Landscapes of the Surreal and Mysterious

Landscapes of the Surreal and Mysterious is the tentative title of a one-dude show I'll be doing locally in September. I originally considered a name with "desert" in it, but then I decided a while ago not to limit my audience (or collectors!) by sticking with only one type of landscape.

The desert is a surreal place. Maybe that's why I love it so much, seeing as I'm a big fan of surrealism as well. But I've seen other places that, under the right conditions, can be surreal or at least mystical as well. So the common thread I plan to weave through my work this summer is: whatever landscape I paint, it can't be a straightforward rendition of the place. It MUST have a sense that the "gods" were there that day (or night), spreading their magic across a land that overwhelms the viewer with fleeting mystery and reminding us that the land is, indeed, alive.

Time to get busy!

All Done!

Phew! My P/T teaching gig is over. There was a lot about it that I enjoyed, but it was a LOT of work preparing for lectures and labs.

I really liked the students, too. One of them told me early on that I'll be teaching a really nice group of people, and she was right. The vast majority of them are aspiring to be nurses, and people who want to enter "helping" professions like that tend to be nice, caring and all that.

On the other hand, there was also a small group that... well, I'm just not sure about them. I don't know if they had access to exams from previous semesters to "study" from. For that matter, the copy-center person printed out copies of the lecture and lab finals, but they disappeared before I could get them. I have no proof, but one instructor and I theorized a student, who shouldn't have a key to the copy center, may have "piggy-backed" behind an instructor, gotten into the copy center and took the exams. As I mentioned, I can't prove that. But it's scary to think students who are pursuing careers in the health-care fields might stoop to stunts like that. If true, it's just a matter of time before cheating habits derail their plans -- and their careers.

Anyway, I've been working days, nights and weekends to get ready to teach. I plan on revising all of the material before I teach again -- whenever that is. But for now, grades and attendance reports have been submitted, and now I'm ready for some serious R&R.

Doing nothing sounds pretty good right now!

Desert Senna

The low desert (Palm Springs area) has been pretty much finished with the spring flowers, but we're still getting 'em in the high desert!

Actually, the spring annuals are essentially done, but the shrubs are blooming now. The photo shows a plant called desert senna. As you can see, they have yellow flowers. When that many of them bloom, it's an inspiring sight -- and they are fragrant, to boot!

Think I'll be painting this in the near future? You betcha!

Sometimes It Just Doesn't Work

Today I pulled all of my paintings out of the lone gallery I appeared in. People in this area seem to want mostly red (the hue that is known as "ReallyReally Red"!) and, although buyers seem to respond positively to my paintings, they're not buying them. I guess for that reason, the gallery owner stashed my works in a back room, out of sight of gallery visitors, and "replaced" me on the walls with another artist's paintings.

Well, that's understandable, I suppose. If an artist isn't selling in a gallery, the owner needs to move that artist out and find another whose work does sell. But it's frustrating when all of the hopes from the last two years were flushed down the toilet. The buyers' tastes in this area are also, well, nonexistent. I've been advised to head further east, maybe to Texas, or even as far as the East Coast.

What can I say? I'm angry with the art world right now, and I'm not sure what to do next. For now, I'll focus on doing what I really want to do. Maybe some day, I'll put them up for sale. But I'll definitely not narrow the focus to one specific region, as I did with the works that were in the gallery.

Sometimes it just doesn't work. And when it doesn't, it costs a lot of time, materials and sanity.

Meanwhile, here: have some red flowers. The high desert is still in bloom.

Desert Sunset

Si-i-g-g-h-hhh... once again, it's been hard to find the time to post anything on my blog! I almost forgot how to log on!!

April can be a month when we get all kinds of fun weather here in the desert. And when we do, the effects both in the sky and on the land are magical.

So -- how 'bout a bee-yoo-tee-ful sunrise?

Energy Is Never Created or Destroyed

Energy is never created or destroyed. We've probably all heard that at some time in our lives. That may be true when it comes to physics, but I'm not convinced it's true when human beans are involved.

It's nice getting a regular paycheck, but it seems I don't have much energy left after preparing to teach or after I actually teach. (The subject is microbiology, in case you've forgotten). The idea of working on paintings seems overwhelming these days, and since the teaching position is on an as-needed basis (although the need lasts a semester, so it beats being a sub), I really don't know when/if I'll be teaching again.

For that reason, I really HAVE to keep painting and looking for ways to sell them. Even in this economy.

The semester ends in about five weeks. I'll have more time to paint then, and I hope I can keep from returning to panic mode. And we're still hoping to squeeze in a trip to Hawai'i later this year for our 25th wedding anniversary (and, of course, such a trip will add tremendously to my painting subject matter!)

2010 is going to be an interesting and different kind of year. I hope it'll be one in which I can create more energy!

Field Trip

I decided to take a little time and make a "field trip" to El Paseo in Palm Desert, CA. This street is the equivalent of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and features many different boutiques, restaurants and -- most importantly -- art galleries. (The gallery I'm in is located on El Paseo).

First, I stopped by the gallery I have paintings in to see how the owner is preparing for Thursday Art Walk (tonight), the last of the season. I was especially curious to see if he had rehung any of my work which, as of Valentine's Day, was mostly stashed away in a back room. Yesterday, only ONE painting was out -- and it wasn't hanging but was set on the floor leaning against a wall. In the back of the gallery.

It's obvious that people who come into this gallery aren't that interested in what I paint; otherwise, my work would have had its former places of honor in the front window and on the walls toward the front. Besides that, I asked if there was any interest in the last paintings I brought in, and he said no.

Maybe I'm not in the right gallery, since everything else the owner has in there is more contemporary and VERY colorful compared to MY stuff. I mentioned I might remove the excess paintings from his backroom during the summer, but now I'm leaning toward pulling out altogether.

But where to go after that? I don't know. Most of the field trip was to see how the other galleries are doing, what they've been selling (if anything) and if I'd find a "good fit" somewhere else.

Well, most of the art I saw was contemporary, whether or not the paintings had recognizable subjects. Most were blindingly colorful -- pure reds and other warm, almost fluorescent colors. Apparently, the buyers have been people from extreme winter states like Minnesota and the Dakotas and -- especially -- from the plains provences of Canada. The Canadian dollar has strengthened considerably as the US experienced monetary problems, and people who spend so much time in a long-lasting season of gray, featureless winter want COLOR in their homes and offices. Traditional realism isn't about zonking color. So what's an artzy one to do?

Only two galleries had works that made me feel like I might fit in. One is headquartered in Carmel, and they seem to like my work, but I'm not pricey enough for them. (Understandable -- they pay a lot of rent for their locations!) The other gallery has a long list of artists who want to get in, and besides -- their work was rather colorful, too.

Conclusion: maybe this area just isn't my market. I may have to go further east -- maybe all the way to the East Coast -- to find buyers. Other classical painters have told me the East seems to be populated by art lovers who are more sophisticated in their taste than the West Coast, where people want to be cutting edge and trendy.

How does an impoverished artist fight a situation like that?