Lynnwood Solo Show

My solo show is now closed, the pieces have come down and are back in their boxes. It was so much fun to see it all hanging there together and I thought it looked great! What a great experience to apply and get a show all to myself. How nice to have someone else do publicity and hang the show, all I had to do is make art -- almost like having gallery representation, (ok, not really, but I can dream.)

Now the pieces are back at home, some get put back on the walls, but most get put back in boxes waiting for their time to shine. I guess that's just the way it is unless you have 50 feet of wall space. Someone told me "art not hanging in a gallery is a storage problem" I might have to agree.

 

I love putting my work out for people to see, all and any comments are welcome as it is usually the critical ones that help me grow. Now it's back to the studio to put the finishing touches on a couple of pieces and get ready for the next exhibit at Auburn City Hall in June.

Many thanks to the Lynnwood Arts Commission for giving me this opportunity to show my work.

Exhibits - getting ready

I have not had a solo show since way back in the school days, things are different now. My plan of attack was to take the diagrams/measurements they gave me and first see how mach empty wall space I had to deal with. All of the places I am showing in this year have wall “spaces,” walls for hanging with doors between, or wall sections to hang on. I won’t have the luxury of having that long white wall of uninterrupted space. The pieces not only have to go together, but need to fit each chunk of space without being too squished or too spread out. I guess the space between each piece should be similar on all of the wall sections also.


After studying the Lynnwood Arts Commission Gallery, I made several versions of what pieces I thought went together and sizes. After much juggling around I came up with a plan and only created a couple of pieces to fit and fill out the space. Hopefully the people hanging the show will agree with me and it will all work out great.

The attached photo shows the space as it is now, with some very colorful close-up nature photography. I wonder if they like having everything the same size like this show, it’s probably easier to hang. My art will be all different sizes including one very large piece consisting of 10 sections. I hope we’ll be able to hang it like I envision.

Moving on to 2011

During 2010 I made a goal to have a solo show somewhere in the Seattle area in 2011, I wanted it to be a formal gallery setting, preferably a government agency or a business. I felt this was my next step for me on the “food” chain, but if nothing came along I was going to do a coffee shop or something, just have the experience of having a space all to myself.

Around April 2010 there was a call for art at University Unitarian Church, not exactly what I had in mind for my goal, but well worth trying for; plus the information said they liked fiber art and large pieces. I figured I had a chance and it would be good experience. They required everyone who was interested to bring some examples of work to the church on a specified time and date where they would make their decisions and we would pick up our work the same day – no files or money to send.

While I there I also got a sneak peak at the exhibit space – it was huge! Within the week I got a letter saying I was accepted and they would let me know when I would be scheduled. I was thinking that with all that space I better get a late date, because I would need a LOT of time to get enough work done. It took a couple of months before I heard back, but when I did, I found out that my month would be November 2011 – perfect, more than a year to do new work.

Knowing I had a solo show scheduled already by May, I thought I should challenge myself even more, after all it wasn’t really a gallery space. I had photos taken by a professional photographer and when the calls for art started being posted in early fall for the next year, I was ready. I sent out 2 proposals about a week apart and much to my surprise, got them both. Wow! this was too easy (lucky). I was prepared to keep sending out proposals until one hit, or they stopped being posted.

Then the reality of getting ready for these exhibits hit home -- I needed to get some new work done, a lot of work. I was tired of seeing my old work over and over at all those group shows, but making the work is time consuming. I also knew most of the old work would be shown with the new to fill the space. It’s all suppose to gel into one body of work and look cohesive anyway, so it was “get to work” and make more, growing my vision within the body of work.

This is a tremendous opportunity for me, but in some ways my competitiveness, keeps looking at the opportunities/the calls for art and realise I’m booked for 2011 and can’t try for anything else -- sigh...

Next, getting ready for the exhibits.

Silly resolutions -- dead!

It’s well past the middle of January, time enough to have failed on all the silly resolutions and get serious about the ones that matter.

I’ve been working on many art pieces which have given me plenty of time to think about the past year, but because I’ve been working on art I haven’t had time to write anything down. The short version is that 2010 was fantastic and 2011 will be even better. A goal in 2010 was to show work and take advantage of every opportunity that came my way. The result was that I had art hung somewhere 28 weeks out of the 52 (starting in March). These were mostly group shows -- my fiber group and because I took the EDGE program (a sort of a business program for artists) we became a second group and this resulted in 5 months of shows. The other weeks were single items in juried shows. The result was a lot of lines on the resume, fairly minimal exposure due to the very local venues -- but great practice in getting ready to show.

