Groundhog Week

It occurred to me that lately I have written very little about what I've been doing. I can sum most of my waking hours up in two words: job search. That's not a very exciting topic. I search. I find something that looks interesting. I research the company, the position, the location, whatever. I tweak the resume, write a cover letter, and submit an application. Log it into my application records. Start searching again.

Like most of the country, this past month has been unbelievably hot. We've been running 10-15 degrees above normal for several weeks now, and it feels more like August than May/June. That means I do my yard work in the morning, before it heats up, and then do the computer work in the afternoon.

Speaking of yard work, my wife has been bugging me to take the weedeater to several spots in the yard. Since our weedeater is a low-cost low-quality POS that hasn't been used since last July, that meant it needed some maintenance first. So I spent about $40 for parts and six hours in labor to rebuild the carburetor, replace the fuel lines, clean the air filter, put in a new spark plug, and make sure everything was adjusted correctly. And now, of course, it won't run at all. So got out the yard gloves and a pair of scissors and spent about 15 minutes cutting down the weeds that the weedeater was intended for.

With the hot weather come summertime afternoon storms. We've had them nearly every day for a week. One of my dogs, Indy, is scared to death of thunder.

So when the thunder and rain start, Indy's in my lap. As she is right now, as a matter of fact. Makes it hard to type on the keyboard.

The River Arts District Association in Asheville is holding its semi-annual Studio Stroll this weekend. This will be the first time in years that I haven't been participating in it, one way or another, and I'm not going to miss it at all. In fact, I'm going to enjoy it. Tomorrow, I'm going down to the District and will actually do the Stroll. Rather than being tied to my studio all weekend long, I'm going to wander to everybody else's studio and see all the wonderful work that's being done down there. So if you're in Asheville this weekend, go down to the River Arts District and see some great art. You just won't see mine this time!

After the Stroll

Well, my predictions for the Stroll pretty much came true. We had a lot of visitors. From my perspective, the numbers were up significantly from June. The weather was great, which helped bring people out in droves. As is normal (for me), I had no sales at all, but then, the Strolls are really an advertising venue, anyway. The surprise? The low levels of sales for those who normally make a lot of money. One potter said that this was his worst Stroll in eight years, with sales at about the level of a normal workday. The stained-glass artist had no sales at all, despite having beautiful work priced as low as $30. An abstract painter, who normally has a few thousand dollars in sales, had a grand total of $150. None of the few artists that I've spoken to had even an "okay" weekend. For most of them, sales were better in June than November, and that has never been the case, even during the worst of the Great Recession.

So what was up? (Shoulder shrug here). For whatever reason, people just are not yet willing to open their wallets for art. If artists are the economic "canary in a coal mine", the canaries are on life support.

I usually have some very interesting discussions with my visitors, and this weekend was no exception.

- One of them is a retired Marine officer who was in Nasariyah, Iraq, during the worst of the insurgency. He spoke of having one of his armored vehicles hit by an IED, killing six of his Marines, and the pain in his eyes and voice was still brutal.

- There was an elderly couple who must've both been retired university professors. Their conversation was deeply insightful, laced with references to classics, politics, philosophy, art history, and both had sharp questions and listened keenly to what I had to say. A most enjoyable discussion.

- I talked with several people who were planning to move to Asheville. After living here for ten years, I say, yes, this is a wonderful area, lots to see and do, a great artist community, beautiful scenery, great food, and friendly people. Please bring your own job, though, as there aren't enough to go around.

- After doing these Strolls for seven years, I now have some regulars who always stop by to see whose buttons I'm pushing. It's good to see familiar faces showing up every time.

- One of my paintings on display was Pleasantville. This one always seems to get a good response, and I had it positioned so that it was the first thing a visitor saw when entering the studio. One guy, though, made it clear that he thought this family was on the right track, and that every family ought to have their own arsenal. (Sorry, guy, I've been to Baghdad and seen what happens when every family has its own arsenal.)

