irrational fear?

I realized recently that I've been hesitant to change my cityscape style because I'm afraid that people who've liked my previous work would look at it and say "eh. It's ok, but I like what you were doing before." It seemed a rational hesitation at the time. But now I realize that I love it when my favorite artists throw a curve ball at me. I love their style- not just the individual aspects of their work. Any new bits in their work re-enchant me- they give me something new to consider in a previously familiar landscape. I have to accept the idea that those who like my work will most likely have the same reaction for the same reason to any changes or improvements to my work. I've had so many new ideas lately- different color schemes, textures, backgrounds, building placements, etc. I just tried the new collage inspired backgrounds on a whim for the Big 100, and even the ones I wasn't particularly satisfied with sold. Now I'm doing that style in 20+ paintings for the Lunar Boy show in March, and I was recently hit with another new idea that came out of left field and stuck. I'm not even done with this series, and I have ideas for the next! I think I shall have faith and let my work evolve.

it's that dress

This is a new leaf in my growing art career. I've moved up a level. To wit:

~all 12 of my cityscapes sold at Big 100- 1 woman bought 3. Jim was proud to announce that he couldn't find any of my cityscapes 2 hours after event has started. l THAT was AWESOME.
~i got an e-mail recently from a bloke in the UK who'd like a tattoo of my work
~When Jennifer came over this week for seeds for the farm, she left with 2 paintings.
~I got an e-mail from Chuck inviting me to share a show with him at a gallery in Astoria. HE chose ME, sent my link to the curator, she loved it, and now we're doing a show together.
~Part of the reason he asked me is that "I know you have a following. I know you have collectors- I mean, I own some of your stuff."
~The desired price range is $95 -$200
~With the blowout from the Big100, I made $543 from art last year. I may have spent less than that this year- I might actually have in-the-black art income.


OK, then. I'm allowing myself to grow into the next size of clothing- like when you're a kid and you have something you're dying to wear, but it's still just too big because Grandpa always bought 2 sizes too big- you get frustrated and vow to eat your veggies from now on because you have growing to do; and you give up and stop thinking about it for a while- then the day comes when you try it on again, and IT FITS! You've finally grown into it! It's now your favorite article of clothing, and you're thinking about it if you're not wearing it. The above list of occurrences within the last 30 days is that dress.

SO- now that people are seeing me and saying "Hey! Artist Lady! Congrats on all your shows and stuff!" (or something vaguely like it), now that I'll have pieces (a NEW series that I just started this week.) SO- now I have a golden opportunity to expand my viewing audience/potential buyers with the platform of a Second Saturday gallery (who has recently shown the likes of Jesse Reno) with Chuck E. Bloom (whose work I collect). SO- I need to step up my commitment in turn. Accept this gift.

I need to be working First Thursdays now instead of walking them. Not that I consider it work per se; more of a solid commitment.

I need to commit to sending out monthly bulletins to my mailing list.

I need to commit to updating this blog- weekly. It could be about what I'm doing, how I'm feeling, or upcoming shows. It could be more often.

I just read in an art mag this evening- take yourself seriously. When someone asks what you do, tell them you're an artist first, then mention the steady paycheck. Or not.

Those are the big ones I'm going to focus on. I also have a longer to-do list of more specific things.

something new

Ta- da! They're very rudimentary, but here's the first try at a 3-D version of my cityscapes. These will be for sale for $30 each at the Big100 art show at Olympic Mills (107 SE Washington in Portland) ON Friday December 11th. It's a one night only show- come an' gitem!

AS PROMISED...

20 SURFACES PREPPED

I'm happy to be in Big100, a one-night cash & carry show next month where everything is $30. It's a benefit for KBOO community radio (where my buddy DJ Tronic hosts a show) and The Oregon Food Bank. The 8x8 surfaces are provided, and we have about 3 weeks to produce up to 20 pieces. I intend to do 20, and use the opportunity as a living sketch book. I'm going to do cityscapes, but in a much looser style, and experiment with different types of backgrounds. I have 6 spraypainted for a beginning- 2 each of 3 colors; 2 with 3 layers of spray adhesive and newspaper, then coated with glaze; 2 that are 3 layers with alternating glazing and newspaper, 2 gessoed with a diagonal stroke, 3 gessoed with some paint mixed in, and the rest gessoed with a regular horizontal stroke. I'm going to add some fun things like receipts and drycleaning tickets to some of the plain glazed ones, maybe try some more watercolor-ish backgrounds, and I think I'll just paint buildings straight onto the newspaper covered ones. My thoughts are only about one step ahead of my hands, as opposed to my normal way of doing cityscapes, where I know what to do in what order to get what I want. I'll post pictures when things begin to shape up :-)

some of the stuff in my head

...is a collage I did last May, but it's been naked and frame-less all this time. I went to The Rebuilding Center (just like the bumper stickers say- I love that place) and found some molding that's perfect for a frame. It was that 80's/90's country dusty blue and provided the perfect color base to blend with the pastels in the piece. I added, blended and wiped away colors until the pieces matched, then went about deciding which side of the frame looked best on each side of the canvas. Even though I painted the molding with the collage in front of me to gauge colors, I matched all 4 sides with the entire piece. I was pleasantly surprised- the finished product looked as though I'd painted the whole thing together. There's just some touch up work needed at the corners.

en pointe

I've been making progress on the ballet collage. I know I'm getting close to finished when there are fewer and fewer areas that I want to change or fix. I'm thinking that I'll either do a simple wood panel frame, or make a velvet curtain like that on a stage. Most of the images I used art from OBT print materials, so there's some copyright details to take care of. What I want to do is offer the piece to them in exchange for tickets, and if that doesn't go over, I'll ask for their permission to sell it. I'd LOVE for them to have the piece, if they like it. I think ballet is amazing and have much respect for what dancers do, sacrifice, and endure to become the masters of this art. I think I've put that wonder into the piece, and if a rep of OBT feels the same way, I'd be really pleased. If OBT doesn't want it, I'll offer it to Allison Roper, Yuka Iino or Christopher Stowell- the two principles and the artist director. Yes, I know these names off the top of my head:-)