a work in progress

I finally decided to give Flickr a try and this is one of the photos I put up on my account there. Plenty to learn about how I can use their service. I’m still not clear if this will be any help to me or if it will just be yet another way to throw my time into the cybersphere. I”ll learn more about how I can use Flickr in the next week or so. And if any of you have tips for me about Flickr, I’d be interested in reading them, so please leave a comment.

I had a horrible day yesterday in the studio wrangling with a difficult little painting. I don’t really blame the painting and know that I was off. Sometimes I wonder if I am so sensitive to the changes in the barometric pressure that I not only ache physically, but my mind is also affected. Whatever the cause, the effect was long hours of work and nothing worth showing for it. Today, I’ll have little time to spend on the piece. It’s Halloween and I will be painting faces at the Fayetteville Country Club again. That’s a great event and the little kids are always so excited. It’s great when a kid dressed as a princess decides she wants the pirate face! It will be a fun time. Happy Halloween to all the princesses, pirates, mummies, and ghosts!

This is 12″ x 24″, back stapled with painting continued around the sides. It is titled “outlook good” and once again depicts Grotto Spring in Eureka Springs, AR. This painting will be part of my November featured artists of the month show at Eureka Thyme, which I will hang on the first and host a reception for on the 4th. Must go paint…

Yummy! I actually don’t like to eat chocolate covered cherries, but I do love to look at them. I found these in the fabulous old fashioned candy shop downtown. I love the curved glass cases with jars of colorful treats on top. I think I’ll go back there for more inspiration soon. This is another 12″ x 12″ painting with a partner. All the 12 x 12s are back stapled and ready to hang or frame, if that is your preference. I like them unframed. This pair has chocolate brown edges. These two will be part of my show at the Eureka Springs Fall Art Fair, the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving at the Inn of the Ozarks Convention Center. Here is its partner.

Another 12″ x 12″ painting, this time it’s a close up of the stairs at the exit of Grotto Spring. It’s companion painting shows the light flooding the exit and I think both these pieces really give a feel for the kinds of magical moments experienced by strolling through Eureka Springs.

These paintings will be included in my show at EurekaThyme next month.

This is a 12″ x 12″ painting which is a close up of some mind blowing mushrooms I saw by Grotto Spring. I’m working primarily on 12 x 12 canvas and painting scenes from around town. I’m doing some pairs of paintings in which one is a closeup and the other is the big picture. One of my favorite things as a kid was the super close up photography in the back of the National Geographic for kids magazine where you had to guess what the picture was. The patterns and textures were astonishing to me and I still would love to do that game. I guess I’m making one now! So here’s the big picture to go with these shrooms:

I’m enjoying doing some darker images, maybe because Halloween approaches. I’ve also had some digital fun with the images. They are nearly monochromatic and lend themselves well to big adjustments to the color balance. I liked looking at them with a very cool blue cast and it made me picture little fairies living under the cliffs of the mushrooms. It also can be a helpful way to see the patterns again and check to make sure the compostions have remained balanced. These photos do not have the color altered, that was just a little bit of fun for me.

I have been doing so much for other aspects of my business and life, that painting on canvas had become sort of new to me again. I did a very small painting of pumpkins that is okay, but nothing great to make or see. I then started to work on a street scene which would be suitable for my show at EurekaThyme next month that I am planning to focus on paintings of local imagary. That painting was nothing but work. I kept telling myself to put in the time, make it work, keep going until it comes together. I let this go on for two days and then realized there was nothing about that particular scene that I was excited about portraying. It was pretty enough, I guess, but it lacked any story or meaning to me. I abandoned it and did the above piece. Ahhh, the flow returned! I had a great time with this painting and I’m enjoying hearing other’s interpretations of it. What does it say to you?

This is the front of the postcard for my show at Eureka Thyme. The text on the back says,

lower edge is 4″ off floor

view from the stair landing

view from the second floor of the office building

I had a chance to go see and photograph the installation of this corporate commissioned painting I completed this summer. This piece is huge. With five 8′ tall panels, five 4′ tall panels, and five 16″ panels, and 6″ between the rows it is 14 feet tall. It is in the atrium of a new office building in Bentonville, AR.

It was really fun to work with this client as his wife is an interior decorator who has a very strong sense of color and a great color vocabulary as well as an ability to communicate the feeling she wanted for the space. She also wanted a piece which would cover much of this 30 foot high wall and provide interesting and varied views from all levels. I love working with clients to help them create just the piece they wanted and it seems that this is one area in which my listening skills serve me well. Here is what the client had to say of the completed painting,

I am back at T’s office and I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited about the art!!!!! It is perfect. Thank you so very much for delivering exactly what we talked about.

