End of November Check-in
It’s really feeling like winter here in California… in the way that it can feel like winter on the west coast: low 40s and dark at 4:30pm. Even though I’ve spent the majority of my life on the east coast, my body has quickly adapted to the warmer weather in California and I feel so cold when it’s 45 degrees out. That’s my mini weather update. In terms of my art:
What I’ve been working on:
I submitted my application to the art call where I used my 30”x40” stormy ocean painting. I ended up calling the painting “Depths Within and Beyond” thanks to the help of ChatGPT. Here’s a secret, I use ChatGPT a lot to help me with naming paintings I have no idea how to name. It’s been great.
I finished painting the 12 6”x6” paintings to create an ocean painting collage. I need to get more frames for it to be fully complete, but I’m happy with how it turned out and I feel like I executed the concept I wanted to achieve.
I’m working on a 30’x40” painting of Yosemite, specifically Tunnel View. I don’t remember when I started it and I don’t think I mentioned it in a previous blog post, which is unfortunate, but the entire canvas is covered in paint. I’m hoping to finish this painting by December 1st for a local literary journal submission, but I’ve been having a hard time focusing on painting. I think I’ve been doing too much business admin and planning and it’s been hard to switch my brain back to painting landscapes.
Speaking of planning, I met with some two artist friends that I’ve made in the past year who create artworks similar to me in palette and theme, but in completely different mediums. We’re working together to come up with an exhibition proposal to a few local museums to see if they’d be interested in hosting our exhibition. It’s essentially like government RFP proposal writing, but less technical and more artistic. But we still need to propose activities, timelines, budgets, and provide artist bios, so it’s very similar work to the proposal writing I did at my previous job. Another secret: you can use a lot of the skills you learned in a corporate setting to a creative business.
Outings
This past weekend, I visited some other artist friends at the SuperFine Art Fair in SF. Both to support my friends and to scope out the event because it might be something I’d be interested in doing in the future.
Yesterday, I saw Ellie Goulding at the SF Symphony. She performed her songs with an orchestra and it was amazing. I’ve been a long time Ellie fan (since at least 2010) and it was like a grow with the artist kind of moment. Not exactly related to my art, but I guess it’s what fill the well.
Inputs
I am rereading parts of The Creative Act by Rick Rubin to help me get into the mindset to paint again. I think I need to be more patient with myself and give myself more space when I am painting instead of trying to force something out.
Overall, it feels both productive and unproductive at the same time. I am busy thinking about what 2024 looks like for my art and my creative business with preparing post videos to my YouTube channel, planning what art festival events I want to participate in next year, and establishing expectations for my volunteer roles across the art organizations I’m volunteering my time at. Lots of planning, but not a lot of doing, and I think I’m at a point where I’m ready to put plans into action. Which requires me to paint more. So the goal for the rest of this month is to dedicate more time to painting and letting myself have the space to create more. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving, because I will be spending it with friends and I think it’ll be a good mental reset for me. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
