Bravo's new reality show "Work of Art"

While I have to admit to watching the Real Housewives programs and getting a laugh out of the bratty behavior (reminding my husband that I am FAB-u-lous compared to these wicked and ill mannered folks), there is a line that I just won't cross.  I will not continue to watch Bravo's "Work of Art."

I can't imagine a worse idea for a reality show.  My mental mantra has become "art is not a competitive sport!"  It's one thing to just not "get" someone's notion of art.  I know, I ranted about the dude who put carpet cleaners in acrylic boxes and called it art.  Mea culpa.  At the same time, my fussing wasn't loud (beyond the security officer I was teasing), to the artist's face, on national television, nor did it result in a public dismissal of the artist or his work from the museum.  I just wrinkled my nose and walked to another part of the museum to thoroughly enjoy the Renoir exhibit.  Somebody thought it was art and paid for it.  There's art in my living room that I know friends have raised a brow toward when I wasn't looking.  Let's just set the record straight.  I'm right; they're wrong! :-)

Shame on Sarah Jessica Parker and everyone else involved in the production of "Work of Art" and the public squashing of artists. 

Boo.  Hiss.  One episode was one too many.

Part II: Back Sans the Whining

So I went out to the pool, fussed for a few minutes, then just sat toasting my ankles and watching my friendly lives-under-the-deck lizard do push ups until he'd achieved quite the impressive yoga position.  I really thought about what was taking the fun out of art for me, reflecting on my friend Debbie's recent comments.  She hit the nail on the head.  I have been trying to do too much in terms of technique and media, wandering from what I really want to do and enjoy most.  I love so many different styles and types of work - pieces that incorporate fabric and paper, collage pieces that are truly thoughtfully composed, sculpture, paintings...but I don't do many of those things, at least not well.  I want to learn, but I was feeling under crazy pressure and impatient to get better faster than is reasonable.  I was becoming stressed with all that I wanted to learn to do, but had put aside the thing that is my passion - my figurative work.

I started thinking about artists who put out a modest number of pieces that are not just barely different versions of the last piece produced, but a wonderful variety of pieces that demonstrate remarkable skill.  Then there are the artists that crank out a zillion similar versions of the same item or style of piece that are incredibly successful in terms of sales, but how boring is that?!?.  I don't want to become artists #2.

After my pout-fest, I marched back into the studio.  I took the piece that I was grumping about, pulled out the stuffing, turning it inside out and got to whacking.  I made it more narrow and shorter, created a gusseted bottom, then whipped out all of my textile paints and started going to town, first with a brush, then just massaging it in with my bare hands.  I now love the colour!  I decided to take the wire "crown" I'd crocheted and woven and converted it into a collar.  Now I'm plotting how I can add more wire to create a marvelous neck piece and I feel like I'm back.  I'm back on track, I'm having fun, and I'm feeling more like I can participate in my other projects (the three canvases and the sketch book for the Art House Co-Op) without apologizing for my work and just have fun with it.

Much better!!!

P.S. for Debbie: I feel like I should buy you a pony or something since one can only dish out so many "Thanks!" and still sound sincere.  :-)

Frustrated Mom and Artist!

Today I felt compelled to pull out my box of incomplete art doll bodies and pieces and finish one project I've been messing around with for a while.  I'm sitting in the studio, grumping at the unfinished art doll.  I realize that the body is way out of scale for the size of the head and extremities I already made, and I am really unhappy with part of the design idea for assembling the piece.  Hemostats are great for yanking out the stuffing so I can cut down and resize the body.  I'm wrestling so much with scale that I feel like I'm just floundering and guessing.  I need to learn more.  See?!?


I broke my own rule with respect to art.  I looked at a few other artists' work that participated previously in the project that I've signed up for and they're amazing!  Alarmed at the thought of strangers picking up my project and guffawing (the technical term for snorting is disdain) at my efforts, I immediately started doing all the wrong things - going back to reference books to look at other artists' work for inspiration, criticizing my work and busting my own chops.  This time, I caught myself and tossed the books down, closed the web site and reminded myself that I used to do art for fun, it's not a competitive sport, and I've have GOT to knock it off and keep in mind all of the advice I'm getting from friends willing to put up with my eternal self-doubt while they continue to encourage me.

The family is all home for the long weekend.  It's actually harder for me to work when they're all home and I can hear televisions and computers, the fridge opening and closing, splashing in the pool...sounds that remind me that there's fun stuff going on outside the studio.  I think I need to take a break, refresh and defrost my brain and THEN try to get back to the project at hand. 

