For me, this is exciting!

From time to time I enter art competitions.  I submit images of my work for review by a juror or group with the understanding that s/he/they will check them out and decide if what I've done ought to be included in the art show they have planned.  In the past I've announced my intention to enter competitions on these pages and have, more often than not, failed to catch the favorable eyes of the juror(s) on those occasions. 
Well, I've revised my strategy.  I decided after a few too many disappointments that I'd keep my applications to myself.  So maybe it worked!  On January 20th I received an email from the director of the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset, Massachusetts that one of my submissions to the "Love" themed exhibit, set to open on February 14, 2014, was accepted!
Adding to my excitement and feeling of success was the fact that the juror, Eric Aho, is someone whose work I appreciate very much.  Having an accomplished professional selecting my work to include is flattering.
A copy of the piece is below.  I titled it "Sunset in New Mexico with Alcohol".  It's oil on canvas.

I did many preliminary drawings before actually heading off in the direction resulting in the above and I think I'll post them here over the next several days.  Fun for me to look back and see where this came from.
I got the idea for the piece from reading a short story by Raymond Carver entitled "What we talk about when we talk about love".  What the characters spoke about on a late afternoon in New Mexico included everything from infidelity, divorce, abuse of one sort or another, excesses and the commitments of love and marriage.  I thought the story engaging and took the liberty of creating a portrait of a moment I created, partly from the prose, but in large measure from of my imagination.

South Shore Art Center
www.ssac.org
119 Ripley Road
Cohasset, MA 02025
781-383-2787

"Love" is on exhibit in the Bancroft Gallery from February 14, 2014 until March 23, 2014.
There is an opening reception from 6-8p.m. on February 14, 2014

All the way back in 2013!

Well, 2013 seemed to move too fast...at least it seems that way as I glance into the driver's side mirror. Some successes, upped the painting time, sold some work, learned a number of what I hope will be key marketing tools and helpful skills, met and worked with some delightful people and hopefully grew using what I think is a unique, if not efficient, developmental trajectory of trial and error.  Mostly error.
As I move into 2014, pallet knife in hand (temporary abandonment of brushes?/jury out!) I looked back at my 2013 posts and identified some pieces, using the hindsight method described above, which I here and now choose as my favorite posted work of the year!  A cohesive body of work, not; an algorithm for the next twelve months, unlikely.  But, today, these are my favorites and I'm trying to take lessons from them. 
These are presented in no particular order:

Any thoughts?

Not enough posting in 2013

So, although my attention to this running account of various chunks of my art life has waxed and waned as of late my interest remains and my intention is to grow my work here in the upcoming year.  My art vision continues to evolve and my desire to share it is intact so I don't think I should commit to anything less than resolve to move ahead.
There is always going to be tension between art making and the other stuff of life.  I think.  Maybe there is a way to integrate activity so as to accomplish in all areas......that's what I should try for!  Maybe I should think of art as a means of recording,  so that all worlds are in one sphere!  Ah.  Love that speculation!!
Do questions always beget answers?  Rational people want answers; artists thrive on experience, ambiguity, ambivalence, appearances, illusion, emotion, the expansion or contraction of time and space.  I'm feeling some tension now!!
The piece I'm sharing here doesn't exist any longer.  It's lightness, as I see it, has morphed into something I'll present in the next several days---when I have a photo---something more familiar in terms of style, something with a heavy dose of real.  As I look at this I wish I'd not pushed further.......so now I have some inspiration for another piece!

I especially like the wispy, cotton candy look and "feel";  have to replicate that.

Roughly Constructed Work (Edited 12/28/2013)

The Boston Globe's art writer Sebastian Smee brought sculptor Nicola Hicks to my attention yesterday with a piece in G/Arts and Movies about her exhibit at the Yale Center for British Art.  I was particularly interested to read his thoughts on how she reveals herself through the sculpture she titles "Who was I kidding?" which represents a donkey losing a lion skin disguise and the consequent shame of being discovered as an imposter. 
The roughness of the work itself, as shown in an accompanying photograph, as well as Smee's suggestions regarding the artist's interior life are what interested me as I read.  I've always liked to think that making a series of marks on paper or canvas have a significant unconscious component revealed in each gesture. I wonder if the same is true for building sculpture?
In observing art it seems so difficult to separate, tease out if you will, intention in any equation which might purport to reveal the maker's plan.  Presumably, Nicola Hicks had some ideas about where she was headed when she started the donkey. Did the artist abandon some control as she proceeded?  Did she plan to create something which would appear incomplete in some respects? Is that what is going on?   For her, when was the piece "done"?
This is something I struggle to understand in my own work.  The rough work I do, mostly drawing, might leave lots of ambiguity in sight.  Maybe that's an opportunity for a viewer to solve her own riddles? 
I think "creation" occurs in the act of observation; the viewer's interpretation is so important to the work.  Interpretation takes on a life of it's own and the artist's involvement is, in a sense, static when contrasted with active observation.
These pieces are fairly recent and I feel good about them but I don't want to try to interpret them.  Think I'll leave that to any observers!

On display at Sawmill River Arts

These are on display at Sawmill River Arts Gallery until the end of November.  I think I'll switch it up for December.

More spray paint

Airbrush with Paint

Feeling like I must have the least flexible digits following a quick experiment using the airbrush in the Paint software I have on my computer!  Wow, just a slight move across the mouse pad and an unexpected line or a mark appears.  But, that said, it was great fun to use the program and I think maybe I could grow some skill with this.
I do illustration work for a local community based agricultural project called Just Roots and was recently asked to prepare an ink/pencil/water color map of the farm to be used as a hand out when school groups and education-related events need a bit of orientation to the buildings, fields, etc.  I'm excited to modify the map with this program and I'll share it here.
Meanwhile, here's today's "work".