Why...or really more how, at least from my point of view, does anyone decide to go into the art business? Before I share my story with you, which really isn't very long, you may be interested to read these two views from true art professionals in New Orleans.
And now here's my little story...
I have literally done art since I could walk, and maybe even before then. As I've mentioned previously on the Cool Beans Art Facebook page, both of my parents are artists, too. The seed/leaf/acorn doesn't fall far from the tree (whatever the saying is). My brother is a good sculptor, but he'll never admit that to himself and he generally does not dabble in fine art. My mom was a medical artist at the LSU Dental School until she had me, and my dad was an architect until sometime in the 90s (Superdome, Sheraton, Hard Rock Cafe, Jax Brewery), but he kept his license currrent for long after that.
I had two chalk boards, plenty of typing paper, and a huge roll of newsprint, all of which kept me quite busy as a child. Once my brother was old enough to have his neighborhood friends, I would make activity books for them during the summer. I also made short little books and sold them to neighbors for a quarter. My mom told me recently that they were usually about Mardi Gras. Guess I started with my love for that longer ago than I realized ;)
In high school, I took a few art classes, but don't recall getting very excited by them. At LSU, I took several art classes, and most loved Art History with Mark Zucker, and clay and 3-D sculpture classes. Other than doing critiques in college art classes at the end of each project/assignment, I was terrified to show my work. When friends would see it, they would ask why I had never shown before. Then sometime in my mid-20s when I was working in a wine shop, it was suggested to me that I show my work in there. It was a fairly small space and since I would be working there all the time, I could keep an eye on it and see if I got any responses. Well, ever since then (about 7 years ago), I've been displaying my art.
Have I ever done a real, true art show/exhibition? No, and that idea still scares me a little. Am I afraid of rejection? Not really, but I will say that art, or at least, creating my art, is something that I don't take lightly. Regardless of what anyone else thinks of it, it takes a lot of time. I enjoy that time that I spend creating immensely. Let me share with you an example of why I hesitate to exhibit in a gallery or in a juried art show. First of all, art is very subjective, and I don't feel that anyone has the right to tell me if they think my work is "worthy" of hanging in their gallery space. Obviously, my style has to fit their mission, and that's one thing, but - and this is my second point - when I attempt to enter a juried show and the person in charge of receiving entries tells me that they only accept original works of art when I am trying to submit a lithograph - a type of printmaking, that is one print of 6 in an edition (literally a hand-pulled print from a grease ink drawing that I did with my two hands on a piece of limestone and ran through the press myself in the same type of press that the Gutenburg Bible was printed with) - they do not deserve to have my work in their show. The simple version of that is, if you are going to call yourself an art league and have juried shows, educate yourself about all the possible types of art that may be entered, or at least before you reply to the submission, so you don't sound like an idiot when rejecting someone's work. The response I got from my submission of a lithograph was, "we only accept original works of art...this is a print". Ugh! Blockheads!
For now, I show at of couple of branches of the library system in which I work when I'm asked, and I have a website, this blog, and the Facebook fan page. I don't make art to sell (except for the felt hair things). I make it because it makes me really happy, and I'm one of those people who has to express what I'm feeling or I'll explode (but I am working on the delivery for some of that). The biggest honor I've received from making art, however, is that people do want to buy what I make. A little piece of my heart goes into everything that I make - even the felt hair things - and that's what makes a sale so special. Knowing that someone likes something I made enough that they want to keep it in their home or give it as a gift to someone they care about makes me feel good.
Art is a luxury for many, but for me, it's a necessity.
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