banner up

The banners went up on Beekman St over a week ago, but I was out of town for a few days, so I was very excited to see mine waving from a lamppost in all its 13-ft glory. Speaking of posts, I may add to this one later. The original painting (below) is 12"x16", so imagine my thrill at seeing it so big, and it fit the odd shape just the way I had envisioned. The banner presents a cropped vertical slice of Mack truck, just as it might appear if it were hurtling down the highway toward you, larger than life.

From beaconcool.com, the website accompanying the banner project, on my work:
"somewhere in beacon, and on occasion points elsewhere, the waltons never left television. old things, not forgotten, just out of view, sit and fade into our history and nostalgic memory. but there’s the rub, or in this case the turtle wax: one glimpse at our ancestral technologies lets us travel, ever so briefly, through time. A cloud of yesteryear heading out to points unknown, from the Citgo, this afternoon."

come one come all

These two paintings, 6"x6" oil on wood, will be in the greatest show on earth. That's right, folks, here in Beacon, NY, at the Mad Dooley Gallery, 197 Main St. Opening this weekend, Sat June 16, 6-9 pm. This is a gorgeous circus-themed group show that my friend has curated, and I'm glad to be part of it. The 64 one is a small and slightly different version of the larger painting I posted recently. 

words to the why's

In this, the 3rd installment covering bootcamp weekend, our increasingly disciplined young artist learns about copyright laws & intellectual property law & contracts; receives advice on fundraising & an overview of NYFA's considerable resources, many of which she's been underutilizing; shares some of her goals; and reviews the 'artist action plan' in preparation for working on it in the next several weeks. Action? Plan? Me? Exactly. Then when we meet up again in July, we'll talk about the things we said we'd do and see if we did 'em yet, or at least started to. I like the idea of accountability. After investing the time, you want to see it through. Of course I have always been accountable to myself, but it's so easy sometimes to let that slide if it feels like nothing matters. Doing this program is like shouting bravely from the rooftops, "Hey! This matters!"
I took a long walk at sunset to burn off some pent-up physical energy, while all the information bubbled around in my head and that to-do list grew. Back behind the wheel in the morning. Haven't posted any pictures in a while; it was all about words this week. I'll get back to the pictures next time.

the smartist

This morning at bootcamp, after each of us was hooked up to a steady coffee drip, there were two speakers, one on the subject of understanding/utilizing social media and one on finances/accounting/good business practices. The social media part was a needed nudge for me to better implement the tools I am already using, such as this here blog, my website, email lists, and Facebook. There are a zillion such tools out there, many I've heard of, some not. I can see that would be worth looking into. I think I'd do well to focus on creating a solid emailing system for news/shows that I can utilize in a snap, instead of being disorganized, time-wasting and inefficient. Perhaps I don't give myself credit; it's not so bad. But I suspect things take longer than they ought. I'm still holding off on Twitter; I could see getting too caught up in it.

The money presentation was informative. Prepare a financial plan, keep good records, make something called a "budget", and hammer out a few specific "goals". As with... anything! Make more, spend less, invest the difference. She said, chuckling, "You artists seem to have the 'spending less' part down.. you're pretty sensible." It's true; especially at the moment, I couldn't spend less if I tried. Therefore, I'll have to earn more. We discussed how artists often undercharge for their work. If paintings don't sell for the price necessary to charge to actually make a living, it's time to expand one's market. This segued nicely into the afternoon's lively panel, "Artists and Entrepreneurship: What is Success?" Your own idea of success will likely change as you go along. The important thing is just to keep DOing, making, and being who you are, engaging with your community, building on what you have to work with.
I just made a list of goals, divided into 1 month, 6 months, and 2 years, "for both daydreaming and practical concerns". The one-month is a to-do list, and I do have a lot to do, for which I'm glad. I have two shows to put together for July (more about these soon!), a few half-finished online efforts, some projects for later in the summer. The 2-year goals got hazy. I kept going, scribbling it all down. I felt energized by this task, and then I needed a beer. Had some great conversations with the others, new ideas and old reassurances.

camping it up

I arrived in Syracuse late this afternoon (a 4-hr drive) for the NYFA artist boot camp, where I am lucky to have a friend's house to stay in. I drove over to the campus where the sessions are taking place. There are about 30 artists, and we began by, naturally, introducing ourselves in front of everyone, a 2-minute presentation of who-am-I, what-do-I-do, why-am-I-here. Apparently I did all right, because several people afterwards said they liked my presentation and even my body language. Sometimes I don't even remember what I said, because I get keyed-up and my energy is going into NOT getting flustered, and focusing on what I want to say, and keeping my voice clear and audible. I felt good. I had the sense that I held in my heart someone I loved, who was proud of me for doing this for my work.
Then we formed groups and discussed the networking assignment we'd completed in the past week: to attend an event, meet a couple of new people and consider what kind of connections were possible. (I had gone to an event in Beacon yesterday evening.) This went well, too. Afterwards we went out for sushi and continued 'mingling'. I am looking at my papers, feeling very positive already, but need to go to sleep so I can be alert for tomorrow.

myst.connection

On a water-wavy page of my small sketchpad are scribbled notes about a CA painter named Michael Ward whose work I just saw in Bluecanvas. Two links in my first sentence: one to an artist I've never met but quite like (a glance at his website will explain why) and one to an actual print magazine (and also an art blog). I sometimes have the urge to borrow other artists' words about their work, to relate to my own if I happen to identify with them. Is this wrong? There are always differences, in motivation, method, perspective and so on. One thing I like is discovering what the differences are, beyond the surface of a similarity in subject. (Nothing like someone saying, "Hey! You both paint old trucks and signs!" Where to begin? I can rarely explain why I have been variously irritated and intrigued by this.) There are so many ways to connect to a certain subject/theme and to describe in paint (or another medium) why it matters. Then, to find the words.

Ward, Lanai, 14"x18"  

Ward, Beautify Your City, 24"x36"

My out-of-order notes read something like this, except, speaking of dangerous, I'm also writing from memory-impression: "Idealism/nostalgia... dangerous tendencies born of ego that obscure the world we live in. I consider my paintings to be documents of particular places and times that I sometimes alter and combine for the sake of composition."
On the subject of working from photos versus from life, there are "always little mysteries to be figured out, discoveries needing to be made that were unseen when the photo was taken... Painting from photos is less ego-driven" [than painting from life].
This led me to look up more on Watts, a philosopher & writer: "I am most interested in depicting what Alan Watts called the mystery of the ordinary; the workaday world we live in without seeing until we are forced to focus upon it, as in a painting."

I don't mean to take these quotes out of context. They still resonate. The idea of nostalgia does have something to do with ego. Even when the nostalgia is not even the artist's own, but rather a feeling that is evoked or projected, a quality ascribed to the work.

tiny answer

These are 2"x3" each, acrylic on canvas, made in the summer of 2010 partly to try and create an image very small that might nevertheless hold a lot of info within its diminutive dimensions. People might think that because I do paintings like this I must deeply enjoy being so meticulous, but I don't necessarily.. though I must derive some pleasure from the intensity of focus it requires. Mostly I think I just wanted to see these images in their entirety, down on a canvas, in their satisfying economy of size.  

diner near the taconic parkway, from a photo taken by a friend with me in mind.

 rounding a corner in beacon, after an evening bike ride. 

cartons stacked on the dash of an old ice-cream truck at the rhinebeck car show. 

just an old truck in a hudson valley field in summer.