It seems like forever since I last blogged.

It's been a busy three weeks, and the "closing" of Arachnaphilia is right around the corner. I've been working steadily on The Presentation of Spiders, and hope to have it (at least) finished in time for May's First Friday.

It's coming along, but still needs quite a bit of TLC.

The check I wrote to the Fringe Fesival finally cleared, although I haven't heard from them since I mailed the check. I'm assuming that my work has been accepted, and that I thus will be exhibiting with them this summer. I'm hoping to create (again, at least) three new paintings--three larger, slightly more elaborate paintings--for the Festival.

I'd like to create them all on panels, but I only have two panels prepared right now, and one of them is rather large. As tempting as it is to produce two or three new panels (and the next ones will have dovetailed corners!), I have plenty of stretched canvases ready to go.

It would be better to spend my time drawing and painting, rather than woodworking, right now.

The studio is a wreck; lots of magazines and CDs need to be organized. I'll get around to it, eventually.

Anyway, to the studio!

"Arachnélégance"...

Here's what I am calling the "first finish" of Arachnélégance. At this point, it could be considered "finished" (it is on display at the MRP Gallery thru the First Friday in May, after all).

But (you knew there would be a "but", didn't you?!) I might put one more layer of transparent oils over the spider (to make it a bit more green-brown, and--hopefully--help it stand out even more from the background) after I remove it from the gallery next month.

I'll keep everyone posted, here...

Last Night's Opening...

Wow! It's over!

The past week has been a blur, finding me in the studio (almost) every night for at least four hours a night, working furiously to finish as many projects as possible.

liora had a wonderful suggestion earlier in the week; I had spent quite a bit of time trying to finish The Presentation Spiders (of course trying to keep up the quality I had established so far), when she suggested that my time would be better spent working on smaller pieces I could actually finish.

I immediately flashed back to my years at the Kansas City Art Institute (2003-2008) when I would often start a complex painting early in the semester, only to find myself with two or three weeks left before critique, a bit more than halfway through an elaborate painting that would never get done in time, and without enough time left to start (let alone complete) anything else.

Unfortunately, I found myself in this position more than once during my time at KCAI.

So, taking her advice, I put Presentation aside, and was able to complete Arachnelegance, one other small spider painting, and a new sculpture (the latter of which was slightly damaged as I was loading it into the car. I didn't want to exhibit a broken sculpture last night, but I'll get it repaired, and it will be at the closing reception on the First Friday in May).

I'm going to try to have The Presentation of Spiders done for the May closing, as well.

The opening went well, with about a hundred people coming out to see the new stuff. I had twelve piece in the show, including two sculptures, three small spider paintings, and most of the work was from this year.

There was interest in a couple pieces, but no sales. There are several events going on at the gallery this month, though, plus the closing reception next month. So, there will be several opportunities for folks to see the stuff and--hopefully--a few of the pieces will be sold.

We'll see.

At least it's over. Until next time...