No Sale, but Lots of Exposure

So, I didn't sell either work at the Jackson District Library Community Art Show at the Carneige Branch. That is okay. I wasn't focused on selling as much as I was on showing. I'm just getting back into painting after years on hiatus. I'm getting my footing again and there will be other shows...I hope. I need to keep creating. To keep pushing myself to see what else I can do. I've been watching online videos of painters painting. Some are very helpful. Others, not so much. The library said the event was popular and they want to do it again in about six months or so. I bought more frames at Michael's so my work will be hang ready. Now to create more work to have to hang.

Dropped Artwork Off at the Library

Just returned home after dropping off my two paintings to the Carnegie branch of the Jackson District Library. The paintings-- "Community" and "3 Cherries" are oil pastels I created over the course of a couple hours this past week. I'm proud of my work even though it feels unfinished. The colors in both paintings could be richer, deeper and with more contrast. Even so, it's a start back to the art world--a world in which I am free to express myself in any carefree manner I chose. Right now I have support from friends and acquaintances for my artwork. I feel as if my work is evolving--getting better the more I do it. Kind of like my writing. The more I write, the better I get. Well, maybe not. I feel like I am not free to create in the writing world. I feel like I've gone as far as I know how in writing. I want to get better, but how? Like my artwork it will take study to get better. I can watch technique videos on pastel oil painting and apply those techniques to my work. How can I get better at writing? Should I read more? Absorb technique through osmosis? I don't know what will help me write more better. :) See what I did there? I just know I will continue to struggle along and hope to goodness I get better at writing and art.

Community Oil Pastel

So the other night I taped a sheet of 18x24 inch Carlton watercolor paper to my dining room wall and created my version of the theme "Community" for the Jackson District Library art show at the Carnegie branch. This is what I saw in my minds eye as I thought about the theme. I created a small version in my sketchbook journal to see how the colors would work together. I like this version, but think I could have deepened the colors. As it is, I used two colors of orange and two colors of blue oil pastels to create this work. It is very light and airy. I used mineral spirits to blend the colors and in so doing wiped off a great deal of the original colors. I've all ready taken it off the wall and added the "people" to the bottom (the little vertical strips of color under the orange banner). So I cannot add more color to the painting. The library is accepting works from adults and children starting today, April 7, 2019-April 11, 2019. The opening reception is sometime after 5 p.m. Friday, April 12. Maybe it runs from 5-7p.m. I'm not sure. I'll have to check the article for the times.

Back to Art 2019

A few years ago I gave my oil paints away because I had had enough with trying to create something visually that people wanted to buy. I gave up. Now, I have renewed interest in getting back into art as a way to calm my raging soul. Well, okay, so my soul isn't raging, but I just thought it sounded more dramatic than I miss creating. I've been in a slump with my writing since 2018 was the punch-to-the-gut year of rejections left and right. Every rejection I received came with a personal note to me from the editor or agent as to why they were passing on the project. All pointed out strengths in the writing and what they liked, but when they pointed out the flaws it sent me into a tailspin. I want my writing, like my art, to be perfect. I'm seeing just how far from perfect that I am. I don't like seeing my non perfection. I wish things were different. I wish someone would have picked up my books--yes, books. I wish I would have sold more art so I would feel like continuing. I've come back to it, but will I run away again if all is not perfect? If I'm not selling? I think as long as I am selling I will continue with art, but that cannot be true because I am beginning again and not selling yet. I'm riding high on the anticipation of future sales. (I wouldn't put too much stock into future sales. Isn't just the exercise of creating a piece payment enough?) It should be but it isn't.

What happened to my blogs

August 6, 2018 I wrote at least two blogs about writing, but they aren't appearing here. I don't know why. Ah, I see why. This is my art blog not my writing blog. (Keep it straight will you.) There isn't anything happening in my art world so I haven't posted here in a while. Meanwhile in writing world, there is plenty that has happened. I'm working on a contemporary, inspirational romance novel that seems to be creeping along at a snails pace. Need to have more time in the seat with hands on keyboard and less time in the seat playing on the computer or checking email, etc. Outside, it is raining with sounds of thunder rumbling. Such a nice sound. We've needed the rain.

