What's Goin' On?

House on Route 52, 2010, Oil on Panel, 18"x18"

OK, well, spring break is over (finally!) the kids are back in school and my days are my own again. And despite this last two week blip of constant interruptions here, I do feel like I am pretty much back on track. Doing a public to do list and charting my progress helped so I will be keeping that little trick in mind in case I go off the rails again. Um, train metaphors, anyone?????

Anyway, for awhile there it was feeling like I had NOTHING going on, which was kind of messing with my productivity. However, in the last few days I have been adding things up and it looks like things are picking up. Can't give a lot details yet on some things but this is what I have going on:

This week I am finishing up a portrait that I did about a year ago and never really resolved. I am planning to enter it in a regional competition at our local arts organization and the deadline is Saturday. Not really worried about NOT getting in, although it is certainly possible that I won't, but I just want to make sure and enter something since I missed the deadline for the last two years. I have decided to enter a portrait, a LARGE portrait (40x30) for purely egotistical reasons;in the past the paintings that I have entered have been small and rather quiet and this year I want a flashy entry for once. Heh.

Today I am packing up four paintings from the 'People You Know' series that I did in Vermont, and am shipping them off to one of my galleries. This gallery does very well with my landscapes and it will be interesting to see how these go over. They will be at The Harrison Gallery if anyone out there is in the area (Williamstown MA) and would like to see these paintings in person. Way better in real life if I do say so myself.....

I am just finishing up a bunch of paintings to send to Chrysalis Gallery in the Hamptons soon. The two that I sent last year have NOT sold but the owner said she is not giving up on me yet and will be giving me a good space on the wall this season for a whole grouping of paintings, which is really the best way to present my work. They seems to make more sense when seen in a grouping. She also prefers my more abstract color field type landscapes which are not really included in my current burn out on landscapes.

I have been invited to have a solo show at The Main Street Gallery in Groton, NY in September. This was the first gallery to give me a solo show back in 2005 just a few years after I had started painting again and it will great to be there again. I will be showing small scale landscapes in the back area and portraits in the main room, so YAYY! Pretty excited about that!

And I just heard yesterday that the proposal for an exhibition that an artist that I met at the Vermont Studio Center applied for has been accepted. I'll be learning more details in the next few days and will post about it soon. I will say however, that I am very, VERY excited about this because it involves me being able to show work from the Black Painting series that I worked on in Vermont.

Black painting #99, 2010, 9"x6" Oil on Panel
Sales have improved somewhat, two large paintings have sold in the last month or so; very happy they found their "people" and of course the surprise income is good too. This also makes me feel a bit more confident that not everything I paint will just be sitting around, gathering dust in my studio.

Also, I have a possible commission for a very large scale painting. Not confirmed yet, and I may be jinxing the whole thing by even mentioning it, but hey, I feel like living dangerously today, heh.

So there you go. Another step back to my previously busy self and it feels really good!

Off I Go!

Well, I do believe the phrase 'insanely busy' could apply to my life for the last few weeks. Not sure what I was thinking when I scheduled a month's residency AND a solo show for the same month, not to mention the one right after the holidays.

But it's all done now, the show at The Harrison Gallery is up, the opening is tonight and I am all packed and ready to go to Vermont. The holidays were great, I managed to get all the important stuff done (baking cookies!) and the kids had fun. I even spent all of Christmas Day reading and sleeping on the sofa! VERY decadent.....

I did slack off on a bunch of things that I meant to do, like cleaning my desk, catching up on the laundry and paying attention to my poor neglected blog here. I had a bunch of posts that I had planned to write but never got to them. I also had planned to gesso all the paper and small panels (for a little project I have planned) that I am going to work on in Vermont, but time ran out and so I will be prepping everything there. A few other things have fallen off my list too and unfortunately Doug has had to do everything in the last week, not fair at all as he will really be doing EVERYTHING for the next month. But he is being a good sport about it and I am lucky that he is completely supportive of my work. I will have to make things up to him when I get back February. Heh.

