New Flickr account

I have set up a Flickr account and started uploading examples of my work there. I'm still in the process of getting the images on there, but eventually my Flickr photostream will offer a more complete look at my various series than are available on my website.

Click here to view what's up so far. Thank you for visiting!

"Pirouette" finds new home

Happily, I have just sold "Pirouette," the painting pictured above. This is made even better by the fact that I know the person who bought it, so I can see it again! I certainly don't mind it when a painting is sold in a situation where I won't see it again (such as a corporation), but it's a bonus when I can view it whenever I visit the person who owns it.

Rebecca's wonderful video

I want to share this wonderful video that painter Rebecca Crowell has put up on her blog. In it she describes her origins, inspirations and goals as an artist. We are also treated to process views in her studio, as she demonstrates the rich variety of applications and layers that bring her paintings to life.

I loved Rebecca’s video, as it is a visual version of what I try to do verbally in my In The Studio series for the New Bedford Standard-Times (see my blog's sidebar for links to the 15 profiles I have written so far). That is, the viewer/reader is invited inside the artist’s world and offered the opportunity to be enlightened, challenged and inspired by an intimate view of a life dedicated to the arts.

It’s one thing – and indeed a great thing – to read about a mythic figure like van Gogh, for example, and be impressed with his deep devotion and breath-taking skill. But it’s also valuable to connect with an artist who is a contemporary, who faces the same issues as the rest of us – raising children, paying the bills, growing older, keeping the faith in this time of great political challenge – and who has managed to succeed at doing all of these things AND at pursuing what can seem like an impossible and elusive dream, living as a practicing artist. It helps to see exactly how the person structures her life and her time, in what type of environment, under what circumstances. It gives us hope and joy, as well as ideas for practical solutions in our own lives.

I am also intrigued by the idea of a video like this as a potential marketing tool. Rebecca says that it was available for guests to view at her recent solo show at Darnell Fine Art in Sante Fe. What a great idea! To the artists who read my blog, I recommend exploring making this type of communication for yourself, as a way of informing curators, gallerists and/or collectors who might be interested in your artwork. Having a brief interview and a technical demonstration available for cyberspace visitors to click on could be a fantastic enhancement to a website or blog.

Memories of the King Philip Mill

I took a trip to Fall River, Mass., today, and since I was in the neighborhood, I thought I would swing by the King Philip Mill where I had my studio from 1997 to 2001. I was renting a HUGE space for $169.38 a month (including utilities)! (Not that I can recommend the place; the landlords weren't exactly responsive, to say the least -- locks and windows left broken, etc.)

A sign outside the building today advertised their website, which didn't seem active when I checked on line just now, but a general Google search uncovered the following photo, taken inside the mill by Lewis Hine (a hero of mine) in 1916. This picture is from the records of the National Child Labor Committee, held by the Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs Division.

The young woman pictured was named Bertha Bonneau and she was 15 years old when this image was taken. She is working in the card room as a doffer. I wish, as I'm sure Mr. Hine did, that a 15-year-old was at the library studying, or out for an ice cream soda with her friends. But I'd be willing to bet that she and her family were thankful for, perhaps reliant on, the salary she was bringing in, however meager.

My profile of photographer Jane Tuckerman

My profile of the brilliant photographer Jane Tuckerman appears in today's New Bedford Standard-Times. Click here to read.

A solo exhibition of Jane's work, curated by John Borowicz, is on exhibit at the New Bedford Art Museum until September 11. Click here for more information.

More and more collages

I've been making more of these small (10-inch square) collaged pieces. My favorite way to spend an afternoon: slipping on the headphones, opening a container of gel medium, and assembling a few of these babies.

The Cap That Mother Made

To continue the theme of visual influences from childhood:

While visiting my mother yesterday, I found a wonderful book of children's folk tales that had been hers when she was growing up, and which I read constantly when I was growing up. I LOVED the beautiful pictures that illustrated each of the tales.

The picture above is from my favorite story in the book, "The Cap That Mother Made." It's about Anders, a boy whose loving mother knits him a beautiful multi-colored wool cap. Throughout his travels, everyone he meets covets the hat, but he is smart enough to hang on to it, no matter how tempting the offer to trade for it. This picture shows the king offering Anders his crown in exchange for the cap, but our hero values his mother's handiwork even more than all the jewels in the crown.

When he returns home, his brothers and sisters laugh at him for turning down the king's crown. But Anders declares, "All the money the king's crown could bring, would not buy me a finer cap than the beautiful cap of red and green and blue that Mother made me."

The story ends with one very proud Mom: "Anders ran straight into his mother's arms and she gave him a big hug and many, many kisses."

Student work

I've been teaching a drawing class to high school students this week, and they have done some LOVELY work. The piece above is by a talented student named Hannah Lewis. I love setting up still lives with these old pewter pitchers of my Mom's; they make for some very elegant and distinctive interpretations.

For holiday sales

I've been making more of these "patchwork" pieces on 10-inch cradled boards with an eye toward including them in some holiday sales this fall; I put this one together on Sunday.

Online research

Yesterday I sat down with Art In America’s gallery guide, highlighted the venues that might have potential for my work (i.e. ones that show “contemporary” painting and aren’t co-ops, museums or art centers), and looked them all up on the Web. (My search also, obviously, eliminated any galleries without a website; I figure any business that doesn’t have a website in 2008 just isn’t being realistic.)

For reasons of time, I skipped listings from California, New York and Texas, and I’ll get to those on my next go-round.

I decided not to be snobby about galleries that aren’t in big cities, something I have done in the past. I learned my lesson from a (Boston-area) friend of mine who has had strong sales with her galleries in Wyoming and Utah. Besides, with the rise of art fairs and web sales, location is no longer the issue it once was. And I found some wonderful-looking galleries in, for example, Idaho.

