Another Art Walk

Last Friday was the second Art Walk of the year.  Pretty good crowd.  As usual I didn't make any sales but I met some interesting artists which is the main reason I go.  These events seem to be about the only times of the year all the artists get together in one place.  Before the Art Walks I thought my friend and I were the only ones in town.  Turns out there are quite a few and more coming out of the woodwork. 
I try to unveil a new painting each Art Walk and here's the newest addition.





The others are some of my older works.  I only had about 7 pieces to show this go around because I've sold most of my work.  I guess that's a good thing but parting is such sweet sorrow.  I look like a lobster because I was on top of a 20ft ladder all day painting a sign in 100 degree weather.  I'm usually white as a ghost.  My hair was wet too.  Not a good time to have my pic taken.

A new Painting

Awaiting Excalibur's Return
24" x 48"
Acrylic on panel

  Just finished my latest commission.  I did a lot of experimentation with it.  I used a paintbrush, a pallet knife, a toothbrush, a Gatorade lid, and my fingers.  Learned a lot and had a good time.


  They wanted a nude in a nautical setting but it turned out to be more aquatic than nautical.  I don't have much control on how my paintings turn out.  They evolve and develop a life of their own.  I just kinda let it take me over and sit back and watch.  It turns to crap if I fight it.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  They haven't seen it yet and if they don't like it I'll do a different one if that's what they want.


  Last night was the first quarterly Art Walk of the year.  It went well even though it was the lowest turn out of artists.  I met lots of interesting people and got to hear their comments on my newest work.  I was kind of apprehensive but it was all positive.  They like the direction my work is taking.


  I just moved into a new house with a studio so I have a lot more space to experiment and throw some paint.  I look forward to seeing the direction my work takes in the near future.

Oils Again?

My favorite living artist/author is Clive Barker and I've been on a real kick with him lately, reading his books (again), watching videos of him painting, interviews with him, and looking at his artwork 24/7.  He is amazing.  I've liked him since the 80's and every time I go through one of these phases I try oils again because of what he can do with them.  I don't see how he gets the effects he does and I can't seem to get them with acrylics either.  His output is astounding.  Last time I tried them was almost two years ago.  I did 4 large works in oils and on the last one swore I would never try them again and went back to acrylics.  So, here I am about to do it again.  I'm probably being a fool but I'm going on this adventure yet again.  I hope that this time will be more fruitful.  Wish me luck.

Studio

I'm getting ready to move into a new house, new to me anyway and after several years I'll have my own studio to paint in and a garage to sculpt in.   

I haven't been able to sculpt in along time because of lack of space and it is so messy.  It will be nice to be able to do it again and it will be easier to clean up.  These pictures on the sides are some sculptures I did seven years ago with clay I dug up in my own yard.  I look forward to getting my hands dirty again.

  I will also have plenty of wall space to hang my paintings.  Right now I have it all stacked in a storage room.  I always felt like they had a life of their own and when I move they will be able to breath and watch over my son, me, and the house.  I might even be able to try painting larger.

Imagine someone breaking into the house and having this one come to life on them.  It's called "We Watch" and it's 4ft x 4ft.  Not to mention a 15o pound German Shepard charging at them.

I'm Lazy!!!

  I sit and stare at my latest painting I'm working on and consider starting two new ones and reworking an old one before finishing this one.  Am I spreading myself too thin?  Thinking about doing one using pretty much anything I can find except a brush.  Might get some interesting texture and color.  


  The old one I'm thinking about giving another once over to is about 3 years old .  Not too long after I did it I started hating it but not enough to trash it or go over it.  Since then I've seen potential in it and want to change some things.  Not sure what yet but we'll see where I go with it.  This is it to the right.  I'm thinking about giving it a whole new color scheme and softening the lines.  I'll post a new pic of it on here when it's done.

The one to the left is another one I'm considering reworking.  This one is three years old as well.


The quarterly Art Walk is 15 days away.  It's usually in this time that I get up off my butt and really paint.  I don't know why.  Even though I hate being rushed I seem to wait until my deadlines to finish a lot of my paintings.  Maybe I secretly like to rush.  I wouldn't think so, I'm kinda lazy.

A Rant

  It's amazing how no matter what you want to do something almost always works against you to keep you from it.  In my case it's usually people's horrible timing.  I know I shouldn't get mad at them but when they do it I get so angry because it's impeccable that they show up at the wrong time and they have that idiotic soulless look like they don't care if they're doing  it or not.


  I work at a pawn shop and it snowed today.  I was hoping they would close work down so I could go home and finish up a commission but they didn't.  After arriving the boss said if the weather got worse or no customers came in we could go home, but guess what?  The weather didn't get worse and the customers dribbled in at just the perfect pace to keep us there all day.  A lot of them were just killing time.  I wanted to wring their necks.  Every time I helped somebody with something they didn't want I could chew nails.


  Most of our clientele are rednecks and think everything can be solved with with beer and guns.  They come in with a expression on their face while looking at the firearms that says "I want to kill something, can you hook me up?".  Most of them that like my work is only because it would make a kickass tattoo.  Their idea of art is something with a rebel flag in it, hot rods, or Elvis on black velvet.


  I sometimes wish I lived somewhere else with open minded people that had at least a little culture.  We have nowhere to go here to meet other artists.  No art pubs, poetry readings, or even a symphony to go to.  No nightlife.  Oh well, I'm going off on another tangent.  I'll talk about that in another post.

JUST DO IT!!!

  So many artists worry that their work isn't good enough and it sometimes keeps them from painting at all.  Are you doing your work for yourself or others?  Whatever the case you should do it like nobody will ever see it but you.  Do what you're passionate about and others will see that passion.  Not everybody will like it but you will eventually find an audience.  Don't find a trend and ride it.  Be yourself and be original.  Nobody but you can paint like you can.  I know so many artist that don't do anything just because they can't please everybody.  What others see as good art may not be the case.  No matter how famous or good an artist is there is going to be somebody that wont like their work.  That's true with everything so don't try so hard to please everybody.  PLEASE YOURSELF.  There will be some that will like your work and some that wont.  

    I know art is a personal thing and it really stings when anybody says something negative about it.  One thing that has helped me is "a reaction is better than no reaction even if it's negative".  One of my favorite reactions I ever got from somebody about it was very negative.  They said my work looked like "luminescent vomit".  It was a negative comment but a passionate one.  They couldn't even stand in front of my work for more than a few moments.  They said it was too disturbing for them.  

  You should get to the point that you will quit taking commissions that you don't want to do.  I used to take any commission.  I got to the point I didn't even want to work on the personal things I enjoyed because it was taking time away from my deadlines that I didn't want to do.  If you're into painting dragons or mythological creatures don't do sailboats or barns unless you just desperately need the money because it will leave a bad taste in your mouth and a lot of times look dead to others because you hated doing it.

  Picasso said "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up".  Do you remember when you were young sitting at the kitchen table drawing with your crayons just to be drawing?  Then the older you got people told you what was good and what wasn't and you accepted it.  You only enjoyed it when others gave it their approval at that point.  We were born artist and society convinced us we wasn't.

  Art is a very personal experience and no one should be able to dictate what you should or should not paint.  Paint like you are the last person on earth.

JUST DO IT!!!

  

2012

My apologies if this is all over the map. It's just some of my hopes and fears for the future.

2011 was gone in the blink of an eye.  I hope 2012 doesn't go that fast especially if it's the last year of our existence.  I don't really think that's the case.  I do hope things drastically change for the better.

  As we usher in another year I find myself in the usual predicament...am I going in the right direction with my art?  Do I want to change my style, even what medium I use?  Usually when I try this it's a major waste of time and I go back to what I was doing before.

  Isn't that what we do as artist?  Isn't that how we grow?  It sure doesn't feel like it most of the time.  It seems like 1% of experimentation is fruitful.  Is it worth it to try new things when the success rate is so low.  I guess it is...for some of us anyway, but how will we know if we don't try.

  We have to take that shot.  Where would we be if Picasso or Pollock hadn't?  My art doesn't look anything like theirs but they are some of my biggest inspiration.

  When I was younger it seemed like no matter what my mood was it only enhanced my work.  Anger made my work more powerful and dark.  Boredom made me more creative.  That's not the case anymore.  Now I can only seem to paint when I'm somewhat happy or content.  Part of my problem is the internet.  We didn't have it when I was younger.  When there was nothing else to do I either drew, read comic books, or watched TV and I didn't watch much because we only had 3 channels.  Star Trek reruns and Saturday morning cartoons were all I watched so not a lot of TV.  Now it's too easy when I get home from work to open up the laptop with the intention of being on 30 minutes or so then working on my art.  30 minutes turns in hours then I'm too tired to do anything else.  I guess my New Years resolution should have been more self control.

What if the Net or maybe even the Grid went down in 2012?  It would suck but it would release a lot of us from it's grip to pursue what we was meant for if there wasn't roving packs of maniacs trying to kill us.  I'm an information freak and the internet is just too convenient for me.  I used to go to the dictionary, encyclopedia, book store, or library, now I can do it even better without having to get out of bed.  Kind of cool but kind of sad.  

You've probably heard that everything has been done.  Surely not, but there really hasn't been anything that unique done with art in 50 or so years in my opinion.  Could that be a sign, an omen? Maybe the big change would be a new Renaissance of art, a new beginning among other things. I don't know, wishful thinking I guess.

Let's look to the future with hope instead of dread. Instead of looking at it negativity let's look at it with positivity.

Merry Artmas

Today is my day off and I sit here wondering what to paint or draw.  The local quarterly Art Walk was the beginning of this month and was kind of a bust in my opinion.  It's not so much that I didn't make a sale but that the Christmas Art Walks are usually the busiest and it was one of the worst turnouts I remember seeing.  We had a record amount of artists showing just not that many people coming in to look.  Anyway, I did get a couple of invitations to show my work at other businesses.  One of them I will not have the time to do and the other I need to check out before I make any decisions.


Update (a few days later)....things have come to light since I started this.  The other contact seems to be somewhat unstable so I wont be messing with it.  Artists are known for being crazy but in my experience people wanting to represent artist are just as crazy if not more so.  Oh well, other opportunities will come.  

Merry Christmas.

What happened to the the Super Artist?

It doesn't seem that art or the artists producing it is near as popular as they used to be.  I mean we have famous artists these days that few have heard of but no superstar artists like there used to be.  Look back to the 50's when Picasso, Pollock, de Kooning, and many others were the famous artist, just as big as the movie stars of the time.  They appeared in Life Magazine and the front page of the newspapers, were mentioned on the evening news.  I even saw a clip of Salvador Dali on a game show.  

It was a time when almost everybody heard of these people.  Look at today's most well known artists.

The top living artists as of June 8th 2009

Jasper Johns

Bruce Nauman, Lucian Freud, Richard Serra, David Hockney, Cy Twombly, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Tracy Emin, and Damien Hirst

Unfortunately Lucian Freud died since this list was compiled.  I bet if you ask the average non-artist who any of these people are they wouldn't have any idea yet 50 or 60 years ago most people would probably know who the top three were of that time.  Try it.  Ask random people who Jasper Johns is.

You hear even less about pieces of art than you do about the artist themselves.  The only times you seem to hear about a painting by people that aren't into art is when someone does a highly controversial piece.  I like a good controversial work of art but not when it's done just for the sake of getting attention.  It should say something more than just "look at me".  Where are today's Guernicas, the Screams, and Starry Nights?

With the internet you would think that art would be even more popular but it's not.  Is the information super highway helping art, distracting from it, or not having any effect at all?  I'm able to connect with other artists all over the world that I wouldn't have been able to many years ago but does the average person not think about art as much?  It seems that way.

Maybe I'm wrong about this.  I live in a small town and cultural dead zone.  Let me know if I'm wrong.

Like a Phoenix Rising from the Ashes

It's amazing how much you can forget over a short amount of time if you're not careful, especially so with art.  Part of the reason I got into a rut with my painting was because instead of experimenting I fell into a groove that I became comfortable with.  Without realizing it I eventually became bored with it.  I've been working on a commission off and on for the past four months, becoming more and more bored with each session.  It hit me what I've been missing for so long, it wasn't a challenge and therefore not inspiring me anymore.  Like I said in an earlier blog 2007 was my best year for painting.  I was on an adventure with my art that I eventually fell out of.  Yesterday I rediscovered what I had been missing.  It almost felt like I'd been reborn.  I'm at work right now and I can't wait to get home and get back to work on it.  It's been along time since I looked forward to working on a piece instead of dreading it.  It feels great.  The person I'm doing this commission for is probably wondering if I'm ever going to finish it.  It will be soon now.  Even if they decide they don't want it it will still be worth it just for the artistic rebirth I've experienced with it.  I've discovered that the longer you don't paint or experiment may cause you to forget things and bury them with repetition and useless information making it harder to recover them when you start painting again.  The artistic path is filled with many pitfalls but the few moments of insight are bliss and well worth it.  I feel like a Phoenix rising from the Ashes.

a Painting in Progress

Here's a peek at my creative process

for the media, by the media

Acrylic on panel

48" x 48"

a New Beginning.

I am an artist and my own worst enemy.  I'm very passionate about my art but very inactive lately as well.  I want to support myself with it but when I get a commission I tend to put it off until the last minute because knowing I'm getting paid for it tends to take away from the artistic experience for me.  I hope to get over this and enjoy working on commissions as much as personal paintings.  I'm in a conundrum, a perpetual irony.  This is my first Blog entry ever unless you count my journal entries on DeviantART http://arum1966.deviantart.com.  My intent is to show you my artistic journey, to record it and to look back on later as I slowly crawl out of this hole of an existence to possibly eventual contentment.  The only way I seem to be happy is when I'm doing/reading about/thinking about/talking about ART.

I've been an artist ever since I could hold a pencil.  My dad is an artist and so was my grandfather.  I didn't start painting until I was in my late twenties.  I used to have a problem finishing anything and had 20 or 30 unfinished paintings sitting around at any given time until I read the book "Life, Paint and Passion" by Michelle Cassou and Stewart Cubley http://www.amazon.com/Life-Paint-Passion-Michele-Cassou/dp/0874778107.  If you haven't read it you should check it out.  It helped me to get over the block of trying to please everyone else and helped me to paint like I was the only person who would ever see my work.  I later figured out as long as you paint what you're passionate about you'll find and audience.  If you only paint what is trendy or what you think people want to see chances are your art will seem tired and unoriginal to the viewers.

By the end of 2006 I began finishing my work (the two below).  

   
2007 was the most productive year, my renascence and it felt great (a few examples below).

If you're interested in seeing more check out my gallery http://arum1966.deviantart.com/gallery/.


Like I said before I'm working to become more productive and to achieve a higher quality of life and happiness.  I'm also here to meet other artist and talk art.  I hope all is well with you and to see again you soon.


"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." ~ Pablo Picasso