Story Without a Plot Artist Talk

Through the month of August, I will be the featured artist at RiverSea Gallery in beautiful Astoria, OR.

Show dates: August 8th - September 8th
RiverSea Gallery 1160 Commercial St, Astoria, OR.

The opening night for Story Without a Plot was a wonderful success!
Thank you to all the people who attended my art opening at RiverSea Gallery last night, online or in person.
In association with the show we held an artist talk. Times being what they are, we did it online in a zoom call. This is an edited video of the artist talk. I talked about why I am inspired by film noir, discuss how I develop an image, then open the “room” up for questions.

Additionally, a portion of the opening was filmed, and you can watch the video embedded below. In it you can see the art up on the wall, and listen to myself and other people talk about the work.

 

 

New Year's Evolutions

Like many of you, my year has been filled with successes and also some setbacks.

One of the upsides to my setbacks is that I have a lot more time on my hands and my life is more in balance. A balanced life is supposedly a good thing. But in the U.S., being “too busy” is a point of pride, a dysfunctional way in which we feel we are important, that we are “getting somewhere”, that we are “making progress”, that we are relevant. For many of us, being overworked and under rested is a status symbol. It gives us the illusion of success.

I'm not a person who makes New Year's resolutions, but each year at this time I do take stock of the year that was, and set intentions for the year to come. So as the old year turns and the new year dawns, I am asking myself what “success” means to me and what does it look like?

Since I do not need to make a living from my art, I have the latitude to define success anyway I like. But this fortunate circumstance creates its own pitfall.

My friend Kelly Williams often asks; “what is your fear?” Mine is to be considered a dilettante.

Merriam Webster:
Dilettante
1 : a person having a superficial interest in an art or a branch of knowledge : dabbler

My great fear is that I will not be taken seriously as an artist. This translates into a vague array of circumstances that I desire; a certain number of galleries, a certain number of shows, a certain number of sales. Ambitions that are vague and unconsidered have a funny way of driving me in ways that are often unsustainable and inappropriate to my more healthy desires and actual circumstances. So I am taking some time to evaluate my desires and create appropriate goals.

Will I actively search for more representation, or is that appropriate to my artistic output? Will I develop a technique that is quicker and less laborious, or is my slow pace of artmaking something I can indulge in, and simply adjust my expectations to be in line with it? Shall I go back into the intaglio printmaking I dipped my toe into last spring? What if I were to branch out further into woodblock printing? How would more printmaking affect my connection to my audience? Would it make my art more accessible?

These are some of the possibilities I have rambling around in my head. I am so grateful that I have the blessing and the luxury of being able to fulfill my life dream of being an artist. I look forward to sharing with you the paths I take, where it leads me and the art that results from it all.

I wish you a felicitous New Year!

How Do Artists Restore After a Big Show?

Last month my show “Man of Many Wiles” at Gallery 114 was a wonderful success! The turnout was good, I made some sales and got a lot of support from friends new and old. This success was because of a tremendous effort of time, energy, will and risk-taking. I pushed the envelope of my comfort zone on multiple fronts. Thankfully, the efforts paid off and I am satisfied with the results.

Now that the show is over and done, I find I am a bit out of sorts. I expected myself to keep the momentum going and immediately started to think about what to do next. It has taken me a bit of time to realize that what I really need is to pause and restore.

I have a lot of things to consider:

Do I continue doing more work with The Odyssey?
Do I go back to my Film Noir series?
Do I expand my Odyssey series to include other sources from literature, such as The Metamorphoses, Norse Mythology, or even Shakespeare?
Where do I show next? What is my next venue?

I have a tendency to ride myself a bit hard. I have realized that I can’t simply continue to produce without taking some time to relax, dream, and reassess my desires and goals. Some of the ways in which I am restoring myself are:

• Back to doing little, no-pressure drawings and sketches. 
• Reading things that interest and inspire me. 
• Catching up with things I couldn’t do while I was working so hard.
• Gardening.
• Cleaning up my studio, reorganizing my stuff in a way that feels good. 
• Looking at other artists’ work and becoming inspired. 
• Beach time!

I trust and respect my process.
I trust and respect my inner rhythms.
I trust that "it" will come back to me, better and stronger than ever.

How do you restore yourself after a huge endeavor?