Catching Up

It is December 5, 2009. I have not written since September!!! cannot even recall the order of things and I guess/hope/assume it doesn't matter.
What is in my mind to write? Feeling like I have to "report" on my progress. How odd, just having a blog can have that thought attached.

So much art biz to do - here sits my guestbook from the show at Delaplaine, with a bunch of nice comments and email addresses to add to my lists. Here is one: "they are filled with sunlight, beauty, and spirit."

I still cannot quite believe/accept that someone just popped into that show, fell in love with a piece of work, and paid $2000 for it. What is interesting is that when I look at much of my work - and really see it - it looks priceless. How can you put a price on something that moves you at a deep level and is soul nourishing. There is no price.

There is "the marketplace." More on that later, or when I figure that out. Hah!

During that show I left town to spend 3 weeks at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, my favorite place on earth beyond my home in Takoma Park. I think a lot of artists feel that way about art colonies, because they give you the time, space, protection, and nourishment to just flow your creativity full out. Full out, a phrase Betsy Damon used years ago, saying that women often have a hard time being full out with their art. (Sexisim sucks).

I had a new and different experience at VCCA this time. Nancy Manter asked to see my work before she left, and she advised me then to have some others come in to see it, as well as to see the reproductions of my older work - the visceral and ethereal stuff. Something life changing happened there - as other serious arts people gave my work full attention and then gave me feedback. Each responded to different work!! And I welcomed this!

By the time I left, and mostly in connection to my open studio, I had sold 8 encaustic paintings and traded a ninth for some writing about my work. One was even sold to a (!!) western European white male visual artist!

I have still not integrated this and "recovered" from the shower of love, respect, and actual money that came my way. And even more came after that.
Whew. So overwhelming to write that I'll end the post here.