Putting on a Your First Show, Part 1: The Work

Putting The Puzzle Pieces Together: The Work

Putting on a successful show is like
working a puzzle

To put on a successful show, you have to present your work in a way that leads people through it. It needs to encourage people to move from piece to piece.





Rule number One: Only show your best work.

Rule number Two: Only your best work is good enough

Rule number Three: Separate your best work from the mediocre work.

Rule number Four: See Rule Number One.



As you can see, the only rule that really matters is 1. Only show your best work. Having less than stellar work included in the show to take up space at best really only does that-take up space. At worse, it detracts from the good, well-planned and well-executed pieces. It can also discourage buying. People want to buy from accomplished, and if possible established artists. Getting established is the point of your first exhibition, and being well received really depends on the view of yourself that only displaying your best work brings.



So step one is to gather all your work, and I mean all and do a first cut.



Separate the best from the floss.



Put in one pile work that is incomplete. These pieces can be worked on.

Put in one pile that has good parts, but seems to lack focus, these pieces might be able to be cropped.

Put in one pile work that does not work. These are learning pieces but not for show even if they are your favorites.

Put in one pile works that seem complete. These are the bases, the foundation pieces of the show. Better too few than too many of indifferent quality.



Take the last pile, the best of the best and lay them out.



Do they have anything in common? A common theme, subject, color or texture? What do they say about you and how you work?



Lay out pieces that seem to go together. See how many such groups you can arrange. How can you tie the work together? These should be hung together. It is fine to have several such grouping. Put all your tropical island paintings/drawings together, all your puppies and kittens, etc. But look closely. Is there something else that can tie them together in an unusual way? [friends]



To put on a successful show, you have to present your work in a way that leads people through it. It needs to encourage people to move from piece to piece. Hopefully, there will be a theme or subject or style that will hold the work together.

People Are Sight Hounds

We rely on our sight for hunting. That is the way we developed and this ability to see and compare quickly, is one key to our species success. What we see has power for us and over us.



It is our bases for reality. This is not the case for all species. Dogs, for instance get 80% of their environmental information from their sense of smell. For them, smell is more real than even sight. While they do know what we look like, it is our smell that does the final identification of us. We rely on what we see.



Visual cues and clues are extremely important to us from infancy onward.



First emphasis is on facial recognition, eye to eye contact. Eyes draw our eyes from the first and what we cannot see disappears.



Peek-a-boo



This link between sight and reality is what makes peek-a-boo such an exciting game. When something is out of sight it does indeed disappear for the baby. And why what we see has so much power over us. There is some truth to the saying “out of sight out of mind”.



Things we see are real to us, even when they are not. How often have we exclaimed about how realistic something looks, how a painting almost looks as if we could walk into it. Been fooled by some Faux finish into thinking an object was one thing rather than another? No dog was ever fooled by a painting. Now, an odor?



But to us, seeing is believing.



We use drawings to communicate information and to clarify things all the time.



“I see” said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw.



This dependence on sight is reflected in our language. Seeing is equated with truth, knowledge and understanding. “I see” we say when we understand. The word see and understand are synonyms. Most often when we use the word see, we are referring to knowledge rather than sight.



The light bulb goes off, the idea is illuminated, bringing it into the “light” and making it understandable.



This dependence on sight is what makes visual art so powerful and at times so controversial. We see it, we need to understand it. We are uncomfortable with art we don’t understand. It is subliminally threatening to us. So photo-realistic art can be comforting, reassuring to many viewers.

How to Say Thank You

Might sound like a strange title for an art blog. But bear with me. As many of you know, I am host for an on-line painting site, about.com/painting.

One thing that I hear over and over again is how can I value my own work? One of the most recent messages posted to me on About.com was this lament:

"Starr, what's the cure for hating everything I paint? :-) I wish I could stop...sigh..j

Thanks,"

Boy, this is more common than you think. So often I hear this, and to be honest, have felt this myself. What is it about our artwork that makes us feel to guilty to liking it? While it is good to be able to look at our work and honestly see what is wrong, what needs improvement, where we went wrong, for a lot of us, it is total. Everything we do is junk! Why do we waste our time with it?

