Sneak peek at some new work.

Just got the rolls back from the lab. No post processing as of yet.

Animal Instinct. The Desert, Survival. Protection. Death. Home. 

More to come. 

Anywhere But Here up at ShoeboxLA

1968. It Was a Beautiful Cake. No Moths, 2014

A couple of years ago, I carted a suitcase full of small paintings back to LA for a huge all-painting  group show/event I had been invited to be in. Being on the fence about where I was actually living, I was maintaining the cover that I was still an LA artist. I didn't quite feel like a move across country for reasons other than art made me a "Nashville artist" anymore than living 2 months in Holland made me a Rotterdam artist. Long story short, as the result of that work and my comrades in the City of Angels, I was recently invited to take part in a project on spot relevant to my current work.

My contribution to the ShoeboxLA's curatorial project went live on Friday.
For the full post including the essay and image, please visit,  Anywhere But Here. 

Many thanks, ShoeboxLA!

My first real fall in almost 23 years.

I feel like I just fell off the turnip truck. It's like I've never seen bare trees, leaves fall, or afternoon sunlight through a cloudy sky. 

Tree, View from Utility Room, 8" x 5," watercolor and gouache on paper

It was chilly yesterday. I cheated and stayed inside for yesterday's plein air painting. I double cheated, because I worked some more on it today. A plein aire purist, I am not. I was simultaneously doing laundry. Below the shutters is my washer and dryer. My goal is to paint every tree in my yard. If I can figure out accurate GPS coordinates, I think I will title them by their GPS coordinates. In the likely event I lose interest in such an elaborate titling ruse, I'll just name them something obvious.

If you stick to your work it will take care of you somehow...Kiki Smith

Yes, I thrive on a reward system. Doesn't everyone?

I still have non-art related paperwork to do, but I made a huge dent and thanks to my ever-shortening attention span, I accomplished much yesterday. I live so dangerously. All it took was one question that required more information than I had at my fingertips and I was able to seamlessly leave the computer, pick up a paint brush, make some strokes on a canvas, wipe off my paintbrush, walk in the house to attempt to retrieve said information, only to become further distracted. Why yes, I would rather be painting. I purposely don't wear paint clothes in the studio when I need to do paperwork, thinking, obviously mistakenly, that I won't paint in nice clothes. Roulette, I tell you. I think I escaped with no oil paint on the nice clothes, but by 6:00 pm I had, HAD, to suddenly refurbish the breakfast table which I've been absolutely loathing for some time. The table top itself was fine- it was from the appropriately titled, "5 o'clock room," at my aunt & uncle's old house- but I was SO over the chairs that it would require a separate post to explain.

In order to be economical, I would keep the table top and use my vintage Arthur Umanoff barstools as the new chairs. This required table surgery. I removed the old base and decided the Vika Artur trestle from Ikea would make the perfect new base. My worktable in the studio has been on a set for years. The height is adjustable- perfect for us non-committal types. By 6:30 pm I was sitting in traffic on my way to Ikea in Burbank. By 9 pm, I was loading up the car with the Vika Artur, 2 throw pillows, a scatter rug, a new shower curtain, a bath mat, 4 new cereal bowls, and a new bed pillow. By midnight, I had put together the table legs and had completed my home decor jag. Perfect!

Still doing office work, but there is a new watercolor to view..

Well, the inauguration was this morning and wow! By the time I awoke and was onto coffee, the parade was just starting. I never watch TV during the day. No morning news, nothing.  Never, unless I'm sick. It took a few moments to relax into the history making of it all without wanting to make chicken soup and crawl under a blanket as a reflex. Fortunately it was sunny here and I have a ton of work to do, so after the hoopla, I was back in the studio, but only to work on computer stuff. Still uploading images for some upcoming grants opps out here and a few props I promised myself I'd do, just because. Am also considering the etsy thing, but I can only do so much in one day.

I did however upload another work to Smaller Works, so in times of lean posting, I may just link over there. 

***

I'm doing fairly well on some 2009 goals: 4 openings in 2 consecutive weekends is a record for me. January has a few more good things, like the art fairs and then Feb. is the CAA conference which is just a bit pricey for me this year, but it looks so interesting. I'd rather be working in the studio and figuring out my next move, but maybe it's time to be social for a spell. 

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...