And right now my plan is to write here every few days or so about my activities at the Vermont Studio Center. I wrote quite a bit about things there when I did the last residency so will try not to duplicate myself too much. Maybe more pictures this time; I will have a laptop that works and it will be much easier to load photos. I am sure I will also be updating my Facebook public page too.

I make no promises though! I might just fall off the internet entirely for a month while I hunker down and paintpaintpaint. Well, probably not but whatever. Sounded good, right?

And PS. For some reason blogger will not load a photo for me today, it won't even give me the loading page. You'll just have to make do with looking at my show preview (link above).

Show Prep (and neverending orange walls)

Break On Through, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 9x9

I am currently working on paintings for a show in January at The Harrison Gallery in Williamstown, MA. This is my fourth solo show at this gallery and I am very grateful to have this exhibition opportunity again. Sales in general have picking up a bit, so that is encouraging too mostly because I am totally running out of storage space.

I have been making good progress in the studio despite constant interruptions and my current obsession with Facebook. Heh. But the plan is to get the landscapes finished by the end of November and then work on six portraits for the show during December. While my landscapes do quite well in this gallery, the director has agreed to include a few portraits this time. I should have been working on those earlier in the fall but for some reason I kept putting them off. I think maybe I just have to breeze in at the last minute and knock them out. Sometimes that works best. And I have decided not to stress if it doesn't. I will have plenty of landscapes ready for the show.

I probably should be painting in the studio today but instead I will be painting the walls in my daughter's room today, which has become a neverending project. Will explain all that in a future post, but just so you know, today it feels like I will be painting orange walls forever.

Blah, Blah, Blah, Boring........

Horizon Lines, 2009, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Well, I think I would be posting more if I were actually doing anything that is even the slightest bit interesting. I just finished up packing the work for the AAF which is next weekend, but otherwise things have been pretty quiet this week. I should be getting outside more, as the weather has been beautiful! I have been doing my walks almost everyday, but have NOT done much at all in my gardens. Really need to get out there this weekend!!

I did spend a few hectic afternoons this week getting 16 pieces ready to send down to NYC for the Affordable Art Fair, which is next week.

I have a bunch of new Horizon Lines paintings to post on my sales blog and hope to get to that this weekend too.

My show is down now at The Harrison Gallery. I am not sure what the final sales count is yet, but I know that at least six pieces were sold. I am happy with that, especially during this crappy economy.....

And I have to choose a few paintings this week for two juried competitions at our local arts org. I think I will enter work from the People You Know series.

Otherwise, really, really boring here in Tracyland lately...........

Gallery Reception With Friends

At one of the endlessly long swim meets this last season, I was sitting next to our real life good friend Jeff and we were talking about the gallery receptions that are part of my job as an artist. I told him I had one coming up and invited he and his wife Erika (who is my good girl friend) to come along with us. Soon it morphed into an event, complete with a sitter, hotel reservations and an overnight trip to Williamstown, MA.

The details were complicated; six kids, a mature sitter, kids getting picked up and dropped off, cookies, a trip to the pizzeria and who watches tv where. But it went flawlessly and all the kids seemed to have fun.

The four of us left for Williamstown around noon on Saturday. When we got there Doug dropped off the extra painting at the gallery (I made him go in because one of my numerous superstitions is to not see my shows until the reception starts, something about not jinxing the whole dang thing) and then we decided to have lunch at the sushi place down the street. We lingered over lunch and by the time we left there wasn't enough time to visit any of the local museums before it was time to go to the opening. So we went to check into the hotel, The Orchards Hotel (beautiful place to stay, I highly recommend it), and when I gave the desk clerk my name he laughed and said I must be THE Tracy Helgeson, and pointed at the flier for my show that was not two inches from my elbow! It was funny!