After the June stroll, I wrote in this blog that I didn't want to show Warrior and Lament and other old paintings during the Stroll again. They've been in too many now and it was time for something new. I set myself a goal of having all new pieces, hopefully as good as Warrior (which I consider my best work). Well, that didn't quite happen. Yes, there were some new ones, most notably the series of portraits from Iraq, but not much that was worth showing. And in my discussions with visitors, most of whom were seeing my work for the first time, I wound up saying things that sometimes caught me by surprise, that made me think about the direction of my art from different perspectives. So I'm torn between ideas. On one side, I wanted to move away from paintings about war. They're inherently downers, and I want to do something a bit cheerier. This is the impetus behind the "model in the studio" series that I've been thinking about. On the other hand, there are still some things that can/should be said in paintings about war. Warrior, Lament, and You Don't Understand are three very powerful paintings about the effect of war on people, but there are more in that vein that can be done. When Lament was nearing completion, and I knew it was going to be a good work, I felt "This was the kind of painting I was meant to paint". That's not a feeling that you walk away from.

So. Where to go from here? Is it one or the other? Both, in moderation? I dunno. I think I just need to sling some more paint and let it work itself out.

Prepping for the Studio Stroll

This weekend is the fall Studio Stroll. My studio is in Asheville's River Arts District, the old industrial area around the river and the railroad yard. Starting about 25+ years ago, artists began moving into the old buildings and using their large spaces as studios. Then, about 20 years ago, they started opening their studios once a year to the public. Now we have about 150 artists in the District and we do the Stroll twice a year, in June and November.

This time, it looks like we'll probably have a very large turnout. The weather is looking really good all weekend. Gallery owners that I've talked to are saying that they're seeing an uptick in the number of visitors and buyers. It's as if those who have money have been sitting on it for a long time, waiting to see what happened with the economy. Now they think the worst has passed, they still have money, Christmas is coming, and they feel pretty good, so they're starting to spending some of it. About time, I say.

Not that I expect much of it to come my way during the Stroll. Some artists will sell a whole lot this weekend. For the most part, the pieces that sell are about beauty, color, and warm feelings. The potters and glass artists will do well, as will my new neighbor who does stained glass mosaics, and also the fabric artists. Among the painters, the abstract artists and landscape painters (those who do Appalachian vistas) will do best. As for me, I do edgy works, often confrontational, about such cheery subjects as the effects of war, political satire, and aging. While I'd say that some of my paintings are beautifully done, they're not about beauty and warm feelings, so most are still, umm, in my "private collection".

Still, I participate in the strolls as a way to show a lot of people what I can do. I like talking with the people who come through. Opportunities pop up, sometimes years later, from chance meetings in the studio. So while it's frustrating to end the weekend on Sunday evening with everything I started with on Saturday morning (which has happened on more Strolls than not), it's still a great advertising opportunity.

This time, I'm showing Warrior (hopefully for the last time, at least at the Strolls), Pleasantville and Ann's Slander, along with the series of small portraits from Iraq, a few other related works, and my Forest Nymph series of photographs. And I've got a few other surprises out, too.

So I've been working hard, along with Christine, my studio partner, at cleaning the place up and making it presentable. What a slog that's been! Old industrial buildings are dirty; artists' studios are dirty; combine the two and you have the potential for a monumental pigpen. We weren't that bad, but it took a lot of work. For the past few months, we've had a massive infestation of stinkbugs - evidently it's a regional or nationwide problem - and the little buggers were everywhere. In boxes, on shelves, in paint drawers, behind supplies, even hiding inside paintings. I was prepping one painting today and found six stinkbugs hiding in the back, between the canvas and the stretcher bars. Unbelievable. So if you come to the Stroll this weekend and take home one of my artworks, and then find a stinkbug in it, rest assured I won't charge you extra for it.

'Nuff said for now. I've still got a lot of preps to do tonight and it's getting late. If you're in Asheville this weekend, come by and visit, I'd love to see you!

Pushing Forward on Too Many Fronts

This post's title pretty much describes my life these days. There are just too many irons in the fire right now, and I didn't choose some of them. But then, that's life, so deal with it.

Last week we took our two dogs in for their annual physical. They were NOT happy about it, but they're good dogs and put up with the poking, prodding, shots, and things stuck up their butts, all without a whimper. Soozee has had a skin condition for quite a while: a growing number of scabs all over her back and sides. We thought it was an allergy, but it appears to be a bacterial infection, so she's on antibiotics for the next three weeks. This in addition to her meds for Addison's, and Indy's meds for Addison's and bladder control. I swear, the dogs are on more meds than Janis and I are. On the good side, their blood tests came back just fine, so the Addison's medications are doing their job.