This was a wonderful experience to have, but at the end it left me a little tired and wanting better venues.

Next post, my 2011 goals.

Plant Dyes - Tansy and Queen Anne’s Lace

I picked my tansy from the side of the road, it grows about 4 feet high, and the leaves are sort of like a fern. What makes is easy to identify is its flowers – bright yellow buttons forming clusters. The flowers have the scent of camphor and rosemary, it can make quite a stink when simmering on the stove – go outside! Supposedly the flowers can be used as a mosquito repellant.
The tansy had been drying in its paper bag for almost 2 months before I got around to making dye with it. I’m not sure if the color would have been brighter if they had been used fresh. My dry plant material was twice the weight of the wool used.

As with most of my dyeing, I simmer the plant material the night before for about 45 minutes and then let the pot with the plant material sit overnight. I strain the plant matter from the juice; add my wool I have pre-mordanted in alum and heat to a simmer for about 45 minutes. I remove the wool from the pot, rinse thoroughly and take three bundles of yarn and put one each in a dip of iron, tin and copper, leave it to come to a simmer and remove -- 10 to 20 minutes -- or until the color has shifted . I again rinse out these samples and hang them up to dry.

The photo shows the final product, from left to right:

Tansy with alum, tin, copper and iron. Then Queen Anne’s Lace with alum, tin, copper and iron. These two plants gave very similar colors, except the Tansy with the tin is a much brighter gold-orange than the lace. The photo doesn’t show it well but the iron modifier turned both of these into a very deep olive green.

I picked the Queen Anne’s Lace from the land next to a freeway on-ramp. I knew the road crew mower was coming so I went back several times collecting only about a third each times. I wanted to get as many of the blossoms as possible, but still leave plenty to seed for next year before they mowed them all down.

The legend of Queen Anne’s Lace is that the queen was tatting (making lace) and pricked her finger, there were several spatters of blood and that’s why the flowers have a pink center.

The plant is closely related to the carrot, so when crushing the leaves in your hand or simmered on the stove, it smells like carrots. The root is supposed to be edible, but the plant also looks a lot like hemlock – yes, the very deadly poison of old. Both plants can also grow in the same place, so extreme caution should be used, make sure you have positive identification if you’re planning on using it for food. The leaves of hemlock smell horrible when crushed in your hand – don’t lick your fingers after trying this test, wash thoroughly and carefully afterward.

The Queen Anne’s Lace was picked in early fall, dried and wasn’t used until 2 months later. The dry plant material was one and a half the weight of the wool used.

Exhibit!

I was just notified today that I will be showing in the Auburn City Hall Gallery in June 2011. (I’ll be sharing the space with a photographer.)

My art world is going great!

Last week I was notified that I would be having a solo exhibit in the Lynnwood Arts Commissions’ Gallery space sometime next year. Adding these to the solo exhibit I was scheduled for earlier at the University Unitarian Church for November 2011, I think I’m about booked for next year – who knows what group shows might be happening next year between the EDGE group and the Fiber 19 gals.

I got a lot of work to do…

In 2010 I got into a few juried shows plus was in 5 group shows with the above groups. My goal for 2011 was to get a solo show somewhere – coffee shop, yoga studio, I didn’t really care. But then I got the solo show at the church (found out about that in May), so I told myself I had to go to the next level and at least apply to some real galleries, thinking on the level of municipal spaces. Within the last month, I applied to 2 places and as of 2 hours ago have found out I got both – who could ask for more?

Photo: Bryce Canyon

Indigo!

comes out of the dye pot green

We got into the indigo - a totally different way of dyeing. Forget what you learned the day before, this is vat dyeing. Put the stuff in a pot,, add stuff to take out something, add something else to take out the oxygen, and make sure the ph is between 9.5 and 10.5 -- picky little process! I'll definately have to go over my notes to get this all straight in my head, but it was fun!

turns blue reacting to the air

When you take your yarn out of the dye pot it's green and as it reacts with th air it becomes blue - totally magical!

