Head In The Sand Disorder

by Cooper on 8/19/2010 8:06:28 AM1 Comment

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.

We are going to talk about the "head in the sand" disorder today. I vaguely remembered it had something to do with ostriches. Somewhere between folklore, old wives tales, and somebody's good imagination, it came to be thought that ostriches buried their heads in the sand to hide. They were framed, it t'aint true. But it's interesting to think about, isn't it? Especially when you begin to feel the need to bury your own head in the sand.

I suspect there are career paths where people can follow exactly in the footsteps of those ahead of them. If you do EXACTLY as you were taught, you will succeed. As artists, one of the first things we hear is, "must find your own style". And the trip down solo road begins.

Once that magical thing happens---you realize what you're meant to do style wise, can you market that art exactly like everyone else markets their art? If your paintings are unique, shouldn't they be marketed uniquely?

And what about patrons? If they love your unique paintings, then they must be very unique people as well. And wouldn't that make for a lot of very unique relationships to think about?

And then there is continuing study. I firmly believe an artist must always be a student. If you're not growing, then you're dying. And the same can be said of your work. So you take a class. The teacher is excellent, but you have to discern what of their offerings leads you further down your solo path, and which you need to put back on the information shelf. You begin to wish for a manager at this point, right?

And then some of us market our paintings at summer art fairs, emphasis summer, condensing a lot of work into a few short summer months. By this time of summer we begin to think "whyohwhy did I apply to THIS many?" As you might have guessed, I have yet another art festival on the calendar for the weekend August 27,28,29, and I have been looking for some sand to bury my head in.

Staying on the solo path and getting it all done seems a little overwhelming at times, surely you too have encountered that? And when you are overwhelmed, are you really looking at that canvas and making good decisions, or are you just going through the motions of the way you've always done it before? I know, I know---you don't have time to think about that---you've got patrons to email, and articles to write and a show to pack for, and a painting that's not done. STOP! TAKE A BREAK!

I highly recommend it, because I just experienced one. I was on my way home from Colorado, flew into Omaha, needed some supplies, so stopped in at the DickBlick store. There on the bulletin board was a poster about an exhibit at the Joslyn, "Impressionist Landscapes" It was already noon, I knew I needed to get on home, I almost drove on by. I am glad I didn't. Here's a link to the exhibit, with an image of the painting that made my day.

http://arthistory.about.com/od/from_exhibitions/ig/landimpress/landimpress_10.--6x.htm

And that's all folks! One brief stop, one extra special painting to see, and I am ready to throw away the sand pile. One quick break was the pause that refreshed. And refreshed, I can see things on some of the current canvases that my bogged down vision couldn't/wouldn't see. Time to go grab a paint brush. I'm ready.

Thanks for stopping by.

Later, Cooper

1 Response to Head In The Sand Disorder

	Marian Fortunati via karencooperpaintings.com	18 months ago
	Hope those summer festivals are going well and I'm glad that you didn't keep your head in the sand. I'm going to check out your link right now. M

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