What do YOU think?

We all know that if you put a group of random people in a gallery you would have different opinions on every piece of art. This makes me as an artist nuts! True, I want to paint what inspires me but I also want to pay my bills with this profession. So how do you make it all work? How do you create what YOU feel is a great piece of art and also what BUYERS think is a great piece of art? Follow me on a trip of frustration.
This piece is titled "Poppin". When I finished the piece I wasn't happy. It didn't fit the image I had in my mind. My greatest art critic and muse, my honey, LOVED it. He thought it was fantastic. I showed it and the crowds agreed. So many compliments, every gallery wanted to show it. Wow, it's SOOOO cool. Ah uh, I still own it YEARS later. People still fawn when they see it but no one pulls out the cash.

This is "Passing Thru". I was very happy with this painting. I like the idea that the bird was caught in a moment. If you had looked up a second later you might have missed his passage. I also like the monochromatic look. My husband does NOT like this painting and unfortunately I think he is on to something. I can't seem to sell this painting and no one has even made a comment on it. It has made all the gallery rounds several times. What gives?!

This is "Cowboy" I love this painting. I created it about 5 years ago. When I completed the painting my husband scratched his head and said, " A cow? Who is going to buy a painting of a cow?" I stuck to my guns. This was a fun painting and someone would see it laugh and smile and want it for their own. Sure enough, it quickly sold.

Every time a painting is completed you can't help but wonder, I love it, but will anyone else? Will it be loved and adored but not purchased? Should I create things that I think are quite average but sell well? And you thought being an artist was easy.

Art Imitates Life

I love birds. I've had parakeets, a cockatoo and a love bird. I almost got a bird a few years back while visiting a friend with birds. I thought it would be a great little companion in my studio, him cheering me on while I try to paint a masterpiece. We would have our favorite songs that we would sing together. Then this cute little bird fluffed himself up and shook. The sun streaming through the window showed every bit of tiny dust and downy feathers bursting into the air. Hmmmmm, wet paint and feathers floating on the invisible air patterns of my studio. NOT a good combination.

This is one of my favorite paintings, it's titled "Cleared for Landing". I created it several years ago and it found a home right away. Painting birds in flight is fun. When you get the fluid feel of the feathers and that sense of motion you feel successful!

We have a chickadee family living in a bird house outside our dining room. Every dinner we eat and visit and watch the chickadee family grow. The one parent, I am guessing the mother, looks a little ragged as she flies back and forth with little green worms. You can hear the chick cheep their little heads off whenever one of the adults shows up with more food.

To me there is no question that life around me inspires my work. Watching these tiny birds makes me want to pick up my brush and create something awesome. Something that a person will see and think, wow, those are amazing, little birds.

Art of the Outdoors

I was visiting with my friend Gail Flotre on the phone today. Gail is a watercolor and silk painting artist. I enjoy working with Gail and my closet sports several of her gorgeous scarves. She told me she was working on getting last minute items ready for the Anchorage Botanical Garden show coming June 26 and 27. It is such a neat show with the artist's booths set up in the woods. Ooo and ahhhh through and garden and then ooo and ahh through an artist work, a perfect combination.

I'm a sucker for garden art. I have to be careful not to be one of those crazy people that create a small animal and fairy tale creature populations in their gardens. My mom created this stained glass piece as an anniversary gift. The stump in the foreground was pulled out of the ground when my dad was building the house I spent my part of childhood in. Yep, I carried it 4,000 miles to Alaska. It's like a piece of my dad and my original home.

This wheelbarrow I found in an antique shop. It was $100 which was a lot of money for me at that time. I carried this many miles to Alaska too. Every year when I put it's flowers in I can't help but wonder what farmer from years gone by used it to carry milk or hay. It helps me remember my Midwestern roots.

K-mart. I am pretty sure I got this at K-mart. It's plastic but it is so STINKIN cute that I can't help but love it. My cat stalked it once, it gets points for being life like.

I got this wonderful snail at an art fair in Michigan. I didn't want to spend the money on it so I went past the booth. As we continued to walk around enjoying the art I kept thinking about that snail. My husband insisted we go back. When we got back to the booth they were all gone. I stifled my temper tantrum. When we inquired the artist said he thought there was one left in his truck. He wasn't positive but he would go check. During the entire wait I paced, cursed and punished myself for not getting it when I first saw and loved it. Around the corner he came smiling with the LAST snail in his arms. Happy, happy day.

Be sure to check in your town to see if there is a garden art show. Garden art is so impressive in that the materials can stand the weather while charming up your yard and garden. I hope your flowers are blooming and your plastic K-mart bunny is always smiling.

Next!

People keep asking me if there is another book in the works. I sure hope so but it is too early to know. The book is selling well and the positive response has been fantastic but truth be told I still have a lot of books in a warehouse.

This is a piece I just finished for Artworks, a gallery in Eagle River. It's titled, "Tropical Dreams". I love doing the fantasy style Greve's, a style I think I would like to do IF there was another book. This painting starts with layers of acrylic paint. Then the paper flowers are added using a deco pouge gel of sorts. After those layers have dried the oil of Greve and Celli is added. It's true there are a lot of steps but I think all the layers really give the painting some depth.