Dipping our yarns dyed from the previous day did somewhat as suspected -- turned yellows into greens and reds into purples, but what a color range we created without much effort.

our beautiful range of colors

Mad Scientist

weighing fiber

It's "mad scientist" time at Convergence! The class in natural dyes is about to start, I hope it is very "hands on" and we get to take home samples. I've only done natural dyeing with plants I have gathered in the neighborhood. That beginning into the world of plant dyes has been very interesting and entertaining for the neighbors to watch, but I mostly get yellows, greens and browns. The class today will play with the materials to get reds and blues -- finally a whole range of colors from natural sources!

cooking dyestuffs

We got right to work, going over the basics and getting the amounts for mordant worked out for the different fibers. Moved onto straining the dyestuffs (that the instructor had soaked overnight.) and putting the samples into the dye. After alternating from info bits and figuring out percentages for more dyestuffs and taking out the samples and washing them -- a lot of juggling of tasks by the instructor to keep things moving forward -- we ended up with seven plant samples in wool and cotton.

chopping madder

Our dyestuffs are: Osage Orange (yellow), Sage (yellow), Madder (reds), Brazilwood (reds), Cochineal (reds), Logwood (purple), and Cutch (tan). Many of these plants are altered by hard or soft water, ph levels and temperature - I can understand how modern science could figure this out, but how did our ancient peoples figure all this out? Smarts and time -- passing down information for generations. Amazement and respect for those that came before us!

cooking the yarn

Tomorrow we'll put indigo and iron into the mix and end up with 42 samples plus whatever we do with the indigo.

samples drying

 

Wedge Weave

I'm at HGA Convergence in Albuquerque and spent the last two days in a class on wedge weaving. Wedge weaving is easy to identify by it's scalloped edges. It was originally done by the Navajos but possibly fell out of favor when interior designers equated straight selvages with quality. I had not heard of this type of weaving until reading about the class in the Convergence class catalog. I have been wanting to learn tapestry techniques and this was the closest I could come to at the conference. I googled "wedge weave" to find out what it was and looked at some traditional images (on right). I also checked out the instructor Connie Lippert and liked the contemporary way she was interpreting this traditional technique(below left).

Wedge weaving is unusual because the weaving is done at an angle, changing colors to create wedges, diagonals and arrow shapes. We all started out working on little cardboard looms learning how to begin each wedge, and how to change colors.

At right is my beginning cardboard sample.

We then moved on to our real looms and began our projects. I chose to go for the big shapes, minimal color, bold approach. I also used colors that were totally unlike me, I don't think I have ever used blue, red, and gray together.

Below is my beginning, middle and end of class project. I think I'm about half done after 10 hours of weaving. This did include some time for "unweaving" my errors and general slowness trying to figure out what to do next or begin the next section.

My weaving technique was in general, not great, but that would improve with practice. I also was using heavy yarn, which on one hand made the weaving go faster, but I also think it was harder to make it smooth and even since the three yarns packed differently. Or I could be making excuses...

I'm also including (below) the weaving starts from some of my classmates.

I probably won't get into wedge weaving in a big way, but the techniques are interesting and could see myself using this together with other tapestry techniques in my future work.

Artist Anniversary

It's been a year since our graduation show for the Fiber Arts program. What a year is has been! A perfect time to make note of accomplishments, check up on goals, and assess what has to happen next.

Artmaking has been a constant this year, I always have one or two projects in the works and think about what's next all the time. One person would say I am consumed and have neglected almost everything else and I suppose in a way that is true.



Accomplishments:
I have had four pieces accepted into three different juried exhibits. They were local, but I made the effort to get my work out there and get some feedback from people who weren't family or friends. I also had rejections, but that goes along with entering.

My fiber class has continued to meet -- Fiber 19 as we call ourselves. We have had one group show in a cafe and one more exhibit is booked for October.

I also graduated from the EDGE program (developed by Artist Trust, Seattle). A sort of a "business for artists" type class. We learned about grant writing, portfolios, marketing, taxes etc. We are having an exhibit that starts next week and runs for two months, and because of one classmate with connections, this exhibit will also go on to two more venues before the end of the year.

And finally: I have a solo show booked for November 2011 at an alternative venue with great space and high volume attendance. I'm excited about this! not only is it "all about me" but it's a great opportunity to plan how the whole space will look.

So I have succeeded in my goal of working toward getting a body of work together and showing my work to the public. My next challenge is to complete this body of work and get into higher level venues. I also still have to get all of the parts of the "art job" organized and my space functioning the way I want it.

Back to work!

Photo above is called "Goblin Valley" I visited this state park in Utah many years ago -- remembering the orange hoodoos that populated this valley.


- Posted from my iPad

Move by heart or move by head

In about a year, I may be starting the next phase of my life. Full time employment hopefully will be in the past. I will be able to spend more of my time making art or exploring many other interests without having to squeeze them into the time leftover after working for someone else.

