Blog

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, yes, still on that Lipetsk assignment!

If you've been reading at this location every now and then, you'll have noticed that instead of giving you advice, telling you how to do something - well, here we prefer to draw your attention to something that NEEDS your attention, hopefully, raise a question mark in your thought process.  I suppose I consider that the impetus for change and progress, best comes from within.

But darn, if we don't keep you guessing as well, because today we are veering from that norm.  Today, we are going to TELL you to DO something, give a directive, of sorts.  Ready?

Go out and around that stinky thing.

Yup, that's exactly what I said.  Go out and around that stinky thing.  

Two things happened to get us to this point, this directional missive.

During our time here in Lipetsk, the constraints of geography have of course kept me from exhibiting at the eight-or-so summer art fairs that were my normal summer prior to this one.  Even so, I still enjoy reading blog posts at Art Fair Insiders.  One post yesterday was a lament from an artist who had attended a weekend event, and did not make enough money even to pay his booth fee.  Yeah, OUCH!  Here comes the clincher though.  He went on to say how the director had heavily recruited him to come to their art fair, so he paid his fee and went.  He blamed the director for not researching to see if he was a good fit for the art fair, and if he would make money.  He blamed the director for recruiting him, just because they wanted his exhibit fee.  I commented that he is the one who needs to make the decision of whether to stay, or whether to go - that it's his RESPONSIBILITY to make the call.  (I was born before they started passing out politically correct-edness)

And then this morning, I was out for the morning run.  (honesty requires me to tell you that it's the slowest run speed known to mankind)  Anyway, the second thing happened during the run, that indicated:  Go out and around that stinky thing.

Right outside our back gate is Bykhanov Park, and the location of the morning run.  Monday morning is always a major cleanup time in Bykhanov Park, because this normally busy park is even MORE busy on Sundays.  Hence the truck on the path, on my route du jour.  I do NOT know where this truck had been prior, and what it's load consisted of, and maybe the breeze was in the wrong direction, whatever!  But that was one ripe truck.  Thirty feet away, and I knew I needed to be going out and around THAT stinky thing.  Change course, take the path to the слева, (that's left for you английский)  Hey, I added a slight bit of distance to the regular route, it was probably good for me.

And yes, because we always do, let's tie this back to painting.  There are a whole bunch of ways to do that, but most of them stem from one thing:  gut instinct.  You don't believe in gut instinct, you say?  Really?

You don't get uneasy with a composition on a canvas, on occasion?  You don't question the latest direction of your work?  You never click "post" on that painting image, and then agonize over whether it's good enough or not, to meet the public?

Or worse yet, how about that art marketing angle?  What about that recruiting for some art event? That recruiting that makes you feel so special that you "forget" to do the research before you accept?  What about that client that wants to buy three paintings, that sounds to good to be true?  That wants them shipped to another country?  What about that totally lame blog post entry you just made?  :)

Sometimes we need to open our eyes (and thoughts!) so we can see that stinky thing for what it is.  To blame it on someone else doesn't work.  Go out and around that stinky thing?  Yup, it's up to YOU to decide.  It's YOUR call.

Have a great painting day!

Later, KCooper