Lost in the Clouds

8 x 12 inches, oils and airbrushed acrylics on GessoBord, 2012.

This new painting made it into the March "openeing" (which turned out to be a "closing", actually!) at APEX. It's a bit of an "in-between" size--larger than 5x5 (most of my "smaller" spiders are 3x3, 4x4...up to 6x6) and not as large as most of the "major" spider pieces ("White Widow" is 24 x 36, for example) this didn't seem to attract as much attention as I'd hoped.

I think it's a good painting, and it will be in the next show, which opens April 6th, at the ArtScape group show, inside Performance Furniture, 222 W. 29th Street, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Honesty and Mixed Feelings

Liora and I took down the show at APEX a little over a week week ago. It is nice to have my paintings back home, but I wish we hadn't had to bring them all home! I did sell one small painting, but I am a little disappointed (all right, maybe a little more than a little!) that more of them didn't sell.

The February and March openings at APEX were well-attended; the March attendance was best. I figure 300 folks (my best guess) saw the show during the two openings, mostly people who (I think, anyway) hadn't seen my stuff before, which is always cool.

I always try to spend a little time listening to what people are saying when they don't know I'm the artist, and the comments I overheard about my work were good, very positive. People did seem to like the newer paintings better--which I take to mean that I'm "headed in the right direction" with my stuff!

So, I'm starting the "next bunch" of paintings. I have five panels prepared, with three more "in the works". Five of these panels are rather large--bigger than any of my (finished) pieces so far.

Of course, I'm still going to make more of the smaller paintings (since I always want to have work to sell across a range of price-points, and the small paintings are quick to make, and lots of fun to do!). But, in the new paintings, I want to focus on creating "more elaborate" paintings than I've made up to now; I really want to push myself, to see what I can really "do".

After the April group show, I have no other shows "planned", which has me thinking--seriously--of taking six months or more, and just work on new stuff, without any pressure (or expectations) of sales, exhibits, or publicity. Then, when I have fifteen to twenty new pieces that I feel really good about, then and only then should I start thinking about where to exhibit them.

For several years now, I've thought that I would prefer to have a show scheduled, then work to create stuff to put into that/those show(s).

But, coming off of three shows right in a row, and the pressure of trying to have new work at every show, I think (at least for the forseeable future) it would be best to simply produce a bunch of new stuff (whatever I want to make, however I want to make it, however long it takes me to be satisfied with it) then worry about what to do with it, only after it's done.