• Sometimes it’s best to keep your mouth shut, so your foot doesn’t fly in and kick you on the roof of your mouth. This thought crossed my mind today AFTER I had made a comment to the art gallery lady about a certain show (the work, by the way, I loved, but whatever I said came out kind of wrong because it was met with a tight, “Looking at art is subjective.”) I gave a mumbled apology and fled, but now feel completely stupid; this is a gallery that is near my office and I go in often, and had even hoped to strike a friendship with this woman.
Now what? (Rhetorical question, btw, I’m not looking for an answer. 😀 )
• Someone ordered the above “Redhead at the Beach” print recently and I remembered how much I liked this particular one. I think I did it in 2005, when I was just beginning the Girls series that really helped solidify my art-making “career.” Around 2009 I moved on to other things, but the girls still pop up every once in awhile (kind of thinking they’ll be in a children’s book before it’s all over).
Anyway, recently I’ve come to think of drawings and paintings to be like “conversations.” Some are fun, some not so fun, but they all help us learn about ourselves and others. Some conversations end up morphing into larger projects; some perhaps are springboards for other conversations; others, most perhaps, end up stored in the back of our minds as “memories.”
The art I create is similar. Some works end up being shown; some are springboards for other art ideas; others, most perhaps, end up in a stack in my studio. (“Memories.”)
It’s helpful for me to think of it this way, that the DOING of the art is the most valuable part, just as the actual talking part of a conversation is the most valuable.
What do you think?