Thinking at the Round Table

The art part of life:  I'm so grateful for the help and direction I'm getting from my cyber-friend and mentor Debbie (even when Debbie isn't reading this!).  As is obvious in my previous blog posts, I can really ramble and go a million different directions at the same time!  This wandering of the mind makes me wonder if my charming son didn't get his ADHD from my side of the family.  Like having too many cooks in the kitchen, I just have too many ideas in my head and on my desk at the same time.  It is so easy to stop working and keep going back to reference books for that perfect idea to get us going instead of just making art.  It helps to have someone gently push me not just to get back on track, but to think about the track or path I want to be on while I work.  This is the most focused I've felt in a long time.  Art today feels like a fun project, not a stress-filled deadline, real or self-imposed.  

The mom part of life:  I think Kevin is coming down with a cold.  He is so determined to have a friend sleep over on Friday so they can stay up like sleepless zombies playing World of Warcraft, that he's coming up with the silliest reasons for all of his sneezing (I've nearly lost a window or two) and sniffles.  The story last night was that he doesn't have a pillow case on one of his feather pillows that he slept with the day before and the feathers have, after several years of sleeping on feather pillows, triggered a reaction when used without said pillowcase.  Yeah.  Right.  He should be very, very worried if he thinks he is his most brilliant at 15 and we just get more dopey as we get older.  I'm so grateful that I no longer have to stress between monstrous office obligations and deadlines and a child of any age home sick.  I was lucky to have bosses that let me bring work home when I could under such circumstances, but it was still hard. 

Being a mom and artist is good.  As unbalanced as life can be some days, I'm happy to be where I am in life.  Great family, lovely home, good friends, fun cats and a studio.  Oh, and coffee.  Is there anything more important? :-)

I made the magazine!!!

Even with two bad discs in my back, I did quite the shrieking dance in the street this week, much to the amusement of family and I'm sure a few neighbors.  I often grab the mail as I'm heading to the car to pick up kids from school, throwing it in the back of the van to retrieve when I get home.  I guess I just forgot it one day, but spotted the back of a magazine when popping things in the trunk for a trip to the beach.  I saw it was the most recent issue of Cloth Paper Scissors and almost chucked it in the house before heading out.  I realized this was probably the issue that would have photos of selected charms from the first swap in which I have participated, so while I didn't expect much, I thumbed through the magazine quickly.  There on the first of a four page spread was my charm!  I am #6!!!  Woohoo!  OK, I know they aren't numbered according to fabulosity, but I can pretend.  :-)  It was SO cool to see my name in print.  It was so hard to jump in to this project, so stressful to participate, but I did it to push myself and I made it.  I am so very excited, eagerly anticipating the next swap and project. 

This week, I'm off to the races with my wonderful cyber friends and our roundtable blog, more sketching practice, and just getting in the art groove.  My sister was here this week sharing ideas and projects she is working on, offering even more inspiration.

To quote Martha Stewart, this is a good thing.  Is that right?  It's close enough for government work.

P.S. and apropos of nothing...

I read an article in the Sunday LA Times that began, "Laprise started his presentation by dumping a pail full of sand on top the conference table, alarming executives who worried about the wiring embedded in the table for PowerPoint presentations and technology demos. Armed with three rocks, a small wooden elephant and a flashlight, he spent an hour weaving a tale of a boy on a quest to locate meteors that have fallen from the sky and to uncover their meaning."  This is for a new controller-free game device for the XBox 360, from Microsoft collaborating with a guy from Cirque du Soleil.  Apparently, just body movements run the game.  All I could think of is what happens if you twitch or sneeze...a meteor strikes your car, your spaceship flips upside down...?  I don't know.  I can imagine a few problems playing this one.  And I'd make Laprise clean up after himself.  Artists.  Sheesh.  :-)

My blog title says it all...

The only thing I've done in my studio in the last week is sleep (someone snores!).  I have been good about carrying around my sketch book and actually sketching, and I did play a little with my pretend Picasso painting (we're joking it and calling it the Licasso...Linda, Picasso :-) but I fear I've made it worse instead of better.  I guess that's what practice is for, eh?

This has been a week of being one seriously cranky momma.  Kevin's ADHD seems to go into higher gear when he's under stress or pressure.  While he has two finals a day (thank HEAVENS for block scheduling), he was constantly stepping outside to dig in the dirt or put up a few decorations for the big pool party this weekend - anything but study.  You know things are bad when the purchase I'm most excited about isn't the great decorations or the perfect tiki designed paper goods, but the air horn.  Two, in fact.  Kevin sassed me that afternoon, and I wonked away.  Oh, it was glorious!  I didn't have to argue or get into it with him and it is so very satisfying.  I would recommend this for every mother of a teen. 

I've got to channel Mary Poppins or Spongebob Squarepants or someone more cheery than myself to get through the summer without becoming homicidal or just flat out bonkers.

Focus on the positive!  With the change in some of our summer plans, I am going to be able to attend the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach again.  I love going there for the amazing inspiration provided by these incredible artists!  While plans changed too late to be able to take a class, I may be able to squeak into a  workshop.  If nothing else, they have an ATC trading wall for anyone that wants to swap.  How fun!

That's it.  I'm finished grumping.  Really.  ;-)