Icons + Altars 2009

I am showing a piece in Icons + Altars, an annual benefit exhibition for the New Art Center in Newton, MA, which opens today. A very cool show (which kindly splits the proceeds 50/50 with the artists). You can view the entire exhibit on line and find out more about how to purchase an artwork here.

It's fun to see what the participating artists have made in response to the theme of this small-works show, which is interpretation of an "icon" or "altar."

The work I entered, "Berry Lines," (10 inches square) is shown below. I always think of Christmas and holidays at this time of year, so I usually make a piece that contains this "holiday red." I've been a participant for the past 7 years.

Paper on panel

I am experimenting with mounting works on paper directly onto a cradled board, since I'm not a frame person. Seems to be working well. This is a new piece, 18 inches square. I applied a layer of Utrecht gel medium onto the panel's surface, pressed the paper onto it, put down a clean sheet of paper and rolled a brayer over it, put it in front of a fan, and trimmed the edges against the sides once the piece was dry. Neat, easy, and no glass between the viewer and the work.

Good lighting

I'm definitely on a budget, and although I love the work of the professional photographer I've been hiring, it's $20 an image.

Enter my resourceful husband. He purchased a series of clip lights at KMart at $7 apiece, affixed them to two no-longer-working halogen lamp poles (as shown below), and took some great quality images of my latest paintings.

My review of Roger Kizik's retrospective exhibit

My review of Roger Kizik's retrospective and Kim Witham's photography exhibit, both on view at the New Bedford Art Museum, appears in today's edition of the New Bedford Standard-Times; to read, please click here.

My husband took this photo of me while I was taking notes at the show in preparation for the review (Roger Kizik's amazing paintings appear in the background). I enjoyed it because it makes me look like an intrepid reporter!

Unexpected combinations

Sometimes it works to spend time "playing" in your closet, trying on newer pieces of clothing with old favorites and coming up with different combinations. You often find you have all kinds of "new" outfits and you don't need to buy anything that's actually new.

It turns out the same activity can be productive in the studio! I've been creating paintings in series recently, and today I got the idea to go through some of my older works on paper and see what went together. I turned my work tables end to end to give lots of space, and spread out everything I had that wasn't part of a definite series already.

I discovered all these great combinations that I never would have thought of before! Some paintings were made a few days ago, some a few months ago, and I even found some that had been sitting around for years. But these newly discovered groupings look fresh and unexpected to my eye when I see them together!

Next I'm going to mount the various groupings on the cradled boards I have ordered. Will post pictures ASAP.

Real artists don't wear suits

I made this shoe drawing during my fashion illustration class last night. I now have 6 of these. I figure I'll make about 20 and then consider possible exhibition venues for them. A very different "kettle of fish" from my usual line-oriented paintings, but I think they have potential for an interesting exhibit and eventually a happy home.

These images, and the fact that they are illustrations and not "fine art," remind me of a bizarre but informative experience I had when I first decided I wanted to teach, soon after graduate school (1998). I heard that a painting professor at the local community college was taking maternity leave and the school was hiring a replacement for one painting class. Figuring that this would be a good opportunity for a beginning artist with a fresh M.F.A., I sent in my application.

I received a call from the department chair, who sounded very impressed with my application, and set up an interview. He smiled as I entered his office, but the moment he looked at me when I extended my hand to shake, he got this weird, disgusted look on his face. For the entire interview, he seemed very uncomfortable, like he couldn't wait for me to get out of his office.

I typically handle interviews with great confidence (for some reason, I really enjoy them!), but this one shook me. I felt very strange about the experience, as I was driving home afterwards. I knew there was something about my appearance that had freaked this guy out, but I couldn't imagine what it was. I had purchased a new orange sweater and a matching brown blazer and trousers with orange pinstripes at Macy's, in preparation for my interview, so I figured I looked good -- professional, but with a twist.

When the department chair notified me soon afterward that I had not been hired, I wasn't surprised, but I was still confused as to what was wrong about my looks. Several weeks later, by coincidence, I met a woman who worked as a graphic design professor at this particular college, at a social gathering. I told her about my experience and said I couldn't understand what had gone wrong.

She said she had heard about my interview, and that it had indeed been MY SUIT that had turned off the department chair and cost me the job. Apparently he had been prepared to hire me based on my resume and work samples, but then decided when he saw me that I didn't look like a "real artist" in a suit.

I wasn't clear on what had been wrong with my lovely (and expensive) suit, but I decided that perhaps an artist is "supposed" to wear all black or paint-smeared clothing (like what I had hanging in my studio, but had considered too casual for an interview).

I phoned my mother and lamented that I shouldn't have worn a suit, that maybe I was too dressy and "fashion-y" to be a real artist. But my wise mother replied, "Never hide who you are! Be yourself!"

New brown series

Here's another series I've just completed, made up of various pieces that didn't start out together. The three on the left are actually several years old, but they were alone and lost as individuals. As I continued on with the modular painting idea, I decided to put the three together and create two more that fit into the same theme.



Here's a closeup, to give a sense of the details. The center painting is the one I finished this morning:

Career advice from many sources

I am in a new go-ahead phase with my art career: I’m making new larger works in specific series, and I am investigating ways to get this work OUT into the world, in new and more diverse venues.

