automatically register you for Mark-Making as Practice. Check out the website and join us!

Not ready for a class just yet, but you’d like to sit down and talk about your goals in the studio? Sign up for a Free 30-minute artist mentor consultation with me. If you have taken a workshop or retreat with me in the past, you will receive 10% off on sessions or session packages. Visit my Mentor Webpage to find out what I offer.