After nights of not enough sleep preparing for Dorset Art Weeks I am so tired. A quiet first day but sold the first #Letter365s and another piece. Sleep now!
I’m so tired
All posts by David Smith
I’m absolutely on fire
There was a temptation to say “epic” instead of “on fire”. It’s interesting how advertising for a price comparison service (if that is what it is) can get through to a person like me who doesn’t have a television (or read newspapers much any more)!
Anyway, buoyed up by kind comments about my work and people parting with their money in exchange for me letting them take my work away permanently my confidence in my ability let me create something really very nice even though I am a bit stressed about all the things still left to do for opening our house tomorrow morning for Dorset Art Weeks.
Late and drizzly, snails under foot
I have been working all day on preparations for Dorset Art Weeks but don’t seem to have moved as far as I wanted. I have got most of my work in position now having picked up the last dozen or so pieces from the framers. They are the biggest ones – mostly the minimalist abstract drawings.
Loads to do still but I am feeling reasonably confident that I am mounting a pretty good show – whether I get the sales depends on getting the right people through. Fingers crossed!
Upside down but I sort of wish I hadn’t
Running close to the deadline tonight because I have been busy with preparations for Dorset Art weeks and was interrupted twice in the nicest possible way for an artist putting up an exhibition. First an artist friend and neighbour dropped in and bought a piece of my work. Then in the afternoon one of my private collectors called in by appointment because she was going to be away during Dorset Art Weeks. She bought 5 pieces and reserved another which she has only seen a photo of because it is at the framer’s still. So a very encouraging start but it has put me even farther behind! Ah well.
That excitement meant I didn’t start my #Letter365 piece till late and I have to say I was getting nervous about things drying (hint). But all is well and I got to the post box with loads of time to spare.
I thought I would make a change and have the envelope the other way up to usual (oh what a devil I am eh?) but now I wish I hadn’t seeing it with the other images. Never mind it’s all part of the process!
Busy wizzy
Been busy buzzing from place to place and still have loads to do for Dorset Art Weeks.
Is anyone interested in all this? I have posted another tedious picture of part of a hand holding an envelope near a post box. Whoopee!
The sad thing is that probably nobody will ever buy and thus never see the fine little artwork inside. They certainly won’t unless I manage to get my finger out and set up the ability to purchase them on this site!
Thunder and lightning
I love thunderstorms – especially if you can see lightning – and we have not had a decent one for a while, but I confess that I chickened out and continued with preparations for Dorset Art Weeks instead of picking up a brolly and dashing up the garden to the studio. Twice! So that is part of the reason I am so late posting both the #Letter365 piece and this blog entry.
Preparations for Dorset Art Weeks are progressing slower than hoped, but I did actually put up the #Collage365 wall of 20 nicely framed pieces from the #Collage365 project and have pretty much planned out where things will go – though with some pieces still at the framers there will inevitably be some shifting and jiggling before I am happy.
One fifth of the way already!
Well I have got this far without too much trouble so while there may be adventures ahead I am very confident that I will complete the project .
I am very excited by the last few day’s pieces though, as I have said, I am concerned that some may not like or understand them. If you want pictures of fluffy things, portraits, realism, impressionism, boats on water and that kind of thing I’m generally not your man. That is not to say I may not slip in a little sketch of West Bay harbour one day or even do a series of landscapes during this project! But as I say i am very excited by quite a number of the recent pieces: they please my eye and there is a good balance between tension and ease. But what interests me most is the emotional content: I find them surprisingly moving. Of course it could be, like I have hinted, I’m off my trolley! On the other hand they may actually be quite good! Some seem a bit old-fashioned but in a way have a timeless quality. It’s like picking up a jazz album from the fifties or sixties with cool, jazzy graphics on the cover and when you start to play it it seems a bit dated, then interesting, then familiar, then exciting and finally sublime – the whole package is actually timeless. These pieces have got a little of that for me. Again, I may be deluded but the fact that I am excited by what I am doing a fifth of the way in bodes well for finishing the project.
Sometimes I wonder if I am quite mad
What on earth is it in me and many other people who find joy and beauty in the most unexpected places. There is a group of us on Twitter that share picture of rusty, peeling, rotten things. Some of us tweet pictures of roads, tyremarks, paving stones and chewing gum spots. Part of the task of a visual artist is to look and see and notice on behalf of the rest of the people and make choices which things to say “hey, look at this” about. Yet sometimes I wonder if we are all just a bit demented to be so inordinately excited, awed and moved by the abstract patterns and colours of Nature’s decomposing? Which brings me to today’s #Letter365 piece. When I look at the photos I took of today’s piece I find it incredibly moving. It only took me a short while to make it and something comes up in me about its value and worth because of that. The components and idea had been sitting with me for a few days so with that time included the time it took might be trebled, but it’s still not much. Not like someone Tweeted recently, “you can’t create a piece of art in a day”. Does that mean this piece is not art? What about if I factor in 5 years at art school, years of personal study, a lifetime of considered looking, years of art practice, years of working in design, advertising and graphics? It could be said that this piece took over 60 years to make. Does that make it any the more art? Could it be that it is possible for an artwork, something that moves the guts and stirs the intellect, to be created in an instant and. On the other hand it could be that I’m delusional.
Courage
Today’s piece gave me cause for a lot of thought about being true to myself and having the courage to stick to the visual statement I am moved or minded to make. There was something in me wanting to make this piece more accessible to a wider audience even though it was not the right thing. I wonder if Barnet Newman ever thought of sticking a little flower in on of his vast expanses of colour? Did Malevich ever consider a smiling face to make his chilling severity more friendly? Did Mondrian explore the possibility of a cute dog in one of his grids? I doubt it very much. So how come I am worrying that people may find my work hard to grasp or shallow or whatever? So then I worry if it’s derivative or of its time or out of fashion! I worry should I create things in the hope that people like them? It is certainly pleasant and reassuring when people like my work but I don’t always understand why.
This piece to the right has been favourited and retweeted on Twitter much more than I could imagine. I have no idea what it is about. Moreover I have no idea what it is that people like about it. There are elements in it that I incorporate into my work generally but broadly it is not really my style – but maybe these sketchbook doodles are what I should be doing more of? Should I make work like this and see if people approve? I have remembered that I have created a large piece which has some of the feel of this one. I must photograph it and post it to see what reaction it elicits!
Creating an artwork is so odd
Making art is an odd business. How come I can struggle for ages with an idea that seems really good in my head, but just won’t come together. Is it timing? Materials? How I feel that day? The light? How hungry I am? I don’t think it’s just because it’s a shit idea because sometimes I can work through the problem and other times I can revisit it later and it works well. Today was a struggle until I saw a different possibility and thought “oh that’s nice” and it all came togther like a dream.