On the practical side, I am reading a number of career advice books specifically for artists. Yesterday, I started “The Artist’s Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love” by Jackie Battenfield, and I highly recommend it. The author gives practical and specific suggestions on what an artist needs to do to determine what s/he needs, artistically, professionally and financially. The book includes quoted ideas from the generous and knowledgeable artist Joanne Mattera, and that alone is enough to recommend it.

I also have coming from the library “Art-work: Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Career” by Heather Darcy Bhanda. Once I’ve had a chance to read these books, I plan to make the lists and follow the steps needed to expand my professional connections.

Both of these are new books (2009), and I’m sure it’s no coincidence that they have been published now. So many crucial factors have brought sweeping changes to the art world in recent years. Between the economy, the Internet, the digital camera, and the general push to “go green,” being an artist who connects with the world is a whole different story from what it was even a few years ago, certainly 10 years ago.

On the unpractical (but just as important and effective) side, last week I watched a recent DVD on Louise Hay’s life and techniques (“stumbled upon” at the library). I had found Louise’s ideas to be MOST helpful when I first read “You Can Heal Your Life” in the late 1980s. (In fact, I wrote her two lengthy letters about how much her ideas had helped me, and she answered them both with very kind letters.) I believe it is provident that I found this DVD now that I am again in need of career help. I have started doing affirmations with regard to showing and selling my paintings. We’ll see what happens, but if my past experience is any indication, something unexpected but amazing will result.

After watching this video, I decided to revisit the “New Age” technique of making a “treasure map,” detailed in Shakti Gawain’s wonderful book “Creative Visualization.” With this method, you print out pictures of whatever it is you want MORE of in your life, and look at them daily. (When I knew I wanted to be a teacher, but had no experience, I made a treasure map using a picture of a teacher leading a studio art class, cut from an old RISD catalog. Only I pasted a photo of my head over the teacher’s head in the picture. It worked!)

I also used this technique about a year ago, as I described in this blog entry, and it really worked: I have sold a number of pieces to corporate collections since then.

Last weekend, I made the treasure map shown above, showing images from some recent exhibitions and also showing my work hanging in corporate settings, both situations I want MORE of. I’m using the technique of looking carefully at it and simultaneously saying my career-related affirmations several times a day.

I figure that, by tapping into all of these sources for help with my career, I will have covered all my bases!

Tides

Here is a new painting, titled “Tides,” started over the summer and finished on Friday. It is 50 inches high by 100 inches wide, acrylic on canvas.

I have learned a lot from the creation of this piece, some technical things, but mostly what I usually learn from painting: how to learn and how to make progress, first about art, but always in a way that translates into how to do the same thing with life in general.

The most obvious thing I learned was how to create depth and space with blue, the push/pull of working with variations of blue and different consistencies and layers of blue paint.

The process in this case was interesting. I started out with a clear idea of where I wanted to go with this work. I wanted a large painting, 100 inches or more, but I don’t have the studio space to make or the car capacity to transport such a big work. In the past I’ve tried working directly on canvas, with the idea of hanging the canvas itself on the wall with no support, but I am not happy with the way that looks. So I figured I would make a number of long vertical canvases and hang them beside one another.

So far, so good. At first, I had fun just painting and finding out what blue could do. I’m primarily a black/white or earth tones person, so working with a cool color that’s filled with emotional associations was a new experience.

But when I finished a few of the canvases and placed them beside one another, I was dismayed that they didn’t seem to work well together. I painted over a few and kept going, but disliked what I was coming up with more and more. Finally I just stopped and turned them all to the wall in the corner of the studio. I planned to eventually throw them out, but I was too discouraged even to look at them long enough to dislodge them from the stretcher bars.

Three months went by, and I took them out again, ready to throw them out or at least cut them up into smaller paintings and abandon the “one big painting” idea.

Now that I had released my original plan, that I had been so adamant about, I realized I actually LIKED these works for the most part. The only thing left to do was complete the series. I painted over one painting that still wasn’t satisfactory, and stretched and painted one new canvas, and voila! Now I have five that are different from one another, but still close enough to hold together. I really like the combination of individuality and togetherness.

So I re-learned something I always tell my students, but had forgotten myself: when you get stuck, don’t keep banging your head against the wall. Set the problem aside and come back to it when your mind is clear.

I’m so conditioned by society not to be “a quitter,” “never give up,” etc., that I forgot that the most important thing is to learn your own rhythms and ways of working, and honor them no matter what you’re “supposed” to do.

Another thing I realized is the value of good old-fashioned Buddhist “detachment.” In the beginning, I had been totally invested in making the piece look a certain way. By the time I came back to it, not only had time gone by and my expectations changed (disappeared, even), but I really didn’t care whether the piece came out at all. I was already prepared to throw it out, so what did I have to lose by trying just one more thing?

When there’s nothing at stake, you work more casually and naturally because you can’t make a “mistake.” It certainly worked for me in this case.

(I've also learned that it's important to hire a professional photographer!)

New triptych

Here's a triptych I've just finished, three canvases which measure 40" square each. Obviously, I have been inspired by autumn colors and the turning leaves.



This is the last one completed in the series of three; the other two have been pictured earlier in this blog, here and here: