I follow a few blogs and forget some follow mine too. In many respects, it's my sounding board, and sometimes more candid than it should be....that by nature makes it private. However, it is one of the things I enjoy doing in the early morning hours. My mind is fresh, it's still dark, it's a good time to reflect or explore a wide range of ideas and I missed it.....private seemed a good course going forward. But the other day an artist pal reminded me they missed it too.
Mine felt redundant. My rants for the most part get deleted and my blog title no longer fits. I also don't like labels like impressionists, realist, photo realist or any other ones being thrown out by millions of artists hoping something will stick so they can identify with this or that group. When I first started it seemed important so I eagerly joined all those millions wasting valuable time.
I no longer belong to art groups or do juried group shows and the like.....at some point it no longer makes sense. I'm certainly not painting for them or their walls.....neither am I looking for their approval. Besides, why would any artist want to be judged by another artist as is often the case.....the competition! The one's I do paint for don't know all these things even exist. Are all buyers collectors as commonly coined? Logically no, they have a simple need to decorate their homes. Sometimes that includes original art. The artist can either ignore that simple fact or embrace it and as Liberace who made famous the saying " laughing all the way to the bank"!
This month I'll start my seventh year as a serious oil painter - so for all intent and purposes, I'm still a newbie trying to avoid the quicksand. I'm also fast tracking, making quick career decisions which include making course changes when it stalls or just trying to figure it out. My blog was meant to be part of the process.....I'm not much at small talk needed on social media like Facebook.....great for staying connected and finding people; some you'd like to forget... but beyond that a waste of valuable time. Time is valuable and we as humans use that resource with reckless abandonment more often than not!
When I look back, my blog reminds me I did make serious progress with my original goals....actually most were met long ago. More recently new ones were invented to keep the evolutionary ball rolling, if you will..... a tricky situation stirring up the pot like that.
Last year I was like a loose cannon firing in all directions, totally bored and disappointed with the industry as a whole.....some of that has not changed. If I had any goals I don't think it ever hit my target, the mainstream contemporary art market......but on reflection I did. On the surface it looked like I was wasting my time. What I actually went through was part of my own personal process which eventually did lead to a workable solution......I might add, just in time too. It goes back to the simple knowledge of "why art is bought in the first place"; aside from the current craze "art as an asset class". Obviously not a new thing, but the new herd is bigger with more serious dough. As an artist, it's not my market. It's kind of like the grass is greener on the other side and we want it bad! More waste of time.
The artist who can fill a wall, make the buyer, client, collector or art gallery jump, is the artist I want to be. It's the painting we produce that's important. If it's important it will find a buyer and a wall......the rest is a waste of time. Also including small paintings, good for secondary walls, more waste of time. Been there, done that, and in my opinion clutter in the larger scheme of a " best wall painter"......the only label I really care about!
If you got to the end of my rant then you deserve some eye candy:=)
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953 Koi and Lilies 48x44 oil on linen (2-27-15)
Yesterday I decided to start a new blog and link it to this one. Before I do that, I'll see if I can change the title without losing everyone in the process.
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