We're thinking about moving to CA for warmer and dryer weather. Two locations have been picked out. One town is on the Central Coast; it's small, the roads are quiet, close to the ocean, but that also means it's farther from the big city offerings including a vibrant art scene. I have not looked in depth to see what's there, but it doesn't look as good as what even Seattle has to offer (not counting the contacts and groups I already have in Seattle). But I "like" it there.

The other area is the east bay near San Francisco; the towns are big and numerous, the roads are busy - what would cycling be like here? The BART is nearby offering an easy way to get into SF and all it has to offer. Art - can it get much better? I already know of an art group I could possibly join and I'm sure there are more already established. With all those galleries, there must be many places to exhibit for established and emerging artists. But I guess I just don't "like" it as much.

I know I would be happy in either place.

I like the Central Coast because it's small. I like the East Bay because it's big.

Follow your heart? Or follow your head?



- Posted from my iPad

Shredding Burlap

What a beautiful day for shredding burlap. It warmed up to 60 today so I went to my favorite lunch place – the roof across the street – to eat, enjoy the weather and get one of the mindless art tasks done.

Shredded burlap to the right and cherry blosssoms to the left.

I always dye my burlap first, putting different colors in different areas, cut the pieces out of the layers and assemble it back into one piece. I also dye strips of burlap to use for the “fin” or contour lines on my map art. Part of the work for getting the “fins” ready is to shred some of the threads off so I have strings to poke through and tie on the back of the piece, this is how I get the “fins” to stand up perpendicular to the main fabric piece. Shredding is quite mindless, but a perfect task for relaxing out in the sun or riding the bus. Outside is definitely preferable because the fuzz tends to blow away rather than swirl around your nose.

Public Speaking

Last night was a success of sorts. I spoke in public (25 people) about my art and did really well. I wasn’t nervous. I pretty much read my speech, but was able to do it slowly, looking up at my audience much of the time and I think I appeared happy and relaxed. This is a total victory for me. I was able to get my thoughts about how my art came about and what it means to me. I got many complements that I will take to heart and use to build up my confidence.

I did have help.

This was one of our exercises, part of our graduation from the EDGE program developed by Artist Trust. The extra help may not have been fair, but I wanted to present well and after last Saturday’s practice run with my classmates, I felt it was the only way. During last week’s practice I had a total meltdown in front of my eight fellow students who I had been with for six Saturdays. After only one sentence my voice quavered, I stopped took a deep breath, but couldn’t get it together. I finally foraged on and got out some more sentences before bursting into tears. I stopped to collect myself again and again, and forged on. My classmates tried to be helpful; the old “find the friendly face and talk to it.” People who can get up in front of a crowd don’t understand there are no friendly faces; there is nothing but a black hole out there with an evil force, its total tunnel vision without the vision. Every nerve in your body is on fire and all you want to jump out of your skin and beyond. Your brain has shut down so long ago the only thought is “how -- why?” I did finish reading my speech, eyes never wavering off the page, tears streaming down my face, and finally being able to run to my chair.

This had to be uncomfortable to watch – at least I hope so (or else these people are sadistic). All I could think was - I had a tiny kernel of confidence before the practice session and now I had less than none. How would I get through the official presentation? For the rest of the class, the drive home and throughout the night, I would continually burst into tears at the very thought of the experience. Then the light bulb came on in my head – I have drugs! For years I have had know anxiety issues. I have pills for fear of flying, this is the same thing, they just smooth things out. You’re not drugged (sleepy, dulled) just calm, the nerve ends aren’t buzzing like high tension wires on crack.

It totally worked, I almost had fun, and I could see how some people like to be up in front with all the attention. How nice that must be, I’m envious. I’d rather speak without the “help” and I’ll work on it, but what was most important for me was to be able to say what I had to say as well as I could.

Exhibit at Cafe Solstice

Only 6 days until my Fiber 19 group hangs our show at the Café Solstice for the month of March. I know it’s just a café show, but we’re doing it. Our group came together last year as we took the Fiber Arts class through the U of W extension. The exhibit will be very eclectic. We all in different places art-wise in experience and commitment, our use of fiber in some way will be the only unifying part of this exhibit.



I’m continuing to make my topographical maps out of dyed burlap. The idea for the one in the exhibit started with a glimpse of a photo in a science magazine, I’m not sure what it was suppose to be, but as I recorded the image days later in my sketch book, to me it looked like a river with rocks in it. My colors again took over and in this case the river part looks like it has had some kind of bad industrial accident, so that’s why it’s called “Acid River”

Single Weft Interlock

I'm finally getting back to my goal to learn tapestry techniques in 2010.

