18x24 inches, oil on panel. Kinda hard to photograph stuff that is larger and have it be "exactly" as you see in real life, but this is close enough I think...
again, the compression on blogs sucks, so click for better views.
What do you get your wife for her birthday to show you care? A custom beer order, duh! Our friend Chris wins awards with his brewing skills and we decided to go over and see the process of making an "Arabella Imperial Red". Click images for descriptions. I really didn't follow what was going on other than it smelled great...
So we did this same trip again. Only this time we reversed it and got hammered at Founders rather than a lost night of weirdness starting at Bell's. I wish I had taken more photos at Hop Cat because that place is amazing, even the bathrooms are gorgeous for a brew pub (yes I always have to comment on facilities you know). For most of the trip it was pretty mellow, the only scary part were the tween and child cheerleaders staying at our motel who had on gobs of whore make up, and hair extensions. Most were rather fat too; I thought in that line of activity a chunky physique would be frowned upon -- hello, pyramid cheer? It was just really creepy, it was like Jon Benet Ramsey meets Little Miss Sunshine meets Rock of Love. Ew! I also keep forgetting how fast people in Michigan like to drive, like desert speeds, where 95 is considered slow. No wonder I counted 22 dead deer on the roadside. It gave me sad face.
Anyways, again I am too lazy to do commentary, but you can click images and see the descriptions....
- The portrait Herbert Ascherman Jr. took of me appeared in the paper yesterday in a story about the Cleveland Society of Alternative Printers.
- There's a little Q&A I did over at the blog She Wants To Find Frankenstein
- And then I conducted a Q&A with Casey Weldon over at Kotori Magazine
Got all that? Also, I will be having a launch party at my new studio once I get my crap all moved in. More info TBA but keep July 11th open if you are interested. I just got back from a trip to Michigan and came home to a slew of emails and phones calls all urgent and crap (why did everyone decide they needed everything from me on Saturday for everything?) so I will have a recap and photos involving lots, and lots of beer shortly. Is it bad that I totally forgot my birthday was this week too? Like Thursday or something? I haven't looked at a calendar so I have no idea what today is even. My only reminder were a few gifts I got in the mail today. Maybe I'm ignoring the fact I'm now going to be over 30 (eeep!), but presents are nice and make it slightly less painful, gimmeh more presents! Or not, whatever is good for you.
Just finished reading this piece of poo from Phil Desind via Steve Doherty's blog about 8 ways to sell art. Okay, I do agree with 6 - 8, but come on now, if people want your work they will buy it. Just because one person doesn't like it, won't mean another won't dig it. If they don't like what you do, then they aren't the right person for your work and you shouldn't feel bad about that at all. If you need to follow any of the steps in 1- 5 then you obviously don't know who your audience is and you are sticking in shiny objects for the mere fact that you are a whore with technical skill. Seriously, the shiny objects bit in number 2 kills me. Oh and number 3 kills me all over again. Heck, 1 - 5 all kill me, go read it, seriously you'll die laughing!
You shouldn't make work a certain way just for the intention of trying to sell it to some idiot who wants it to match their couch! If you do, you aren't an artist, you are making a product. A product for someone who doesn't like to think too hard or is buying art because it makes them feel cultured; these are the people who buy a Thomas Kinkade painting in hopes of being able to sell it on Ebay in 15 years for a profit. Making a piece of art while following a guideline like this is so wrong to me on so many levels. Why constrict yourself like that? That is no different than following a fad or a genre of art that happens to be doing well at the moment, "gee I sure think Tiki themed art is lame, but it is what's hot right now, so maybe I'll go paint some tiki themed crap and hope it sells". Yeah, have fun with that.
I should also point out that number 4 is a big lie as well. I grew up with some really fun heavy subject matter in the art collection of my parents. Angels and devils and surrealist craziness, I used to stare at them and marvel. “People don’t want to hang those kinds of paintings in their homes or offices. The pictures would depress them all day long,” says the article. Um, more like those pictures would freak people out and be full of awesome all day long! You know what depresses me? Pictures of fruit in a shiny bowl!
Again, just because one person doesn like it, doesn't mean all people on the planet will hate it too. I hate Julian Schnabel, I also hate Keith Haring, and I'm pretty sure my dislike of those two artists hasn't effected their sales. By the way, do you know how many people ask me if I have any work laying around with skulls in the subject matter? A LOT. And yes I promise I will get around to finally painting some of skecthes I've made of my fabulous Sabertooth Tiger skull.
Artists make what they make; people like what they like. They find each other in an honest way, not by the artist impressing what they think people will like upon them.
And yes, skulls do sell, just like chicks dig scars.
