by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Life |
The inventory of finished work in an art studio can be overwhelming, especially if you’re a prolific artist. If it’s less than my best work I’ll often recycle it, paint or collage over old canvases. Give them new life. Or I’ll throw on some gesso and donate the used canvases to an art program like the one where I teach. Trust me, we appreciate donations of canvases, used or not. As long as they’re in decent condition they’re fine for student work. And you don’t even need to gesso it, we’ll do that for you.
If it’s something I don’t want my name on and the materials can’t be recycled, then I’ll simply chuck it.
But there are times you don’t want to do that. Maybe you have a series of images that, for one reason or another, just haven’t sold. Or a stack of prints that have been sitting there. There’s nothing wrong with them but they’re taking up valuable real estate, space you could use for something else. Something new.
Because it’s time to move on.
You could hold a studio clearance sale but there’s a valid argument against that. A drastic reduction of prices reduces the perceived value of your work within the community. If someone bought a painting for full price, whatever your price may be, and saw you selling similar work for less, maybe considerably less, later on, do you think they’ll be so quick to pay your full price again?
I don’t think so.
Unless… you turn it into a good thing. Puts a different spin on it entirely. My friend LeeAnn Brook did that last weekend. She opened her studio for a special sale, “From the Heart” Small Works Charity Studio Sale. She reduced prices on selected work by 30-50%. And then she donated 100% of the sale of those works to Women of Worth, a local charity that helps women escape domestic violence. I’ll say it again, 100%.
It was a win-win situation. In a few hours she raised over $1,200 dollars. Money that will stay in the community helping women and children who desperately need it. People who purchased art got a great deal and a sense that they were contributing to a good cause, especially as checks were written directly to Women of Worth.
LeeAnn reduced her inventory without damaging the value of her work. Even better, she got the satisfaction of knowing what she did would have a positive impact on the lives of others.
She did good, yes indeed she did.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Beloved Beasties, Life, Porterosa |
I collect bird nests. Ones that have fallen to the ground and are of no use to their former tenants. I usually find them in the fall, after a storm with a lot of wind. Just lying there in the dirt or a pile of leaves, waiting for me to take it home.
Some have remnants of eggs. Pieces of shell.
One had the eggs themselves. This one was found in the spring. Poorly constructed. Barely held together. I watched it for a couple of days but no one came to claim it. I hope Mr. & Mrs. Bird built a new one and tried again.
Most of the nests around here are heavy on the horse hair.
A good swish of the tail too close to a tree…or even a good rub results in building material.
Long strands from manes and tails are woven with twigs and whatever else is handy.
Sometimes they’re made with the soft fuzzy stuff from spring shedding. Little bit of blue baling twine shredded and incorporated into the decor. Not very elegant but I’m sure it’s warm.
And then there’s my own creation. Copper wire. Polyclay eggs. Needs a TV and a fridge before I’ll be moving in.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Family, Kids |
There are two young women I love with all of my heart. My daughters. One I gave birth to, the other one married my son.
Today I’m going to talk about my daughter-in-law, the BEST DIL in the world, ever. It’s her birthday today. She’s 27.
I don’t know about you but when I was 27 I was on the tail end of my screwup phase. Finally getting it together. Sorta. I had an art degree and a couple years of waitressing and retail sales under my belt. There were a couple of broken hearts along the way as well. I was sharing a rental in a marginal part of town with two elkhounds and a roommate. The leap into the world of commercial art–illustration and graphics, would take place towards the end of that year. Even then it was a long, slow process.
Fast forward to BEST DIL in the world, ever. Her name is Nicole, by the way. Niki. And I’ve known her since she was 16, when she first started hanging around our house with all the other kids. I liked her for her own merits even before she and FirstBorn began dating. And once they did begin dating I fell in love with her too. Because she brought out the best in my son. What mother wouldn’t love that?
So it didn’t really surprise me when they eloped. But holy crap, they were 18 years old. Babies. DIL was still in high school. And FirstBorn was a brand new Marine heading off to what would soon become war.
But, as I said…it didn’t surprise me. Because even back then they were right for each other.
Fast forward again. They’ll be married nine years next month. NINE YEARS. Been a lot of growing up for the both of them. Three combat deployments to Iraq–not easy on any marriage. But while FirstBorn was being a Marine, Niki was working any number of part time jobs and putting herself through school. Not just taking classes, excelling. She made Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in molecular biology.
Not bad for a kid who got married in high school…
Today? Good jobs, both of ’em. A couple of cats. A dog. A mortgage. And best of all…most most MOST important of all… a baby. A beautiful little girl born to rock solid parents.
As the saying goes, ‘I didn’t lose a son, I gained a daughter’. Indeed I did. And I love her like my own. Happy Birthday Niki!
by Susan Lobb Porter | Everyday Ordinary, Food, Photography |
I likes me my veggies. Like ’em a lot. So I spend a lot of time in the produce aisle checkin’ things out. The other day I wrote about the newest item in my holy crap! that’s amazing!!! dept. Broccoli Romanesco. Check Produce Art, Part 1 if you missed it. Because it’s cool. Really. Especially if you’re into patterns.
