I Told You So

I did mention something about being ready? Well, here are a bunch of good reasons. Sure it's Thanksgiving and sure you are cooking turkey for six hundred and your obnoxious mother-in-law/brother/children are coming from Walla-Walla, not to mention how can you concentrate with the sound of sixteen football games going on simultaneously and you've been up for twenty straight hours because the dog has to go out every ten minutes, so what else is new?

Being ready means finding time and energy to deal with all of those daily life things and still be able to seize an opportunity when it comes up. So you don't do figure studies and you think they are slightly obscene and descent people just don't paint naked, what about the other three shows?

Two of them let you enter online, so there are no shipping charges to take money from your frantic Christmas shopping and you only have to pay if you submit so why haven't you taken a look at the prospectus?

Entering shows from places outside Coos County is part of the process of building your credentials. it is undeniably correct that a gifted artist can enter and win simply by submitting one work to one show. But it is also true that for most of us, digging in the art trenches is the way to success. Ever wonder why artists like S. L. Donaldson, Kimberly Wurster or Kelle Herrick receive so many honors and yet stay so invisible to the local art scene? What about Susan D'Amico, Susan Lehman or Pat Snyder, they seem always to be among the winners and yet seldom show up at openings or receptions. They spend that time in the studio, working, building their body of work.

They do that so when a contest, exhibition or show comes along they do have a body of work ready to submit. Gee, you suppose that's why they are recognized artists?

Artists have to work in many hats, they have their work, their vision, their craft to deal with and then they have to find a way to appeal to the public and promote their art. Can you say Juried Art Show?

When the holidays come and family gathers and the pressure and the panic and the hassle seem overwhelming, will you be able to steal a few minutes to find and enter a show so that over the holidays your work will be out there working for you, or will it just be another turkey day?