Floating Through The Almost Past

An artist who specializes in pen and ink drawings gave me the following insight into selling art not long after I began exhibiting: “I’ve learned it’s not how well I draw as much as it’s what I draw”. He goes to a couple dozen shows a year and does quite well selling drawings of sports figures and sports venues, as well as college venues, thus drawing from fans and alumni.

I seriously doubt ‘art-in-the-park’ is something you will ever see me doing – just not my thing. I prefer my work to be exhibited in galleries where there is an expectation of great art, as opposed to pickers scrounging through a flea market. Nor will my work ever be stacked ‘in the bin’ where quick fingers can flick through 50 in a minute. My work will be viewed hanging on gallery walls where it can be seriously viewed. Venue aside, the insight provided me, that subject is more important than technique or creativity, is an important context in terms of sales.

The skyline of my humble little river town is dominated by the Missouri State Capitol, a marble covered building modeled after the one in the District of Columbia. It offers several thousand different angles that catch the light in ten thousand different ways and is fodder for every artist and photographer in town. We all have works involving the Capitol – my own portfolio surpasses 60 works (not including all the efforts that never made the portfolio) plus another couple already this year.

An no one cares.

It’s like this: The Capitol has been covered so thoroughly that every new work just seems to blend into the masses no matter how creative it may be. Besides, many people don’t want to be reminded of politics in any way, shape, or form. This particular work is another capture of the statue of Ceres being hoisted off the dome for refurbishing. It is the last of the dozens of captures I made that day that I will bother working with. This one simply caught my eye and I couldn’t resist the creativity it offered. I don’t like it as well as ‘Flight of the Goddess’ which I posted a few weeks ago, but as it happens, I seem to have been the only person who liked that one. So I offer it to the ether, tossing it out to see if it sticks. Tossing it in the air to see if it the ‘what’ catches someone’s interest.