in the studio

This re-dedication to the #art365 project has been great this month. I've also been working on making three pieces a day, which I accomplished all but one day this week....

So, I have 18 new pieces of art to show for this week. Some really great momentum happening. I've settled on 5" x 7" as a fairly ideal size. There are two postcards (4" x 6") this week, one for the twitter art exhibit and one for the postcardswap.

1.19.15.1

1.19.15.2

1.19.15.3

1.20.15.1

1.20.15.2

1.20.15.3

1.22.15.1

1.22.15.2

1.22.15.3 #twitterartexhibit

1.23.15.1

1.23.15.2

1.23.15.3 #postcardswap

1.24.15.1

1.24.15.2

1.24.15.3

1.25.15.1

1.25.15.2

1.25.15.3

Out of the studio, I stopped by Mike Kaysen's show at 65 Grand Friday night. Beautiful raku fired ceramics. Up next week, I have a papermaking feedback session scheduled tentatively. And this is the last week for the Members Only show at Studio 659. If you haven't made it, this is your last week to see that.

goals

I've read a couple of other artists' blog posts in the last couple of days listing all the things they accomplished in the past year. This is not one of those posts.  While I think it's good to reflect on what's happened, I think having a goal (or goals) is really important. My goals for last year were have a solo show and apply for the IAC grant. And I did those things.

So what's next?

I still have to finish completing the grantwork for the show in the spring. As March gets closer and closer, I am starting to feel the pressure of this task. There's a lot of work to get done.

I really want a big studio. This is a long term goal, not one that I expect to accomplish in 2013. Part of this is needing more room to move around in. An 8ft canvas is big. Part of this means more room to store artwork, but I will only accomplish this dream if I sell more artwork (which sort of takes care of the storage issue!) so I can pay for a studio rental. I sold more work last year than ever before, but not enough for a new studio. So sales, sales, sales is the short term part of this goal.

I am thinking over the idea of #art365: drawing or completing some artwork everyday. Seriously this will be a challenge. I've done 2 daily challenges for a month each and that was tricky. I will be tweeting these with a #art365. And here's day 1, a quick sketch of a lamp top while I was waiting for the coffee to brew. Hoping to get some painting in today, but now I'm covered just in case.

safety (or, to quote Kurt Vonnegut...)

"The function of the artist is to make people like life better than they have before."

Kurt Vonnegut just posted this on twitter. I know. A dead guy with a twitter account. Tweeting from beyond the grave to 114570 followers. (I will never have that many followers, which is okay, especially if I'd have to be dead to accomplish it.) But I did google it and apparently he did, at one time, probably when he was still alive, actually say this.

safe harbor, 2011, acrylic, first of the safety paintings

For me personally, within my own artwork, I find this true. I take bad things and make them pretty. I escape from my own reality into safe places. This is the whole idea behind my safety series paintings. The america paintings go one step further, so as to appear to be landscapes. They are still figurative abstracts, but with a palette change to make them feel like actual places. I'm calling them figurative landscapes. On the surface, this name sounds confusing but it is accurate and appropriate, and so I'm sticking with it.

So do you agree with KV? Is this the point of art to make us collectively feel better about our lives? about ourselves? Is it this only or is there more?

succumbing

A blog. yay?

I decided I finally need to get my social media ducks in a row. Really I've been putting this off for...well, it's time to just give in or give up or jump in or something. I've succumbed.

You can now follow me on twitter @DawnDraws, and on facebook. Will it be too much of a good thing? Who knows! I'm already feeling the pressure to be extra witty.