It was pouring rain that evening, but thankfully, my hair was still ok by the time we got to the gallery for the reception. heh. However, I imagine the cold and the rain affected the turnout-it was rather quiet. But every single person who came in was there to meet me and was planning to buy one of my paintings, already had, OR was also an artist. So I enjoyed being able to really talk to everyone, much more relaxing than some of those really crowded receptions. I spent a lot of time talking with a couple, Patrick and Grant who own one of my paintings and were great fun. Patrick had read through my blog here, and it turns out we have much in common including an admiration for Ray LaMontagne. I also talked with a reviewer who I think will be writing about my work and he mentioned Rothko more than a few times. Love that! It's been awhile since I have had a review so am looking forward to that (I think!). Even a few women who work with the hotel we stayed at came by to meet me! So it was all good, and very enjoyable. Oh and two more pieces sold, my two favorites: Long Lines Late in the Day and Back Against the Shadows. The show looked beautiful; as always, they did a wonderful job of hanging my work so that it looked its very best.

After the reception, our foursome went to have dinner at Mezze, a beautiful restaurant a block away from the gallery. We were there for over three hours, and had a wonderful long dinner. The husbands got somewhat drunk and then silly, which was very entertaining. I heard "I love you, man" more than a few times and I am not even kidding! Anyway, it's good that the crazy artist stays sober nowadays and could be the designated driver!

Everyone bounced back pretty well the next morning, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then hit the road to get back to our real lives. All in all it was a great time and now I think we must always take friends along with us to my receptions!

PS. I should know better by now, but I put Doug in charge of taking photos at the reception. He promptly forgot to do that, although he did take a cluster of shots, most of which involved my backside, which I will NOT be posting here. hehe. I took a few shots of the show at the end though and am posting those along with one with my new best friends, Patrick and Grant talking with Jillian, who works in the gallery (above). Am still kicking myself, and maybe Doug too for not getting any pictures of my work that was displayed in the front windows. Sheesh!

My Studio Feels Like an Empty Uterus

Much enjoyment, happiness, good energy, frustration, worry and stress here in my studio in the last few months. Then in a mad rush, everything is out the door and I am left with more than a few things to clean up. Hopefully I did my job right though and my paintings will be able to function and attract others out in the real world.

The delivery itself though was not without some drama. I was about 10 miles away from Williamstown, thoroughly enjoying Dixie Kitchen by my girl crush Mary Gauthier, when the tire light lit up on my dashboard. I was hoping to get somewhere but was on a long and very empty stretch of road. Soon I was hearing a flapping sound from the rear tire and so I pulled over into a driveway. Completely flat tire! Luckily there was cell service and I called the gallery, they called someone and within about a half hour someone came out to change my tire. I actually know how to change a tire, but the rub here is that I am quite sure I would have never figured out how to get the dang spare tire out of my newfangled car! It was very complicated. You have to do about 14 things and then the spare drops out from the underside of the car and then you have to do about ten more maneuvers to release it. Anyway, the guy changed my tire in about two minutes, took my flat to get it patched, I went on to the gallery to drop off my work. I spent some time chatting and we discussed the work. I was relieved that they LOVED the large panel (shown below, and I MUST insist to you all yet again that the painting is infinitely better in real life), sure did not want to drag that one home and back up the stairs to my attic studio! I did however, have to take back some unsold work, which always sucks just a little. Stupid economy! These were pieces that definitely would have sold a year ago......

I then went off to find the tire place, they put my patched tire back on and I was on my way back home. But somehow, even though I take this drive all the time, I missed a turn! Maybe it was Ray LaMontagne's fault, as he was singing very loudly in my car. It took awhile before I realized the wrong turn (Ray is my boy crush) and after I did it then took me forever to get back to the highway I wanted to be on, not to mention having to wade through tons of 5 o'clock traffic in an unfamiliar area. Blech!

But I eventually made it home and today am looking at a messy, but empty studio. I will clean it up though, put things away, reorganize, get some energy back and will soon be interested in starting the whole process all over again.

Just gotta love the whole process!

