"….if you can’t make it big, make it red
………..”if you can’t make it big, make it red”…………a part of a quote attributable to several artists….therefore, anonymous.
That’s what has happened to these 16 x 16″ weird pieces I started at colony. At colony I wanted to use colors and design that I don’t usually start with…….well, wouldn’t you know, these scoundrels have been haunting my dreams ever since. They just don’t work for me so, finally, this morning I into the studio to just wipe them out. And wipe them out with what??…….RED, that favorite of colors, of course.
While not finished by a long shot, there is a beginning here. Off to the studio to think some more on what comes next.
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Finally
Hopefully, I can give some of the computer stuff a break for a few days. I finally got the images of the three new small paintings done and up on my website. I still don’t have the individual pages for them yet…….or the other three new larger ones, but I’ll get to it before long.
It has just taken TOO long to clean up my website a little. I had a lot of old links that no longer worked to other art sites and just general accumulations of stuff kinda like my closet and cupboards get over time.
Here’s one of the images…………the others are on my website.
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Quotes, I love quotes.
Quotes……I love quotes, but all of mine have just gone swoosh off my computer. I went looking for the file but it’s gone……..and I had some doozies in that file.
But on to the reason I’m thinking of this…I receive a lot of newsletters and subscribe to lots of lists and blogs. Today I got one in the in-box that I love to read through in my spare time. I seem to have lots of spare time. Anyway, this one is called Creativity Portal and comes to you if you sign up at creativity-portal .
One of the first articles I clicked on represented what I’ve been doing a lot of recently….or more correctly, for the past year……THE LULL. The article can be found here.
Actually, it’s called Romancing the Lull: Creativity’s Pause Button written by Jill Badonsky. I saw a couple of quotes in the article I can certainly identify with…….
“To do great work a man must be very idle as well as very industrious“._ Samuel Butler. And the other… “It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.”_ Gertrude Stein
Well, if those quotes can be relied on as a marker for genius, then you can count on me to come up with something wonderful soon. It’s getting pretty awful when you dust furniture or write in your journal/blog instead of paint on the three little paintings that are just waiting for their finishing touches. And finishing touches are all they need……..that is, unless I make a major goof and it makes me start over again…..with another layer.
Anyway, I encourage those of you planning on becoming geniuses, to sign up for the creativity portal newsletter………… andit will help you come up with validation for all those times you stare at a painting for hours on end.
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Pulling hair
Pulling hair…….or that’s the way you feel after trying to figure out how to fix over 102 pages on a website. I’ve worked off and on for days trying to get the backgrounds and both shared borders of all pages the same. Seems like I just got darker and darker over the past year or so for the background color making new pages, too. Now, it might be very light on some monitors but lighter is better than too much a middle value khaki. I, also was ready to hurl this keyboard trying to figure out why I couldn’t get the changes to my page links moved from the top to the side on all pages………finally figured it out but it had to be done one at a time although you are SUPPOSED to be able to click change for all pages. I still am not able to get the colored text on the top to show on the internet….but maybe later. A little ho-hum maybe, but if it gets too colorful or busy it takes away from the art….or worse, clashes with the colors in the art as I change them out.
Wish I could comprehend CSS so I could have side navigation with no underlines but such is my muddled brain……..not to be.
Heck I even saw 3-4 collages with no page of their own….and I have several new paintings that aren’t up either so ………..more pages to add. After I recover from the basic re-do. Most people won’t even notice that I’ve changed anything. But take it from me, lots of stuff has been deleted and some links page info deleted, etc. I still plan to do a little more of that on the main links page…………but those three little paintings on the wall easel are calling to me first.
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Urge squelched….
An urge has been brewing for some time………..to re-design my web site. About a year or so ago, I bought the upgraded Office 2003 and it came with an upgrade to FrontPage as well……so dummy me, I loaded the whole thing up and as luck would have it, that program had changed a LOT since I last upgraded. I had a real tough time finding just the usual stuff….like automatic thumbnail images at first. Now I’m even more off my rocker as I downloaded another new page editor to try out. Heck, I can’t even figure out how to layer the different colors I wanted for the template. And, I have over 100 pages on my website so…………this is never gonna happen.
I know…they tell you not to put everything on the site…..and I don’t. But, I do have to keep SOME old work on pages as archives. How else am I going to show someone what I’ve done in the past so they can see I might do something similar again in different sizes, etc.???
People might say that FrontPage doesn’t have clean code, but I think I’m stuck with it as my brain just isn’t in the mood to learn too many new things at one time…….besides that, I have to paint. What good will it do me to have a clean, spiffy new site if I don’t have anything to put on it? And ….what if google and yahoo can’t find me if I change it too much? Lots to think of and my mind is buzzing.
