In like broken glass

Yippee! Two of the pieces I submitted for the Riff Raff art show and Halloween party were accepted into the show. Nice. That almost made up for not selling anything at the market Saturday morning. Almost. I mean, I'm elated that I'll be in the show and I definitely have to kick things up into high gear to prepare, BUT, damn, I wish I would have at  least sold a couple of cards. It's difficult to keep trudging along when you are putting so much effort into it and the pay-off is not there. I mean, at least in the short term. I know that setting up and displaying at the Farmer's market is not going to be a money maker. That's not the point of it for me. I'm trying to get my name and my work out there and it's a start. I have to keep that in mind. The payoff will come. But, damn. One card people, that's all I wanted. I made a bunch of new ones, on black paper, and they looked sharp I tell you. I hoped they would sell like hotcakes. The other part of that is that now I have no idea which ones I should produce for the Fall Festival in Byrnes Mill next weekend. I feel like that is what I will be able to sell, if anything, so I should have them at the ready. I just don't have a clue as to which ones will be popular sellers or not.

Okay, enough whining. The two pieces that made it into the show are the Portrait of a Butterfly and Broken, both shown in the last post. Now, I have to get them matted & framed. Fortunately, I had already put some time into the choosing of mats on Thursday in preparation for trying to throw them in a display for the St. Charles Farmer's market. And, my wonderful girlfriend Nicki came with me to Art Mart yesterday and we finalized the mat choices (my original choices stood as the best options, yay) and picked up a really inexpensive but quality frame. I wish I could afford to get a custom size that would be a little bigger so that the mat would show a little better but it's still nice looking. And we decided that  Broken need not have a frame. So, I only need to throw a wire hanger on the back and be done!

I need to have a website up and running before the show in 2 weeks. Those things alone are pretty good chunks of time. However, in that timeframe, I also have to coordinate and recruit for 2 out of town trips for the veterans project, prepare and attend the farmer's markets and fall festival, drop off the work, get a haircut and about 500 other things surrounding all these different projects. Whoa, that sounds like whining again. Whew, don't know how I'm going to get it all done but I'm gonna do my damnest. In the meantime, I'll be in Gladstone, Missourah!

P.S. - I tried to upload an image or two but it failed. Damn, seems about right for the day I'm having. Hrmpf! Good night people.

What's "bugging" me...

Well, I did it. I submitted 3 pieces for consideration into Riff Raff's Halloween art show and party at Koken Art Factory. Now I wait for the next 5 days to find out if any or all will be accepted. I submitted the 2 paintings from my previous post, "Broken" and "Who is making THAT baby?" as well as the one shown below. I'm really proud of myself for not only entering the show but also for busting butt all weekend to prepare. I started a new painting on Friday and had it almost completed that day. I finished it Sunday morning. That's what's "bugging" me...

my "Portrait of a Butterfly", shown here, colored pencil on Mi-Tientes paper, 16x12.
I like the idea of how pretty things can be creepy and how things that creep us out can actually be beautiful. With a few simple lines or angle of viewing, along with color choice, we can affect how the subject is viewed and even how the viewer is affected emotionally. Because I chose to make the head and eyes particularly prominent in the painting, it became a creepy painting of a bug. Additionally, with the lime green glow around him, and the hint of red in the background and accents all over him, he becomes seemingly more nefarious. Had I chosen to put more accent on the traditionally pretty colors and parts of him, he would be just another pretty butterfly.

This leads to a question I have for anyone out there so inclined to help answer-does it lack in content? I mean, is it enough to be a portrait of a butterfly, or does it need to have a more developed setting, an implied context from which the viewer can answer the question of why paint a portrait of a butterfly? Does it need more of a story?

I have another piece that I wish I had been able to finish before the deadline. It's something I started many months ago and have set aside because I'm unsure of how to finish it. The working title is Left vs. Right and it is about the brain's hemisphere dominance and how it controls and influences our choices. I've been reluctant to post any pictures of it because it is unfinished and I don't want to taint how people view it by seeing it in that state. Sometimes I tempted though. Okay, just a sample...

colored pencil on Mi-Tientes, 18x24. This small section is finished I think. The different colors are waves spiraling outward, interweaving with each other. It is the waves outside of the brain (not shown) that need development and where I'm stuck. I have a couple of ideas but I'm simply scared to act at this point, I suppose. I've put so much work into it already and it has huge potential and I just don't want to screw it up. Feel me on this?

I think I need to join a drawing or painting group so that I can have other opinions more readily available. Maybe I should try to host an online critique session. Hmmm... there's an idea