This is the joining system that says “tapestry” to me. Both colors go around the same warp making a very durable weaving. The finished piece can be hung horizontal or vertical without any sagging or bagging. It is slower to weave since you have to keep all the colors in the same row or they won’t interlock, so you’re always picking up the next butterfly and moving across, unlike some of the other methods where you can take one color and weave just that section because it doesn’t lock with the color next to it.

I did notice that if you made a straight vertical line, where both colors twined around the same warp, because two wefts came together, it would start to bulk up on that warp. So I guess the trick is to not go around the same warp to many times or use a different method of joining.

In my little double square tapestry I was fairly happy with the way it turned out, changing from two wefts to three and back again usually worked out the first time, but sometimes I had to remove or add a half a row to make the weft fall the right order with the raised and lowered warp.

A guest at EDGE – Lanny Bergner

During our class on Saturday we had a guest – Lanny Bergner who showed images of his art that covered almost 30 years. http://home.wavecable.com/~lbergner/

I loved Lanny’s artist statement: “By using hands-on processes of coiling, fraying, twisting, wrapping, glueing and knotting, I transform industrial screening, wire, silicone and monofilament into organic constructions. My desire is to create works that appear to have grown into being. I love the natural world and am constantly inspired by its beauty and infinite varieties of form. This, in combination with my fears, quirks and joys, results in works that celebrate the wonder of it all.”

It was great to have him explain how he creates his work and how it has evolved over time. He uses wire mesh for much of his work and because of this material; it has also lead him to be accepted into the fiber art and basketry worlds, which made his presentation more interesting to me. When he told about his making art, I loved the imagery of him sitting and shredding the wire mesh or twisting the pieces of wire together in “small repetitive motions.” He says this process very meditative and gives him time to think, but sometimes he twists wire does in front of the TV, maybe so he can be around the family(?). I could put myself in his place because I sort of do the same thing with my burlap; quietly shredding, stitching and constructing the 3-D parts for hours and hours, so sometimes I need to work in another part of the house to be near Bob or just be in a different place.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about an artist I follow on-line that is producing 20-some pieces in 7 weeks for a show, or the gal that does 50 pieces a year, or the guy who welds something in 2 hours and calls it art. Not that it has to take a lot of time to call it “art,” but I’m suspicious of “art” that can get “cranked out” in a short time, I would tend to put that in the “craft” arena. But in listening to Lanny, he said his work takes a lot of time, period; I don’t think he regrets that or really even thinks of changing it, it just is. He didn’t choose to create something that was labor intensive, that’s just what came out. Somehow this calmed my inner voice that was saying “you’ve got to find a way to make stuff faster, you need to get MORE done.” No I don’t, it is what it is, and that is the process for me. All I can do is keep working, steadily moving forward.

Fiber 19

Groups are “interesting” (insert whatever word you feel is appropriate).

Last night I met with my fiber group. I expect it’s pretty impossible for any group to meld together perfectly, but sometimes this one has me laughing one minute and the next whacking my forehead thinking “what the..?”

We’re together because we took a nine month fiber art class last year. Like the classes before us, decided to continue to meet once a month for socializing and encouragement in our art endeavors – at least that was the idea. Going from having an instructor/ leader handing out assignments, to meeting on our own caused us to flounder at first. Socializing was the easiest thing to do, so we did a lot of that. The art making was not happening for many; they seemed to need an assignment to move forward.

I of course was appalled and disgusted with the non-art making part. I kept thinking, “we just left nine months of work, developing concepts and working in all sorts of ways with all kinds of materials, how could you not have a vision of what you want to do next? How could you not have ideas flying around in your head that you can’t wait to get to?” I had to settle down and keep reminding myself that we weren’t all in the same place; everyone has different priorities and time commitments. (But my head still does explode once in awhile with rantings of “what the..?) Time went on and the social part started to gel, so I figured socializing might be the main focus and I was ok with that.

Then someone came up with a format for our meetings; social for “x” amount of time while everyone shows up and gets settled, then the “business “part of the meeting, and then “show and tell." This gave us structure. We started from the beginning with discussions on why we were meeting and what did we want to do as a group. People started to settle into roles, we had a self-appointed “den mother” who always brought lots of food, took notes, and sent them out. We had people volunteering to look into places to exhibit – our number one mission, and others passing on information on how we could be a more professional group. As in any group, there are people who do nothing and the people that never seemed to know what is going on, but generally it’s working – and I keep telling myself we’re all in different places.

