Search brithammer.com
Contact me

Contact me here.

Buy my books

BREAKOUT! Your Pathway to Success

Mosaic: Finding Your Own Voice

Reflections: Textural Glass ArtMeditations: Messages From the Other Side

Earn money

Earn US$ 3.99 per eBook sold!

That's 40% of the retail price!

Tuesday
16Mar2010

Workshop in DC area in September

NEWSFLASH: I am very proud to announce that I have been invited to give a lecture plus 2-day Breakout and Find Your Own Voice workshop this September at Maverick Mosaics outside Washington, DC. 

So put 24-26 September 2010 on your calendar!

Maverick Mosaics is the teaching studio of Bonnie Fitzgerald, who currently sits on the board of the Society of American Mosaic Artists (SAMA). Bonnie is, herself, an accomplished artist, with many public projects to her name.

The studio is located in Vienna, Virginia, which is just a hop, skip, and a jump outside Washington, DC. Having grown up nearby, I can tell you that it's a great area and is easily accessible for locals and out-of-towners alike. Hop on the Metro, fly in via one of the three airports (Dulles, National, or BWI), or take Amtrak into beautiful Union Station.

The lecture and meet & greet will be held on Friday night with the workshop to follow on Saturday & Sunday. I'll announce further details in the coming days.

Monday
15Mar2010

Once you find your voice, explore it

One of the things that became apparent to me while working on my previous two books--Mosaic: Finding Your Own Voice and Breakout! Your Pathway to Success--is that many artists in the international mosaic community have one or two truly stellar pieces. And by that I mean inspired pieces that are also technically well-done. That unto itself is a great beginning for the medium of mosaic to be taken seriously by the art world, but the next step is to have more fine artists working to create cohesive bodies of work. Now, when I say cohesive, I mean a collection of artworks all in one voice or style...that are not just the same design in several different colorways.

I was trained as a fashion and textile designer, and one of the first things you learn in school is to create individual pieces that can stand alone but that also work together with the other pieces in the collection to form a whole. You can think of each artwork as a chapter in a book. Each chapter has a theme and expresses one or more ideas. Each chapter builds upon the previous chapters, and when all are grouped together, they form a book. The book is a collection of ideas and thoughts. This is what a body of artworks is.

From my vantage point, I see many artists still searching for their voices, which is the reason why I wrote Mosaic: Finding Your Own Voice and why I'm offering workshops. I also see many artists who have made those one or two great pieces but who are wanting help to take it to the next level, which is why I wrote Breakout! Your Pathway to Success.

I must stress that how your present your work is very important if you want to be taken seriously, but once you've created that solid body of work, know that it's OK to move in a new direction once it's "time". For example, I expressed everything I had to say in traditional mosaic and am now working in what I call Deconstructed Mosaic, exploring the fresco cement technique. I mention this because I see some established artists stuck in a rut because they're afraid to lose collectors or representation if they change their style. The bottom line is that they'll lose them anyway by not moving forward because the passion will eventually go out of their work.

Shakespeare said it best: To thine own self be true.

Friday
12Mar2010

Breathe, trust, allow

Breathe, trust, allow. It sounds like it could be the follow-up book to Eat, Pray, Love, but it's not. Breathe, trust, allow is the message of now. It's the message that will get us to what happens next.

There are many of us who are on the brink of what so-called New Agers call Ascension or the 5th Dimension, and we're standing at the portal about to cross the threshold. There's been a lot written about 2012 being the magical year when Heaven on Earth begins, but my feeling is that we've already reached it. It's just not visible in our daily, physical lives just yet.

Click to read more ...

Friday
12Mar2010

The Edge of Africa

I'd like to share with you Armand's latest video. It was filmed last year year in Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa. I share it for a number of reasons, the first of which is that I think it's brilliant--and not because he's my husband and best friend, either. He's a great storyteller--one who invites the viewer to apply his or her imagination. In other words, he leaves some things ambiguous so viewers can fill in the blanks themselves. It's a style I personally find engaging, which should come as no surprise since I promote self-expression, not copying.

If you're curious, I offer my interpretation of the story below the video with a footnote that it's not auto-biographical, even though I serve as the figure in the film's story.

Another reason I share it is to encourage you to look at film and all other art forms in a deeper way. Decide for yourself what happened to the woman in the story!

Click to read more ...