This Day, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 40x60

Show Preview

Back Up Against the Shadows, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 6x12

Last Friday night I emailed jpegs of all of the paintings I have ready for the show at The Harrison Gallery. A few folks had already called the gallery after receiving the show announcement (yayy!) and so the director wanted to get a preview up quickly. She had chosen about 21 paintings out of the 29 jpegs that I had sent which might ordinarily send me into a rejection fueled tailspin (what? they don't immediately want EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER PAINTED?!) but really just made me feel relieved that now I have some good work on hand for my next show which is in August. Anyway, you can check out the images here.

There are still a few paintings that will be added. I have two larger barn paintings, one of which may be included, as well as the 40x60 I have been prattling on about for awhile. I did the underpainting on that today (image below) and I should be able to put some color down on it on Thursday or so. I am going really simple with this one, and was certainly thinking about Rothko here too. Despite its size, however, I am not feeling a lot of pressure about whether it will work out at the color stage. I have at least one large painting that is really nice and will certainly be included and so this huge one is optional. The worst that can happen is that I will have to sand it down and start again, and it sure wouldn't be the first time I do that.

But don't think I am not daydreaming about it turning out beautifully, being included in the show and then selling to someone who wants ten more! A girl can (day)dream right?

Here I Go

30x40

I am hoping to work on this painting tomorrow, along with another large piece from the People You Know series.

However, and I feel like I should be shouting this out VERY LOUDLY-tomorrow is also the day I officially begin the landscape paintings for a solo show that I have coming up in April at The Harrison Gallery in Williamstown, MA. This is the first time since last July that I have had an exhibition to works towards. Frankly, I am over the moon to have a real live goal again. The self imposed ones just weren't cutting it.

Time to ROCK!

Still Breathing

Middle of Fall, 2007, Oil on Panel, 12x16

Well, turns out that my exhibiting career does still seem to have some life. The Harrison Gallery has scheduled a solo show for me in June 2009. This will be my third solo show there and also marks an upgrade to a slot in their busy season, summer. The first two had each been in January and both were good, the one in 2008 was nearly a sold out show (and is what paid for my new studio). I would also like to mention that this gallery routinely shows work that sells for $10,000+ and while I am sure not in that range, it is an honor to brush shoulders with those who are. Heh.

Also, Carrie from Carrie Haddad Gallery has given me another show (fourth in five years) next August, also a good time in Hudson, which has a lot of summer and part time residents who come up from the city. She also suggested my work for a Hudson Valley arts publication and it looks like the above piece (which is owned by one of my blog readers) will be on the cover.

And on a side note, I have been asked to have a show in early spring at a gallery in Troy, NY. I agreed to do it, however they have not followed up so I am not really counting on that one happening. It's ok, stuff like that happens every once in awhile, I have learned to never count on anything until there is written confirmation and signed papers and often not even then. Sometimes a lack of follow up is a sign to me that it's maybe not the right thing for me to be involved in.

Even if things are slow right now, I still have to pay attention to the signs and take heed.

Its Own Art Form

I had planned to post yesterday, but my computer is giving me trouble. It hasn't been starting up very well, although I did manage to get it up yesterday and quickly backed up all of my info before it froze up again. Including the jpegs of all of my work for the last four years! I am such an idiot for not doing that sooner. Anyway, I am able to access my email (and blogger on Doug's computer) and when he gets back in a few days we will try to figure out what to do. I am incredibly stupid when it comes to anything technical involving the computer, so I am not too keen on even calling Apple for help though I might do that though if I find that have a few hours to kill. As much as I love my Mac, I am not too happy with Apple. Their longevity leaves something to be desired, in my experience. I have only had this computer for two years. The last one I had collapsed and died (along with all my info) after only four years.

Sorry, no image today either. It's a long story, and mostly involves me being stupid so I won't go into it here.

