How NOT to Exhibit Art in a Show

I'm sure that I am not the only artist that gets a little warm fuzzy feeling upon seeing their work hung in a gallery with other inspiring works of art. After all, not only can you and your friends and family make a night out of going to the opening reception and a yummy restaurant, but you know you will not be showing said friends and family embarrassingly crappy artwork, because someone else has already validated it by choosing it for this exhibit. (Insecure, moi?) For me that process has been on the back burner for a number of years as I dealt with other issues, but earlier this year I started to peruse the call for art listings and chose two local shows I wanted to submit to. One in Dallas and one in my own town of Fort Worth.


So I did the difficult selection process, and the almost as difficult titling and pricing. Only paintings that were already adequately photographed were in the running. Dimensions were recorded, files were renamed, and the submissions with their artful (one hopes) images were sent off into the world of web. (And for those of us who were artists back in the day, isn't that a wonderful step up from having to get slides made and physically mailing them out?)

Then I planned for my trip to visit my friend in California for her birthday, all the while imagining how excited I would be if my paintings were accepted. I may have even mentally composed a FB post announcing my inclusion in the show.

Well.... after a lovely visit, during which, I assure you, I did check my emails and other essential media via my cell phone, I thought, Hmm, let's just check on those art submissions.

Joy! Two of my recent paintings were selected for the FWCAC show. Great news, especially as this is a place Edward and I make a point to visit when we are available for their monthly gallery openings. They have several usually themed rooms, and always have some cool and interesting art. 
Sorrow! Because the intake of the art happened while I was in California, and I totally missed it.

This cringe-causing statement was in the Congratulations! acceptance message, If you do not respond with the information above in a timely fashion, we will assume you will not be able to participate. Sigh.

So, here are the two pieces that would have been in the exhibit.

Swan Lake Haiku   acrylic on canvas


Can you see the swan?

The Drawing of the Moon  acrylic and pen and pencil on canvas

Both of these paintings have as their base a really interesting painting technique that I have been experimenting with for a while, fluid acrylic pour painting. So many marvelous results can be created with this technique, both as final products and as incredible backgrounds for further work.

So, to avoid this kind of disappointment, (because, given the post title, there must be a moral to this story) always read the details carefully, be aware of when the gallery or institution will be making its decision, and aware of when the intake of art will happen.

{In addendum: I want to acknowledge that I did, early this year, have some paintings in an absolutely lovely local gallery, The Grackle, accepted in a less formal way than I have talked about here. More about that later.}

Red, Like Love

My love is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June :

My love is like the melody

That’s sweetly played in tune.

-Robert Burns

I don't know if it was the deep red long stem roses I got from my sweetie, or the memory of us celebrating a yummy Valentine's Day dinner with our daughter, all in our red shirts or dresses, but I woke up this morning thinking about red art, and I just thought I'd share a few images.

When We Did Not Sleep
Acrylic on canvas 14x11x1.5'

Red Mosaic...Stained glass, vitreous glass tiles, glass gems, tempered glass over acrylic wash and one unglazed ceramic tile on plywood....still not titled.

On the Eve of St. Agnes young girls would look into the village well hoping to see their future husbands.

With its rich colors of ruby and garnet, this mirror gleams with its own romantic spirit. The iridescent pink petals of a flower bloom in the bottom left corner, and a strand of deep red faceted beads runs down the right. This piece was designed to be slightly asymmetrical; the angle of the mirror reflects the slant of the left side of the wood base.
(Description, and also available, from my etsy site.)


Photographing mirrors and shiny iridescent things can be difficult, so here's a bit of a better idea of the glass:

In counterpoint to all that red:

Edward and I just happened to get each other green M&M's..."Green, the new color of LOVE"...and it happens to be Edward's favorite color too.

(When I searched for this picture, I found that there are websites still pondering the question of whether green M&M's are aphrodisiacs...just like we said in high school. ;-) )

Happy Belated V'day!

her heart was otherwhere:
She sigh’d for Agnes’ dreams, the sweetest of the year. from The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats

Little Paintings and the Art Piano

Before I get to the paintings, I want to share this picture. I was so excited yesterday when I saw this hanging from the arbor. It doesn't look like much now, but these little fuzzy buds are the promise for a huge overgrown arbor full of fragrant purple clusters.


I painted small yesterday. Three 6x6x1.5 inch canvases. They went pretty well, and I hardly stressed over the painting at all. That might have something to do with the small size, but I think that staying in the art mode and having painted just a few days ago helps quite a bit.

That size canvas is just so cute.

Orientation?

Here they are inside after Edward and R had their way with them. I agree that they work fine this way too, but I had to insist that the last one stay with the blue on top. (Okay, I admit it, it looks not horribly wrong with the blue on the right edge as well.)

The art piano

I just had to take a pic of my piano covered in some recent paintings. And with a relaxed Edmund Hillary the crowning touch on top.

New Little Painting Video