Today it’s all about color. About things so pretty you just want to eat them. It’s about finding beauty wherever you are–in this case, the produce dept. of the local co-op.
Winter squash. What’s your favorite way of cooking it? My friend Dieter makes a lot of butternut squash soup. I grew up with acorn squash baked with butter and brown sugar. Now that I’m all grown up I like it best with butter, a little salt and pepper. The Delicata Squash, the narrow one with yellow stripes, is easy to saute like zucchini. But it doesn’t taste like zucchini, it’s still the winter squash sweet.
Right next to the squash were the persimmons.
Fat luscious orange orbs. Then came the pears.
Gorgeous red pears that probably go by another name. Look at that pallet. I did some paintings recently using those colors. Love love love the orange and dark red combination. Not to mention the lime green zing. Oolala–another painting positively screaming to be made.
There were lots of pears. my favorite fruit for a still life. Or basic drawing lessons with charcoal. Form and volume. Light and shadow. Remind me of luscious fat bottomed women, the best kind to draw.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Everyday Ordinary, Food, Photography |
I stopped by the co-op after work today. Grabbed a couple of oranges and then whoa–did a double take.
What the heck is that???
That, my dearies, is Broccoli Romanesco. Which, according to my research, is a vegetable with an identity problem. In some parts of the world it’s considered a cabbage. In others, cauliflower. It’s not broccoli although you’d never know that from the name. I’ve never seen it before but OMG, it’s SO freakin’ GORGEOUS, don’t you think? Seriously, you CANNOT beat mother nature when it comes to cool designs.
Mother Nature obviously paid attention during geometry class. LOOK at the pattern. Just look at it. Since I didn’t pay attention during geometry–I was an art major, remember–I came home and looked it up. This is called a fractal form. If I understand this correctly, the pattern repeats itself small and smaller until the cellular structure of the material reaches it’s limits. So every little bump is identical to every other. Except smaller. That means even the tiniest bump you see has that crazy spiral pattern ad infinitum.
Makes me dizzy thinking about it.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Kids |
When my kids were little they were not allowed to use the ‘B’ word. I’m assuming you’re all grown ups and will not be terribly offended if I say it in print. If you have fair sensibilities consider this a warning–cover your eyes or skip down to the pictures.
The word in question…the gasp! cover your mouth WHAT DID YOU SAY!!!! word…was (and still is) B.O.R.E.D. As in, I’m bored. As in I’m SO bored. As in…well, you get the picture.
I would tell these brilliant little humans there was SO much in this world to do, see, think about. Adventures to make up. Things to build. Really, who had time to be bored? And they would go off and write stories. Or draw pictures. Or pound nails into a couple pieces of wood and call it a shelf.
They didn’t start with the eye rolls and the exasperated sighs until the hormones kicked in. But that’s another story.
And this is where you, dear readers, enter the picture. Let’s say you’re one of my students. Let’s say you’re desperate for inspiration. Your muse is misbehaving, filling your head with all sorts of nonsense, making you feel badly about all things art. You’re uninspired. Stuck. Quite frankly, you’re bored. You come to my class and tell me you can’t paint. And you’ll never ever be an artist because you don’t know what to paint.
And I will tell you that you are a brilliant human being. I will give you a hug. Maybe two. Then I will point to the sign that says No Whining, hand you a camera and send you outside.
With one rule. The big picture is overwhelming. Really. Your creative mind is spinning like a kid with a couple of Cokes under his belt in Toys R Us. Overstimulated. So my answer to that is tune out the distractions, tune out the BIG picture and F.O.C.U.S. Don’t go far. Don’t get distracted by the meadow. Or the horses. Stay on the walkway and focus on an area no larger than a foot square. Look for patterns in the concrete or the rocks.
Like this. See, that was easy now, wasn’t it? Oh, wait…are you saying that’s just a couple of rocks? Well yes, it is. Three, actually. And some moss. And not even a great composition. That’s because you’re looking at the BIG picture.
Look what a little cropping can do. Squint. Nice colors, eh? Compositions isn’t bad either. Imagine this with layers and layers of glazes. Imagine working the surface, scraping and painting and bringing forth all sorts of yummy texture.
Some rotation for a different look. The point is any one of these could stand on it’s on as a painting. They could also be used as background for other images. Put some blue on the upper half and call it a landscape.
Cropping another area of the original photo. Squint. See the arrow? Half an arrow. This could be a total graphic kind of painting. There are any number of possibilities. Hey, I did a post about this not long ago using the hair on my dog’s head. Really, there’s NO excuse.
So next time you’re stuck, take a deep breath and tell yourself what a BRILLIANT human being you are. In fact, do that a couple of times. Say it loudly until you believe it. Jump up and down a few times while you’re at it. Then open your eyes, look around and get painting.
By the way, you’re welcome to use any of these photos if they inspire you. And if they do, send me a picture. I’d love to share them on the blog.