So a little bit more about the opening last Saturday. Jo, the gallery owner and director, and her staff, really do an incredible job of organizing their shows, events and openings. They send out postcards, email invites, and I have been receiving many google alerts for articles announcing the show and the opening reception in the local papers. When Doug and arrived to the opening, our coats were whisked away and we were offered food and drink (which was excellent, of course), and since I only drink water, someone rounded up a bottle for me. As you could see in the photographs I posted yesterday, the show was hung beautifully. Everything was balanced, not too crowded (something I tend to do when hanging a show) and Jo chose the perfect variety of sizes and images to put together. The ones she didn't include in the front room, were displayed in the back room and a number of those pieces sold, so clearly none of the work was shortchanged by the staff. My work can be tricky to light, because of the rather shiny surface, but they hung each piece at just the right height and with the correct angle of light on them. And no bulbs were burnt out. I suspect they would have been horrified if there had been a bulb out at an opening, unlike a few other galleries I have showed at in the past. Each piece had a number next to it on the wall, rather than a label with the title, etc., and the corresponding information were in a price list, a few of which were on a table, along with an essay (which I will post later) about me. I was formally introduced to everyone that was interested in meeting me and left to chat with them. Normally I feel sort of of awkward and shy when meeting new people, but somehow I don't feel that way at the openings. I guess talking continually about how I work, how I prepare the painting surface, choose my images and colors, and discussing the area where we live makes me comfortable. It's all about me, baby!

I have put together a few openings myself, and I understand and appreciate how much goes into putting them together. It's a lot of work, an art form really, but should look like it's not. The Harrison Gallery accomplishes that perfectly and I am incredibly giddy pleased about working with them.

Opening Reception

The opening reception at The Harrison Gallery on Saturday night was awesome! There wasn't a huge crowd, but nearly everyone who came was there to meet me. And they all seemingly bought a painting or already owned one or more. One couple bought four! By the end of the evening the sales count was at eleven. Several pieces, including Red Gambrel (above), were sold before the opening. Doug and I were a bit giddy on the way home!

This is all very exciting, of course, but it is also the kind of stuff that messes with my head. Everyone was very complimentary about my work and while such feedback is great, if I start thinking how fab I am, my work really suffers. I will think every mark I make is the best, when in reality they aren't always, and I need to be able to see that.

So I indulged myself a bit last night with a satisfied feeling of pride and accomplishment, plus a little grandiosity thrown in, but today I have to shovel out the chicken crap from the hen house while it is relatively warm and then get right back to painting tomorrow. The Harrison Gallery wants larger scale paintings for their inventory before I leave for Vermont next month!

Woo-hoo!!! (Sorry, just a bit more self-indulgence, couldn't help myself:))

Inspiration!

Thursday was a very nice relaxed day for me and I thoroughly enjoyed having the house to myself (kids at school, Doug in the city). Um, you know, so I could do laundry and clean with MY music blaring throughout the house.

Surprisingly though, what I really wanted to do was to paint. Usually I feel like a limp dishrag for at least a few days after I ship or deliver work for a show and I generally take some time off before getting back to work. But seeing my work all spread out at the gallery on Wednesday inspired me to get right back to it. It all looked awesome together! The process of painting for this show had been filled with stops and starts, not to mention a few gaps filled with work from another show. And even though I always spread the work out and look at it as a group for a show beforehand, strangely, this time it didn't even cross my mind to do that. So I was pretty lucky that it worked out.

Anyway, after seeing everything and having a (positive) conversation with the gallery director on Wednesday about the larger paintings I felt really excited about starting a few more. I forced myself to take one day and clean up so that I wouldn't be distracted by that, OR grossed out by the condition of our downstairs bathroom, and then this morning I spent a few hours doing two underpaintings, both sized 30x40. I would have liked to do a few more but I had a hair appointment, which frankly, takes precedent. Heh. Maybe I'll do a few more on Sunday.

That is unless, the opening tomorrow sends me into Post Show Meltdown, of course.

