Speaking of Art Blog

This is a pastel painting of mine, titled Outgoing Tide, which is presently on exhibit at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Kalamazoo, MI until Jan. 8, 2013.  www.kiarts.org  It is part of a national juried exhibit of the Great Lakes Pastel Society. It also sold—YAY! There’s a story behind its sale and that’s what I want to discuss in this blog. 

You see, several months ago after I was informed that this painting would be in the show I was asked by the museum to write up a short paragraph telling about this piece of artwork, what inspired me to do this piece, what artistic elements are at work in the piece, etc. I was told that this info would be read by docents who would be educating mostly school groups viewing the show. 

OK, I have to admit that when I first received this request, I thought, “Ugh, what a pain!” I mean, I do rework my artist bio and artist statement regularly for different kinds of art shows, but this was a pretty special request and would involve a bit more work than just adding or subtracting some words from a bio.

But I know better than to delete such a request because time and time again I find that it’s just those kinds of paragraphs that make the difference between a nameless piece of artwork and a memorable piece of artwork created by artist Mary Ann Pals. Yes, a picture is supposedly worth a thousand words, but a picture AND a few hundred carefully chosen words of explanation can sometimes work magic together.

So here is what I wrote and sent to them:

“This pastel is based on a photo I took while on vacation, biking on the Tony Knowles Coastal trail in Anchorage, Alaska. The sky was a beautiful blue with layers of puffy white clouds receding out into the distance as far as the eye could see. I chose to give the viewer two ways to get to the center of the painting, either by following the curve of the retreating tidal water, or following the clouds down to the horizon as they become progressively smaller and closer together (aerial perspective).  I chose a panoramic format to convey the vast expanse of the seemingly endless sky and clouds.” 

And you won’t believe who purchased the painting—one of the museum’s docents, one of the people repeatedly reading my explanation of this painting! I am so flattered by that. I’m also even more convinced that when a museum or gallery requests something from me in writing, even if I feel it’s a waste of my time, I’d better sit down and write. It just may wind up working its magic on the person reading my words to others, and the accompanying artwork might find a new owner and a new home. Plus, and this is a big bonus, the new owner of my artwork just might be my free advertiser down the road as they explain my thoughts to others, and are applauded for such a beautiful purchase. In that case everybody wins.