January 01, 2007

As Usual... Or Not?

' 3-Fold' - WIP - 24x72
Went to bed as usual, woke up early... as usual. On countdown now, not for a new year, but for return to routine with work evenly divided between studio and lakehouse. Adventures in both places, some exciting, revealing and surprising... some just plain ole work.Not one to set resolutions, I prefer to remind myself of the good things that have come my way and determine to not take them for granted. That means... neither a healthy body nor a healthy career should be simply assumed. A bit more attention to both is in order.

As mentioned here before, I'm often in conflict as to how to manage this career which is mainly fueled by momentum. When do I put on the brakes, how much pressure (intent) to apply, or do I just let it coast until there's nothing left? I gunned it last year when I signed on for two big shows (can't call them 'solo' because there will be a ceramics artist featured as well.) The up side is that I've been able to focus seriously on a body of work, but don't know if the energy level will stretch through to the second show in May. I want/intend for these shows to be tops in every way... no short cuts, no also-rans, no last minute pulls from the back of the racks. The down side is that this is more work than I care to commit to these days. One show a year is plenty (said redundantly) and I've got to stick to that in the future! I must have time to play and explore with my work... it's imperative to the health and well being of the art as well as my desire to continue with it.There's a lot of talk on the deeper, wordier blogs about 'what is art and who are artists'... egos, age, gender and so forth. It makes good conversation. I could tell them, but best to just keep on being and doing... a while longer... at least.

The painting above is a work in progress, 24x72. I plan for it to be kept at a minimal level but will add more texture and glazes to give interesting depth. Just wanted to give it some air space. BTW, for those experiencing error messages when trying to upload photos in Blogger, I dug around in the help groups and found that when Firefox won't do it, try IE... worked for me after much frustration. KJ

3 comments:

meno said...

Happy New Year young lady!

Struggling with balance feels pretty eternal in my life too.

Lisa Call said...

Happy New Year!

I really like this piece. Minimal - very nice.

Anonymous said...

The grid seems to be the in thing these days -- found this on 1/3/07- http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070103.html
At first the subtle changes aren't apparent (just like the changes in your paintings) but then they just draw you in. I was surprised at what I discovered that I had never noticed.

I have no doubt that your new year will be a spectacular one.
Annette