Get Happy...

Well, it seems that the days between my blog postings are getting closer and closer together. I'm going to label that a good thing.

The symbolic dust is beginning to settle somewhat from the moves and I should find myself on a more normal schedule. One thing that I did find the time to do over the last week while waiting for repairmen and cable guys was to read a good book.

The book that I read was "Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland" by Gerald Clarke.


This book was published in 2000. I had every intention of purchasing the book 5 years ago, but it was just one of those things that slipped further and further down on my to do list. Last Monday, while exploring the neighborhood, I found myself in front of the local library. I hadn't actually checked out a book from the library in years, and there I was, standing in front of one. I walked in, got my card, walked upstairs and saw this book standing upright on a shelf right in front of me.

If you are a fan of Garland, as I am, you'll love this book and understand how she became that troubled, amazingly complex and astonishingly talented person. You can find this on amazon.com by clicking here

The flow of painting...

While it has shamefully been close to 3 weeks since I last updated this blog, I can't say that it was out of laziness or boredom. In the last 3 months, I have had two separate major solo exhibits in two major cities ( Washington DC and Baltimore) and all the while been in the process of moving the contents of one home into two homes 130 miles part from each other.

I had a great time at both art events ( the show in Baltimore is still up until November 26 at the Light Street Gallery) . The Fine Art publishing company that prints my work ( Ariel Of France) released a new line of my work within the last couple of weeks as well. I'm curious to see how these go over with the public. I'm very fond of these works, and the head of Ariel chose these out of several new works of mine. Here are the new works that they have published.


Espy


The Recital


Ethereal Visitation I


Ethereal Visitation II


Wilde

Now, what's interesting about artwork often is the story behind the works. For example, the work Wilde is actually a print of a work that I was commissioned to create as a birthday gift. Though I am a fan of the theatre and literature, I normally would not have painted a portrait of Oscar Wilde. The person for whom this was created was, so her partner commissioned me to paint it. The lettering in the work is actually based on a letter that he had written to a fan of his in Louisville, KY who had seen him at perform a poetry reading there during his American trip.
After I finished the work, I really liked the results. I photographed it as I do all of my work, which is how the President of Ariel Of France saw it. So, now it is in print production and could end up anywhere across the US, Canada or parts of Europe.
The two "Ethereal Visitation" works actually began as three failed portraits. I started them, didn't like the way they were going, stopped working on them and began other projects.
I kept them around the studio however and came back to them about a year and a half later. I then added color washes and lettering and presto - new works that I was happy with. So, let that serve as advice to beginning artists out there - if you're having problems with something your working on, don't force it. Put it away, take a break, clear your head or start something else. It doesn't matter if it takes 2 hours or 2 years, you can come back to it with a new perspective and watch it come together.
As with life, there really is a flow to painting. You can either go with the current or go against it.