Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Been Thinking...

As the title may suggest I've been doing some thinking lately. I think about my work and how it relates to me. About how it relates to other Art and Artists. About how, if at all, it's relevant.

I think it's healthy for a person to question themselves. If I do it every now and then it means I'm still sane more or less. It also means I still care about what I'm doing. I spend a fair amount of time looking at other Artists' work and reading about their processes and personal struggles, etc. It grounds me and presents me with other ways of looking at things. Lately that's translated into looking at my own work differently. This Summer has been key I think in helping to direct me towards where I want to go. I think there needs to be a bit of a change in the way I do things. Not just in respect to my work. I'm needing to take a more proactive approach to my career and prepare to let go of some of the safe life I've been leading. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would say the same. And many more who would say that it's a bad idea because of... whatever. There are always heaping piles of reason you shouldn't do something, but there only needs to be one reason why you should. Of course now that I've gone and said that in a pseudo-public forum it means I have to own up to it.

For me I think that means two things: 1) I need to start expanding and diversifying my studio time. Working towards that I've started including some time each night to work on something small like a charcoal (see the last posting) or, like last night, a small one-session painting. I'm thinking the figures are going to become more prominent. I'll go on about why more at some time in the future. 2) I need to start submitting my work. I've been very fortunate in the realm of exposure this year, but to be honest I haven't submitted work to a gallery in at least a year. I could say a hundred things about being busy, blah blah blah, but excuses are really just that in the end and you gain nothing by them.
I'll hang it up for now and leave you with a pic of my little single-serving painting. I wouldn't say it's good, but it's a start. Plus I only worked on it for 15 minutes... give me a break.

Cheers,

R

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