Yesterday I mentioned several things that I have painted from Sequoia National Park. Want to see? Some have sold, and some are currently available. (Every once in awhile, I show items for sale because I am supposed to be running an art business here, not just chit-chatting to my friends.)
This oil painting of the river is inching forward. Remember this?
Here is a day of (interrupted*) painting in steps.
*Quickety trip to the next mural site to learn the best method to transfer pattern to wall; phone call to spray varnish manufacturer to ask how to deal with the continually clogging nozzle; writing an endorsement for my mechanic’s upcoming website; asking some friends to do the same; phone-tagging and texting to make an appointment to show my paintings to a new vendor; several long phone discussions attempting to keep the wheels on a project that seems to be circling the drain (that’s called a “mixed metaphor”); photographing and scanning completed paintings. . . all part of the business of art.
This photo is from May of 2022.
Mineral King is closed to the public this year. The Silver City Resort will not be accessible. Cabin folks are strongly discouraged from going up the hill.
NOTHING can stop Trail Guy and I from going up the hill to our cabin.
This poses a question: is it wrong to post photos of and chit-chat about a place that people aren’t allowed to go?
I don’t know how to handle this.
In addition, I seem to have accidentally retired. Actually, I don’t want to be retired, so let’s say I am on a sabbatical. I think this means a paid break for the purposes of learning new skills or doing research. However, I don’t earn if I am not working, and I am not researching anything, so “sabbatical” might also be the wrong description. I simply don’t have work right now, an odd situation that I have never encountered in all my years of self-employment as a Central California artist.
I need time to think, and I welcome your thoughts on this odd situation. Meanwhile, I will be pressing pause on my blog for an undetermined amount of time as I examine what might and might not be the appropriate method of blogging about this current phase of life as your Central California artist (and Mineral King reporter).
There isn’t much to report on the Mineral King Road. Work is in progress, but there are People in Charge Who Make Important Decisions, and we are the little people not in charge, awaiting those decisions.
Meanwhile, I am in a holding pattern. Do I continue to draw and paint, without places to sell, building up a large body of work? Or do I just go pull more weeds?
There is a show coming, but it is a Long Way Off (that’s how I am thinking of the show, capitalized, titled “Long Way Off”). I have been thinking, planning, digging through photos, wondering if there is a way to rework unsold pieces, or if I should just paint over the top, wondering if there are too many repetitious subjects, wondering if I am clever and creative enough to paint new subjects that people might want, or if I am clever and creative enough to jazz up the unsold pieces for Long Way Off.
In order to decide what to paint, I chose the subjects, then looked through my existing paintings to see what sizes were already done. I went through my numerous files of photos, and chose ones that stood out. I don’t know why they stood out, but I just went with my gut instinct.
The categories are ag, the lake, the river, hills, Mineral King, Sequoia, trees, Hume Lake, Balch Park, Yokohl, and of course, citrus with foothills and mountains. In other words, everything I love about Tulare County (plus Hume Lake in Fresno County). In more other words, places I frequent, not too far away, close and close-ish to home, places I know.
There is plenty of time to figure this out. For all I know, the Long Way Off show might decide that I am passé, a has-been, and cancel the show.
I am not worried, simply curious about what might be next for my ever-changing art business.
Now I think I’ll go pull some more weeds.
The business of art is fickle, always changing. An artist can just make whatever she feels like making and hope it sells. However, if an artist wants to earn a living, she needs to pay attention to the ever-changing world of what people want, what they can afford. She also needs to pay attention to selling opportunities, another ever-changing set of circumstances.
For a handful of years, there have been three places that sell steadily for me. One was next to a popular restaurant, which has now closed, diminishing foot traffic by the gallery. Another is a seasonal store in the mountains, and it most likely will be unable to open this year due to a ruined road. The third is in a building which recently changed hands, the lease will expire so things will go month-to-month, and with Sequoia National Park being closed so long, the traffic in town has diminished tremendously.
This may or may not be connected, but I have no commissions.
The murals which I thought were in the bag have fallen into indecision on the part of the customers.
So, I am drawing simply because I want to.
I will continue to think, and continue to share my thoughts.
If you are getting this post in your email, go to the internet and type in jana botkin dot net (type it in computer style, not the way it is written here).
Sales have been slow. I am not defining “spring”, precisely, and it isn’t over yet. However, I am not producing very much: just editing and formatting 2 different books, teaching drawing lessons, communicating occasionally with the folks on 2 different pairs of murals, and wondering if there will be any reason to paint towards selling at the Silver City Store this coming summer.
Lest you think I am bored, your Central California artist is never bored. I am yardening, meeting up with an old friend from high school, cleaning out closets and rooms at church, yardening some more, reading, knitting, walking with my neighbor, and yardening (in case you were wondering.)
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I was procrastinating (and yardening) in order to think. Sometimes procrastination is simply waiting for inspiration. If you are a person of faith, that is a time of waiting for the Lord to show the way through some of life’s more puzzling situations.
One of my puzzling situations was how to paint the mountains accurately on a commissioned oil painting when I didn’t have the right photos. Sure, Part A is in Photo A, Part C is in Photo C, but then Photo B doesn’t match or fit because it was taken from a different location or there is a tree blocking what I need to see.
