ART JOURNAL — JAZZGREEN

a couple more of the intaglio collagraphs on canvas artworks, tastefully photographed (read more about the intaglio collagraphs)...[bali, 2010][sumatra, 2010]have decided to have a bit of a special new year art sale of some of my small abstracts on paper... twelve for the preceding twelve days of christmas and the next twelve months of the year.. after twelfth night comes the feast of epiphany, another day of holy celebration in the giving of gifts (of the three wise men or magi offering gifts to the baby jesus).having an art sale is a little bit commercial i know, it's always a difficult one, exhibiting/selling/promoting artwork. i have undervalued my work in the past but i have begun to reflect more on my experience as an artist - the motivation, the recognition, how much i value what i do, and why i do it. there's the professional integrity of the artist and then there's the business of the artist - the philosophy and the product.i started young on this creative path, probably inspired by a how-to-make-art tv programme (thank you tony hart - but why did your researchers reject my russian constructivist sugar paper collage for the studio gallery? i was only eight; i drew sharks and dinosaurs after that).what a wonderfully democratic profession art is, in that it enables the self-taught (who often attend art classes) to achieve the same status as someone who has a recognised qualification. i went to art school, but you learn even more out of art school. the difference is that in art education there is (usually) a minimum entry requirement (such as being able to draw quite well), so there are required standards of work. the tutors will question and challenge your thinking along the way and not show-you-how-to-make-art-this-way (there's the rub), and if you impress the judges, there is that little recognition of your achievement at the end of the course.i keep getting spam emails offering me american degrees and doctorates by the dollar, so it's probably safer to say you're a naive, outsider or self-taught artist, even if you once went to an art class and got a certificate of attendance [sic].i digress; in art you mean it, you make it.. i really like these three small abstracts together - my wabi-sabi zen.. not framed alas, but are protected in cellophane sleeves with card backing.. winter abstract paintings on paper [three small abstracts on paper - currently in my little winter art sale][xxiii - mixed media on paper, 15cm x15cm][xviii - mixed media on paper, 15cm x15cm][xxxiii - mixed media on paper, 15cm x15cm]all one hundred of the small abstracts on paper once fitted neatly into this little box... a series or collection stored or presented in this way is something to think about.. when i was at the royal college of art it was a tradition to create a boxed set of limited edition prints each graduating year.. they become quite valuable after a time...footnote: according to the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary twelfth night is either 1. 6 January, the feast of the Epiphany or 2. the evening of 5 January, formerly the twelfth and last day of Christmas festivities... it is supposed to be bad luck if you still have your christmas decorations up today, but it is tempting to take a bit of a pagan perspective here - the fir cones, the winter berries, the holly, the ivy, when fashioned into winter displays or christmas wreaths, also signify the universal cycle of life and the seasons - so maybe i'll continue the winter decor right up until the spring equinox...