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More paintings
Well leave it to me……I finally got back to the studio yesterday to put the finishing touches on a couple more paintings started at Colony. I was putting away pint jars of paint, etc. and just used my foot to push a carton out of the way. I promise, it was not that heavy…but I immediately felt something strange and I had a pulled something in the left upper hip. Now I ask you, have you ever pulled anything THERE? Not I. I’m still kinda moving around like an old lady (no comments on that) getting up and down. And the Aleve commercials on TV …I remember it being such a miracle. Let me tell you it doesn’t work on pulled muscles in the upper hip.
Today the plan is to take a couple of photos of two more paintings I think are finished…..wish I could think of some titles that would show some variety, but so far…nothing. I’m getting tired of the same ole, same ole. Any ideas?
If I get them done early, I’ll post with this blog entry.
Well…I hauled them out to the fence with the appropriate black felt background. I took slides and digitals and then came in to work on them for the blog. The high-res images look great on my monitor but the re-sized for the web ones are “pixelated” looking. I even decided to use less sharpening but that didn’t help either. I don’t know why as it should be the other way around on pixelation. I’m posting the two anyway….the horizontal one (30 x 40) also has the cobalt blue under-painting but in this one, it hardly shows. The other (48 x 36) has a quinacridone gold under-painting. Golden no longer makes this color so I might as well use it up…one more pint jar to go.
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New Painting Posted
I haven’t been back long from the art retreat in Mississippi. During the time there we had a wireless connection….BUT, it never seemed to want to connect during any time I could sit down to make a blog entry. We’re always painting, talking, or eating anyway so when could I gather a thought to write??
This is one of the first paintings I started during the time there….30 x 30″ acrylic on canvas….this one, with a cobalt blue underpainting. I don’t think I’ve ever used cobalt blue as tone for under-painting and I needed to do something different so this was it. The second one didn’t turn out to be a companion to this one after all so I’ll post it along later. And wait until you see the weird combination of lavender, red, black and white…or Hum….you may never see it. I’ll decide later.
We had wonderful cool mornings and sun most days so the weather was really pleasant this trip.
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Loading up
I always load up most of my art supplies on the afternoon/evening before I head out to Colony. That way I can throw in the rest (unimportant clothes)and get on my way fairly early the next morning.
I just got back in from hauling it all out to the SUV to start to load. My husband, bless his heart, always says, “let me help you”………. then he starts saying, “you’ll never get all this stuff in there, you’re taking too much…how will you ever paint that many canvases in less than a week?”…….finally throwing his hands up in defeat and going back in while I shift and move and move and shift until I get it all in.
He’s right that I probably can’t get anything that looks too good on all 12-13 canvases BUT, one time I decided I usually just came home with about 5 paintings so I took 5 good size canvases….and guess what….you got it, I painted like there was a magician in the brush and ran out of canvas and had to borrow paper from people with extra. This time, at least, I’m not taking any collage materials so I’m not taking paper either…….and 6 of the canvases are small squares.
Now to wish for another magician in the brush time to appear.
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Everything but the kitchen sink..or travel light??
Everything but the kitchen sink …..or travel light! That’s always the question when it comes time to go to Mississippi Art Colony.
I don’t have any big shows coming up to work toward right now. I have a lot of new water based intaglio inks made by Akua I could be playing around with for monotypes. I have quite a lot of canvases ranging from small squares to large squares with a few big rectangles thrown in……..lots of papers, and lots of stuff to choose from. Too much stuff to choose from is more the point. I even bought two more rolling carts to haul all the stuff.
Sunday and Monday are sorting it out and packing it up days……Then head out early Tuesday morning going east on I-20. I’ve missed the last two retreats due to the Katrina aftermath and the France residency in April……. so I’m ready to reconnect with my old friends again. So much is learned by being around other artists for regular periods of time……..talking about what’s going on in our lives, goals, successes and sometimes failures and disappointments. We get to see what the others have been up over the last six months.
Canvas will probably be what I take as the inks and all the paraphenalia that goes with them will be hard to fool around with there in the pavilion. My intent is to use them more for printing papers to be used in mixed media work later anyway. …best left for the studio here.
So tomorrow it is drag out the easel, and everything else and just see how much stuff I can take. I always tell myself, I don’t really have to have so much. Whatever I really need I’ll have………hopefully, that’s my brain!
And, I hear they have wireless internet connections now…….Whoopee!
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Disappointment
Disappointment is an understatement! Sometimes things happen that just reinforce my usual superstition about telling ANYONE about something good that might be coming up until I know it’s all a go. DID I do it this time?, NO, NO, NO!! So I can tell myself, “I told you so. …you shoulda kept your big mouth shut”.
