You may already know about the commitment I have made to focus the year ahead on completing the ever elusive “body of work”. It’s not like I haven’t been making art all this time, but I know there have been times when I lacked direction and others when I simply let myself be distracted. No more. I don’t expect I will ever let up from this point on.
This blog post is titled “Inventory” and with good reason. Making art is one thing, selling it is another. My dad taught me you can’t sell if you don’t have inventory, which means you better be prepared to work. Some of my more prolific friends out there are rolling out a painting a week or even every day! I never thought I could keep up with that pace but now I do know that doesn’t really matter anymore. The main thing is to get in there and make art.
I like the idea of looking backward in order to achieve my goals. I dream of the end I have in mind and work backward to the steps it took me to get to that point. This type of thinking has helped me to achieve success in many different ways.
The ceramic sculpture, “Standing Figure” has now been constructed. To give you an idea how long it has taken for me to do this sculpture, the design was originally sketched out in 1990. I will probably explore this theme again.
I’m back to some functional pottery in the form of beer steins and mugs. I returned to several bottle and box designs from 2011, long overdue to be made. (see Texas Wildflower series). Most of these were thrown painted with underglazes at the leather stage, then applied with sgraffito and applied clear glaze over. I made 25 vases and I sold every one of them in that year. My style could be compared to the Arts and Craft movement that flourished in Europe and North America in the early twentieth century.
I’m continuing new works on canvas, greatly influenced by my new surroundings here in the hill country of Texas. One of my favorite things to do is explore the many hidden roads around the area. Each trip elicits surprise, wonder, and a magic that is in the heart of the places I visit.