I can fake mountains and foothills pretty well, but this particular painting is calling for accuracy. Well, actually, Mr. Customer is calling for accuracy in the mountains, and I fully understand and endorse his desire. The point of the painting for him, besides recalling a moment in time, is to be able to see specifically which peak is where.
I had a good start, but there were some significant difficulties, such as what happens between Castle Rocks and Sawtooth. I could make a few white dabs, but when Mr. Customer and I try to name peaks, our efforts would be stymied by misleading information. (Heaven forbid that we participate in dis and mis information!)
The answer came while having lunch on Rocky Hill.
Let’s crop and enhance it.
Nope, this isn’t the span of mountains I am seeking. It’s in this photo, but those beeves are in the way.
I cropped out the cattle, messed with the exposure so the mountains were very distinct against the sky, and VOILA! (That is French for THIS IS WHAT I WANT AND NEED! Maybe. I don’t speak French.)
Was I seeking inspiration?
Maybe. People who aren’t artists think there is some sort of woo-woo inspiration thing that causes artists to do our thing.
I am more practical. There is beauty everywhere, subjects that would make great paintings, but as a professional, I have to take into account what my customers (and potential customers) want.
So, more than inspiration, I was seeking information, but needed help to find it, and then, right on time, the Lord provided. (If you are not a person of faith, you might credit “the universe”. That’s too woo-woo for me.)
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“Planning, Hoping, Dreaming” reminds me of something Beth Moore has said, “Are you wantin’ and wishin’ instead of believin’ and receivin’?”
Indeed.
Someone Important told me last August that he was looking for a muralist. He’d been talking to an artist who didn’t return calls and was frustrated by the lack of response. He told me I could have the job.
Coolio.
I went to the location, measured, photographed, and discussed the project with the person who worked at the location. Purposely vague here, but more will be revealed.
Then I got to thinking, sketching, writing up notes, designing. Oh yes, this could be very excellent!
When I had some good ideas, three, each one a different size and price because I had no idea of the budget, I called Mr. Important Someone. Nothing. Left another message. Silence, or as the current cliché goes, “crickets”.
I saw Mr. Important Someone in October, and I whapped him on the arm with the stack of papers in my hand. “Mr. Someone, you have not returned my calls, and I have good ideas to share with you.”
He had reasons (very busy, because he is Important), and was remorseful, charming, and engaging, which has probably contributed to his being Someone Important.
The cricket fest continued, until April 6, when I got an arts newsletter with a Call to Artists to bid on the project that Mr. Someone had all but promised me.
Sigh.
I am really wishin’ and wantin’, while planning, hoping and dreaming, all ready to believe and receive.
This sort of enterprise is part of the the business of art, lots of conversation until money exchanges hands. The deadline to submit a proposal is April 26; a decision will be reached sometime in May.
Stay tuned. Photos will follow IF I am chosen for the project. (Maybe even if I am not, and then you all can tell me where I went wrong.)
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A few weeks ago, I got a real letter in the real mail from a real person. She said my phone wasn’t working (this is common), nor was my email (also common), so she resorted to old fashioned means of communicating, which I believe to be superior in many ways, but that isn’t a topic for this post. (You can read about such things here.)
She was part of something called The Green Hotel Restoration Foundation, and they ran out of the 1000 notecards of my pencil drawing of their building. (That’s a burn rate of 38 cards per year, in case you are curious). The foundation wanted more cards.
Back in 1997, I didn’t have much of a computer, nor did I have a digital camera or a scanner. The only record I kept of my work was an occasional photocopy, a slide (remember Kodachrome?), or if the customer had cards or prints made, I’d keep an extra.
The printing company I used back then is out of business, and even if they weren’t, they certainly wouldn’t still have the plates and negatives used 26 years ago (that’s how offset printing use to be accomplished).
I called her, since obviously my email isn’t speaking to her email, and asked her for the original.
Oh-oh. No one knows where it is. We had a great visit, then she told me that her cousin would take over the project.
Her cousin and I had many phone conversations, with lots of ideas batted around to figure out how to get more cards without having the original, and more ideas about where to look for it (the foundation balked at paying me to draw the hotel again), and we reached an impasse.
Then I had an idea. I went rooting around in my many stacks, boxes, drawers, and binders of old cards and prints, and sure enough, I found the Green Hotel.
I scanned and photoshopped it into printing shape, since printing something with an ivory background will not yield good results.
A few more phone conversations, many undeliverable emails and lots of various attempts, and finally, finally, this drawing was in the determined and capable hands of The Green Hotel Restoration Foundation.
Then I wrote a copyright release letter and an invoice for the photoshop work. This wasn’t what one could refer to as highly profitable in terms of monetary gain, but I sure did enjoy talking to these two dynamic women, devoted to history, determined to get a thing accomplished, and very quick-minded.
To top it all off, Cousin Lady lives across the street from my brother-in-law’s parents former home, so despite being in a county to the south of Tulare County, the small-world-ness of my little life is alive and well.
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Some days it is a real struggle to find time to paint because of all the non-art-making tasks associated with being a professional artist, a one-woman show, a solo act, a Jana of all trades, and small potatoes.
This is what filled my day a few weeks ago, most work related, and none of it actually for profit.
That was a busy day, lots of work, all of it not-for-profit. But sometimes an artist has got to do what she’s got to do.