Winter has moved in with a vengeance. We had snow this past weekend - just a dusting around my house, but my studio partner, Christine, who lives about ten miles west of us at a higher elevation, had over four inches. It's a bit warmer today, though, which is good. I'm not ready for winter yet. We barely had fall, fer crissakes, and I don't like the sudden shift from highs in the 80's to lows in the 20's!

I'm continuing to work on the painting that I showed you last week. We had the model come back the next night and I was able to pretty much complete her figure. Here's how it looks right now:

I decided to make it a "model in the studio" painting, clearly showing the things that normally get left out. I'm going to add the floodlight on a stand on the right and a table on the left with a wineglass. Once the brickwork was added, I realized that a big part of the painting was going to be about hard versus soft - in this case, the hard bricks contrasted with the softness of the figure. So to emphasize the softness, I'll try putting in some soft things: pillows, maybe a sheepskin rug, maybe one of my dogs, that sort of thing. Haven't got it all figured out yet, but I don't think that getting it "figured out" is the right thing to do for this one. The painting seems to have quite a life of its own, and it's telling me a good bit about what it wants, so my job will be to listen to it and help it along. So far, I'm really happy with how it's going. This very well could be the first in a whole new series ... quite a change from the usual "downer" paintings that I've been doing, about war and politics and so on.

In other studio news, our semi-annual Studio Stroll is coming up this weekend. This is where the artists of the River Arts District open up their studios to the public. We're up to 150 artists now. Back when I became President of the group, we had about 45 artists; three years later, when I turned it over to somebody else, we were up to 90. Amazing how it's continuing to grow. (The current President keeps trying to talk me into taking the job again. No, thanks!)

Our group is helping to give artists more influence with Asheville city government. Not that we're taking over or anything, but events like our Stroll, and several similar events (Leicester studio tour, East of Asheville studio tour, Weaverville Art Safari, a West Asheville studio tour, along with older events like the Southern Highland Craft Guild's shows) are proving to the city fathers that arts and crafts are a big part of the economy here because they're big tourist draws. The state government had an economics study done not long ago, and it turned out that arts and crafts contributed three times as much to the state economy as tobacco did.

So this week, I need to get this studio ready for the Stroll. That means cleaning (again) and shifting artworks around. I think I'll have my Forest Nymph photos on display this time ... they've been put away for a while, so maybe it's time to get 'em out again. We'll see. I better get to work - can't make any of those decisions if I'm sitting here, banging out a new blog post.

Studio Developments

My prints and drawings are now up at Bella Vista Art Gallery in Biltmore Village in Asheville. The show will run through the end of December. So far, all the comments I've been hearing are really good, so I'm pretty stoked. It feels really good to have a quality show up on a gallery wall. I'll get some pictures and post them here soon.

I hung another show a couple of days ago. The artists of the Cotton Mill have a group show at the Clingman Cafe, right here in the River Arts District. I think it looks pretty good as a whole. My contribution was two older paintings (Portrait of Our Shoes and Strange Fruit) plus a giclee print (Generation).

All 150 artists in the River Arts District are getting ready for the Studio Stroll, which comes up in a week. We're hoping the weather will be good and bring out thousands of visitors. The Stroll is a great time to see lots of different artists in their studios, many of whom don't open their studios otherwise. I haven't yet decided what I'll have up on the walls this time - maybe my newest work-in-progress?

Which is a sitting, full-figure portrait of a lovely young lady. I started it in our life drawing session last night. This is one of those paintings where everything seemed to click right from the very beginning. The drawing was pretty accurate, the colors worked, and the whole thing was fun. Two hours isn't enough to get a canvas like this done, so she's coming back for another session tonight. Any artist who wants to come draw or paint from life is welcome to show up. Here's how the painting looks right now:

The mural on the side of the Cotton Mill is now done. Here's how it looks:

It's getting a lot of attention. We have cars pulling in to the parking lot every day just to take pictures of it, and it was featured in the Asheville paper. I think it's pretty cool. Those windows on the top floor above the mural, by the way, are to my studio.

So now it's time to get going. The dogs finally woke up and I have to get them walked and to the groomers.

Slavin' in the Studio

I've been working in the studio this past week. I need to get it ready for this weekend's Studio Stroll, which means a major cleanup/fixup. As you can see, right now it looks like a tornado hit a flea market. This place is really filthy. Old industrial buildings like this one are dirty, anyway: they're relatively open to the elements, there are bugs and dust and dirt that you cannot block, no central A/C with filters, no screens, and no weatherstripping. The last time this studio was thoroughly cleaned was two years ago. So it's the pits. I've been vacuuming the walls, for crissakes! There are probably several thousand spiders and other bugs inside my Shop-Vac now, along with many pounds of dust and cobwebs and who-knows-what. But it's getting there, and we'll be ready for this weekend's Studio Stroll.