That feels good to hear and it completes this commission. I’m hoping to have the opportunity to work with other clients and designers on large scale pieces in the near future. For now, it’s back to the studio where I’m working on some small paintings for my show next month at Eureka Thyme. More on that later.

A few weeks ago I wrote about my love of the artist collective. Well, I have now found out what one of the downfalls of the collective can be. It seems that a set of policies or guidelines is essential to handle situations like the one in which I found myself last week. I went into the gallery for a meeting with a handful of members who also showed up. Before the meeting, one of the members said she did not jury me in for paintings in any style other than the architectural pieces and that she felt that should be the only work in my booth. I agreed to remove all other work, since I had been planning to bring in some new work and remove other pieces in the interest of a more cohesive presentation. I had planned to handle this change on my next work day which was to fall just a couple weeks before my show at EurekaThyme opens. So, brief conversation with member unhappy with my booth (which by the way, I paid for) and then I am rushing to get the stuff down and into my car before the meeting and other members begin asking why, oh why? They preferred the work being taken down to what was left in the booth. Meeting begins, official business is covered and floor is opened to member issues. I present the dilemma which I am faced with and the group begins offering comments as to which of my work they like and think should be in my booth. Of course, none of them agree and I become very confused as to what is happening and I begin to cry. Yes, cry. I do that a lot. I assure everyone that I cry, I’m fine, it’s my way to deal with stress but all are clearly uncomfortable. And my stress level rises with them all trying to get in their two cents and all staring at me. The lovely folks who began this coop venture take turns trying to sum up the situation, and one follows me with a load to my car and tells me it is good the members are uncomfortable about this situation and that they should be since it needs to be addressed. The member who started this process finally makes eye contact with me, but it’s only to attack me. She rather fiercely states that as an artist I should be able to handle criticism of my work. I tell her she offered me no criticism of my work, there was no critique of any of the pieces. She does not reply. I continue to load the stuff out and cool artist guy is trying to find a solution. He suggests that I share my space with an incoming artist until I have more to bring in to the space that is like the five architectural pieces which remain. I point out that this would not make for a more united display which seems to be what would serve us all best. I made a statement to the group that most members are not present and that it is not acceptable to me that each painting be juried into my space and that if that is how they want it to be I will not be able to participate. Not to mention, none of the members present even agree as to which of my paintings are the best. The offended member offers to email the group. I offer to leave the gallery and do so. One of the organizers follows me out with an offer to return to participate in the future. I like these people and their concept a lot. I’d love to be a member of such a cooperative venture, but as long as there are no guidelines or policies in place, the group will be run by whichever member is the most agressive at the time and that will seldom be someone who has a clear agenda. It was a very interesting day and I have thought a lot about why I was crying in there. I realize that I went into that gallery with nothing but positive and warm expectations and was taken by surprise when I encountered the abrupt and confrontational attitude of this member who sought to remove my landscapes and abstract pieces. I regret not having the clarity of my little godson who said, “What? She doesn’t get to decide!” I am glad not to participate until there is a policy in place. It could be as simple as it is for other jury processed shows, jury in for painting, show paintings, period.

I’ve been thinking about how groups can function to create benefit for all members and found it interesting to attend a gathering of artists and gallery owners in my town who are working to create a directory. This meeting did provide an agenda and some reference to rules of order, but was still very informal. In that setting, once again, whoever is the most assertive takes over and that is typically the individual who has the most invested in a particular outcome. The all inclusive directory which was the vision of the individuals who gathered this group has shifted to a directory of any artist or gallery who wishes to purchase ad space. I find it disheartening that the good will and hard work of those who have the vision to create what could be a phenomonally powerful statement about the vitality of the arts in town has been taken to produce another advertising piece which will not be inclusive. On the other hand, there will be other projects which have been spurred by this activity and all of the results, scattered or not, will help promote our town as an arts destination. It is a mistake in my opinion, for a vendor to sit on a committee and to take over the handling of the meeting. And I keep wondering what happened to the bidding process. I feel grateful to Robert for those Rules of Order and want to see at least a little more attention to protocol at meetings. Those pesky little things like officers, mission statements and bylaws keep groups functioning cohesively. Informal is nice and seems to work fine for groups of four or five, but anything larger is much more easily managed with structure.