Meet Andrew Blitman

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andrew Blitman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Andrew, thanks for taking the time to share your lessons with our community today. So, let’s jump right in – one of the most essential skills for unlocking our potential is self-discipline. Where does your self-discipline come from?
Self-discipline is important for writing and painting. A lot of my work habits and ethics are self-taught and took years of practice and experimentation — especially with creativity — to achieve expertise. Persistence and patience are essential skills/attributes for success.

For example — I taught myself how to consolidate and promote my works of art, and also how to publish my books and how to create and run my own website. I largely taught myself because I knew no one who was able to help me do the things I specifically needed to reach my goals.

I had limited help, but since I created my first book on Amazon publishing/CreateSpace, I taught myself how to design and run a website on WordPress, how to copyright 8 books in the Library of Congress, how to create an audio archive of my poems on SoundCloud, how to self-publish 15 books on Amazon, how to manage and create lithographs/prints of my paintings, how to master acrylic paintings, how to be an art teacher, how to run a working portfolio on Fine Art America, how to format self-published books, how to write high-quality poetry, and more.

Growing up with autism lay the groundwork for my desire/obsession to overcome my limitations. That desire pushed me to become a better speaker and writer, and that is why I refused to give up and after years of hard work I was able to achieve those goals.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am an artist and the author of 13 books, who grew up in Cooper City, Florida, and received a Masters in Marine Conservation Science and Policy from the University of Miami in May 2014. There, he blogged on WordPress. The blog posts evolved into multiple books, including a memoir of his experiences on a 2012 Birthright trip to Israel: ‘Birthright 2012: A Voyage into the Heart and Soul of Israel’.

Beginning in June 2017, I released a three-book collection of poems titled, ‘Wild Writers’. I am both the author and the illustrator for all of them. The poems in the collection are intended for children and adults alike. Each one was written from the perspective of an animal and is introduced to the reader by its corresponding illustration.

More than 130 different species are represented in the ‘Wild Writers’ series, perfect for amateur biologists and pet lovers alike. A comprehensive anthology of these poems is available now too, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09P7P9N7G? , for the fifth anniversary of its original publication.

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I also released a new book on Amazon, called “The Blue Book of Poetry and Life”, which you can see here: https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Book-Poetry-Life/dp/B0B2TTZ7NG/

This is a book for the ages that contains a wide variety of poems — the majority of which has not been previously published — relating to the color blue and all of the things in the universe about it and associated with it.

There are haiku, tanka, free verse, pantoums, sonnets, short stories, and more to choose from — more than 400 works to satisfy your appetite for poetry.

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Here are links to my websites, so that you can access my works more easily!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewblitmanart/
Official Website: https://www.andrewblitman.com/
Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008TCJZBG
AllPoetry: https://allpoetry.com/Andrew_Blitman
Fine Art America: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-andrew-blitman
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/andrew-blitman

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The most important attributes I can think of are the following:

1. Having fun and meeting deadlines. Do it for yourself too!

2.. Persistence — working through rejection as well as using criticism to make your creations achieve their ultimate refinement and beauty

3. Originality — identifying and discovering your style and honing it to find out the best and most convenient ways to express it. This also includes finding your audience and your most effective medium — such as watercolor painting or sculpture.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
If it makes you unhappy — stop doing it!

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Honestly — when I feel overwhelmed I step away from creating art for a while. Mental work is just as intense and demanding as manual labor, so it is important to take breaks between projects.

I have actually been doing that right now. Between 2019 to this past February 2023, I made over 1000 paintings of various shapes and sizes and media. I was tremendously exhausted, so over the past 3 years I had been working at a pace of about 300 works per year. Come February, I dramatically decreased my output because I was overwhelmed and extremely drained, so currently I have created only 30 paintings so far this year.

The break has been extremely therapeutic and restful.

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I also reached a breaking point with my poetry too. Except on rare occasions since I released “The Blue Book of Poetry and Life” in 2022, I have completely stopped writing poems, because the writing experience only made me depressed and unhappy, when compared with painting which makes me feel truly happy.

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