So what, exactly, is a Studio Stroll? Well, there are a lot of artists working in Asheville's River Arts District. We're in all the old industrial buildings, most of which were built in the late 1800's or early 1900's, along the river and railroad tracks. Most of the artists, 120 of us, open our doors to the public twice a year, in June and again in November. People can come into working artists studios, see how we work (and, in some cases, live), talk to the artists themselves, and buy some art in the place where it was born. We have all kinds of artists here: painters, printmakers, photographers, fabric artists, quilters, potters, woodworkers, sculptors, glass blowers, musicians, dancers, performance artists, mixed-media, multi-media, and more. Some are very traditional and others are, well, maybe not fully connected with this planet. Some of our artists have been professional for many decades, while others are still getting their feet wet. I've found it to be an exceptionally stimulating place to work: with all the different types of art down here, there's always something new to look at, ideas to throw around, and people to compare notes with.

My particular building is a good example of what's down here. It's the Cotton Mill Studios, located at 122 Riverside Drive. It is the small remaining part of what was once a huge cotton mill. We're not really sure when it was first constructed, but some of it is well over 100 years old. My studio is on the left on the top floor. The building is owned by Marty and Eileen Black who run the Potter's Mark functional pottery studio on the ground floor, left side. Next to them is Lenny Lopatin, a musician who was trained at Juilliard and now makes unique flutes and piccolos with square holes. On the ground floor, right side, is Barbara Zaretsky, a fiber artist. Upstairs, I share my studio with Christine Dougherty, a traditional painter. Next to us is Heather Maloy, a choreographer who runs the Terpsicorps Dance Company. Then there's Genie Maples, an abstract painter. On the far end of the building is the studio and John Mac Kah and Ruthanne Kah, two traditional landscape and still life painters.

In addition to the artists, we have some good eating and drinking down here. The 12 Bones Restaurant was recognized by Good Morning America as the best barbecue place in the nation. (It's just a quarter mile down the road from my studio). Clingman Cafe is a great little restaurant/cafe - it's where I often head for lunch. The newest addition is the Wedge Brewing Company, an excellent micro-brewery.

So if you're in the Asheville area this weekend, come down to the River Arts District and take a look at what's here. Come up to my studio and we can chat. I'll have some of my drawings and paintings from Iraq on view. I hope to see you this weekend!

Studio Stroll

My artist homies in Asheville are having the River District Studio Stroll this weekend. This is a big to-do where all the artists in the District (currently over 100) open their studios to the public. You can wander into the studios of painters, potters, musicians, glass blowers, woodworkers, sculptors, fabric artists, photographers, you name it, somebody's doing it. So if you're in Asheville this weekend, go Strolling.

Here's a video that they produced:

Studio Stroll

This past weekend, the River District Artists (to which I belong) had our semi-annual Studio Stroll. We have over 90 artists in the group, and twice a year we open our studios to the public. It's always a popular event - we get people from all over the country who come in to see what we're doing. This weekend, I spoke with people from as far away as Boston, Ohio, and Oregon. I always try to have different stuff up on the walls every time, and this year I featured my courtroom drawings. Talking with visitors, both local and out-of-towners, is always fun.

The big issue this year, though, was that the number of visitors was way down. Artists in one studio in my building were counting, and it seems that our foot traffic was less than half that of last June. Sales were down even more. Now, I usually don't sell much during these Strolls, since my work is edgy, but there are several artists who normally sell a bunch, and this year they didn't. There are several possible reasons: weather (it rained most of Saturday), the Robert Plant/Allison Krauss concert Saturday night, and the Purple Ball for the Asheville Area Arts Council on Saturday night, all of which might have siphoned off visitors. Actually, I think the concert and the ball should've added visitors. I think the big culprit is the economy. High gas prices, skyrocketing food prices, declining stock market, the housing slump, and a tight job market are affecting what people do. And since art is a luxury item, it's one of the first things to get axed from people's budgets, and the last to come back. I saw it first-hand in the aftermath of 9/11, and it's much worse this year. Ouch!