Getting Ready for My Art Show

My recycled palette

It's been a while since I've shown my work.  As someone who is visually inclined, I feel the need to not only have a significant body of work to display, but also have it make sense.  When you're working with a venue where being a gallery is not its primary function, the artist is also the curator.  Themes are important.  Palettes are important.  Even size is important in arrangement etc - and not just in dimensions.  You're not going to throw a killer piece next to your worst work - it would knock everything off. Then where would you be? With nothing sold, or only one piece purchased.

Spring Dream, March 2011

Well I had a large reclaimed canvas that I needed to work on, so I figured before it gets packed away I should do something with it.  That way it can be in the show (as long as it came out alright).  Spring Dream came out better than I hoped for, and it can be seen (along with the rest of the show) opening the first Friday in May at the Cambridge Drive Concert Series music and art show (so excited!).  

Sea to Land, March 2011

Since I paint thickly and had a lot of excess paint left on my recycled palette (cola boxes have many purposes!), I also painted a more simple (and much smaller) painting, Sea to Land, which ideally would be flattened and placed behind glass in a frame.  If I can find one of those between now and the show, this one will make it up as well.

My hope is that I will visit a few thrift stores and possibly an art supply store, for at least three more canvases to balance out the rest of the show.  Currently I'm really enjoying using reclaimed canvases, either lithographic prints, or other thrift store paintings which have been discarded.  This might seem like sacrilege to some people, and of course the answering argument to me is what if it was one of my paintings? My answer to you would be this - if my work ends up in a thrift store for 5$, and that is the only way a poor artist can get canvas, let them cover it.  If I was famous, it wouldn't be in a thrift store. It's better that human expression continue unfettered than to stem the tide of inspiration by preventing someone from getting materials.  Plus, what else is going to happen to that canvas? Maybe it will be sold, maybe it will end up in the dump.  It's better to be used somehow than being in the dump, right? Plus, half the time I get a cool frame to go along with it. So, $5 for a canvas and a cool frame that fits it is a pretty sweet deal for an artist who doesn't have a lot of extra money for materials. Also, it's fun.  You can choose to cover the entire thing, as I did with one painting I sold that now occupies a friend's hallway, or I can choose to incorporate elements of the old piece into the new one.  Either way, it's kind of like spoofing, or post-modern philosophy taken to an eco conclusion.  In any case, the result is beautiful and wonderful, and that's the whole point.