pre solo exhibit stress

 I am very excited for my upcoming solo exhibit at The Other Side gallery in Utica, NY! I have been creating fairly steadily over the past year or so, and I'm very happy to be able to show my artwork as a collective group (rather than just a single piece here and there). But I am also feeling a bit stressed about it. I've had previous solo exhibits with far less stress. Part of the stress is coming from the fact that I would like to have two more pieces made for the show (which opens on April 5th!); and I would like to make them a little larger. Anyone who has followed my work on this blog knows that my work tends to be small format. In fact, I think my favorite size is a 7" x 7" composition in an 11" x 11" frame. I will have a number of these in the upcoming exhibit. But, of course, works of this size tends to "shrink" on a gallery wall. In addition, I have been wanting to push myself to increase the size of my works -- partly because I have LOTS of larger frames that have accumulated in my studio as a result of acquiring them at garage sales, auctions, and at the side of the street. Larger pieces would require me to explore "mosaic" collage techniques a little more (something I did earlier in my collage career). I like the challenge of that. I enjoy thinking about all of this. However, as most creative folks (artists, musicians, etc.) are well aware, being "stressed out" about anything is not conducive to the flow of creative process. I have also been stressing out a little bit because I have a collaborative work in progress for which I had several "perfect" border elements identified that I had somehow misplaced in my studio. SO... I spent lots of time in the studio over the last couple days, cleaning and organizing (yes, I tend to do that often, because I have SO MUCH stuff in my studio area). Here's the good news. I found the border elements! That was a big stress-reducer. I also went through a ton of beautiful elements that I had collected (and filed) over the years. So I have some good inspiration for potential compositions. I have also cleared significantly more space to work. Things had been getting a little too "claustrophobic" recently, which was impeding possibilities. I have a renewed excitement and optimism as I write this blog today. I look forward to being in the studio for the next week! And, BTW, I did something else to relieve my "stressed" state-of-mind yesterday (and I think it's good "advice" for others). I simply allowed myself to create something comfortable and enjoyable (tried to forget about having to do it). This image is of a "sketch" I did last night. Yes, it's a classic "Specht"(depth, contrast, and space)... and I like it. An interesting technical aspect of this piece, is the fact that I cut out a character from the background, black-and-white element, and brought it into the foreground. The big benefits of this, is that the gray scale is identical to the background; and the size and position remain congruent with the background. Still needs some minor cutting and finishing work, and I'm not sure if I will keep the star element in (that has gotten very cliche for me), but will finish the piece today and include it in the exhibit. I think folks will like it.