Speaking of Art Blog

Dunes Creek, pastel, 10x10"

As each year comes to a close, I like to look back and see how far I’ve come artistically.  This year’s observations are heavily centered around a conversation I had with a fellow artist at a recent art reception.  I was chatting with Tony Bianco at the opening reception of Home for the Holidays, the premier juried group art exhibit at my friend Kristina Knowski’s new framing gallery in downtown Chesterton IN - Ancillaerie Gallery.  The show is so beautiful, Kristina’s new business venture is doing well, the holiday decorations are up in the downtown business area, there was a festive mood in the air at the reception, and the conversations I had with longtime artist friends of mine were meaningful and thought provoking.

Tony and I talked about everything from what art tools we use for rendering our paintings (he’s an oil and acrylics guy and I’m a pastel and charcoal gal), to my latest acceptance into the gift shop at the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center called Beaches & Beyond, to why we do art in the first place.  That last topic was what made me feel validated as an artist.

Here is the gist of what Tony and I talked about:

• Trying to paint to sell our art is a really bad idea. The paying public is fickle and trends in what looks good hanging on their walls change constantly.  Trying to keep up with that is like chasing after the wind.  It gets futile and frustrating very quickly and turns into a creativity killer.  Better to set our own goals and then raise the bar for ourselves to achieve those goals.
• Working on a goal that one of our collectors has suggested to us is a different story. Collectors who love and own our work, if they truly enjoy collecting it, will give us wiggle room to experiment.  We’re not trying to produce something that will match their couch, but maybe we are trying to create something new that centers on a certain subject that they (and we) like.  When a collector of mine drops a hint to me about, say, sunflowers or winter at the IN Dunes, I’m on it.  They have invested in my work in the past after they’ve dropped a hint and/or commissioned me to create art for them, and they will do it again.
• Tony and I agree that the most desirable spot to be in is where the path to our next big idea is wide open and there are zero demands on us for what to work on next, and that includes art competition deadlines. Neither he nor I work to create something for a competition.  If we happen to have something laying around that hasn’t sold and it’s good enough to enter into a juried show, great.  But if not, then oh well.  We can take stock of our inventory next year and see what might work.  Throwing something at a show just to have it in the show is not a good plan.  Our best should be entered into the shows we submit to, nothing less.
• We both agree that our perfectionism in our work is not only our biggest blessing, but also sometimes our biggest curse. We have learned over the years to declare when we’ve finished a piece, and then put down our tools and walk away before we kill it.  That’s a hard lesson for a perfectionist to learn and practice.
• One of the biggest realizations we have come to with our art creating is that we both feel compelled as of late to find ways to give back to our community with our art. While I am busy producing paintings and drawings that feature the wonders of nature at the Indiana Dunes so that I can continue to heighten the public’s awareness of our national park’s wondrous beauty and also its fragility, Tony has been busy creating gorgeous murals for the Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City IN that highlight all the wild animals that roam our planet and that we humans need to care about and for.
• Neither of us takes for granted what a huge privilege it is to live in a thriving art community here at the entrance to the Indiana Dunes. Both of us have lived in communities that are a desert when it comes to an art presence and that is not fun.  In a flourishing art community where artists are a dime a dozen, we spur one another on and each artist’s individual creative efforts benefit all artists and the community collectively.  Artistically speaking, I am at home in the most complete way possible here within 2 miles of the Indiana Dunes.  Lucky me, I teach pastels at not just one, but two local art centers: Chesterton Art Center and Art Barn School of Art.
• Both Tony and I feel humbled, honored and blessed to be creatives. Not everyone has a creative bent.  Not everyone can follow an art path with a chosen art medium and push that medium and themselves as far as they can go to create something beautiful and fresh and unique.  We realize that our creativity is a gift that we best not take for granted or misuse or cheapen.

Most artists, myself included, are hermit crabs as we work away solo at our easels.  Around the holidays I find it great fun to come out of my shell and gab with friends at art receptions.  Weighty conversations ensue and I am encouraged to stay on the right path, the hard path, the fun path, the creative path, with my work.  Lord knows it’s not the most lucrative path and in America, for most of us artists, it never will be.  But that’s not why we are doing our work in the first place.  It’s for self-expression, for creating something new and beautiful out of tools we purchased from Glenn Firme Art Supply.  It’s for sharing pieces of ourselves with others. 

Tony and I agree that the biggest thrill for us is when a person falls so in love with our art that it brings out an immediate emotional reaction in them that is indescribable, beyond words.  Gasping is good, always a good sign. May we continue to create artwork that elicits gasps in our viewers as we face the new year.