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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

New York area show

I have two mixed media collage on canvas pieces (12 x 12") that are in a National Association of Women Artists Small Works show at the Karpeles Library Museum in Newburgh, NY Sept 3-30 and then it moves to the Port of Call Gallery in Warwick, NY October 7-November 5 if anyone will be in that area around those times.

In case anyone reading this lives near there and you get by to see the show, let me know how it looks.