The Pinups of Betsy VanDeusen

My friend Betsy VanDeusen in Los Angeles, CA is spending her 29 to 30th year creating the The Pinups of Betsy VanDeusen...




She explains, "Starting on 2/27/2012, and working through 2/27/2013, I intend to work on my art daily. It will all be tied in to the "Retro Pinup" theme somehow. The important thing to me is the daily practice of working. I'm not necessarily interested in creating "finished pieces" on a daily basis (Taking a work to completion may take the accumulated efforts of a week, a month, or more- if the piece demands it). I just have so many ideas that I never follow up on, and this project gives me the incentive and excuse to focus on those ideas on a daily basis."





Why did you decide to do this project? Seeing other artists grow through their daily creative projects was a huge push for me to start my own. Skull-A-Day has been a huge inspiration, as have the people I know personally who have completed daily projects: Freehand Profit of "MASK365" and Charlton Yu of "Burger365."

In doing this project my major objectives are: Fighting procrastination and resistance, realigning with my priorities as an artist, studying and learning from the masters of pinup art, honing my technical skills, and creating & sharing work that I can be proud of... No small task, but luckily I'm just taking it one day at a time!  ;-)




How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I've been trying to keep things light, and not to take myself too seriously with this project, but it's hard not to get caught up in the work! This is the first time that I'm really sharing my own personal artwork since I graduated from art school, and it's really scary!

During the last 7 years, I had all these ideas, but was really hesitant to actually make the things I wanted to make (and I definitely didn't have the courage to share my work in a public forum!). The biggest thing my daily project has done for me is that it's helped me to get over that fear of just getting started. You have to do something each day, so there's no point in dragging your feet about it!

It's also really helped me to break projects down into little "daily units of effort..." I like to think that it's like cutting a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into pieces for a child- It's still the same amount of food, but when it's cut in to manageable bites, it's not so intimidating! The thought of "doing a whole oil painting" can be very daunting, and is therefore easy to put off... BUT working on a painting for an hour or so today before work... that's manageable! I can do that!




See all of Betsy's Pinups HERE.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

She never ceases to amaze me and her pin-ups are no exception. I love seeing her work every day. Keep up the great work Betsy!