thank goodness for collectors

I am fortunate enough to have several people who have actively collected my work for a number of years. As an artist it's amazingly gratifying to learn the art I create repeatedly connects with certain viewers. Obviously it's even better when these people care enough about the work to want to live with it on a daily basis. Thus I was delighted to hear from an old dear friend yesterday who owns 7-8 of my drawings and probably 3-4 pieces of clay. This man is a fairly high level executive with a major corporation. He was telling me that despite amassing an enormous corporate collection over the last 40 years the company eliminated their curator position 3 years ago and downsized the collection by about 20%. As an employee her was able to buy several pieces he'd admired for years for very little money. I told him how pleased I was that he managed to get such bargains. But I also told him I thought those artists would cringe upon learning their meagre sales prices on the secondary market. Fortunately for me he also let me know he wanted to purchase a print of something he had seen here during a studio visit 8 months ago. Happy news indeed. Now I need to rethink the whole idea of limited edition digital prints of my drawings.....

progress comes inch by inch

My dad used to say that the hardest force to overcome in nature was inertia. After far too many years out of the classroom I finally have the opportunity to teach 2 series of workshops at the Speed Art Museum. Aside from being an Artist in Residence these sorts of classes are my favorites. They are informal, fairly brief and completely recreational for the participants. The most important thing however is finally connecting with the museum's Education Department. I hope to sell them on my Art Play for Seniors idea. It would work much better with them serving as host for a series of 4-6 once a month sessions than for me to travel from one senior center to another dragging materials with me everywhere, do all the set up and clean up, manage the promotion and money plus pay for all supplies out of my fees. Baby steps. I think this is a concept whose time has finally arrived. Working at the Speed and hopefully impressing them by my versatility as an artist/teacher seems like the perfect nudge to overcome this particular inertia.

snow in the air at last

I hope tomorrow is a sunny day. I absolutely love working in the studio when the sun is shining on snow in the back yard. I bought this house 24 years ago because the back yard could be made totally private like a park. I've lost more than a few big trees through the years but the planting I have done gives me complete privacy in a natural setting. The studio windows face due north and the land slopes slightly upward toward the back of the lot where enormous white pine trees mark the property line separating me from my neighbor. When there is snow on the ground the reflected light is so clean and so pure that colors in the studio literally sing in front of me. There is something magical about winter light. I have studio lights of course. They are supposed to replicate daylight at noon in December. All I know is that when I work at night there are no color shifts to deal with the following morning. But since it was gray and icy and snowy most of today I hope the sun shines tomorrow. The studio is calling me.......

not such a Happy New Year

Late yesterday afternoon my son-in-law's stepfather was killed in a motorcycle accident. Tragedies like this are always a shock. This was a nice men, only 56 years old, safety conscious, always wore a helmet. He was a dedicated family man who adored his sons, and his grandchildren, his parents and siblings. I am especially sad for my grandchildren, his step-grandchildren, who he loved as his own. They have lost their only grandfather. The sole consolation in this is that they all spent a very happy day together on Christmas and have lovely memories to focus on. Not exactly a happy way to begin a new year for any of us. May he have a gentle rest and may those who loved him find some peace in their grief. He really was a very nice man.....