Thursday, April 10, 2008

So why am I here....


... and not here?

The answer is in the stack of exhibit prospecti that I sat and went through with my calendar close to hand this morning with my morning coffee. A few years ago, they would have been fiber exhibits. Now they are all for painting shows, or exhibits that allow all media. I am just not finding a lot of fiber exhibits out there to enter. And the few there are only accept work that is less than 2 years old - which also severely restricts a medium such as tapestry, which takes a long time to create. Also, and this is a BIGGIE for me right now, many of the exhibits and/or galleries are no longer insuring the works in the exhibit. I have always made it a policy to not send my tapestries to places that do not accept full responsibility for them while in their possession. Having just had a tapestry stolen, I feel even more strongly on that point. I may be willing to risk a painting, that has just consumed a week or so of my life, but not a tapestry. Also, having just done my taxes, I know that a goodly percentage of my income came from my painting last year, for the first time ever. SO... here I am at the easel, instead of the loom.

By the way, the main compositional problem with the "Penn Cove " painting from the last post is that the horizon line is smack in the middle of the painting, dividing the painting horizontally - a big "no-no," compositionally. However, I looked through a Winslow Homer book yesterday, and saw that he often got by with breaking that 'rule." And two friends dropped by during the day and both loved the painting, so I went ahead and finished and photographed it, and am entering it in an exhibit. We'll see how it does! Thanks, Janet and Ryan, for giving me some constructive help, though. Both of your comments helped me assess the piece in a new way, and helpful changes were made!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I am an aspiring tapestry weaver and found your blog. It has been fun for me to read. I have also been reading Tommye's and Meabh's. Just a comment on the horizontal line no-no. I would not have really fixated on it until you mentioned it. My husband has been asking me to paint a Rothko-ish painting of a grey ocean with grey sky colorfields. That would have a major horizontal line through them like Rothko's paintings. Also, are you familiar with Blinky Palermo? He has colorfields done with purchased colored cloth. My husband loved them. I thought they were interesting, but I was not too impressed as he just stapled two bought pieces of cloth on a stretcher board. But, they were interesting to look at. Anyway, I digress, just wanted to comment on the horizontal line no-no.

SusanSkalak

PS I am doing a long distance educational program with Pat Williams currently.

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