WOW! It took me ALL DAY yesterday, and about five hours this morning, to take a complete inventory of all the work in my studio and record it on the computer! And that doesn't even include all the works on paper; there must be at least 50 of them that are good enough to be mounted on canvas.
Now I have a complete set of pages detailing titles, dimensions, materials, sizes, years completed, retail prices, and images ... for each piece.
You learn a lot about yourself by "taking stock" like this. I tried to be impartial and business-like while I was doing it, because if I had lingered too long in my memories of each individual piece, I never would have finished.
What have I learned from the experience? I think I need to get out of the studio for a while. I know that sounds strange for an artist to say. We're supposed to WORK, WORK, WORK, right? Produce, get the work out there, make a name for ourselves, sell sell sell?
Well, my best works are reflections of those moments in time when I was digging deep down inside and using the art materials to honestly communicate what I found. I've been getting a little "commercial" in my inspirations lately, a little repetitive of what I know works, and I need to spend some time "on the mountaintop" and re-evaluate who I am as an artist and how to best express myself.
Or maybe not think about art at all ... forget the whole thing for a while.
But it feels good to have put in this effort. Now I know exactly what I have in those storage racks! Honestly, though, I had no idea it was going to take this long or be this labor-intensive ... if I had realized what I was getting into, I might have procrastinated!
The painting at the top of this blog is one of the best paintings I've ever made. It's from 1997, when I was in graduate school. It's acrylic and oil stick on fabric on canvas, 64 inches high by 44 inches wide, called "Niche." It's one of the ones that was hiding downstairs in storage!
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