Virtual Drawing Lesson Thoughts

In working with my drawing student C via email, we discussed the fact that the drawing of her horse Rocky got finished in record time for her. She is such a good thinker and clear communicator that I decided to share what we discussed. These are her conclusions about finishing quickly and my thoughts.
C’s drawing table is where she can work any time she passes by without having to set things up.
It is so helpful to have an art project be accessible so it isn’t a project unto itself just to set up. 
C felt dependent on my help when in class and a little intimidated to just dive on in.
I need to find a way to encourage my students to be more independent so they don’t wait for me to tell them each step; at the same time, I understand why they wait for instruction, because who wants to erase?? 
C felt a little intimidated about being with people who are more advanced than she is.
It takes awhile for people to realize that their classmates are super encouraging and that all of us started at the beginning, not suddenly arrived as accomplished artists. I sometimes purposely bring something ugly and early to show my students so they won’t feel embarrassed by their own early origins. My students all make better first drawings than I drew AFTER I started accepting commissions. 
C had confidence drawing horses, a subject that she has painted several times.
She is right about having more confidence when drawing a familiar subject. I often remind my students to pick something they love, because they will be staring at it for L O N G time.
 
I love that my drawing students become friends, love listening to them all get to know each other, love learning from them on a variety of topics. Sometimes I wonder if it would be more efficient to ask everyone to stop talking and focus. Then I remember being in a colored pencil workshop when the very unpleasant instructor shouted, “QUIET! NO TALKING!” and I never want to do that. So, we’ll just keep on as things are, and I will continue looking for ways to encourage independence.

A Torrent of Words about Freebies

WARNING – this is a long post.

An old family friend (which means our parents were friends but he and I didn’t know each other very well) invited me to design a cover for a publication for the college where he is a professor. This is our emailed conversation (and I corrected a few grammatical errors so it isn’t verbatim-you are welcome, Professor Friend):

“I have enjoyed the CABINS OF WILSONIA book.
 
I would also like to know if you might be interested in doing the cover for the next issue of [unnamed university] JOURNAL.
 
I have edited this journal since 2006.  It is published annually by [unnamed university] and is thematic, including a mix of scholarly articles, literary pieces; artwork and personal reflection — all peer-reviewed.
 
You can view back issues at:
[oops, he gave an email address here instead of a website link]
 
For each issue, I have asked local artists to do the cover with original art.
 
The theme for the 2021 issue is EARTH, AIR and WATER. 
 
If you are interested, I would need something by mid-July.”
 
I responded:
“I’m glad to know you have enjoyed my book–thank you! If a picture is worth a thousand words, that book is about 265,000 words.
 
I’m interested in doing the cover – thank you for liking my work enough to ask.
 
Here are some questions:
1. Do I email someone at the address you put in your email in order to see back issues?
 
2. Is this a competition?
 
3. What is the image size needed? For publications, I make art to the right proportions, but larger because it all looks better reduced.
 
4. Is this a freebie?
 
5. Do I submit a sketch for approval before beginning?
 
I’ll probably have more questions. I almost always do.”
 
He replied:
“Your artwork is invited so there would be no competition. On occasion cover art contributors have provided more than one creation. Our editors do sign off on all of this but it is not peer reviewed like articles submitted. 
 
I think that [accidental email address] is accessible to anyone even though we typically publish 250 hard copies for subscribers, etc. 
 
It is true that the cover art created is a “freebie”, the only consolation being that your work will be publicized in a different way.
 
With reference to size, our hard copies are 6 by 9 inches.”
 
I wrote back:
“The link you sent does not take me to a website; instead, it opens up a new email message box.
 
In the many years of earning a living with my art, the promise of exposure has yet to generate any income-producing work. So, instead of creating something new, I will send you work that I already have. I have accumulated a large body of work and am happy to share with friends and often with strangers. 
 
If you have any specific ideas in mind, let me know; it will help me narrow the selection for you. I’m guessing you lean more toward rivers than the ocean (water) and mountains rather than farming (earth). (We can forget about air because my work is far too literal for that one!)
 
The size of 6×9” doesn’t tell me if it is horizontal or vertical, but I imagine you have a graphic artist who can adapt the design of the cover to the direction of the art.”
 
Look how much time it takes just to clarify what is being requested for a freebie. University professors may know a truckload about their particular subject, but sometimes get handed tasks for which their degrees have not prepared them. I am enjoying our correspondence and do feel privileged to have been asked.
 
More will be revealed in the fullness of time.

What is an “Artist Statement”?

An artist statement is not a biography, nor is it a list of accomplishments and awards. It is a few paragraphs meant to cause someone to want to view the artist’s work and provide a bit of insight into the reasons the artist makes the art.

The most helpful questions I’ve read about writing a statement are these:

What do you want people to see in your work?

What is a distinguishing characteristic of your art?

Based on your conversations, what do people find delightful or surprising about your art?

The least helpful “advice” I’ve read about writing an artist statement are these questions:

What informs the color in your work?

What are the paradoxes in your work?

How do your cultural roots inform your practice?

