Show (Title) Time

iPhone studio shot of 2 paintings yet to be titled.

You may remember these from this post.

I had a good day in the studio today. It was one of those days where things go click and I didn't feel like I only had five minutes to live, so I could focus on one or two paintings, which I did. They still need a little more work. Details, details.

It's may be a bit early (6 months) but I'm on my way to nailing the show title. To be fair, I believe I have nailed it, but since my moment of brilliant insight was less than 48 hours ago, I will sit with it. (I'm so excited, I can barely keep it to myself, but I will until it's time for the press release.) For the time being, I will say the title was inspired by a book I own called, Parlor Amusements and Social Etiquette, published around 1865. I will also tell you that I googled my rough draft title, discovered a subdivision of my original concept and read about it on Wikipedia. This led me to a link on YouTube, where I watched a video, twice. For all the sudden aha-ness of the title, it seems like it's always been the title. It doesn't feel forced. It's fun to ponder, and I'm not embarrassed about it. I will also tell you that John Ruskin is alive and well in the work, but I felt it too easy to borrow from him again, even though my set of Modern Painters is a bible to me.

(It just occurred to me that my mind works like a Rube Goldberg Machine.)

I am a terribly, terribly intuitive individual. I applied for the Pollock-Krasner grant last year and knew that it would take a little bit of time to hear back from them, but lately, I had been watching the mailbox a little harder than usual. Finally, I figured what the hell, I'll start on next year's application, and so I did. Today, right after finishing the rough draft of my cover letter, I checked my mailbox and opened my first rejection letter from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation. I say "first," because unbeknownst to me, some people have applied 5, 10, or more times before being awarded a grant. Forge on, I say. Unfortunately, one has to wait a year from rejection to apply again.