What an amazing journey I'm on!
As the president of the Burbank Art Association, I've had some amazing opportunities lately. Burbank's Cultural Arts Commission graciously included us in their entry for the Burbank on Parade. Along with the car carrying the chairman of the commission, representatives of The Burbank Philharmonic and The Media City Ballet were my companions along the parade route. I wore my ARTIST tee shirt and held the Burbank Art Association sign and waved to the crowds!
This past weekend 7 members of BAA including myself displayed our artwork in the Burbank Art Festival in the Cultural Arts Commission booth. This was the first time that the Burbank Art Association was represented at the festival, but not the last! Many wonderful connections were made, with other local arts groups, interested artists, and even someone looking to display local artwork in their building. It was an exciting weekend! I really enjoyed getting to spend time visiting with the other artists in our association. I treasure those special moments that build friendships.
This past weekend 7 members of BAA including myself displayed our artwork in the Burbank Art Festival in the Cultural Arts Commission booth. This was the first time that the Burbank Art Association was represented at the festival, but not the last! Many wonderful connections were made, with other local arts groups, interested artists, and even someone looking to display local artwork in their building. It was an exciting weekend! I really enjoyed getting to spend time visiting with the other artists in our association. I treasure those special moments that build friendships.
It is funny how artists always want to show what we are working on right now. Even though I have dozens of paintings that I could show at the festival, I worked tirelessly to finish this painting called, "Expanding Love." In it I used molding paste to create a textural base, then various paints including iridescents and interference colors. These can be quite tricky little paints. The result may look good from one angle and blah from another so I was constantly looking at the piece from different angles and in different lights while painting.
Speaking of looking at things from different angles, I am very thankful to Aletta de Wal of Artist Career Training who wrote an amazing article that I read on Empty Easel. It is actually an excerpt from her upcoming book, "My Real Job is Being an Artist." The article called, "Navigating the Three Stages of a Professional Art Career," explains what is to be expected at each stage of development, from Emerging, to Mid Career, and then Established Artist. From it I also extracted permission to linger at any stage. Considering my recent revelation discussed in the previous post, this article was timely. I found it especially uplifting and gratifying to recognize the stages of a PROFESSIONAL art career. I was able to determine where I am with the landmarks provided on this roadmap and that was exciting to me.
And speaking of me, I entered the following paintings into Artist Wanted: Power of Self portrait competition. Even though I knew about this competition for a month, it wasn't until all of the above mentioned events had come to pass before it occurred to me that these are my most recent self portraits. I painted them during a period of soul searching in 2009. Both contain parts of myself that I can see but also recognize my connection with that which is greater than myself. I also believe they are a good representation of my simplistic, symbolic style, and I like the contrast of seriousness and whimsy. One is an image of hope, the other an image of joy.
I wish you hope and joy during these days of celebration honoring the Ultimate Artist and his glorious creations. Happy Earth Day! Happy Easter! May you feel the love and grace of God on your creative journey!
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