This is what I have come up with. Does it make you want to see my work or help you understand why I do what I do?

My artistic goal is to show people that Tulare County has beauty, and we can feel proud to call it home. I also want my art to ignite the viewers’ curiosity about the places that I paint and draw.

Using pencil and oil paint, I am a studio artist who makes art that people can understand. My style is straightforward realism with tight detail, a somewhat cleaned up and brightened version of real life. I like my paintings to look good both close up and from a distance, which is a result of having used nothing but pencil for the first decades of my career.

My favorite place, Mineral King, is clearly a huge influence on my choice of subjects; I think it is the most beautiful place in our county. Recognizing art of familiar places brings delight, so to that end I gladly accept commissions of the places and things that people love.

And you thought I just sat around drawing all day.

Pippin would like to know what in the world I am going on and on about.

 

Learned in January

  1. My friends don’t think of me first as an artist; this means I am not very self-promotional, which can be both a good thing and a not-so-good thing.
  2. Quesadilla Gorilla is not just in Visalia and Three Rivers; it is also in Fresno and Hanford and is raising money to expand by selling bonds. How in the world do people learn how to do this high finance stuff?? 
  3. Sharpshin hawks are creepy cannibals; one keeps getting other birds right in front of our kitchen window.
  4. Nosocomial means “in hospital”; sometimes illness is spread nosocomial. I hope none of my blog readers ever needs to know this word.
  5. Tucker, my black cat, is a digger. I was burying kitchen waste in the herb garden, so I dug a hole, dumped the stuff in, turned away to rinse out the container, and then when I turned back, Tucker was covering the pile up for me. I actually filmed him doing this, but don’t think it will work on the blog. Besides, there are plenty of cat videos out there on the World Wide Web. (Maybe not one covering up garbage.)
  6. I went 30 days without sugar or sweets. The results: both a sense of accomplishment and one of deprivation. 
  7. Horse bangs are called a “forelock”. I wonder why people forelocks are called “bangs” instead of a “forelock”. (A person could bang her head on the wall trying to figure this one out.) In Britain, bangs are called a “fringe”; I learned this back in the days of Princess Diana.
  8. When you have tech troubles, it is helpful to engage in activities that cannot be accomplished with a computer. I had a bad couple of tech trouble days, and was helped immensely by Apple, but still took great comfort in knitting, baking bread, and yardening. Try those things on a computer, you Virtual Digital Techie Robots.
  9. Bears might be able to wear a size 4 in Crocs.

Still Here, Tasks Ahead

Showing in a good gallery involves many tasks, like gathering a mailing list, completing a contract, providing digital images for publicity, titling and pricing all work, making an inventory list, coming up with a title for the show, and horror of horrors, writing an artist statement.

I have been working on this last one for awhile. You may remember that I despise the pretentious way that artists tend to talk, which I call ArtSpeak, occasionally poking fun at some of the nonsense. (A post about it is here.) So, I wrote up an artist statement and sent it to a dear friend who has helped me with many marketing tasks through the years.

This is not my artist statement but it is what I said to her when requesting her help in editing.

“In reading guidelines for writing an artist statement (just the very term causes my lip to curl up in disgust), I have come up with the following and wondered if you could be Jane Bag-of-Donuts from West Undershirt and see if it reads well, makes sense, and is straightforward enough for Tulare County without insulting the Wanna-be Snobs.”

More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .

If I was a smoker, I’d light up about now, but I think I’ll knit a few rows instead.

A Good Yarn, colored pencil, private collection

Everything is Hard

Brace yourself for a long post with thoughts about life and how it has changed in my 61 years.

Ever noticed how anything you might want to accomplish is hard? All the possible places for things to get hung up, snagged, delayed, misunderstood, broken, unavailable are endless. It is a wonder any of us get anywhere on time, keep ourselves together, keep moving forward. Look at these examples:

A. We need a new water heater and want to switch from electric to propane. My current favorite contractor said that he could do the job. That was in August. The number of obstacles he has encountered since then would just flatten anyone. I kept calling. When we finally connected and set a date, it didn’t happen. I learned that he was waiting on the plumber, whose truck broke down. And who knows how many obstacles that poor guy encountered? Plumber #2 couldn’t get the right brand of water heater, so on and on it goes.

B. Two years ago we switched from Huge & Rude Telephone Company to Spectrum. It took many weeks, many hours on the phone with both companies, and no business telephone for 6 weeks. (In case you are wondering, the internet is great, the teevee selection not as good but the quality of the picture much improved, and the landline okay but it cannot call the cell phone.)

C. A customer requested that I buy Microsoft Word to be better able to help him (I am editing his book). Microsoft’s chat feature didn’t work, and the phone number didn’t reach a real person. I just bought it anyway without getting my concerns addressed, and then I learned that my Mac operating system wouldn’t run it. I had to upgrade my operating system but couldn’t because my computer didn’t have enough available memory. Many calls to Apple (all were quite helpful) eventually said that I had to erase my computer in order to install the new OS. I hoped that the external hard drive where I back up my laptop actually contained the information and wasn’t just a dummy. (Yep, I prayed over that mess.) Now that my system is up to date, neither my scanner nor my printer will work with my computer any more. 

