SWEPT AWAY

Well...so much for being on top of writing here....ah,yes, famous last words, as they say. Apart from the plethora of Seasonal parties, we have been swept up in painting, which is the point of it all. The reception for the new series has been gratifying, to say the least but with 2 sales in the last week - "Telephone Call" and "Wave Baby" sold! - our impetus for creating more along this vein continues. I have another one almost done and the next one was formulated in my mind's eye as I was painting that...wow...that's a very cool feeling to be so inspired! I find myself irritated by the fact of life interrupting me...like when I have to get groceries or even do the fleeping dishes...sheesh! I got some more old photos of Mom when I was over in Van. and they are sparking the battery...along with the ones my (ex) MIL sent.
Anyway, what I've come to realize as well, is that they are becoming "me" - and in that I mean that even though the photos are of Mom etc. the painting is actually telling my story. I dropped off 3 paintings to my Gallery Guy Mark Penney here in Ukee, who has been my "champion" in encouraging these works and this new direction for me today and in conversation with him I said as much. He replied that this was the reason they were being received as they are - sort of like my guts are (finally) reflected through the work and that is what makes for a "good" painting. I think what I find so intriguing is that the paintings themselves are 'light' and 'colorful' but in actuality are portraying very dark stories.
Makes me wonder if in some long far off time, someone will do a Theseus on the 'real' picture behind the painting. Mark wants to do a big show come next "Whale Fest" time so I'm trying to have a good size body of work for that. And I find myself in a strange space or situation from this. In the past I've tried to get paintings into the galleries up here but until Cedar Corner opened in Tofino hadn't had much luck. Cedar Corner has been pretty lucrative for me and so when I first had some of these new ones done, I took them up there. I honestly wasn't sure about the reception because they aren't "beachy"; which is very much all you see out here. Anyway, the two that I held back for a show I took into Mark's and he has been the one person really excited and willing to go to bat for me. So here's the thing; I had the first one I did - "Thursday's Child" - at another Gallery here in town and I am not really selling at all from there so I pulled it out and took it to Mark....leaving me feeling somewhat..um..unethical, in a way. I mean this is a small place and you don't want to piss off any gallery folks - and I basically do try to be as 'well behaved' as possible. But it seems to me that they should be displayed as a body of work and not scattered higgeldy-piggeldy all about. Tofino/Ukee ok but not 1 or 2 in every gallery in the same town. (I don't have a problem with different stuff, like the 'beachy' ones)
So, tonight, I'm feeling like I need to 'explain' my behavior and 'fess up to what I did to the other gallery person.
What a petard to be hoisted on.
Georgia O'Keeffe was even more outrageous. If she saw a painting of hers displayed at a client's home or whatever in a way she disapproved of, she would 'take back' that painting.
Now that's ballsy!
Can't say I'm that bad (or gutsy) but I do wonder if Leonardo or even poor old Vincent saw how commercialized their work has become, if they'd blow a gasket and take it all back......when does a treasure become trash?
In any case these are questions that are starting to pop up for me. Huh....is this what 'fame' brings, we wonder. Who'd a thunk it was so fraught with 'stuff'.......

PS...Jams has taken to jumping onto my painting chair in the studio and reaching up with her paws on my back to get me to pay attention to her......bit of a illustration of how swept away I am....