As I struggle to find my online voice this seems like an appropriate photograph to post. Making a living as an artist, or a least trying to, can be hard work. Throw in the fact that my work ranges from funky, hand colored photographs to paintings, to ceramic sculpture, to cute polymer clay cats and you can see why I’ve got a full blown identity crisis on my hands.
When applying to, and showing at, art festivals you need to put yourself into a box. HERE — this is what I do — in four slides/images or less. And see how I tie it together with a nice bow in this 10′ x 10′ display designed to withstand wind, rain, lightening, punishing sunshine and even an occasional collision with a car or bus.
Fact is, I can’t express myself in four images or less — but I thought I had to to create my “online persona”. Thanks to some good advice from Gary Vaynerchuk (author of Crush It!) and advice on business plans and mission statements from a good friend, I’ve realized that embracing my whole self , rather than just artwork that turns a profit, is okay — as long as I do it wisely. I’ll work on the wisely part in a couple of weeks — right now I’ll just accept the diversity in my artwork and get used to writing this readerless blog 🙂
About this photograph:
For a period of time I was working with long exposures and moving subjects — just to see what would happen. This piece is entitled “Identity Crisis” (1995) and is rather small (approx. 4″ x 7″). It is hand processed, sepia toned and hand colored. It hung in the member’s gallery at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.