Application Time Again

I'm back.  No excuses but a little too much travel. And, with 5 days in front of me before my first show application for the 2012 season, I'm again questioning my images for juries. Second guessing.  And third guessing.  Should I do the bright landscapes or the simple, starker pieces, or upclose depictions of my buildings.  I really don't know.   For those of you not in the art show world, most shows use a jury to select the actual artists who will display their work at a show.  They way the jury reviews the work is usually an online presentation of 3-5 images of actual work and usually an image that shows a typical booth set up. The amount of time they have to see the pieces is extremely limited. And sometimes I get accepted and sometimes I don't.  Which is a bit frustrating.  Sort of like applying for your job every day.  So, I'll ponder my current images, try to imagine painting some terrific pieces all in the space of a week (not!), and hem and haw until that first deadline.  Wish me luck!

Sun Valley

We've been spending our extra time between the Park City show and the Sun Valley show in beautiful Sun Valley, ID.  This is my absolutely favorite place to do a show. A small show, of only 120 or so artists, it is located  currently at a park in Ketchum.  The venue is beautiful as is the entire area...great hiking trails, biking trails, gorgeous skies and superb rivers. (Too bad the fishing box was missing Rees' fishing boots!) It is a place I would definitely consider living (although the houses I want are just a tad out of my price range!!) and I am the first to say I would never leave New Mexico.  I might for this enchanted place. Then, to top it off, Sun Valley has been good to me over the years and I have gotten to know many of my customers....I think I know as many people here as I do in Angel Fire, or so it seems. We are staying at a great condo just blocks from the park.  So, today, after we take Bug to the pond, we set up for the show and then it is 3 really pleasant days of being a part of a top notch show.  I'll post some pics through out the weekend!  And then it is back to Angel Fire for some studio time!

Songs for You

Lyrics to first verse of Nick Drake's Hazey Jane:

Do you curse where you come from,
Do you swear in the night
Will it mean much to you
If I treat you right.
Do you like what you’re doing,
Would you do it some more
Or will you stop once and wonder
What you’re doing it for.
Hey slow jane, make sense
Slow, slow, jane, cross the fence.

I listen to Nick Drake a lot in the studio. A lot. I think he is fabulous. Hazey Jane came on today and the bolded lyrics are some I think about a lot.  About how lucky I am to love what I'm doing and how I'm gonna do it some more.  I know not everyone gets to do this.  Now, there are parts of what I do that aren't so hot--like setting up and tearing down for shows in bad weather.  But the painting itself is magical.  It is fun.  And then I sell it and get paid for doing it.     And I'm gonna have to do a lot of it because my sales at the Angel Fire show were fantastic and my Santa Fe gallery sold 5 paintings so far this week!  If only I could paint with my toes!

Have a listen: maybe you'll enjoy Nick, too.  Here's the link to youtube!
Nick Drake Hazey Jane

Color Choice

In much of my life, I am a planner.  I make  zillions of over-achieving to-do lists.  I like to know my hotel plans have been made for shows months in advance.  I like to know what my schedule is.  And, while getting on some waiting lists for shows--Belleville, Cherry Creek & Old Town--means I am almost there, it reeks havoc with this planning sensibility I have.  But when it comes to painting, I prefer to let the paintings make the decisions.  Too much preplanning equals static art.  I think. So, while the underlying substrate color dictates a few colors I will use, I prefer to work through the piece with no preconceived notions of what colors will be in use.  I think the art is better for that.  Do you?  

Did ya miss me?

All my good intentions just simply shot! I knew it would be harder to post blogs during my summer "touring" season.  But, really, it seems almost impossible.  To top it off, we've got this nasty little fire going here--the Los Conchas fire--the biggest in New Mexico history.  And, I am obsessed with it. Coming home from the Albuquerque show last Sunday night we saw the blaze when it was only 3500 acres (and it had only started that afternoon.)  It is now over 100,00 acres.  Our gorgeous blue skies are marred by ash and smoke.  Fire restrictions (thankfully) have closed the forests and cancelled fireworks.  On a positive note, we've had dribbles of rain--our monsoons are supposed to start soon.  I find myself checking both the weather.com and noaa weather sites twice a day at least.  I read my relative humidity readings from my weather station.  I listen to the news updates on the radio and even watch some local news.  It is simply driving me crazy.  I want rain so badly!  I've pulled out the rain stick and done some dances.  I've yelled at the sky.  But, what I've got to do is hope and be thankful for all the people who are so actively involved in fighting the fire.  Reports are good on the progress.  I'll just hope the positivity continues.  And then maybe I can move onto talking about creating art! That is, after all, what I do!    In the meantime, if you have it in your heart, send positive rain thoughts this way! Thank you.

My sweet ride

Rees and I spend a lot of time driving the country, to and from art shows.  We do, after all, have to bring the tent, the walls, the art we hang, the art we have for back up, a cooler for water, and suitcases for clothes.  But every once in a while I am thrilled I am driving in a big white panel van (a Sprinter) because it can hold lots of stuff--whether it is art or something else colorful, like these hanging plants for my deck!