Monday
08Mar2010

Self actualization

Here's a great song to sing to help get you outside your shell. It's Diana Ross singing "I'm Coming Out" and it's so happy and contagious that you just got to dance along.

Here are the lyrics in case you want to sing along...

Click to read more ...

Thursday
04Mar2010

Blurb shipping

Newsflash! If you want to order a copy of any of my books, now is your chance because the email just came in now from Blurb:

Blurb is offering Free Ground/Economy shipping* on all orders placed by March 22.
USD $ promo code: WESHIP
GBP £ promo code: WESHIP2
EUR € promo code: WESHIP3

  • Offer valid through March 22, 2010 (11:59 p.m. PST). Offer covers Ground/Economy shipping costs for up to $7.99, £3.99, or €5.99 up to five books in one order, shipped to one address. This offer is good for one-time use and cannot be combined with other promotional codes or used for adjustments on previous orders.
Wednesday
03Mar2010

Overcoming the seed fear

I've blogged and vlogged a fair bit about fear, but I wanted to go more into what Steve Rother calls the "seed fear".

"That’s a fear you planted in your psyche at the time of death in a parallel life. (Remember, all time is now.) After you stepped out of your physical body you decided that it would be better to 'not do THAT again'. You decided that in your next life—this life—you would not call attention to yourself. Maybe you decided to just be 'ordinary' and to stay silent." - Brit Hammer

While the above passage is excerpted from my bestselling business book for visual artists, BREAKOUT! Your Pathway to Success, I wanted to summarize what I wrote in the book about how to overcome the seed fear. The short and simple answer is to acknowledge yourself.

Acknowledge how brilliant you are. Radiate it and speak it.

List out your strengths, talents, and what you're most proud of.

List out your accomplishments and include them on your CV.

Acknowledge all who endorse and promote you and your work.

Build on previous accomplishments.

Continuously hold a high vision of yourself and of your brilliance.

Validate yourself constantly throughout the day, every day.

Believe in yourself.

Tuesday
23Feb2010

Upcoming Breakout workshop in The Netherlands/Belgium

Just a heads-up that a 1-day Breakout & Find Your Own Voice workshop is being planned, to be held in either Rotterdam or in the Antwerp area sometime in the not-too-distant future. I'll conduct it in Dutch, but if any participants need me to speak English, it will be bi-lingual.

In the workshop you’ll be guided towards finding your own voice through personalized coaching and a series of individual and group exercises. You’ll share images of your work and practice communicating your thoughts about both your work and the work of others in the safety of a small group. The day will end with you understanding what your art is saying and how to express what you really mean.

If the above paragraph was not clear, I'll explain further. This is not a "make something" workshop; rather, it's a touchy-feely workshop with a lot of exercises, talking, introspection, and sharing. Students will be asked to send me in advance images of their work plus answers to a questionnaire to help me prepare for the workshop. The workshop will be completely customized to the group and group dynamics. The intention is that students will leave the 1-day workshop with an understanding of what their work says and will have concrete ideas what to further develop and how.

Know that finding and exploring your own voice is a journey that will continue well after the workshop. While I will do everything I can to help you, ultimately it's you who has to do the work. I've done it myself and understand firsthand some of the challenges offered by such a journey, so if you want further coaching after the workshop, that can also be arranged. I will also be happy to add a second day to the workshop, based on demand.

If you're interested to get the details of this 1-day workshop as soon as they're finalized (i.e. date, time, place, and cost), please contact me and let me know if your preference is Rotterdam or Antwerp. It's about an hour's drive between them, and both cities have airports, in case you'd like to fly in from other parts of Europe for the day. Of course, I highly recommend visiting Rotterdam anyway just because of our modern architecture!

Sunday
21Feb2010

Passion and balance

Sunny Bates on passion and balance.

Thursday
18Feb2010

Photographing fine art 101

In addition to my earlier posts on photographing fine art, I wanted to share some more tips, also when submitting images to publications.

Works shown in this episode, in order of appearance (photographed by artist unless otherwise noted):

Colleen Cunningham (photos: Miranda Jansen)
Heather Hancock
Yulia Hanansen
Grace Blowers (photos: Nathan Flowers)
Pamela Goode (photos: Mark Fortenberry)
Jacqui Ridley (photos: Robert Medvedenko)

As shown in my bestselling book, "Breakout! Your Pathway to Success", a business book for visual artists.