A short update for the short update

In my last post I wrote about the series of three paintings with crosses on them and that I really liked only one of them (that's why I showed only one of them on the blog). What keeps amazing me in the art world is that no matter what I think about pieces I make there is always somebody who really likes a particular piece. (Well, maybe I should rephrase that... I'm sure I also produce stuff that nobody likes but typically the total duds don't ever leave my 'studio'). So what the business of art really boils down to is to match the right piece with the right art-lover (and prospective buyer). Easy, right? Yeah, right. That's why it's called "starving artist" ;)

But seriously, not all art is great and a stroke of genius. But even these pieces have an audience and very often it's exactly those pieces that friends seem to like best and sometimes even buy first! I'm not sure why that is, but it's a pattern I have seen so often that I start to believe in it. And the argument that "these people just don't know any better" is not valid, because it's often artists who love a piece the artist doesn't exactly love. One theory might be is that we don't like a particular piece quite as much because it is not what we were trying to do with that piece. For instance the artist might go for a specific effect and it doesn't come out quite right. But while focusing on that specific spot in the top left corner of the piece, the art-lover sees the harmonious composition, or is distracted by something particularly well done in the bottom right. Or maybe it just matches his/her sofa particularly well (sorry, couldn't resist).

Or it could be that you make a series of pieces and love one of the particularly well and totally overlook that another piece from the same series is quite interesting too...? Well, maybe this is the case here. The cross shown on the left is the second one of the three I mentioned in the earlier post. I still think it is far less interesting than the other one, but - hey - two people have now told me that they like this one much better than the other one. Once I see greenbacks I'll be convinced. In the meantime... here we go. I mean... there are some nice touches on this one too. For insteance, who noticed that there are several faces hiding in the gray surroundings of the cross (ok, with a little bit of phantasy)

And as I'm writing all this down, here is another example on the same topic. A couple of months ago I submitted three small prints to the Lessedra Small Print Annual in Sofia, Bulgaria. Two of these prints are on my print page (Lake and Lion). The third print I submitted is interesting, but - well - I didn't put it on my web site for various reasons. But obviously, the folks at the Lessedra gallery thought that this last one must have been the most interesting one, because when they produced the catalog for the exhibit they put that third print into the catalog, and not the other ones (only one image per artist makes it into the catalog, typically). So there you go.

Of course part of the reason I didn't put "Arbeit macht frei" on the site was also that it has sort of a strong message. And I didn't create that print to make a specific political or other statement, but just because I wanted to make something that looked futuristic, technical and contained text using a linocut. So maybe I just felt selfconscious about the piece. Anyway, enough of that, here it is. Let me know what you think - just post comments to the blog. I made that piece over a year ago already, actually and have barely shown it to anybody...

Short updates

Dear Web,

Sorry to be so silent lately but it has been a particularly busy few weeks. One could even say: it was so busy that most people would say this was a busy half-year... Unfortunately, a lot of what happened in the last few weeks was not exactly pleasant for me, however there were also a few positive events. I won't go too much into the negative parts and instead focus on the positive:

The "Topology" piece (see an earlier post) didn't sell at the auction, but I sold it to somebody who can really appreciate the content and subtle humor of the piece just a few days after the auction *yeah*.
I also sold a copy of "Different spin II" (see also a recent posting). Two sales in a month, that's good news!
Now I just have to increase that number of sales approximately 10 fold and I'll be able to quit my job without a pay cut. (Fat chance :( )

I didn't create a whole lot of art this last month (as I said it was busy). I did do some glass work and I learnt a lot there. But as I'm quite a bloody beginner in glass blowing that doesn't really mean all that much.

I also made a series of three paintings with a set of three crosses as theme. These pieces were inspired by a friend of mine passing away. Two of these were just sketches and I show one of these on the left. I learnt something fascinating from this piece (I sort of knew it before but this piece really drove the lesson home): If you just whip out something without too much thinking you sometimes end up with a pretty interesting piece. If you then try to do it again and "do it better", probability is high that you mess it up and it becomes stilted, boring and generally "blah". Sadly, that's exactly what happened here. Therefore, I show only the first of the three because I think it's the best one (and from there it went downhill, so to speak).

Well, that much for updates. I am hoping to use some time during the holidays to update my web site (finally). So check back in a few weeks and hopefully all will be shiny and new.

Yours,

Andreas