And…..
another new gallery!!!
I have been extremely guilty of putting people up on pedestals. (Insight….they always fall)….and there are a couple of very powerful women who crashed and burned in my eyes recently.
One is a major author…podcaster…motivational speaker, yada yada yada. She just came out with an awesome new book, but, I started hearing grumblings that it wasn’t her original idea.
shit
She talks about honesty so much in her book, that when I started delving into the yuck, I no longer could listen to her.
The next one is a very well known successful contemporary artist who has trademarked an art technique that Edgar Payne taught in his book in 1941.
Another one bites the dust.
Why did it affect me so much?
Here is where I go to the dark side, Luke. I’m pretty transparent about most of my life, but like all of us, I carry shame and guilt.
It bothered me because, I too, have demons in my closet around creating. Long ago, in a land far far away…New Mexico….I was a starving artist in fear.
Now, starving artists in fear who had just left their easy, cushy, predictable lives, are the most dangerous.
I received a phone call from a designer in NYC (squee) who wanted me to do two paintings “similar” to another artist that I admired.
Guys…it was a shit ton of money…and my fear eventually won over my knowing that it was not the best decision of my life. Fast forward….the original artist happened to be at dinner at the house that my painting was hanging…whoops.
She contacted me, and was ever so gracious, knowing and not respecting the designer that had worked the deal.
Boom
Hard gut wrenching lesson.
Over the years, I’ve studied and emulated other artists. Never quite sure where I fit. It was fear.
I’d dabble with so and so’s style…but…never feeling authentic. The majority of artists I know do this, to stretch and grow AND (an underlying aha) because we are in fear and worried that if we painted who we are, that no one would like it. It’s deeper than deep…at least for me.
To all of those artists that I emulated…I owe you an apology….I didn’t know who I was, and I was afraid.
My biggest apology goes to the collective…I was doing us all around huge disservice by not being uniquely who I am here to be.
Why am I telling you this? Fileting myself? So maybe, just maybe, someone will resonate.
So…y’all…I’m slowly pulling out all of the gradu inside and accepting that it doesn’t make me a bad person…just a person with lessons to navigate and learn.
Just like those two women.
Just like all of us.
We truly are walking together as one.
And now
TADA
Late December (back in ’63…yall are singing now) I got an email from Steve at Mirada Fine Art in Denver….he wanted me in his gallery….AND….could I pull off a show for Valentine’s Day.
FUCK YEAH I COULD!
Now, I’m gonna share a cool story….I met Gustavo Torrez…check his sculptures out…who was a new artist to Canyon Road Contemporary Art at the same time I was in May for an event.
We connected at a deep soul level. We decided then and there we were going to have a show together…perfect compliments.
Well…you all know how GUS works for me…yup….the sculptor for the Valentine’s show is none other than Gustavo…also a brand new artist at this gallery.
I’m honored to be in your life….and I’m honored to be Walking Together as One