Wasting Time

This might be a clue, right there, Art work is a time waster. Something for children and something serious adults outgrow. Real men and responsible woman do not waste their time painting little pictures. It is  or should be a hobby at best, and unless we can see "profit" from it, a drain on ourselves and our families. We could be spending our time more profitably.  Like cooking and cleaning for them!







Roots in childhood

Art is for children. Over and over we are taught this. We have art in school, more as play time than serious learning. Something to occupy time and keep kids out of adult hair, in other words, a big time waster.

And what art kids get in school today only reinforces this view. For most it is simply make-work. Do a craft to give mom or dad a home-made gift, that under other circumstances no one would want. There is no training, no building appreciation for craftsmanship, quality or creativity. And so often art is shoehorned into an already bursting schedule. “We have 15 minutes, you can take out your pencils and draw,” For those few students that still have art in school, it is often reduced to 45 minutes once a week for 6 weeks. Not to criticize those beleaguered art teachers, but how can they do anything but baby-sit with that schedule? With schools and communities giving only lip-service to the importance of the arts if that, is it any wonder we ourselves tend to undervalue what we do?



Well, then, how do we learn to give up the guilt and learn to love our work?

My advice? Walk away from the canvas, have a cup of tea (good stuff, not cheap) then come back and pretend you did not paint it. Pretend that you are encountering it for the first time. It is not your work, but the work of someone you admire.

Look At It Through Different Eyes.

Notice what is good about the painting. Does it draw the eye? Are the colors vivid and inviting? Does it tell a story? Look at it as if you were in a gallery or museum. See, its not so bad, is it? Still having trouble? Just can’t choke the words out?

A lot of us have this problem because we are conditioned from childhood not to blow our own horn, to not praise ourselves. We must be modest. “Ah Shucks, Mama am, It t’wernt nuthin” We hang our heads down and don’t know where to look. I, like most of you simply do not know how to take praise. When I do get a compliment, I tend to look for some “error” or “mistake” to point out. Another comment that hit a resounding chord with me was this:

      "When I look at my work, I can only see the flaws. I have to bite my tongue to keep from pointing them out to everyone. I'm learning to just say, thank you, when someone compliments my artwork. But it's hard.

~Susan"

Sound familiar?

And when it comes to art, most of us have been conditioned to be to be super critical of ourselves. This is not something we are supposed to take pride in, because it is not important.

It is really; really hard to say "I am good."

Someplace along the line we all learned that we are garbage, what we create cannot possibly have value. That we cannot simply say we did a good job. Something about making art makes us crazy!

You don't hear carpenters telling people they hate the houses they build do you? Or plumbers saying, "boy I am a dunce when it comes to putting pipes together" They are proud of what they do, and rightly so, but we cannot be proud of what we do.

I am not saying we should not be aware of our faults as artists; just give yourself permission to say:



" I am good".

And when you are complimented, say “Thank You”

Art And The Lollipop People

First Drawing, First Language

Art is our first written language. Drawing is communication and recording. Children do this instinctively. They draw pictures and when you ask them what it is, they tell the whole story. They are recording their world and their view of it. Mommy, daddy, kitty going to grandma’s. They illustrate their lives effortlessly. Their drawings record their observations of the world.

When we are children we put down our recordings of the world according to us. But is it real? Depends on your definition of real. To the child, yes. It really is amazing how alike children’s drawings can be. Their “realistic” symbols of humanity are universally recognized. We all understand the rendering of lollipop people. These rendering are a step up from most first efforts, of tadpole people, all heads with little wiggly things hanging off the bottom that represents the rest of the body

Facial Recognition and Drawing

All of this shows how important to humans is facial recognition. The face is so important that for the first maybe 3 years that is just about all children really observe of their families.

We are hardwired to recognize and respond to other human faces, and in the animals that we tend to cherish, we often “see” something human in their expression or faces. That is why our first drawings of people are often simply heads. While we know bodies are attached, most of us remain rather vague in our understanding of this. Just think back to your first full figure drawings and you will have to agree with this! How often have we got going on a drawing and had to stop to wonder just how is the shoulder attached? Where is the elbow, I know they have to have hips, etc.