Delivery To Williamstown

Today, Doug and I are driving to Williamstown, MA, in order to deliver my work to The Harrison Gallery. I always enjoy these trips. I am usually filled with relief to be done with everything, for the moment anyway, and when Doug comes with, we always enjoy having a few hours of uninterrupted conversation,

The painting that I have posted today is one that I am very happy with and if we had more wall space I might consider keeping it. But we don't, so I am not and so it will be included in the show. Anyway, it's a big panel and the whole thing, start to finish, just burst right out of me. I can't explain it any better than that. I like the colors, the tree and I don't know what made me do it, but I especially love the blue at the horizon line on the left side. It's quite different than how I usually resolve those areas. And now, as is my habit, I will probably do that in every painting I do until Doug shakes me and tells me to stop!

So if you are anywhere close to the Berkshires this weekend, please come by the opening on Saturday, January 5, 5-7pm to see this fab painting for yourself, and/or to meet me and Doug. Or if you feel a bit shy about that, at least visit the gallery sometime in January, the show will be up until January 31st.

Oh, and I came across this article about the show. I think it is a press release from the gallery as much of it comes from my artist statement. Not the adjective "passionate" though. While I love to hear my work described as that I think my face would turn beet red if I ever described my own work as passionate!

Done

Flatland, 2007, Oil on Panel, 8x10

I was assuming that I would be working pretty much through Christmas and right up until I have to deliver everything to the gallery in the first few days of January. However, after looking at my list of finished pieces I think I can safely say I am done! Yayyy! I guess I was in such a painting frenzy that I lost track of where I was. And there have been so many interruptions to my studio time, I just assumed that I hadn't gotten enough work done. I had four pieces finished before I got sick in November, plus seven that were at the underpainting stage. In the last three weeks, I finished those seven, plus eight more, including a 36x48 piece. So all of those, plus four that came back from another show and which fit in perfectly with the new group gives me a very healthy twenty three paintings for a solo show. I am tempted to do one more large landscape as I feel the group is a bit heavy on barns, but that might just be showing off. Heh.

It's good to know that I can pull together enough work for a show in a month but I do need to make an effort to NOT cut it quite so close, because things can happen (like pneumonia) to throw me off. On the other hand, I work better and can create a more cohesive group of paintings if I do everything that I can in a mad rush of creativity and energy. So a balance must be achieved, with work and life.

The One Where I Keep Plugging Away

My Blue Barn, 2007, Oil on Panel, 9x9

Well, I think that posts may be a bit more infrequent here in the next few weeks. Everything is converging in the next week; the holidays, finishing up the work for January's show plus a myriad of other activities such as holiday chorus concerts and plays, mundane but necessary paperwork, and putting together the dang family holiday card! At this point I will just be happy if I can get the stupid things postmarked by the 24th. Of course, WE have received many holiday cards from people who are either super organized or who have nothing else to do in November but to mail out their cards. Heh. Anyway, I humbly bow down to all of those people.

However, this is the second year that I have had a solo show scheduled for January and while at first I wasn't too thrilled about the fact that I would have to work pretty hard well into December, there is also a silver lining to that. It has forced me (and our family) to simplify our holidays quite a bit. There is less time for shopping for things that the kids don't really need (or will even look at within a month), I have learned to hand over decorating the tree to the kids, who fully enjoy that process and although I like putting lights up on our porch, in the last two years I have found that Christmas still comes whether they are up or not.

The activities we have kept up with are the ones we all can pitch in and do; baking, making gifts, wrapping them, attending the concerts and other activities and cleaning the house. Well, maybe not that last one so much, but if there is ever a shot that I can get the kids to pick up their stuff without asking twice, it is now.

And while the ever increasing commercialism and consumerism makes me more uncomfortable each year, it has not escaped my attention that both Doug and I are totally contributing to it by creating things that are intended for sale. I am not sure I can ever fully reconcile those opposing beliefs, but I hope that by simplifying our lives we can somewhat offset what we do for a living.

It's the best I can do right now.

Caught Up

Double Purple, 2007, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Yesterday I shipped new work out to The Harrison Gallery and I also have a number of paintings ready to go to Gallery 100 in Saratoga Springs next week. Both galleries have sold a number of my paintings in the last few months and need more for their inventory. The Blogger Show pieces are finished and are just waiting to be packed and shipped in October.

