Food for Thought

It's not about how well you do something or how much you like it and like doing it. It all comes down to what you do being trendy. You have to have that demand, a lot of it. That produces profit and success. You have to decide if you want to sell your work or not. If you do, how much? If not, what are you going to do with it?
This is my predicament: fresh out of college (maybe a few days kind of fresh) with an art degree to be mailed to me, but no demand, no profit, and no place to put these paintings. I know I'm not the only one. So what do you do?
I have no idea. Hang them in your house? Give them as gifts? Stop painting so you don't ever have to do this again? Start working smaller?
You can look for Calls to Artists and keep your work in galleries so you don't have to store them. But once again, lack of demand. Everyone wants to look at it but no one wants it. I probably couldn't even give them away. Seriously, if I walked up to someone I knew and asked them if they wanted a painting, for free, I'm sure they would have an excuse as to why they didn't.
That's what they don't teach you in art school: how to sell your work.
They teach you to be contemplative, purposeful, master techniques, practice, edit, and research. But they don't tell you that you will spend your entire life working on series of work that won't sell. If you don't want to sell, that's fine, but if you do, then you have a problem. Your work isn't commercial enough. No one wants to hang your abstract painting in their den because they don't get it, it doesn't match their color scheme, they can buy a cheaper, prettier one at Pier 1, or whatever. And that sucks.
So when your friends are out without you, you have no money, no place to put everything, and you're depressed; what you do next really says a lot about you. At least make an effort to make something of your work before you decide to quit forever.

Project

I realize this is not an organization I'm posting about, but this is a fun thing to do.
Take a magazine laying around and tear out pages of stuff you like, looks cool, and anything else.
Then you cut out what you want to work with and create a person, landscape, or thing from the pieces.
I have done this multiple times in the past. It's a great way to start off a class, do with a friend that doesn't identify as being artistic or artsy, and nice when you're in a rut or sick of what your doing.
Most people have magazines lying around or something like it with images and different fonts and colors. But if not, then do the same thing with a newspaper or old book and be more crafty about how you do it.
That's what I plan on doing. Because I'm sick of pricking my finger with the needle for one evening.

When Creativity Hits

It's been a terribly long time since I have updated or even really looked at my poor lost blog. I have felt that since no one particularly reads or comments that it is pointless to update, but at the same time I can't help but think this could still be a fruitful endeavor.
I have accomplished much lately because creativity has plowed right into me. A few months ago, I finished a triptych piece for a commission and have been so glad to earn that money, but more so to have experienced the process of making the painting, working with such a lovely individual, and feeling completely at ease at being able to let the piece go.
Also, I have been working on my series for my show in May and have gone through many trials and tribulations; however, there is hope in sight. I have created a Facebook page for my artwork, and although it is an extremely modest following, I am grateful for every follower I have.
Inspiration is everywhere and showing up not just in my studio, but in others blogs, work, and ideas, too. I'm so excited for all these things I have encountered and discovered to be completed and see the fruits of all of every one's labor morph into art and something tangible.
Very soon do I hope to continue these posts and tell about the things I see, even if no one reads about it here except myself and my one, lovely follower.
Merry Christmas to anyone reading this and have a blessed New Year, my dears.

It's Going Down

It has been forever since I updated, but I've had a lot going on. I've been out of school long enough now too want something to do, just in time to work on decorating for Vacation Bible School and to start my first ever summer class! I'm posting now because I'm getting ready to start painting animals and make a waterfall for the class I'm working in for VBS and I realized I had a method for getting ready to paint.

How You Know When It's About to Go Down!
-I will have coffee in my penguin mug, no other mug will do
-I will be listening to one of 2 playlists on iTunes: Michael Cera Music or Operation Dinner Out (if you get that joke then I love you)
-The weather or news is on even though I have it muted
-There are multiple old towels, paper towels, and bottles and cups of water
-I drag out every blank canvas and unfinished art piece, as if I'm going to paint them all in one sitting
-Finally, I lock my dog out of my room so he won't lay on anything and end up with a painting on his back

Just thought it was interesting how I always do this, especially the things that really have nothing to do with painting at all. And it's only when I'm home. I don't do this at school, but maybe I do have a method there too. Hmm, curiouser and curiouser.

