Art Walks and Street Fairs

This weekend has really kept me on my feet, quite literally. (Something that is not super easy when you're 8.5 months pregnant and less than 2 weeks away from your due date.) Yesterday, my husband and I went to the Art Walk in Little Italy, downtown San Diego. Today we walked the length of the Encinitas Street Fair. What struck me is the difference in product and the amount of effort that goes into selling it. 

First, being an artist, I appreciate the amount of thought and creativity that goes into each piece. The difference between the two venues-- at the Art Walk, you could see that each artist had gone to some effort to create a unique, individual style. Speaking from experience, this is something that is not easy to do. At the street fair, many things were cute, funny or pretty, but I felt as if I'd seen them before. Not to mention the type of merchandise swung more towards funky t-shirts and kitschy ceramics than paintings or sculptures. One you buy for a lifetime, the other you may box up during a move and never unpack. 

Perhaps this is in part due to the price difference. If you're willing to spend quite a bit of money on an art piece you have to really like it. When nothing is valued over $30... it's just an impulse buy. I didn't find myself handing over any cash at either venue. Nothing sparked that emotional connection that said buy me!

What I did realize is that selling art is NOT easy. I've known this to be true all along. It just brings it home on a hot sunny day at noon when all the artists are sitting around with bored, resigned expressions and at least 6 hours to go. Having worked in sales I know that the best salespeople do care about the product, but they aren't emotionally involved the way an artist is. If you really care about your creation it is incredibly hard to take criticism from random tourists just passing through. Artists aren't generally known for having a tough skin. This is a major part of the reason we have galleries with salespeople. It's also part of the reason we have the cliché of the starving artist. 

Someday I'll contemplate selling my art, in the meantime I'll concentrate on creating it. 

Art Walks and Street Fairs

Art and Writing

There is something separate in the way my mind works when I'm creating art vs. writing about it. Somehow writing can seem more of a chore, while creating, painting, or drawing is never a job. Even though writing is a form of creation itself, I don't loose myself in the experience. I find that when I'm working with my hands and my eyes I have no sense of time or hunger just the urge to keep going. So, if you've wondered why there are large gaps in these posts, now you know that I'm off creating.

Art and Writing

High art rant

High art, low art, commercial art, computer generated art, performance art. Sometimes I think I'm playing a game a twister on a mixed media canvas. Is one any better than another? What makes it so? Is it the museums that dictate good art? I think I had a surer concept of art before I went to college. Art was everywhere. Art is everywhere, but now I find that I'm so critical of what I see. I look at a work and categorize it. More often than not I find myself irritated, whether it is irritation at the work itself or at myself for being too critical, I'm not sure. 

Some artists works like those of Thomas Kincaid seem to embody my internal struggle. I don't like Kincaid. He's just so commercial. You have to know there is a but coming-- But, the colors and the fairy-tale imagery appeal to a younger less cynical child me. I would never ever be caught painting something so happy, dreamy, disney over and over again for the rest of my life, just because it sells. BTW, I really hope he likes what he does. And good for him for making money doing it.

See, I really am torn. I admire an artist I think is super commercial for making money. In this case I may admire the idea of making money from art more than I admire the art itself. Does that make me shallow? I don't think so. It's about hope.  The hope that my work could inspire and touch others, (not that Kincaid's work is very deep) and the hope that someday I too could live off selling my art.

High art rant

Hard knocks

So, what did I learn from the last experiment? I learned that there is a reason why we paint on flat surfaces. It isn't just about ease, it's about making something that is two dimensional take on the appearance of three dimensions with texture and light. Given a surface that is already three dimensional it is hard to predict the interaction of the light and shadow as you paint. You might then point out that the painting was abstract, not an attempt at realism, so why worry about creating the appearance of dimensionality with the paint? In spite of the carving, or because of the carving, the painting came out flat boring. This doesn't mean that I plan to give up on the idea of playing with my canvas. Instead I will continue to experiment and work with more geometric shapes as opposed to organic carvings. 

Hard knocks

The Laboratory

As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think my experiment works... I say that in the present tense because this may be one of those pieces that I keep messing with again and again. My husband calls it the laboratory. I think that's a good analogy. As long as I'm not afraid to mess it up, it may become more interesting with time. It's such a strong irrational fear-- messing a painting up. I think it may come from having too strong of a visual concept before beginning to paint. So, as soon as I say screw it, it can only get better, or at least it can't get any worse. And if I do get too frustrated there is always the thought of some sort of laboratory explosion... Paint flying everywhere...

The Laboratory