Essence of Art

I read an article on The Washington Free Beacon website titled, “Finding the Essence of Art

Review: ConstantinBrancusi Sculptures at the Museum of Modern Art”, by Emily Ferguson.  I bit and clicked on the article because of the title, “Finding the Essence of Art”.  Well, I’m always on the hunt to find a way to be showing my work in galleries and museums.  As I see it, of course knowing the essence of art will help me do that.  And this guy, Constantin Brancusi, had some cool pieces too – I remembered a couple from when I was an undergrad (work we discussed in a class).  I loved the very first sentence in the article, “Watching two people argue about art is like watching two people try to ice-skate uphill.”  I was like, “yup”.  The rest of the article was good but more review than finding essence really.  A good review though – better than the stuff I write and call a review.  But I did revisit some since of what has been bugging me ever since I changed majors back in 2012 to become an art major rather than a finance major.  I’m not on a quest to get rich – it’s why the finance major became a business minor.  All I really want to do is make a good living (like make what I make now in my non-art job) being an artist.  That’s all.  So, what’s been bugging me is selling my work or rather me not selling my work – this doesn’t go the way I want it to unless I’m selling my work.  Ok, you’re like, “what does this have to do with the article you read?”  You should read the article and gleam that for yourself.  It was interesting but this is not about that.  This is about art (pause) work.  I need to move the needle on sales so I can get to where I want to go with my art work.  Maybe chasing the gallery thing may not be for me.  I need my own customer list.  I need to control the promotion of my work.  I need to be in charge of the operation, the business, that I am pursuing. I need to figure out the essence of my grind, my hustle – how I should be putting in work.  I’m moving into a world where perceived value is viewed as actual value and I need to understand that and adjust accordingly.

I’m still doing the portfolio review at the Palm Springs Photo Festival in May though.  I’m just saying.

This is an example of AP print of the Window Pain series (yes, pain not pane), part of the Victor Valley Project.  It is a 13” x 13” chromogenic print, cross processed, medium format, matted in a 16” x 23” frame.  This will be for sell soon.

A Review of the Exhibition, “In the Sunshine of Neglect”

The show runs from January 19 through April 28, 2019.

Last night, Saturday, January 19^th, Jane and I went to the Riverside Art Museum (RAM) and UCR Arts’ California Museum of Photography (CMP) for the opening of “In the Sunshine of Neglect: Defining Photographs and Radical Experiments in Inland Southern California, 1950 to the Present”. We haven’t had a date night in a while, and we love looking at art, so the opportunity was perfect.  And I would get a chance at maybe seeing some art friends which is always nice.  Both RAM and CMP websites have a good write up about what to expect at the photographic exhibition (the same write up, actually) so I don’t need to do that.  But you should go see this show if you can, especially if you live, work or go to school in the Inland Empire – or you just love photographic art.  I haven’t been to a lot of openings, but this opening reception night was probably the biggest that I have ever experienced – there was a gang of folks out at both venues.  But it was fun and worth the price of admission – oh, that was $0.00.  But you do have to pay at the CMP on normal viewing times - $6.00 or less (students, seniors, etc.)  There is a lot of great art being shown at this exhibition and I plan on going back to better take it all in, but it was especially nice seeing those friends/CSUSB alumni though.  Like Katie, Andrew and Sant (who is also a former professor of mine).  That was really cool.  Go see the show.