In public freedom is because the freedom
They've come to feel the need of is a kind
No one can give them--they can scarce attain--
The freedom of their own material:
So, never at a loss in simile,
They can command the exact affinity
Of anything they are confronted with."
Robert Frost from:"How hard it is to keep
From being king when
It's in you and in the situation"
It has been a while sense I last posted, sense last May I believe. What happened? Well let me tell you......
It was space aliens.
There are moments or months when in hindsight you are able to look back and think: "Wow, I did a lot of growing at that point." This always helps me feel really smart at the present moment, I point out at past memories with a laughing finger; "Would you take a look at that sucker back there (snicker, snicker) who did he think he was? What a bunch of lame ideas and naive beliefs!!!" Then I give my own ass a kick and tell it to get in line; "If you hadn't been there you wouldn't be here you silly muff!" Yaaaaa, so self gratitude only goes so far, even with my self.
So you are probably wondering what I learned over the eight and a half months I have written nothing and for all plausible reasons seemed to have been abducted by space aliens or weird corn farmers in Nebraska. Well, maybe you aren't wondering but I am going to divulge my great knowledge upon you anyway. These will be mainly notes for the artist that is trying to do and sell work, because that is what I do:) You may disagree but unless you are an artist and have more experience I will only laugh at you, and I may laugh at you any way:-)
Thoughts After My First One Man Art Show:
1. Never let any one person tell you which is the best of Your Work and which does not hold up to Par.
2. Do not price your work on the merit of what you give a piece. An artist will always look at their work through different eyes than the client. There are pieces that I do that I know aren't perfect in all their qualities and that can make me bias towards certain pieces while my audience only sees what they are and aren't draw to.
3. Chiggers will go through socks and lace holes in shoes.
4. The audience's judgement of your work tells you more about the audience than it does about your work. (When I was in Nebraska I had several people point out how sexual my work was. When I asked them why they thought that one said "Well, you know? You have that one with the orgy in it and several others with people having sex." I tried to be tactful and ask her which pieces these were, when she pointed them out I did my best to just nod and smile. Clouds and shadows to me, to her they were explicitly sexual images. Granted some of my work is sexual but the funny thing was that the pieces I did purposely put sexual themes in never got commented on as having such.
5. Always have fun!!! Don't let some one pressure you into doing something that isn't fun. Art shouldn't be a big theme for stress. When I am not having fun I realize that I have to check my motives behind what I am doing and why. When the joy goes out of it and it becomes all serious and life threatening it is time to pull back and take another look at what you are doing. I don't get paid well enough yet with my art for it to be stressful, so forget it man, I am not going there. In fact even when I am getting dropped six figures I am not going there, money isn't worth it ether:)
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