Thankful for Monet

So here we are, I have finally gotten around to writing about Monet. I still haven't finished the book, but I don't think I can put it off any longer. I'll never finish it if the planning of writing a post about remains stuck in my head. In fact, I might finish sooner because I'm looking at his paintings and remembering what I have learned about Claude Monet and how much I love the water lilies and the paintings of his Camille and his son, Jean. It really makes you feel as if you knew him. You can see his wife through his eyes, see the way he portrays his son and how he saw the world.

I really enjoy his paintings of the sea and the wooded setting of his Luncheon on the Grass. But the book Claude & Camille: A novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell, really gets into the struggles of the artist in his artistic and his personal life. Anyone can relate to this, artistic or not. It's about doing what you love but no one appreciating it or knowing what to make of it. Monet struggles throughout the book financially and spends what little money he has, and the money his friends give him, buying painting supplies and (later on) lovely things for his wife and child.

Everyone knows that feeling, having almost no money to your name but what you do have you use to survive and continue your work and treat those you care for as much as you're able. It's a horribly, tragic life. Especially when looking back at those who are now house hold names, are being talked about in history books and have paintings being gazed at in museums. Monet and others works were once almost worthless or unappreciated, but now their priceless. It gives many artists hope for their own careers to take off, to become someone in the world. Not everyone can be published in books or be featured artists, but everyones art should be appreciated. I may never sell a painting in my life, but if someone just appreciated it and saw it for what it was then that is enough.

A professor at my university takes the viewpoint that art isn't about the product, it's about the process. It really is a transformation that you undergo when you creative something. Monet knew all about that. He developed through his paintings and then was able to let go of them whether to customers or to a gallery to be displayed. Granted, his financial situation also propelled that release of his work in some ways, but it was also his artistic maturity that allowed him to do so as well.

I don't believe I am that mature yet to just paint for the experience and that metamorphosis of mind and soul. There are others that feel the same, I'm sure. The feeling of attachment to their work holding them back or maybe a perfectionist attitude that their work is never finished and can never be sold if it isn't finished. Maybe some are like me where they have their favorites and don't want to let them go, but there are other pieces that have been experienced but the fear of rejection is holding them back.

Maybe we all need to be brave like Monet. He went out and asked customers and galleries if they were interested in what he had and he was rejected over and over again. He persisted and kept on painting without the knowledge that later it would pay off.

That is the best part I think. Even though he had so much hardship and faced so much rejection he never gave up. He always survived, whether is was in his work or his relationships, he prevailed. I don't know if his story is a happy ever after or not, but it's like that of painting: it's not the product, it's about the process. During this time of Thanksgiving, that's what I'm thankful for. The processes of life that build us no matter the end result and the hope to later understand those processes more.

TWLOHA- Love is the Movement

Away from all about me, me, and more me, yesterday (11/12/10) was To Write Love On Her Arms Day. If you don't know what it is, it's an organization that has made it their mission to help people that self mutilate or harm themselves, through cutting or otherwise. Their story is an amazing one, trully inspiring. I can't describe as well as the organization does, so here's their story.


"To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

To Write Love On Her Arms Day is a day where anyone can write the words love on their arms, to support those who are fighting against depression and those who are trying to recovering. On this day, just write love on your arms, and show it off, other people will ask why you have love written on your arms, and you tell them you are supporting to write love on her arms day, and how its benefiting a non profit organization helping stop depression, and make love the movement ♥"


Here's their website that tells even more about their vision and story:
http://www.twloha.com/vision/

Update

Here are some updated pictures of the pieces I've been working on, including a crooked test print from my intaglio print. They're a bit blurry because I dropped my camera and haven't gotten it fixed or another camera, so this is with my web cam.

So I've been getting out of my artist funk lately by doing a series of Native American/Western style pieces. I'm in a printmaking class currently so it has been occupying all my time, but I'm using this theme with my work in there. Nevertheless, I do have canvases that will be painted! Also, I have finished the orange and red piece (which now needs a title) and the acrylic under painting for the mountain piece. I know it sounds like I'm not doing much, but if you could see my printmaking stuff and look in my sketchbooks then you would see that's where my work and planning is dwelling for the moment.

I do have a commission from a friend of mine from high school that's getting married in the spring, so I am planning that out as well. It will be a watercolor of the interior of a very old, grandiose stairway inside a somewhat medieval looking mansion/castle/building. I'm so excited because it's my first commission!

Still no Monet, maybe over Thanksgiving? Yes. Thanksgiving I will finally post about Monet.
See you all then, if not before.