So I narrowed it down to four galleries that seemed to be very good “fits” for my style of work and are open to submissions. Now to check into CA, NY and TX listings and see what turns up. I might wait to crank my packet-making and CD-burning into high gear, since I have a busy fall season work-wise. But by next spring, the work is getting out into the world. (And knowing myself, I get so enthusiastic about these things that I’ll manage to get the mailings done sooner than I expect. Yes, I am one of those rare weirdos who loves applying for jobs, going on interviews, etc., so marketing my work is fun to me.)

I have learned a lot from this initial foray into the national gallery scene, most importantly that I need to start taking my career more seriously. I have been putting way too much effort into juried shows, local group memberships and other “small-time” opportunities like that. It’s time to cut them out and use the time to focus on building a national career. Yesterday I was looking over the list of annual events I used to apply to every year, and my hand spontaneously scrawled “Skip these and aim higher” across the page. So this is what I intend to do.

Shown at the top of this blog entry is "Scribbled Strips 10"; acrylic, paper and fabric on board; 10 inches square; about to be added to my updated website.

Pleasantly surprised

By chance, I picked up the latest copy of Artscope (a Boston-area culture magazine) today, and I was so pleased to come across a full-page color advertisement for a group show I'm in next January at the New Art Center in Newton, Massachusetts. Here's the section of the ad that mentions this show. For more information, visit the exhibitions page of the Center's website here.

Marketing resolution

I’ve had lovely long stretches of time to paint this summer, and I am now taking the first steps toward getting the artwork out into the world. Today I am dropping off a carload of pieces at the photographer’s, and then I will have my website updated with the various new series (six altogether) I have created.

Since the closing of the wonderful gallery I was last affiliated with, I have had a lot of luck finding opportunities to exhibit and sell my work on my own. Plus I have ongoing relationships with several art consultants who have done well for me.

Now I want to expand on these past experiences. I am currently on a quest to find the best ways to market my work, and I have definite ideas about how I approach this goal.

In the past, I have used the “Marcia Brady approach” to marketing. That is, on the “Brady Bunch,” there was an episode when Marcia was concerned about having to attend a new school where she didn’t know anyone, and her mother advised her to try joining a school club so she could meet people. But Marcia, not being someone to take half-measures, signed up for every single club at the school, and eventually found herself overwhelmed with commitments to groups she wasn’t terribly interested in.

In much the same way, in the past I have applied for every possible opportunity that came down the pike. I had it down to such a streamlined system that I could get a marketing packet, complete with CD and resume tailored especially for the intended recipient, into the mail in under an hour. I used to spend hours combing the online classifieds for exhibition opportunities on an almost daily basis, and I subscribed to three print publications that list these types of opportunities as well.

But now I want to examine how I’m doing things. I want to slow way down and figure out EXACTLY where I want my work to end up. I am going to wait for that YES! feeling you get when you know something is right, and only apply for opportunities that give me that feeling. Any time I get that urge to hurry up and act, or I might lose out, I am going to stop and think about it and be SURE it’s what I want before I respond.

I truly love my new paintings, all of them. (The ones I didn’t love were painted over!) I honestly believe they are interesting to look at. And I am not in a hurry to get them out of my studio, just for the sake of getting them out of there. I definitely don’t want to keep them; I DO want them to find good homes. But I want to make sure they find the RIGHT destinations, for the good of all concerned, even if it doesn’t happen overnight.

I do have four shows scheduled for the upcoming exhibition season, so there is no need to feel that my career is stagnating. I can take a deep breath, relax and have faith that the perfect opportunities will present themselves.

The painting at the top of this entry is “Shadows,” acrylic, spray paint and fabric on canvas, 14 inches square.

My heroine

Who needs those so-called motivational speakers you see on PBS these days? Strident and melodramatic, their speeches are all about how clever they are and how much applause they can generate. You can have 'em.

For true inspiration, here is the lady for me. Barbara Jordan makes her points in an intelligent, dignified, and assured way, but with kindness, concern, and genuine respect for her listeners. She is my heroine; wish we still had her here with us.

Unexpected inspiration

I had planned to take a little break from the studio. I have made SO many new paintings lately, I mean like 30+, that I’m feeling a little overwhelmed about getting started on the many tasks involved in getting them out in the world. With such a large “inventory,” it hardly seemed necessary to make more new pieces right away.

Also I’m scheduled for 6 adult-level and 3 graduate-level classes this fall at the museum school where I teach, in addition to a course at a nearby state college. With all of that looming in the not-too-distant future, and my summer teaching still with two weeks to go, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to let my studio time slide a little.

In anticipation of letting my brain “chill” a bit, I checked a pile of DVDs of old TV shows out of the library for my husband and I to watch (we find the library fits in better with our budget than cable). Along with “Columbo,” “The Rockford Files” and “The Big Valley,” I also checked out “The Art of Quilting,” a PBS program on DVD that includes an interview with my friend, artist Jeanne Williamson.

I watched “The Art of Quilting” today – in between episodes of Peter Falk in his rumpled raincoat, and Lee Majors and Peter Breck beating the heck out of each other – and found it FASCINATING. The show includes a number of quilt-artists talking in depth about their inspirations, their creative processes, and how they became involved with art-making in the first place.

I was so inspired that I hastened down to the studio and painted a grouping of works on paper (example above) featuring liberal pourings of yellow ochre and cadmium yellow. So much for time off – inspired by the quilters’ enthusiasm and their beautiful works, I couldn’t resist!

But I have to admit, while the paint was drying, I came upstairs and watched James Garner in “Rockford.”