Saturday, October 11, 2008

Enough work


Georgia O'Keeffe is supposed to have said that an artist needs to have enough work on hand for three simultaneous exhibits, just in case, and I am finding that her advice is quite accurate.

I had an art-making blitz last spring, and felt as though my painting storage racks were stuffed to the gills when I had finished. Now I have three shows scheduled for next spring, two in January into February and one in March. The curator for the March show picked work a few months ago, and the curator for the first January show selected work last week. This makes it easy to decide what to put in the second January show: the pieces that are not already committed!

Luckily, because I had that painting time to create work earlier this year, I will have enough work to pick from. But it could have been close, otherwise, and I am not one of those artists who can rush work into "production" -- my paintings have to come of their own accord. Phew!

The piece above is one of those selected for exhibit at "Opening Lines," curated by Susan Goldwitz, to be held at the New Art Center in Newton, MA. Titled "Saffron," it is 30 inches high by 20 inches wide.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice painting, Catherine! Wow, that's a daunting challenge, but probably something that should be very much taken to heart. I've decided to increase my production as well (as you probably already knew) and to accommodate it physically, I'm going to paint flat on paper and canvas, which could be mounted to panels later.

Catherine Carter said...

It never hurts to have "too much" work ... and it gives you a practical reason to spend lots of time in the studio. Thank you for writing, Martha!