In "If We Hopped on Our Bike..." I did a page of Celli dreaming of all the things they might experience. Popular with most kids is the image of Signore Greve and Celli bicycling underwater. Imagine a whole book of fun, day dream, off the wall scenes.

I hope there is another book but for now I will enjoy my 'Tropical Dreams".

Art Attack

I call Gallery 31 Fifty a traveling gallery. I don't have a permanent spot, rather I set up here and there depending on my objective and permission. 3150 C street is my favorite spot and gratefully, the powers that be readily allow me to set up camp when I ask.

The best part about being a traveling gallery is the unexpected sight of art. We expect it galleries but not in the daily path of life. People will enter a building or other gathering spot and suddenly stop at the art scene laid out before them. I love to see them forget their errand or appointment and start slowing walking, pondering through the paintings. I call it an 'art attack'.

The above photo recently gave me an 'art attack'. I was in the midst of my day, busy with my to-do list when I walked past this mud puddle in my driveway. The wind was gently swirling the birch pollen into these fantastic marbled patterns. I ran in to grab my camera only to find the image completely changed when I returned. I was quite mesmerized for some time, waiting for the breeze to create a new piece of art.

Let's all remember, to-do list have a habit of always waiting for you. My scissors, tape and car keys always wander off but my ever faithful to-do list is there waiting for my return. So next time you have an 'art attack' stop, take time to ponder and enjoy. Don't worry about taking that time out. The ever growing list will always be there.

Perspective

This is a drawing by M.C. Escher. Many know his work of the hands drawing each other. His work messes with your brain a bit and you can't help staring. This piece was my first 'studied' experience of Escher. You can stare at it for hours trying to fit all the stairs and direction together and yet the perspective on it is perfect.

I am terrible with perspective. I have bought books promising to teach me perspective in 3 easy steps which turned out to be a cruel lie. Recently, I was reading my artist's magazine, they did a whole article on the fifth perspective. This was quite disheartening. Now I know there are 5 different kinds and I don't get ANY of them! There is the isometric, curvilinear, and my favorite, the perverse perspective. They all seems perverse to me.

Ask any kid in art class which lesson wore out his eraser fastest and he will undoubtedly say perspective. With the x-axis horizon line and the y-axis height indicator and the famous VP, vanishing point. IS THIS MATH OR ART?

Off I go to the studio for my work day. I know there will be something that will require my brain to think along the lines of perspective. Here's hoping it's the 'one point' kind, not the perverse.

Creative Accidents

I got a new car last winter. Recently she got her first hand wash. I was pretty excited it being the start of a relationship that I hope will last many,many years. I gathered all the needed elements and squirted the driver door with water....right at the top of the window....that was an inch down. I so perfectly hit the tiny opening that I got the inside of the passenger window and seat soaked.

Accidents happen, especially in the art world. Paints, brushes and canvas often have a mind of their own. You don't realize you have paint on the sleeve of your painting smock as you're dragging it across your painting. You drop your exacto knife onto a started canvas. It goes on and on. Every artist has a great, creative accident story.

The photo is a stained glass piece my mom did for me. It is displayed in my living room. Can you see the creative accident? I don't even remember since she did such a great job of making the accident become the art. The glass had gotten broken. After a round of howls and hands on the head we got to work. How to salvage a great piece? How to make it looks like it was purposed? The feeling of that success is almost better than the original success. I know I have plenty of creative accidents, many will stay my secret.

After I realized the inside of my car was soaked I stomped and carried on for the prescribed 30 seconds and than got to thinking. 5 minutes later the inside of my car was shiny and fresh, as if it had gotten a fresh water wash. The water that pooled on the seats and dash was just the ticket to clear away the dust and grime that had collected.

Remember, your next disaster could be your next masterpiece!

It was a good ride

Today marks the first day of June which also marks the end of May, the official bike to work month. I hope you 'hopped on your bike' this month!

I had a great month meeting many cyclist through my book, "If We Hopped on Our Bike...". It's great visiting with people who are crazy about bikes. Meeting kids that have already discovered the love of bikes gives me hope for the generation to come. We celebrated the end of the month with a picnic trail ride.

This would be the first time we have combined these activities and we had a blast. We also learned a few things. Lesson #1: Apples become applesauce. Don't think I didn't think this through. I thought I had them packed in a way that they would survive the bumps and bangs of trail riding. I would be wrong. Next time I will bring a spoon. Lesson #2: Save the chit chat for the picnic. I had a brilliant thought and turned back to share it with my husband. I hit a tree root wrong and popped up into a birch tree. My lightening fast reflexes allowed me to grab the tree before it grabbed me. I held onto it acting causal as if I was waiting for my honey to catch up. Lesson #3: My husband always knows when I am trying to act causal and he always seems to look up in time to see me throw myself into disaster. This would later prove true again as I pitched myself into a bog. Lesson #4: The man may be onto something. His slower, more observant pace allows him to see alternatives to disaster...like the trail leading around the bog.

Like I said, it was a blast. I hope you strive to give your bike a chance to clear your mind and inspire your thoughts this summer season.