It Takes Three...

The other day I was happily painting in my studio when one of my studio mates, Scott Inguito, stopped by to see how I was doing. We started talking about painting (as always happens in an ART studio) and he started sharing his philosophy on "making it" as an artist.

Scott said that he was giving himself three years to just paint and see what developed before worrying about attempting to show his work. He wasn't going to worry about his style or creating a series of work. He was just going to paint and see what came out and what style formed on it's own. Scott truly believed that it took 3 years to flush ideas out and develop as an artist,

regardless of the art form.

I started thinking about how long I had been painting this time around. I started about three years ago and my style is completely different than from when I started and was learning how to use encaustics back in the summer of 2006. It's only been in the last six months that I found what I really enjoyed painting and my true style began to form. The series that developed is one of the strongest I've done, I think. I didn't realize until my studio-mate said it, but the three years rule really worked for me.

Scott also said he was taking the poet's approach to painting, having been a poet for most of his life. When writing poetry, he told me, you write many poems. You write just to write and to get things out. For every ten poems, you will maybe get one really good one. He figures that if he just paints, he may not paint a masterpiece right off the bat, but for every ten paintings he does, he'll be happy to have one keeper. He wasn't going to beat himself up for not creating a great piece of art every time. He knew that you had to paint some bad ones to get a good one.

I started thinking about what he said and how I was just beating myself up about the last two paintings that I had finished. I really disliked the last one, especially. I hated the amount of white space and the scale of the figures that I painted and felt like I was digressing, skills-wise. I can really be hard on myself when I paint and get upset when what I create isn't perfect. Sometimes this sets me back a few days before I can get back in the studio to paint again. What Scott said made sense though. I didn't have to paint a masterpiece every time. It was okay to have a not-so-perfect piece. It was part of the process of developing as an artist.

I am now giving myself permission to have paintings that I may not be happy with. I am letting myself be less-than-perfect and develop my artistic skills. I have to say that this philosophy has lifted a weight off my shoulders. It's so freeing to know that I can just paint and be okay with the outcome regardless of whether it's good or bad. Thanks Scott Inguito!

Schmoozing with the Gallery Owners

I was recently in Portland, Oregon visiting my boyfriend, MBB's, family and decided that while I was there, I should try and network with some galleries.  Before we left, we researched which areas had galleries that I thought I would like, and headed to the Pearl District.

While in the first gallery, the impressive Augen Gallery, all of my childhood shyness started to come out. Suddenly I felt too embarrassed to talk to the owner about my work and why I was there. My newly revised plan was to look around, see if the gallery would be a good fit, and then discretely take a postcard or business card, as I quietly snuck out, and send them a promo packet of my work once I got home. Unfortunately/ fortunately for me, MBB was a more social person and was on a mission. 

He waited until one of the gallery personnel approached him and then proceeded to tell her that we were from San Francisco, looking at galleries to show my work. He asked the woman what were the submission policies there and were they looking for artists at the moment. The woman was very nice and answered his questions. She said that although they were not actively seeking artists at the moment, these galleries were, as she gave us the PADA, the Portland Art Dealers Association pamphlet. She then asked what kind of work I did and made some suggestions as to which galleries would be a good fit. She was very nice and helpful.

Armed with our PADA and the new information, we were off to the other galleries. Each gallery person was just as nice and filled with helpful information as Augen Gallery. I was really impressed with how nice people were. The stereotypical gallery owner that barely acknowledges the average person and is unapproachable did not exist in Portland. At least we did not meet any of these people. I still had a hard time approaching people, due to my shyness, but thankfully MBB was there and had no problems talking to anyone and asking questions. Overall, it was a good experience. Now I just need to send out my promo packet...

Art Networking Sites

In the age of social networking sites, it would make sense that there would be sites specifically for artists, an updated version of the old school art registries. There are sites such as Myartspace.com, Brooklynartproject.com, pagaeaa.com, artslant.com, artistfileonline.com, and  waxworldunited.com to name a few. I've had some moderate success through some of these sites. I had a gallery see my work and inquire about it. I was recently "artist of the day" on Brooklyn Art Project and had my painting on the front page of their website. I was also named featured artist of the month on Myartspace. All good things. But there are some bad things that can come of these sites if you're not careful.

This is where I tell the story of Razzy Popo. That's right. Some guy named Razzy Popo (did his parent's hate him? What kind of cruel person would name their child Razzy Popo????) contacted me after seeing my artwork on one of these sites. He said he was from London and loved two of my large paintings and wanted to purchase them. Sounds good so far, right? But then he starts to mention that he could only pay by check and would mail me a check that was over the amount of the paintings and would I please cash the check and give the remaining amount to his shipper who would be handling the paintings. It sounded pretty fishy. I still wanted the sale (it would have been a BIG sale) so I told him I would feel more comfortable using Paypal. After he made some excuses about not having access to it, I agreed to let him Fedex me a check that I would wait to make sure it cleared and then contact his shipper. He took my information and I awaited my check. It never came. I suspect this was a money laundering scheme or one of those scams that usually target old ladies and their retirement checks but since I was unwilling to comply with my "buyer's" instructions, Razzy Popo did not make off with my life savings.

After doing some research and contacting the artist site, I learned that scamming artist is the new thing to do (okay, maybe not new but it was new to me). How horrible must it be to be a struggling artist and have someone not only steal your heartfelt work, but also your hard-earned money? I have since been contacted by two other people "overseas" inquiring about purchasing my paintings with checks. I deleted their emails immediately. Artist beware. There are some pretty crappy people out in the world....

Step One...Getting Over Myself

I have always hated networking and schmoozing. I've never been really good at talking about myself and my work. When asked "What inspired you to paint this? What does this mean?", people usually don't want to hear "I thought it would look pretty. There's no meaning behind this".

So when all of these social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc., started popping up everywhere, I avoided them like the plague. There was no way you would have seen me starting a personal page on any of these sites and yet the more that I talk to people and talk about wanting to promote my art, the more I hear about the need to be on these sites.  Ugh!

I am now on Facebook and will open a Twitter account, along with Flickr. I'm not sure whether these sites will actually help. I still don't have any "friends" on Facebook who aren't, well, actually my friends. As for Twitter...do people really want a play by play of my art life (I kind of thought that was the point of this blog)? We'll see. I will be posting links to pictures of each major step of my paintings. That could be pretty interesting. Of course, so could watching paint dry... and in this case, literally.  

Getting Started....

I recently attended an encaustic art conference in Beverly, MA and after meeting and talking to many artist who are making art as their full-time job....AND succeeding at it, I've decided that that was what I wanted to do. It has taken me a long time to get here, but I am finally here.

Art has always been something that I do in my free time. It was my way of relaxing or letting out my frustrations in my personal life. I never wanted to teach art (and somehow teaching math made more sense and fulfilled my need to geek out with numbers) because I thought that it would somehow make art less enjoyable and it would no longer be my escape from reality. So I was left with teaching math at a middle school during the day and painting during vacations and weekends. 

I've always have been very lucky in whatever successes I have had in art. Shows and sales would literally fall into my lap with little to no effort. My work was apparently good and there were enough people interested in it to make some sales. I started to think that if this was happening with very little effort, imagine what could happen if I actually tried to make it as an artist and made an effort to show and sell my work. Despite these thoughts, I did nothing. And did some more nothing. And after a little more of doing nothing to advance my art career, I am finally at the point where this is what I want to do FULL-TIME. I want to be a full-time artist and be able to support myself while doing it. This is my story of what I am doing, trying to do, and want to do in order to get me to this goal.