Reston, Virginia and Washington, DC

Last weekend I exhibited my oil pastels at the Northern Virginia Fine Art Festival in Reston, VA.  Originally we were going to combine it with another small Chicago suburb show but decided to eliminate a little of the chaos of our summer schedule by dropping that show.  Still, because our nation's capitol is a mere 1800 plus miles from Angel Fire, we tried something new.  Rees set out and drove and I flew.  I thought it would be a wonderful way to save time and provide me with some extra studio time and energy.  And, it sort of worked.  I'm getting pieces done, working on the commissions I have lined up, keeping up with the house.  But, the energy that went into flying, including a 150 plus mile drive to the airport, a night in an Albuquerque hotel, delayed planes in Denver on the way home....meaning I wasn't able to pick up JuneBug until this morning..all that was a little much.  Plus it definitely added onto the baseline expense of doing that show.  So, I don't think that is how I'll do it again.  And, because of  the distance, I don't think it is a show I should do every year.  Still my sales were pretty good and the show was easy to do--good parking, good crowds.

But, since I left my camera connection in Rees' computer bag, I don't have any images to upload.  So I'll go into further detail on the show in a later post.

I did get to visit with my friend, David Bos.  And he was kind enough to wander parts of DC so I could get a pretty good museum fix.  We went to the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Art, where I absolutely fell in love with a Vermeer in the Dutch and Flemish Cabinet Galleries. Which one?  I think the Lady with the Red Hat..although online it doesn't have the luminescence that the actual painitng had...  We also visited the Chester Dale Collection at the National Gallery and I was very impressed.  Oh, to have ample money to collect paintings the way he and his wife did!  We also saw the Peacock Room at the Freer..I loved the way the collection was displayed.

Washington is a great place for visiting museums.  They are free so you can come and go as you like...spend hours or just hurry through.  My only complaint was that I didn't allocate enough time to see more!  If you haven't been, GO!

Main Street Fort Worth

Me, cousin Jean, & Rees with his eyes closed

The fabulous Jim Brown and his work

Julie Jerman-Melka

Tanya & Jim

Jen & Tanya's booth

Jen, Tanya & Rex

Ft. Worth Main Street happened a while ago.  But, as I was going through my photos I found these.  It was a 4 day, long show.  But, my neighbors made that time go by fast!  I had other good neighbors besides the ones in the photos--I just didn't take pics of everyone!

The show was of really high quality.  And despite some very high wind one day, we actually had pretty good weather.  I was thankful for being under the big top.  The crowds were really strong--almost too big on the weekend.  My sales were strong and for once, I thought my booth looked pretty good.  It was nice to be back.  Thank you, Main Street!

Learn Something New

OMG! Two weeks since last posting.  Egads, I am bad.  This will be a short one.  But, I listened to a webinar put on by Xanadu gallery on photographing art work.  For the most part, I didn't learn a lot.  But, now that I have WIFI in my studio (Yippee!), I could listen to the webinar and frame at the same time.  Jason Horejs, the owner of Xanadu, has produced several very informative webinars: on gallery portfolio submissions (which I've never done but might have to one day, when I decide I can't keep up my frenetic travel pace), shipping art, etc.  This one was done with a panel of experts, along with Jason's own input.  And, while I knew most of what was covered, I learned this one little gem:

When you either have lost, or cannot find, or didn't take in the first place, a high quality photo of a piece of work that is framed behind glass, you can get a decent snapshot (certainly not for publication, etc) of the piece by simply situating the art in the sun, angled back only a few degrees, right at the shadow line from a building or some other straight structure.  I took some snaps of some pieces I had behind glass, sans good photographs to show people, and I think they turned out quite well.  The last 2 I had Rees' help and they worked best.  The first 2 worked ok.  But, it was difficult to practically lie on the ground (think hard core crunch) while balancing the painting between your feet, while keeping yourself and the camera still. I guess I should have had a picture of that, but then I would have just had Rees hold the painting. 

Oklahoma Festival of the Arts

 Me & Maximo Cortino

 Me & Barry Bernstein

 Robin Thompson in her winter parka

My triangular booth

Well, Rees & I made it through the grueling ordeal that was the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts.  It was my first ever 6 day show.  We experienced all the vagaries of Oklahoma weather in springtime: heat and sun, vicious winds, cold & rain.  Stir those up and you have the art show.  It was really quite an event.  The town really comes out and supports the event.  The food court had the best selection of show food ever! My sales were good, especially on higher priced items. I think it is a place where sales and clients build over time.  I met some good people, saw some great art and am pleased we made it through with dollars in our pockets and enough energy to get us back to Dallas for the next one:  Cottonwood, this weekend.    Thanks for everything, Oklahoma City!!!!!!!!!!!!!