Focus on the Face

Our focus on the face is, I believe one of the reasons we have such difficulties getting both facial and body proportions correct. We all tend to make our figures a bit top-heavy. We are still putting mental emphasis on the head and face.

Even with our drawing of the head, we tend to over draw the facial features and under draw the rest of the head. Leave some room for the brains people!

Still, we first recognize people by their faces more than any other body part. We have all seen those game shows where men were asked to pick out their wives by just their legs, or some other body part, and we all laughed when most could not do it. Just the reason why so often the rag mags get away with pasting Celebes heads on other bodies in Photoshop.

The Link Between The Symbol And The Meaning

The link between the symbol and meaning, that ability to make that connection is what makes written communication possible. They way we assign meaning to a learned symbol. This same learned response however, can be a stumbling lock to learning to draw well and accurately.

These learned symbols are shortcuts that speed up our drawing, in the brains attempt to change drawing into writing. The very speed of these learned response engender sabotage any advancement in drawing and art. This leads to the frustration that causes so many to abandon art in their pre-teen years, with the idea that “they have no talent”

Drawing is more than talent

Drawing is not about talent, but skill learned and applied. A certain gift is helpful. But what is really needed is desire and a willing to unlearn what one thinks they know. When we are learning to draw we need to fight this mental shorthand and learn to refocus on what we really see. We have to see the real shape of things.

Expressionist Art

Twentieth Century art baffles a lot of people.

They know it is supposed to be good, but they just don’t get it.

An exhibition of Robert Motherwell’s work is coming to town. The publicity about this exhibit extol its virtues to the public, trying to entice a largely resistant public into viewing his work.

In preparing her piece on this exhibition, the reporter was looking for a quote, something to make a largely confusing and un-untellable show explainable. Why should be see this show. Why should ordinary people in this economy care about the works of Robert Motherwell?

So, she asked me.

At first I panicked. Why ask me? Do I look like I know? This is a serious question. How would I know? Am I going to be exposed as a fake? I am simply a working artist, a blue-collar artist. Not some high-flaluten super educated art historian. Then I looked at her note, and noted the name. Motherwell, Motherwell, sounds familiar, Oh yes, I know this guy! I checked a couple of books to make sure I had the right person, the old brain-box is not what it used to be. But yes, I know this guy. So, happily I gave her what information I had, and my honest opinion on this man’s work, and impact on the art world of his time. Everyone is happy, and article came out, and she did a really good job of it. Being a struggling artist, I am happy for any recognition and getting my name in the paper without getting arrested is something to be proud of.

I sent a link to the article off to several friends and family members. Well, my sister wrote back to me that she enjoyed reading the article, but hoped this person’s art was better than the one image printed in the paper. I had to blink. I got out my paper, and looked at the image they included. Yes, that is one of his pieces, and while not my favorite I rather like it. It is very simple.



To my sister, it bears a striking resemblance to an ink blot test. As for it being good art, she just doesn't know why that is considered as good as say a Rembrant.



http://www.putnamstandard.com/main.asp?SectionID=39&SubSectionID=42&ArticleID=2369

Now, I like Robert Motherwell’s work but I do understand what my sister is getting at. His work is condensed, and mature, but also not something the average run of the mill person gets. When I think of all the work and effort that the curators of both galleries, both the receiving gallery, The Clay Center for the arts and sciences in Charleston, WV, and the Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte, NC I have to be concerned on how successful they will be on introducing modern, contemporary art to the general public. Oh, us art lovers will enjoy it, but how many of the other people visiting the Clay center will really get into it?

I know they want the general public to connect with this stuff. They struggle to bring the best to their museums and galleries. But I wonder if showing the best is really the way to go about it. I wonder if they showed the more ordinary pieces, what they dismiss, as not up to par or beginning pieces people might get a chance to understand what the "major" pieces are all about. Often people look at the end results of a lifetime of artwork and just scratch their heads. It is like reading people the ending of a great novel, when they have never read the book, and expecting them to get excited about it. There is no context, and frankly, modern art needs its context!

When showing contemporary art or expressionist art, you really do need to fill in the context. The why of the work is as important as the work itself. If you only show the work but not the story behind it, you leave so much of the work unexposed.



