Being misunderstood doesn't make one the tragic, suffering artist, but it does make for some analysis. I have a painting on show in the current summer exhibition at the Eyestorm Gallery in Ipswich. At the private view it was hung upside down(!), but amazingly it looked ok despite the mistake.When I create my work, my preoccupation with intricate shifts in surface details negates any reason to visualise its final orientation. In fact, my weakness is that I can not always decide until much later into its development, another viewer's interpretation helps, and in that sense the work begins to fulfil its purpose, albeit very subtle, communicating a microcosm of place. There were quite a few artists in the milieu of the private view, and one artist I spoke to proclaimedherself to be a painter's painter which got me to thinking about my own and other artists' work. When I look at another artist's artwork it is nearly always with a formalist, objective eye first and foremost, deciphering the narrative or meaning a short time later. The painter's tools are fundamental to my philosophy of working, it is real stuff applied to a physical surface. It is the visual metamorphosis that occurs that I find so compelling, and in that sense, I think that I may be a painter's painter too. Being misunderstood as an artist has much to do with one's work not being seen by the right audience, or in the right context. I cannot hope to communicate to all people, so the context in which I function as an artist (and in which my work is seen) is vital to maintain any sense of purpose in what I choose to do. I know that my work will likely appeal to certain aesthetic sensibilities, and I can no longer be concerned if it fails to engage the hearts or minds of the masses along the way; it seems more fulfilling to communicate with the few but more deeply.The owners at Eyestorm liked my work and want to take more. The exhibition runs until early September 2007...
Crag #1, 2007. Mixed media on panel, 30x90cm.
Art for offices
Of the Harleston & Waveney Art Trail... a quieter weekend to the three week event, but one of the organisers of the Art Trail made a personal house call today - a delightful lady whose comments are always perceptive and insightful. She said that she envisioned my work in more corporate settings - the boardroom or executive suite - how very flattering; I always thought my work rather naturalistic and earthy in appeal and not at all urban contemporary art - perhaps it is the manner in which I have displayed them - a near perfect symmetry.
Perhaps it is also because my current paintings link to some form of primeval memory, a need for a more tranquil engagement - a microcosm of the natural(?) in the less than personal manmade environment. One of things I have learnt about success in business is firstly, know your market. Any prospective entrepreneur should know that their product should be unique, desirable and also meet a genuine need (I have been incubating some novel ideas for the BBC's Dragon's Den which, for copyright reasons, I cannot possibly reveal here!!). However, an artist who decides to function purely in this business-like way would most likely fashion their artwork to suit market tastes and trends but many I am uneasy with this concept - because I am quite introspective in the making of my work - and I also lack some business acumen, such as actively making and promoting my work to the right clients - the time spent deliberating on and creating them is sacred enough.I was recently approached by an arts magazine to purchase a full page advertorial - quite costly but one has to do these things to make ripples in the art world. Although this site goes some way to developing my brand image or identity as a contemporary artist (always a work in progress), I really need an artist's agent to do the bigger share of the arts marketing!
Smoke and mirrors
Why smoke and mirrors?My particpation in the Art Trail has made me verbalise more on the creation of my work, the ideas and inspiration behind it. I am developing a personal philosophy of painting which embraces its capacity for artifice - the visual trickery of base materials to magically transport a viewer to another place in their own mind - but I am merely holding up a mirror to a world that is already around us. Last weekend, I was thrilled to have sold two large paintings along with some little collages. When I unhooked the paintings from their supports all became clear - from the back a very straightforward construction of timber and board - the illusion revealed.Anyhow, as artists often do, patronage calls for a small celebration. In fact, I had laid on light refreshments but my visitors were perhaps too polite to accept my hospitality. As Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote:for art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.I wonder how many painters analyse their work with a drink in hand at the end of a long painting session, or open a bottle of wine when some important piece of work is selected or sold? For myself, the acknowledgement of a sale or success forms part of the act of closure on the work; an artwork departing for a new home creates the psychological (and physical!) space for new work to come into existence. So too, the private view would not be such a jolly and bustling affair without a glass or two to celebrate the unveiling of a new body of work in an exhibition.However, I have to put on hold any celebrations as I am very near to completing around five new paintings in readiness for the final showdown this weekend.
One of my patrons commented how much they liked seeing my works suspended from curtain style rods rather than directly attached to the wall, which had me thinking back to some previous ideas regarding the physical space around work - ideas that are in perpetual incubation! Also, much of my recent works have coppery orange or deep red hues, the colours we associate with heat, action and possible danger. Today, I bought a lime green covered sketchbook and it made me think again about the psychological effects of colours. Perhaps it is time I ventured into an ecologically calm green period...