Stuck in Writing World

May 28, 2018 So I'm stuck in writing world and have been for months. What used to come as a downpour has become a trickle. Two days ago I wrote 400 plus words. I was so thrilled. I feel like I'm walking on ice--afraid to take the next step because it may lead to a fall, but how will I know it will cause me to fall unless I take that step and inch my way along? Writing like this--scared writing--is not fun. I need to get back to the story, but am afraid. Fear is keeping me from writing and the thrill of discovery. In the meantime, I'm working on a revision of a work that was edited by Laurie Kuna of Mid-Michigan Romance Writers Association. She gave me very good feedback. I feel like I need to go eat something--just don't want to deal with this feeling of fear of writing and all it entails.

Writing

Has it really been two years since I posted here on my blog? Goodness gracious! Time does fly whether or not one is having fun. As an artist, I find myself at a loss for creating art. I'm much better at buying it now and am putting other artist's work on my walls. My most recent acquisition was from Thimgan Hayden, a realist painter from Michigan. I bought "Winter Colors" from her. It is a work she painted looking out the dinning room window in her home. Thank you Thimgan Hayden for creating such beautiful work. It gives me much joy to look at it each day. Well, I started this blog with the title of Writing and have yet to talk about that. For the past two years I've been working on writing romances. It has been fun. No, I'm not published as of yet. Now I find with this latest work that I am stuck. I'm trying to write a Christian romance and have hit a spot where one of my characters has rejected the other's love proposal. Well that threw me for a loop and I haven't recovered as of yet. There are so many other excuses I could use as to why I am stuck, but this one seems as good as any. A writer friend asked me how much time I'm spending in front of the computer screen with this work. Not enough. I'm a panster--writing by the seat of my pants. I don't plot out my work first and so now that I'm facing a wall in my writing instead of looking to the left and right to see a way around the wall I'm left facing it, wondering how I got there and what to do. I wish there was an easy answer to my dilemma. There is one. Reread what I've written thus far and go from there. Ah and now the excuses. I have a headache. I really do and just don't want to put that much effort into what I'm writing right now...and so it goes.

Janet Reid, Literary Agent: MWW Query Workshop

Janet Reid, Literary Agent: MWW Query Workshop

So Long Art

It's been so long since I've created any art. Do I still consider myself an artist? Should I still consider myself an artist? Art is not my sole profession. I have a day job with the State of Michigan, which I love. A good income and lack of pressure contributed to my lack of desire for creating art. My life is not in tormoil. I am comfortable. I have no need to express myself because of this perpetual comfort. I don't wish to be uncomfortable in order to reignite my creative spark. For now, I'll bask in comfort and not worry about producing anything visually creative. I have started back writing. For now, writing is enough creativity for me.

Throwing Art Away

To throw away or not to throw away...When art is so bad there is no recourse but to throw it away. Back some months ago, how long--I have no idea, I hung up a white sheet of 20"x30" pastel paper on my dinning room wall, taped off the outside so the paper would stay on the wall and so I could create a border on the finished piece. I started with a plain brown planter, added a half moon red table on which the pot sat. That's as far as the painting went for months. I didn't like the pot. It was too brown, too plain, too whatever. I should have added the flowers first and then put in the pot between the leaves and petals. Too late now. Such a nagging little thought, but it haunted me. Each day I walked by the painting on my way to the kitchen and out the door for work. After a while I successfully ignored the painting; actually forgot about it until one day inspiration hit and I tried to add some blue and grey flowers above the pot to soften it a bit. No good. Surveying my work from across the room I was disappointed. The blue and grey flowers on top of the brown pot now resembled an ice cream cone. Ugh!! Where had my creativity gone? Had it been bested by a brown pot? It certainly seemed so. Weeks, months went by and again a spark of inspiration came. This time I would cover my mistake with wedges of bright blue and red. The result was terrible--an insult to the eye. Can art go from worse to much worse? Yes, yes it can and mine did. The painting still hangs in the dinning room, still is purposely ignored. I cannot think of anything that would salvage the painting at this point other than wading it up and throwing it in the garbage. I think it would be best for the sake of my creativity to throw it out. But would throwing it out allow me to forget about it and move on at this point? I hope so.