So showing the whole story, the art in context to its time, and to the art that preceded it, lead up to it, helps it make more sense.



We who live art have already made this journey, and sometimes we forget that others have not.

*-*
The accompanying photo is of a small painting by me, "Alien Sky" and not Motherwell.

Today, Thinking about Art

Belief

Art
I believe in it

Not long ago, I started calling myself an artist
It was not particularly true, but I had painted a few paintings
And did some drawing

I made mechanical drawings and got paid for it
Not particularly well, but enough

Then I quit
Just up and quit

Oh, I had my reasons,

Most of them not logical from the world’s standpoint
But valid to me.

I quit

And took up painting again
Not particularly well, but I did it
Again
And again

I painted
And got a sketchbook and started to draw again

Not well, but I kept at it.

I posted stuff on line and asked questions

[drove some kind guides wiggy I would imagine]

but I kept at it and started to call myself an artist.

Some looked funny at me.
Thought I was getting uppity
Thinking myself better than them
Or cultured, putting on airs
Pretending to education I did not have

But being an artist is not about being educated
Cultured
Or superior

It is about being

About breathing

It is about doing.

I picked up a camera and started shooting
The pictures turned out great
Showed them around,

“boy what a good camera you have”

not about what a good eye I have.

But I kept on.

Taking pictures,
Drawing
Painting

Putting it all together

Started mounting and framing and putting it together

Found some walls
Put it up
Had some people in

“Wow, I can’t believe you did this
Where did you take that? My house?
I don’t remember this around the neighborhood”

Then the reporter calls.
“can I see where you work?”
“Sure”

He dignifies the basement, calls it my studio
Suddenly, it becomes one.

So the paper comes out

“Wow, I didn’t know you were an artist!”

Now it is official
I am an artist.
Was all along,
But now the label sticks.

Sketchbook Cover

The sketchbook for the Art House Coop is done, and I need to do the cover. I know the cover can be important, but I decided to keep it very simple. Simply tell what it is, a sketchbook whoms theme was postcards and since I live in West Virginia, the cards are from West Virginia.

I need to send this off Monday so it is there by the 4 of January for the opening show of all the sketchbooks done from all over the world. It should be interesting.

I have looked at many of the posted pages, and they really vary!

Sketchbook Library

I am creating a sketchbook for an art project by arthouse. It is to create a library of sketchbooks from living, working artists from all over. We are each given a small sketchbook and a subject and we are to fill this with artwork to the assigned theme.

I was given: Postcards

Sketchbook Library project 1

How to start

Nothing is more intimating than a blank sketchbook with expectations. The book is so nice and clean and full of ambitions. This is not a private journal, but something that will be seen by other, and archived for the future.

But will anyone want to look at it? Will it grab attention? Inspire or educate? It is worth the effort I will pour into it?

How do I start?

No Art Classes for the Holidays

I am at loose ends this week. No art classes tomorrow and I am kind of lost. Usually I spend Tuesday afternoons making sure I have everything for the next day at the Renaissance Gallery. I will not have classes for two weeks and I was planning on finishing my sketchbook project. I should be drawing on it right now.

But it seems that I am having trouble getting started!

I have a lot of work to do and have to get started.

I have several sketchs to finish before it is mailed in.

Spring Art Exhibition

Spring may be when a young man’s fancy turns to, well, you know, but the artists of the Renaissance Gallery turns to thoughts of spring painting challenge. This year’s Spring Fine Arts Exhibition will be all about color, and how well you can use it in the composition and presentation of your art. "Color and its Complement", is the theme, challenge and title of this May’s show. The artist will take one color as the primary element of composition and work with its complement to bring forth his/her ideas.

December 20, 2009.

Setting up an Art blog

Well, here I am setting up a blog about art and what we are doing.

I have thought about it for a while and now I am going to do it.

This will be more about getting started in art, than about my own artwork, although I will use my own work as examples.

My own work can be seen on my website, tschantz.myexpose.com, and I am closely involved with shows and presenting artwork at the Renaissance Gallery in Huntington, WV. Their website is: http://www.orgsites.com/wv/renaissance/index.html with the gallery blog at: http://renaissancegalleryart.blogspot.com/