I was so excited to have been contacted out of the blue by a really good gallery in southern CA about my work. I noted from their website that I knew one of the artists and even contacted him to ask about the gallery. He said they were great….but a short season due to their location. So I get all excited, spend a HUGE amount of time getting some small pieces ready to ship to them, along with all the other stuff for a portfolio and actual printed out imagery with information……….in other words I invested a lot of my time. Even more than that, I invested myself. They got the small pieces today and immediately said they wouldn’t work for their gallery……….seems they sell work for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Maybe I should keep my big mouth shut now as well. But knowing how artists are…oh well, most people I have to admit. ….it’s a real let down and I’m a real highs and lows person although generally positive.
I had this happen with a gallery in San Francisco, too, a few years ago. Only that guy was a REAL jerk. I can only tell myself now that I was lucky to not be doing business with him. This case is just one of those where some people either do not care or just don’t realize the blow this deals to an artist’s ego. I’m still scratching my head about the work not being suitable since it looks just like it did on the website and they were the ones who chose the pieces to view. I would have sent something else if they hadn’t. I will say that at least it didn’t take a great monetary investment to send the small pieces which is what the director had in mind I think. That may not have made any difference but would have been more representative of all my work. Surely having low prices compared to the rest in their gallery isn’t a total problem………prices can be raised.
Good thing I don’t have any wine in the house or I would be drinking several glasses right now.
The next thing I always tell myself when something doesn’t go as I wanted or planned or hoped………there was a reason for all this and it’s going to be that something better for me is coming down the road and now I’ll be free to do whatever it turns out to be. So quit being disappointed or bummed out by a rejection and get back in the studio. When you sign on to being an artist rejection is something you face all too often. I must say though……..it doesn’t get any easier with practice.
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Art Walk Saturday
It’s been a week since I got back from the trip to deliver the commission. I did take a little break for a few days I have to admit.
Saturday morning bright and early I got up and went to meet with some four friends (mostly artists) to head to BIG D and the Dallas Art Dealers art walk…or maybe I should say art DRIVE in Dallas. I do admit that many of the galleries we went to are clustered in the area out in the design district now or some more around the Uptown area on Fairmount near my daughter’s condo. We also made the trip over to the old Wilson Historical district to visit the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art on Swiss Ave. They had a show of Nic Nicosia’s work up. Although photography is not a big deal for me, my favorite piece was a silver gelatin photo with oil tint titled, Act 5.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here……….first we went over to pick up my daughter and then we headed to a gallery on the way to eat lunch at Bice Ristorante at the Crescent Court.
Then we traveled out to the design district and started making the rounds of the contemporary galleries like Craighead-Green, Holly Johnson and Conduit Gallery. There seems to be a new gallery to show some local art located on Dragon St…ArtZen. It will be interesting to see what happens when they show a lot of local north Texas artists.
We went back to Uptown and visited the beautiful Gerald Peters Gallery and were wowed by the fact that the show not quite opened yet had red dots on most of the paintings……and we’re talking $75,000 each here, friends. Then we walked across to the Goss Gallery but didn’t end up having time to get down to the Fairmount Gallery before heading over the the Contemporary mentioned earlier. The Barry Whistler gallery over near the Contemporary also had a good show of minimalist work up. Oh yeah….then there is the Brown and Dunn Gallery on farther up off McKinney. Usually I like visiting this gallery but it was just a little too off the wall this time around…….Michael Smith and Joshua White’s installation called Take Off Your Pants. Helen Altman’s work was interesting though.
Ended our day at the Taco Diner over in the West Village and called it a day………..a LONG day. Next time we need to try to make it over to the Meadows to see the changes that have been made the past year or so….maybe a museum trip next time.
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Estuary finally installed
I’m finally back from my trip down to south Louisiana to deliver the large painting. My friend Pat and I got there at noon on Friday. They were there to meet us and unload at the door to the new addition to the hospital.
After we got in and met the workers who would install, we decided we had plenty of time to look around and watch. It was great to actually be there to see where your work will be hung. It’s not often artists get to do this. They may find out who owns the work but never see it in it’s new environment. They started out hanging the middle panel first…all in all it was probably a little over an hour. Sure doesn’t look so big up on that large wall.
The volunteers at the desk and various others coming in and out all made comments on what it could be. Some saw the marshland right away..others thought they could find a fish camp, water, whatever came to their imagination. People not familiar with abstraction are always trying to find “things”. I was happy that many told me they liked it even if they weren’t too familiar with this kind of work. I had a hard time keeping from laughing when one woman brought someone over and looked up and said “I wonder what they would pay me to do one of those”.
The designer took us on a tour of the new wing and I also got to see the two they bought from me previously (oops, I forgot to format those pics..maybe later). She has done a wonderful job with the new designs if I say so myself.
Too bad I don’t know much about html so I could figure out what I did to get all these pictures in weird order and the formatting of the text in helter-skelter fashion. Oh well.
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