Valentines silly.
I know, with Christmas just before and Thanksgiving and
Halloween before that you are too exhausted to think about anything right now.
But if you don’t you’ll miss a chance to get your art work out into the market
place.
Yes, I understand, you are a serious artist and do not
pander to the commercial sector.
So you are also a poor artist?
Crass as it seems there is just no excuse for letting a
holiday slip by without having some sort of art ready.
No, you do not have to do hearts and lace. Pangburn’s has
that end of the market pretty well covered. But you should find something in
your body of work which can be promoted as a Valentine’s gift.
Because we spend almost as much on Valentine’s gifts as we
don on Christmas gifts. Now Halloween is the Nations second most popular
holiday and we go in for it in a big way, but that way isn’t about gifts. It’s
about having adult fun even if that means acting like a kid for one night.
But Valentine’s is about remembering the people who made
your heart ache, throb, or even skip a beat. You can find them everywhere,
wives, girlfriends, even that ole thing on the couch waiting desperately for
March Madness with the remote clutched in his hot, hairy hand.
So what have you got that you can re-theme for Valentines?
No, you don’t have to try to out Norman Rockwell Norman
Rockwell. Once again, Norman has
that market pretty much sown up. But you might be able to take one of Norman’s
brilliant images and make it into a collage, painting, sculpture which would
fill the heart of any real red, white and blue blooded, American girl, (I know
you are all women and capable of doing anything a man can do and walking on the
moon while frying eggs in a pan and singing Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman but really it just sounds awful to say full grown woman
in this sentence, so let’s avoid the Political Correctness and just this once
be happy with girl, not in the immature and unformed sense, but in the
blossoming and zaftig sense.) {Lovely Hungarian word zaftig, means ripe and
ready to pluck which sounds so much better than grown up.}
You know ole Norman
did the original Rosie the Riveter. His Rosie is a working gal with a sandwich
and a steam hammer and just about as hot, happy, cool and clever as any
returning soldier could want. Maybe that would be the image to start with?
What about Howard Chandler Christy’s “Gee I Wish I Were a Man” poster? Pretty cute gal in a sailor suit
which as I recall was just the Bee’s Knees a few years back, you could do worse
than start there.
Take a look around you; there are plenty of things that
speak of being together with people of importance. There are new baby jaguars
born at the Milwaukee zoo. Ya just
can’t beat furry animals for saying mushy stuff and when they are babies and
this cute well, here just ain’t much better for the day when everyone is in
love.
I’m not big on fish except with lemon butter and maybe some
tarter sauce, (I happen to have a great receipt which I could be talked into
sharing), but Jean Kyle’s mystical goldfish floating in those emerald seas her
canvases are so beautifully full of might just be the right trick for a
different way to bring in the day of hearts and flowers.
Dutch Mostert does lovely achingly, hauntingly beautiful
boats on the water and washed ashore. They conjure up all sorts of feelings of
emptiness and isolation which is what this one day is supposed to be about
ending. Why not offer a bit of mood for the moment?
Speaking of moods have you taken a look at S.L. Donaldson’s
site? There are landscape bleak and desolate as any moor ole Sherlock might be
games afooting across and still filled with a beauty which only the emptiness
of Nature can bring.
You could if you so desire go to Zazzle and pick out
something fun and original like a mug from some guy named Miranda or maybe a
ball cap by the aforementioned S. L. Donaldson. And there are lots of others
there with ideas grand and ridiculous so maybe a few minutes spent grazing
through the offerings isn’t such a bad idea.
And one last thing, you wouldn’t be in this mess if you’d
done what I suggested and started planning last January so that the spring
holidays wouldn’t surprise you.
Tell you what; it’s not too late to make a New Year’s
resolution. Let’s all agree to start right this minute planning what we’ll do
for Valentines next year. You could even dial back the calendar and start with
Halloween. Normal lead time is six months and it would only be about three
months early to hit the drawing board for next October. If you go ahead and lay
out your plans for the winter holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas,
Valentine’s, and St Paddy’s you’ll be so far ahead that this time next year
you’ll be kicked back with your feet up and a big cigar…okay so I got carried
away with the image, smoking is bad for you and you shouldn’t do it and I can
tell you as a guy who gave up because his gall bladder blew up and he couldn’t
for so long that when he could he didn’t want to that it is the best thing for
your health and Lord how I miss it every single day but that’s just my
weak-will sense of duty so you’ll do much better and won’t be stricken with
pangs of remorse and longing. Oh yes, instead of a big cigar how ‘bout a
steaming cup of Jamaican Blue
Mountain estate grown coffee
freshly ground and brewed in your single shot espresso machine?
That can be you, if you start now and plan ahead. Me, I can
always rely on my guys for the right image.
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