These are just a few examples of how complicated our world has gotten. You probably have many examples of your own.

In the olden days these things were true: checks were free from the bank; grocery bags were free at the markets; places that sent a bill would provide an envelope (even stamped, in some cases!); the newspaper kept their opinions to the Opinion Page; everyone was allowed to have a fireplace and a lawn; someone else would put gas in your tank and even wash your windshield; you could walk into an airport, pay for a flight, and board, all within an hour’s time; real people answered the telephone at work and at home; you could actually see people’s faces when out in public.

I am so thankful to be able to just head out to the painting studio, and begin. The only obstacles to getting work done are finding the right reference photos (a large obstacle when doing custom art for people with vague ideas of what they want), the sun too bright or too weak to mix colors correctly, the inability to see my own errors, or Jackson biting my leg because he feels deprived of food. (The neighbor’s barking dog isn’t an obstacle, only a nuisance.)

Let’s just look at a calm photo and try to be thankful for the moments of ease and peace that remain (NO! DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT LISTING ALL THAT THE VIRUS HAS STOLEN!!)

11 Things I Learned in December and some jibber-jabber

Happy 2021!

Yeah, yeah, I know about 2020. No complaining here, and no unprecedented overusage of the word “unprecedented”. Just keeping on keeping on. Steady, sort of predictable, finding the good things in life about being a full time artist in Central California, AKA “flyover country” in the Golden State. (We feed the world, and don’t let anyone forget it.) 

  1. Have you heard of a “Covid fee”?? I ordered some photographic prints from Shutterfly and there was a “covid fee” added to my order. What in the world for??
  2. Drying persimmons the hoshigaki method is so bizarre but the best dried fruit I’ve ever eaten in my life. A friend is trying this method and sent me this photo. She also sent a photo of some finished ones, but they look rather alarming. I want to try this next year!
  3. Rosemary and Thyme is a lovely thriving gift/clothing/home goods store in downtown Exeter where my studio was for 4 exciting years. The owner is one of the most creative, original and innovative people I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing, and her store is now becoming an online shop. If you like cool stuff, beautiful stuff, good stuff, for yourself or for others, this is the local place to support.
  4. Maeve Binchy really is my favorite novelist. I’ve loved her writing since the 1980s, and with the current difficulties of getting library books, I started rereading her books. She is the only author whose books I automatically bought and kept. (I used to buy Sue Grafton’s books but decided I wasn’t going to reread them so sent them on to unknown bookshelves; also used to buy Barbara Kingsolver’s books but hit a few I didn’t like so that was the end of that.)
  5. There is so much confusion and conflict in trying to discern truth these days. I heard from several sources that there are 21 cases of The Wuhan in our little town and one person has died of it. The truth is that there have been 21 known cases since the thing started and the person who died (a friend and former drawing student), died from heart failure after a surgery that didn’t turn out well for her.
  6. Using “www” before your web address is so last year.
  7. People aspire to riches in order to avoid ugliness.
  8. Ring picking is something I never have heard of. It is a method of picking citrus to a particular size, using a metal ring to measure each piece as you pick. How could I never have heard of this before??
  9. This isn’t anything I’ve learned but maybe something for you to learn about me. I enjoy doing yardwork and occasionally assist a friend with some of her vacation rentals. Sometimes I just can’t resist using the prunings to make a wreath.
  10. This isn’t new information either, but Pippin is just too cute to not keep taking pictures of him.

  11. And final piece of irrelevant jibber-jabber: Persimmons are so beautiful. They taste good when dried the traditional way. (No thanks, I don’t like persimmon cookies.)

Remember, I make art that you can understand of places and things you love at prices that won’t scare you.

Oops. I think I let Pippin into the house.

Red Things

Recently, I noticed red things in my yard. Maybe that is just what artists do. That’s what this one does.

In Case You Were Wondering.

In case you are wondering about the mural in progress at St. Anthony’s, I have set it aside (figuratively speaking) until I have finished the custom art jobs. The mural doesn’t have a deadline; the other jobs do.

In case you are wondering why I am not showing you more custom jobs, it is because they are gifts for people, and I can keep secrets.

More will be revealed in the fullness of time. Tomorrow I’ll begin showing you a few of the commissions that the recipients won’t see on my blog because they don’t read it or even know about me.

Variety of Irrelevant Items

All these topics are irrelevant to the business of art; I’m showing you anyway because they are mildly amusing and even slightly interesting. If you just came here for the art, you will leave disappointed today. If you just enjoy visiting because you can, then welcome.

We have animals in our yard in Three Rivers.

We have animals at our windows.

You may have noticed that I have a curious mind. There is a gloriously beautiful glowing tree in front of the Courthouse Gallery in Exeter, and I’ve never seen one anywhere else. A red oak of some sort is the best guess my students, Mr. Google, and I could come up with.

Do you know what this tree is?