Shifting Focus

Being accepted into the EAV Strut forced me into the self-realization of knowing that I was grossly ill-prepared to show my art in public.  Since receiving this notification, I’ve been feverishly at work on a seemingly endless list of tasks that need to be fulfilled before 15 September.  I’ve never been one to half-ass a thing and this thing is no different – a million details need to be identified and resolved in just less than one month.  If those million boxes are checked complete and the logistics of public presentation are satisfactorily resolved I still have more art to produce.  It feels like the night before my thesis jury every night (three hours of sleep is a victory).  I love that beating heart.  I've missed it.  The new website is nearly complete and will hopefully go live in the next (24) hours but there is still the tent and the table and the business cards and the packaging and the receipts and the price tags and the music and the rest of my manic enthusiasm to deal with prior to.

Yes, it might be crazy that I’m all in on this, but why else would I do it?  I’m less concerned with selling a single piece than I am with presenting the work in the best possible light.  Go big or go home, right?  Nothing risked, nothing gained.  There are hundreds of applicable clichés here and I’ve silently recited every one to myself in the last several days.  It’s not like I’m having an opening at MOMA, it’s a local festival!  They very well may accept every schlep who applies and I’m okay with that.  The most important fact to me is that I’ve found my way back to a place I haven’t visited in years.  I’m willing to be public with my art again – I’ve never been 100% cool with that.  I’m 100% behind myself this time and though that may be the first time I’ve said those words, it doesn’t feel like the last.  It’s intimidating, I’ll admit; like facing a firing squad intimidating, but I won’t know who I am now as an artist without facing it. “You can’t put something out there without watching it fall…only thing that’s scarier than dying is not dying at all.” 

So that’s that.  I’m putting this blog on the shelf until after the Strut.  I’m shifting my creative focus from words to paint.  Look for my website soon and if I don’t get back to the blog beforehand, mark your calendars for 15 September.  Come out and support your local lunatic.