Finally now, after wrapping up those details, I can devote the next next month to preparing for a solo show in Pittsburgh at Boxheart Gallery. This one has been on my schedule since early 2005 and it seemed like a show that would never arrive! I have about six paintings finished but need to do about 15 more. I am not too concerned about being able to do that ( I just began six more yesterday) and I even think I won't have to work on the weekends. Meaning my life might be kind of normal. However, I suppose more things will come up, I do have to do some small works for a holiday show at Gallery 100, a small painting that will be used for a holiday card for a friend of mine (more on that in another post) but I can easily fold those into the mix over the next few weeks. And as soon as the work is finished for the Pittsburgh show, I have to begin again for another solo show in January at the The Harrison Gallery.

Right now though, today, I am reveling in the feeling of being caught up.

Juggling

Red Roof, 2007, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Well, despite being pretty busy the last few days, and being terribly lazy about getting started in the studio, I did manage to get quite a few 8x10 paintings finished up. I am juggling a few deadlines right now, and they are all on this Friday, mostly because on Saturday we are going on a week long family vacation to the Lakes Region in New Hampshire. So this is what I have to do before we leave (doesn't count packing or cleaning the house):

The Harrison Gallery has been doing a bang up job selling my work lately and they need more paintings in their inventory. So I need to ship them at least four, although six would probably be better.

I am in a group show, called Upstate Landscape at a local gallery, the Smithy-Pioneer Gallery in Cooperstown, NY. I have to drop off about six pieces on Friday, and the opening is on Monday. We will miss it, which is unfortunate, because we usually know so many people at their openings.

The Blogger Show needs to have jpegs by August 31, of the two pieces that I plan to put into the show which is in November. So, um, I have to paint those paintings this week....

And the local arts org is having their annual Arts on the Lawn sale and so even though I have decided not to participate this year, I probably will end up doing it anyway. Since the events starts before we get back from vacation, I will have to drop off the work before we leave.

I have about 15 paintings in progress (five are essentially finished) and will totally be holding my breath this week, hoping that I don't screw up more than one of them. Heh.

After a bit of trial and error, I have a pretty good system for keeping track of all of this stuff. I have a calendar next to my desk which has the deadlines written on it, plus as a back up I take notes on a notepad on my desk. Cause sometimes I don't even feel like actually turning my head to look at the calendar. I also have a Day Runner type month-in-view calendar in a binder which I use to map out shows and projects for the upcoming year. Although I don't refer to that very often, it's great to have the overview easily available. And I always add the opening receptions that I have to go to, to the FAMILY MASTER CALENDAR, centrally located in the kitchen. That way the kids can see when the 'rents are going out of town!

The interesting thing I have found is that if I write everything down, I always remember all of it and rarely have to check the dates. If I don't write it down, I forget the info entirely. So I take special care to write the important stuff down leaving the rest to mysteriously disappear into the recesses of my shrinking brain.

The Shipping Department

Middle Of Fall, 2007, Oil on Panel, 12x16

Have I mentioned how much I hate packing and shipping out my work? I will go to incredible lengths to avoid shipping, which usually includes driving at least two hours each way in order to deliver them in person. I am also not above sending Doug a few miles out of his way to deliver something, if he has to take a business trip anyway and I'd probably send the work off with anyone else who happened along if I could.

A few small sized paintings are fine. I have plenty of small boxes (I admit to being the mail order queen-Eddie Bauer actually contacts me if they don't get an order from me each month), but the larger pieces are more problematic. I cringe when I see how much bubble wrap I have to use for padding (never send a gallery a box with styrofoam peanuts) and the cardboard boxes! Oh. My. God. I have the worst sensory issues concerning cardboard. I hate the sound it makes when folding the flaps up but mostly I hate touching it. I can only touch it if I have recently put lotion on my hands, I get moderately freaked out if my hands are either wet or too dry and they come in contact with cardboard (um, that goes for paper too, although all of that is an improvement over the summer after my freshman year of college when I literally could not touch any paper, cardboard or illustration board AT ALL, so progress has been made).

