Staying in the Game
Doing stick art is challenging if you haven’t already picked up on that from previous posts. Opportunities often come up for exhibiting my art on consignment. This was one such time. A friend and fellow artist Carole that I met at Spirit gallery in Truckee is the art exhibits coordinator at the Truckee airport. She asked me if I would like to show my stick art there.
Martis Camp, a high end 2nd home community for high rollers and stars is very close by where I live in Nevada City so this was good exposure for future work and maybe to sell something.
I don’t like the feeling of doing art for money so that is something for me to fall through when feeling the reach for the cash or the pay off for me from this show directly. Do what you love and the money will follow right?
Reluctantly I thought wow another time where I put my art someplace with a chance, maybe in the future to sell something. As I opened more to the art and that I let go of this exhibit having to make money , it became more fun. Do it for love!
I created new pieces using a bush that we have on our Spiritual sanctuary land where I live. The plant is called California Lilac. It starts off lime green and over time, especially if it is in the sun turns more and more red. When it is freshly cut it is fun to bend the branches and make shapes that are usually not possible. This time I made a D shape, or a bow,and one at a time joined them together into a finished piece. I like the result very much!
The pieces have a primitive subtle feel. Like independent, falling down shapes connected. Next came choosing where to hang the pieces with the available walls. Two other artists were showing their work in the airport so Carole and I chose the walls that seemed like would be most appropriate and artful.
This kind of collaboration is especially fun. The pieces seemed to choose the spaces where they would look best with Carole’s guidance.
They seemed to blend in and display themselves with no effort or pushing. Towards the end when we had hung them all up we had to make names for them for the labels that would be displayed with each piece. I came up with the most literal names and Carole was like, “come on names are important!” She then took a shot at naming them. Flying Dolphins, Cornucopia was another and Olympian was the last. It felt so much better to complete the process by naming them in the best way.It brought them more to life.
The end product was a mysterious process with no desired result by two people putting their enjoyment together into one exhibition.
Now I am thinking what happens now? Will someone buy one? Maybe a big job?
Just breathe and enjoy the process!
My advice to myself.
