In the Twilight of 2007

It's almost over. 2007 is one of the shortest-feeling years I can remember. I've been so busy, it has just flown by! I have done more than ever before, and I feel great for it.

Paintings... I suddenly wish I had kept a list as I finished paintings, including the date, just so I could track my progress. I do know that over the past 2 years I have painted more than in my whole life before that. This year has carried its share (offhand I can count 12), and I'm not done yet! Hopefully I will begin "Kiss IX" during the next several days, in-between Christmas and my son's birthday.

The first painting I finished in 2007 was "Kiss VI" – it is a portrait of a friend with his infant son.




The last painting I finished is "Penguin Family," which has been done for over a month now, I really love them. It's so fun to explore and evolve, with the pengins, my colors and blending became much subtler than most of what I've painted this year. If you can see the background in this, it's got blue in it, but is almost white. I will take a better picture when I get it back from the show in Brooksville, it'll be hanging there until February 12th. Unless, of course, it sells!


Life inbetween "Kiss VI" and "Penguin Family" has been jam-packed. I joined the new art-marketing salon, OoHA, which has been instrumental in keeping me motivated with painting as well as helped me learn the art business in leaps. I took the seat of President for the Greater Ocala Advertising Federation. So far besides managing the month-to-month operations and growing the club, I have gone to three district conferences and a leadership retreat. I have also had visits to Fort Lauderdale, Titusville, Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando... so I've been traversing Florida. My kids both started new schools and have daily homework added to our routine. I've continued working at Ocala Magazine as the full-time base to all of that. Somewhere between all of that and a fairly active social life, my house hasn't fallen apart. Thanks for the small miracles!

This is a good beginning to what will be a longer exploration of my 2007 progress that I will make before setting goals for 2008. Cheers to everyone, I'm looking forward to more success, more art, more fun!

Family

The intro page on my website reads: "Her work centers around loving relationships and the beauty in simple moments." Sometimes I think I will make a departure from that theme, but it has yet to happen. Planned or not, it sums up the subject matter that appeals to me.

I finished "Family at Fence" which I posted the under-sketch to yesterday. I am now working on "Penguin Family." Here are those two pieces:




I tend to work in series/themes, and while I am not aiming for a family theme, it really must represent "loving relationships and the beauty in simple moments." My past animal paintings, or "The Nurturing" series of 3 plus the "M is for Manatee" all depict families. The question comes to my mind, "what is NOT family?" My good friends are like family to me. In loving relationships, dating or the like, it's almost like people are as family even if for a short time. I don't know a lot of my blood-family very well, which makes them more distant than many of my friends.

At the risk of sounding cliché or trite, I would go as far as to say that we are ALL family... just some of us are closer than others. Recently I heard that the Bush family was traced back to the BinLaden family, with common blood-lines. I was dumbfounded for a moment before co-workers explained to me how if you go back several generations, you can link almost anyone together. We've only been around so long, right? I guess it makes sense.

Here's to one, big, happy earth-family! Peace, my brothers and sisters.

Art for who's sake?

Today in the art department at my day job, a talented graphic designer told us that in his class the other night, he told his students that fine art has no value. It is worthless. It does nothing for the world beyond providing an aesthetic. Graphic Design is what can move change, affect anyone, make anyone money, do anything.

Rumbles of protest broke out and we started naming artists who's art has messages or tells stories, and besides, wasn't it enough to bring someone pleasure, what about psychological value? Why buy anything decorative if it didn't add value to one's life?

"Almost no one creates art for art's sake any more" he added. This turned things to "commercial art, graphic design, fine art," and what those terms meant. Our Creative Director was of the opinion that an artist who paints to sell is a commercial artist. The aforementioned designer said that Thomas Kincade had fallen into that. Me, I believe that if an artist is selling their work, they are a "professional" artist because it becomes their profession, and that if the art is created to sell something else, then it is "commercial" art.

Names were thrown around from Michaelangelo to some current local artists and many in between. Storytellers, salespeople, artists, advertisers, designers... is any of it less art? I do agree that graphic design currently has more power to deliver a message than fine art, mostly because of the very nature of it... it is carried to the masses by the all-mighty media. Fine art is carried to a living room.

I brought up the gators, since I had felt like they were a bit of a "sell-out" before. They're not, but admittedly I chose the colors to appeal to a specific audience. I did not choose the colors for me. Is that what art for art's sake is? For the artist? Hmmm... that seems rather self-serving. Art is art is art. Bad art is art. Commercial art is art. Movies are art. It's all expression, and it all speaks to someone. So it's communication – which though it is a rather commercial word – means it's people coming closer together.



I'm painting "Family at Fence" tonight (under-drawing above). It's not part of a series, it's not in colors that will appeal to a particular market. I'm painting it as a tribute to families, an ode to togetherness, a portrait of love. Art for art's sake, for my sake, for the world's sake.

Out of Hand ... at the bank!

We're out!

As 2007 began, I was invited to join an artist's salon, focused on marketing art. Since Sharon Crute (Dynamic Equine Artist) held our first meeting, we have continued to meet every two weeks for the past 6 months. Over this time we have gotten to know each other, shared ideas, grown independently and together, and naturally we came up with a name and logo (what else do groups of artists focusing on marketing do?). Out of Hand Artists we are.


Are we out of hand? A little. Sometimes. Our art is definitely out of our own hands. Our energy and dynamics, our ability to work together to accomplish goals, our professionalism and our determination... might be a little bit out of hand. In a good way.

On June 28th, we had our premier show as a group. 39 paintings adorn the Bank of America - downtown Ocala on the square - and will stay up for viewing through August 8th. The Star Banner was at the opening reception to talk with us all (full story) ... and now we are looking forward to staying "out" there.

Look out world, here we come!

Honesty in art

I have a day job. I work at a magazine. It's publishing, but it's also advertising. My background is in advertising (for the past 16 years). So, as a painter, I find it a challenge to simply paint with honesty, because the "sell" gets in the way. When deciding what to paint next, I often think, "What will sell?" instead of simply painting what I want to paint. Honesty can be controversial and I live in a small-ish town that is on the conservative side. Personal honesty can be impertinent to the trends and therefore ineffective as a product. Meaning: sometimes what goes on in my mind, no one would really care about anyway.

I'm painting gators right now. I live in central Florida, so this makes a lot of sense. I'm painting them orange and blue, which also makes sense given that none of my painting have realistic color. I prefer to transcend reality or racial specificity by using bold, emotional colors instead. I wonder, though, if I would have chosen gators to paint next had I not been planning to show and sell locally. Does that make me a sell-out? Is that dishonest? I really do love my reference of the gators, I shot it a couple of years ago and think it's a fabulous photo. I just don't know.

I am also writing a book (yeah, in my spare time). Honesty in writing is even more challenging, but not because of the sell-factor, because of the bearing-my-soul-factor. I know that the more honestly I write the more interesting, shocking, identifiable the story is... the more emotional and touching it is. It's almost like I have to write as if no one will ever read it, and then deal with showing it later.

Getting that honest emotion into painting, though, while branding myself as an artist, is difficult. How to meld the marketer that I am with the artist that I am, that's the hurdle. For now my answer seems to be - paint what I want AND paint what I think will sell. Not one or the other. Then, let the chips fall where they may.