But I digress. Sorry.

This week I had to send out eight pieces, including two 24x24's, to Boxheart Gallery in Pittsburgh-too far to drive, alas. Finding a box in good condition and the right size in our hot, dark and icky attic was a challenge (I kept hearing rustling sounds) and to top it all off I also had to ship a number of pieces to The Harrison Gallery, so I had to pack up two shipments instead of one. I had actually planned to drive to Williamstown to deliver those on Friday, but decided for a number of reasons that shipping would be just as easy. Ha!

It took a ridiculously long time, but I managed to get everything packed up finally. However, because I am a complete idiot, I forgot to include the inventory/packing list in one box and left out one painting from the other, so I had to cut open the boxes, add those items and tape them all over again. I am telling you, I was in pain when I had to do that.

Oh yeah, maybe I should describe how I pack up the paintings. Each is wrapped in bubble wrap, they are packed into the boxes, face to face, with the backs facing the outside, and a piece of cardboard between them and the box sides. I stuff bubble wrap padding into every open space so that there is no shifting possible. I use a ton of tape to close up the box, and I have some nifty labels that I designed and print off the computer. And I insure the shipments for their full retail, because if something happens, I better get compensated for all that shipping and packing, oops, I mean painting.

Next up: a solo show at Salt Meadow Gallery in Cape Cod. What do you think-packing and shipping 25 pieces OR driving five hours there and back in a car with no air conditioning?

Left Ear or Right?

Tilting, 2007, Oil on Panel, 8x10

Well, after the pride I expressed in my last post about how well things are going lately (and thanks so much to all of you who were so pleased for me about all of that), I was brought back down to earth this weekend. In a very gentle manner, at least.

Saturday morning I loaded up my car with 19 paintings and my daughter and began the five hour drive to Cape Cod to deliver work to the Salt Meadow Gallery there, and then a second delivery to The Harrison Gallery on Sunday on the way back home. Generally, if it's possible, I take one of the kids with me on my short trips, alternating each time. Thankfully, because this was a lot of driving, it was my quieter daughter's turn to come with. Now of course, I dearly love my youngest, but she NEVER stops talking and I confess to some irritation with that, most especially in the car. So this particular trip was rather quiet and harmonious. We listened to music, worked on some crossword puzzles (she did the reading and writing and um, got most of the answers), and we stopped and did some shopping at the mall in Albany on the way back on Sunday.

Anyway, we got to the gallery in Cape Cod on Saturday afternoon, no thanks to the seemingly incorrect mapquest directions and I spent some time visiting with Glenn, the owner. I had a solo show there last summer (read about it here) and will have another one this July. He has sold A LOT of my work over the last few years, however I have also given him many pieces and so we had finally agreed that I should take some work back this time. Of course this makes sense (I am the one who offered to take some back, conscious of possible storage space issues) and he had 12 paintings ready for me. My practical mind is fine with taking back work from a gallery that shows it, and I generally make the suggestion if it seems that sales have slowed or if it's been awhile since they have received new work. But I admit to still feeling a bit demoralized when a stack of paintings return to my studio.

So I try to look at it like this: it's a good reality check to learn, once again, that not everything I do is so fab that it immediately flies out the gallery door. I think my work really suffers when I fall into thinking how great I am. Not much to strive for when I start doing that, you know? So these reality breaks are good and will help me in the long run I think.

Now if that urge to cut off my ear would just go away. Heh.

PS. I should add here that personally, I do think that most of the returned paintings are pretty dang nice, which only proves how subjective art can be. A piece that I am proud of doesn't always translate to one that touches someone else. Or perhaps for a myriad of reasons and circumstances the painting doesn't find the person for whom it is meant for. These are things to remember too, especially when the ear cutting thing flares up.