How long will the group continue? Who knows? Will it continue to serve my purposes? I’m not sure. All I know is that last night I had a lot of fun; we’re going to put an exhibit up in March one way or another. The show will be very eclectic and probably not very cohesive, but I guess that’s ok for now. I can only be responsible for my own work.

Grants and EDGE

Another Saturday with the Artist Trust’s EDGE program.

This week it was all about grants, we looked at different programs/types of grants, compared the sources we found on-line, and went over our GAP grant proposals. Our instructor went over the need to do our research to find out if a particular grant was a good fit for us, what the grant requirements were and how we should follow them exactly, no more – no less than what was asked for.

Why do we want to apply for grants? Recognition, money, support and development of your work, psychological, connections, and networking.

What type of grants are there? Nomination only, open applications, unrestricted funds and restricted funds for specific projects.

Why do these people want to give money? They want to support you, your work supports their vision/mission, and they have money, it fits their vision to support project.

So with all that in mind we went over our proposals. Because this is an Artist Trust program, we all wrote proposals for a GAP grant. We did find out that 75 – 80% of the proposal is based on the work you have already done, only about 20% on the actual words. Basically Artist Trust wants to support artists they think have promise and this grant (for up to $1,500) is to help fill in a need (like equipment, time, space, or project) to help the artist grow.

It was interesting to see what my other classmates wrote and to see how many of them really didn’t get it. They didn’t seem to read what they were suppose to do, or didn’t comprehend it and didn’t seem to understand what to ask for or how. Some didn’t feel “worthy” or what they wanted wasn’t important, or felt “funny” about asking for something for themselves. I felt the same at first, but then I to junp in, use it as practice – it was an “assignment” I didn’t really have to submit it. I was surprised at how well my proposal faired compared to the others. It at least covered all the areas needed, people seemed interested in it and it really only needed some writing help, tightening up some areas maybe making a few other things more clear. So I felt pretty good about that and who knows maybe I really will submit it.

Weft Relays

Now we’re getting into what I would call real tapestry weaving. As “The Tapestry Handbook” says; Unlike wefts that are shuttled from selvedge to selvedge, discontinuous tapestry wefts travel back and forth within the contours of the artist’s images, either touching gently in the spaces between the warps or crossing securely in some manner. These interactions between adjacent tapestry wefts affect not only the structural integrity of the textile but the style of its design interpretation.

There are a number of techniques for creating the “discontinuous wefts” that will make up your design. The first one is called “basic slit technique.” The weft yarns don’t touch each other, but simply go around the ending warp for each color. This does tend to pull the warps away from each other creating spaces between the colors; the two wefts should “kiss” each other before going their opposite directions. If you were to create long vertical slits, these would usually be stitched together on the back side for strength. If the weaving were to hang horizontal in its finished form these slits would form baggy gaps over time without the stitching.

My little weaving has spaces between all the colors. I either pulled the weft too tight around the warp, or because the wide spacing between warps (about 4 epi) is almost impossible to fill the space. I did not create any long slits, but switched color width fairly often. Although not technically correct, I kind of like the little spaces, I could see incorporating these spaces into the design.

EDGE training continued

Saturday was another day of Artist Trust EDGE training; what I like to call a course of study about the business of being an artist. In the morning we continued to talk about portfolios and looked at a few examples and critiqued one of our classmate’s photos. Some were ok, but even the better ones we had comments on and our instructor indicated that they were of bad enough quality that it could give a juror reason to give it a pass – it seemed a little harsh to me. She said the photos in “American Craft” magazine should be our benchmark, -- perfection – if that is true, you absolutely need a good professional photographer experienced in taking photos of your kind of work to get anywhere. More $$, no snapping pics with your own digital camera. You would think they could get past a little imperfection and see the work, but I guess there is so much out there, they don’t have to.

We also went over out artist statements. I brought in the one I did last spring for our student show which I was quite happy with, but with more people looking at it I can see that it’s too long and I need to take the bio information out of it – more to do.

The afternoon was looking at grant proposals, concentrating on the GAP grant that Artist Trust awards. Mostly I think because it is somewhat attainable, small amount, and they give out quite a few each year, but there are also more applicants applying each year as artists find out about it. After discussing some dos and don’ts we looked at a number of past grants that had been funded, sometimes we shook our heads at what they gave money to, but apparently 80% of the award is based on your work samples, not what you’re asking for.

It was another tiring, but good day of information.