Sunday, September 13, 2009

My Art Heals.

I know it has been quite a few days since I have posted. I really do not know how many people actually read this thing. I have not been feeling very well. I am blaming it on health issues but as a good friend put it ....I am not feeling well because of me not my health. I guess she is right. I can have cancer and my hair is falling out and still be in a good mood. I can have a degenerative disease of some sort and still have a wonderful positive attitude towards life and feel good. I guess the point was made. Thank you. So there it is. I feel better now. Last night I was going to a friends house warming to deliver a painting. It was a 48x48 I needed help delivering. Someone drove it in their larger vehicle. We arrived earlier and had time to settle in the party. I was talking to the recipients of the painting. The husband was very excited but the wife was too busy caring for the guests. When the painting arrived the husband the son and daughter were all over it. They were excited. They were throwing compliments and touching it like it was something special. Their response was not what I wanted. I was waiting for the MOMMA of the house to see it. That is the response that matters to me. SHe is the one that either showcases the piece or puts it in the back. She walked out and said wow. Nice. And then proceeded to run through the house to find a place for it. She wanted this piece on the second floor in the TV room in the back. AWAY from the general traffic. I felt like someone punched me in the gut. This lady loves her art. She just bought a 5000 square foot house and her walls are already full of work. There are not as many originals as there are prints. Her husband and daughter were in my corner and supported my cause. They re-directed her placement to the front of the house. We all decided on a spot on the mantle over the fireplace facing outside where it is the first thing everyone sees upon entering. I was happy. She is now marketing my stuff for me. lol. In all seriousness the point to my story is.........We all put expectations upon ourselves. We are constantly trying to live up to them. When we dont we are disappointed or sad. I do. I do not let myself get there as much but every once in a while it happens. I catch myself feeling anxiety and getting all worked up over it. I want that feeling when people recieve my art to feel like I do when I painted it. She actually did feel that way. She is not a kind of person that will let you know verbally right then and there. I was too stuck in my self pitty of not feeling well that my eyes were full of bullshit self pitty to see she was elated and proud of her new piece. At the end of the night we were the last to leave and she added a request for another piece for her wall. She made my night with that request. In a big way brought me out of my self pitty. Art Heals.

2 comments:

  1. It can be tough when you see how people react to your work... I took part in a group show last year and shipped my paintings to the gallery. The curator had only seen them in pictures until then, and when I attended the opening he said to me, "your paintings are so... visceral!" I'm still not entirely sure what he meant by it, but just by his tone of voice, I don't think he meant it as a good thing!

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  2. hey dan-i too am without a large truck..there are many of us and we are strong. we all have different reasons for doing what we do and why we do it. acceptance can be made or broken by who it is the the work is meant to impress. i am thirty an d feel to be going in the right direction. i am yet to be painting specifically for customers clients collectors galleries. i recently received my first request for a large piece for a friend out east. slowly getting somewhere. i guess when people start wanting its time to start doing, i dont even know where to begin but im learning from what i read from others!twitter-corkoffs

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