Lots of dots

My living room is filled with paintings, about to be delivered for a new presentation. These three are the "Blue Spheres" series; each is 40 inches square, acrylic on fabric collage on canvas. Fingers crossed that they soon find a permanent destination!

The Importance of Being Thankful

I’ve written in a previous blog post about the importance of saying THANK YOU, but I feel the need to address the subject again.

I have donated 10 paintings to The Art Connection since 2006, when I first learned of this worthy cause, and the reactions (and non-reactions) to my donations from the non-profit organizations that have selected my work have been varied and revealing.

The Art Connection recommends to these recipient organizations, in writing, that they send a thank-you note to the artists whose work they’ve selected. Here are the various responses I have received from the 9 agencies that have received my artwork over the years:

5 of the organizations never contacted me at all
1 organization asked me for a(nother) donation for a fund-raising event (!!)
2 organizations sent me hand-written thank-you notes (way to go, Ronald McDonald House and Harbour House Family Center!)

And the winner of the Mother Raised You Right Award goes to the Mattapan Community Health Center, which not only sent me a lovely thank-you letter but also held a party for all of the artists who had donated work to their facility!

Now I’m not expecting anything fancy, like a box of chocolates or a bouquet of flowers. And I know people are very, very busy; I’m sure most of the folks at these non-profit organizations are overworked and underpaid, or they may even be volunteers. BUT a simple two-sentence note, even in an email – “Thank you so much for your donation. We really appreciate your generosity” – goes a long way in the good will, good karma department. And after all, isn’t that what a human service organization is supposed to be about?

Image shown above: "Sunset Web," a new artwork I've just donated to the Art Connection.

ETA: Upon reading this blog entry, Sarah Berry, the Art Connection's Program Manager, updated me with the following information:

"As you noted we do alert agencies that sending a thank you note is a critical step in the process. In fact, we do so three separate times:

1) At their preliminary site visit
2) In their confirmation packet

And starting in July (when I came on as full time program manager), I added it to the agency Six Month Report, a third reminder. We mention an agency art reception all those times as well, though I suspect many of our agencies don’t have it in their budget."

Series continues

Here's another new painting in my latest series - variation on the blues of the last time. This one is 20 inches square.

The fun thing about working on these is, when you're up close and painting the details, you really can't see what's going on; the surface looks like a bunch of amorphic, unrelated shapes. The piece doesn't resolve visually until you're pretty much done. So it's like unwrapping a present, to finish up!

A change of pace

This year has been an interesting reshuffling of my usual way of working in the studio. Typically I teach all year and paint all year and somehow, in the past, these two activities have meshed perfectly. But for the summer of 2011, several classes didn't run and I unexpectedly found myself with six weeks completely free.

Ordinarily this would have scared me, six weeks with no income. But luckily, about a month before I realized I wouldn't have my usual summer teaching load and paycheck, my mother had kindly given me a financial advice book called "How to Get What You Want In Life With the Money You Already Have" by Carol Keeffe. This book showed me how to prioritize my desires, plan my finances accordingly, and then forge ahead with confidence. So with my new financial plan in place, I was able to take advantage of this sudden "free" time and use every minute of it to devote to my studio practice.

Many wonderful paintings resulted. But by mid-August, I was DONE with painting and needed a break! At that time, I taught two intensive-level classes Monday through Friday 9 to 5, and from then until a week ago, I had NO desire to pick up a brush! I really needed a complete rest from painting. So rather than living a two-part life of painting while teaching, I did just one, and then just the other.

Interestingly, when the urge to paint returned last week, I started right back where I left off in early August, when I had completed the painting below:




And here is my most recent painting, completed a few days ago, inspired by the composition and techniques of the earlier piece, but using more varied colorations and a cool palette.




The next step will be to expand this painting to a larger scale (I just stretched a 40 inch square canvas this morning) and see how that turns out.

I found having my summers available just for painting to be such a productive arrangement that I have determined to save enough money during the fall, winter and spring semesters so that I can devote six weeks every summer entirely to my studio.

Squiggles talk and tour

Join me on Thursday, October 13, during New Bedford's October AHA Night, for a talk and tour of the exhibit "Squiggles and Squares" at Artworks! We'll begin at 7 p.m.

Artworks is located at 384 Acushnet Avenue in Downtown New Bedford. For more information, call 508-984-1588 or visit www.artworksforyou.org.

For details on all the activities planned around the city for AHA Night, please visit the AHA website: www.ahanewbedford.org/calendar.html