January 13, 2009

Some Things.


The art world is super small, crazy small. I'm not talking about the online arts community or any of that, I'm talking about the nuts and bolts world of people who buy art, people who sell art and people who make art, and at some point those paths cross in the physical world.

Like this past weekend, which is how I discovered that a painting I thought was hanging 2000 miles away in a private collection is actually hanging here in Los Angeles in a private collection. I was at an opening and dealer I know showed me a picture of my painting on their cellphone. And, in an even bigger coincidence, the collector was at the same opening, so I had a chance to meet him and chat with him about how he acquired my work. It was a nice conversation. He's an amicable gentleman.
Everything's legit, apparently just some really bad timing and delayed correspondence. And I might add, an error in judgement on my part, for which I am now wiser. If the sale had taken place in California, then this link would have been useful.
(Addendum: I'm still open to the possibility that there was no error in judgement and no bad timing and that things happen for a reason, and I'll leave it at that.)
***
And then this morning I read where my comrade in a parallel universe, Steven LaRose has decided to fizzle out his blog. At first I was bummed. I mean this is not a eulogy or anything, but there are certain artist/bloggers who, whom I was particularly simpatico with and LaRose is one of them, and so I will miss the dialogue. FB is just not the same.

***
I may be posting less as well, not as an intentional desire to quit writing, but when writing about things such as life and art, and art and life, it seems that messy things are well, messy and best omitted from the public spheres. And when I start having to omit the messy stuff, then I feel self-censored, which is obviously my prerogative since I am the self doing the censoring, but there's a fine line between revealing what I had for breakfast, what I'm doing in the studio and how I'm managing a couple of difficult things in my personal life. It's hard to pull the strands. My goal is to keep working as I'm working, work a little more than I think I'm working (see Perceived Exertion scale), try and be more fearless and have some faith.

I'll place the twitter feed in the side bar. Just in case...

7 comments:

Tracy Helgeson said...

I love it when connections regarding my work are made. Once the nephew of our neighbors was visiting a friend in Vermont and found that they had one of my paintings. They didn't know that the nephew knew me either.

I self censor on my blog, alas. Less since my mom died. But some of my extended family reads it as well as a few collectors and my gallery directors. They don't need to know how many men I have slept with or that I vomited at the feet of a police officer while he was trying to determine whether I was drunk or just sick:) (I was drunk)

Carla said...

LOL Tracy.

I'm wondering about posting anonymously, or via a persona. I really appreciate the level of intimacy and openness that often happens in these personal art blogs, but there's such a potential for misunderstanding with family and clients.

Anonymous said...

hmmm anonymous blogging....

Steven LaRose said...

Thanks for the link fest! ME ME ME!

It sort of makes me want to keep going. Sort of. Walking the dog this morning I began to think it might all be rooted in the fact that I haven't made anything that has knocked my own socks off in some time. Months? Anyway, I'm still holding on to the corner of the towel I through in.

How many Tracy?

Well, thanks again. I'm off to visit Carla's blog now.

Tracy Helgeson said...

Carla, I have often thought of starting an anonymous blog so that I could tell all my really good stories, and maybe answer Steven's question:) however, I keep getting bogged down in the details. Oh yeah and then there's the time thing.

Oh and by the way girls, maybe it was before your time, but Steven has tried to shut down his blog before. It was at least a few years ago. I know I begged him not to (i had only just found him!) and certainly a few others did too and he came crawling back to his fellow bloggers, where he belongs:))

M.A.H. said...

I started an anoynmous blog couple of years ago, over at either typepad or wordpress. I forgot the title and the password and figured posting anonymously might not be good karma after all. Although I'm seriously entertaining the idea of an anonymous twitter account for entertainment purposes only. So many possibilities. I giggle at the thought.

Girls, shall we hazard some odds on LaRose's hiatus. Friendly bets only of course!

Tracy Helgeson said...

I say he'll post again within 10 days, Mary:)

It's over.

Nov 7, 2020. Tears of joy and relief. It's been unreal and I'm ready to get back to a sense of normalcy. The desert has been tough.