Just a month out from my solo show, Haven, at the Principle Gallery. The work for the show as a whole is shaping up well and I am going through waves of elation and anxiety as I prepare. The elation comes in the way I feel the new work is finishing off and the anxiety in that I fear my judgement might be off base a bit, that what I am seeing and feeling in the work might not come across to others.
That I am working with my head in the clouds.
Fortunately– or unfortunately–that anxiety is not new to this show. I’ve had it in varying degrees for every single show I’ve done over the past two decades. This is my 19th solo exhibit at the Principle Gallery and my 52nd or 53rd solo show overall and I can’t remember ever feeling absolutely confident in how people would react to what I was doing. But so long as I have faith in my own reaction to the work, that I trust that I am experiencing real feeling from it, then I live a little easier with that anxiety, even though it never fully recedes.
The piece shown here is a new painting, 24″ by 12″ on canvas, that elicits the elation I described above. It checks every box for what I wanted from it. It has an equilibrium of fineness and roughness that appeals to me. There is a cleanness in its design that makes it feel solid and whole to my eye. It draws me in and lets me feel that I am the Red Tree here and it is a fulfilling experience.
It makes me feel good, to put it plainly.
Now, I must note that these are my reactions. You might look at it and feel nothing. That is no less valid a reaction than my own. But because I know what I am feeling is true and genuine for myself, the anxiety of showing it to someone who might not feel anything from it is lessened.
So, with that thought in mind, I must get back to work.
With my head in the clouds.
This painting is titled, of course, Head in the Clouds. I used the quote below from Thoreau just a week or two ago but it fits this piece and this blogpost so well I am using it again:
It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are, if indeed you cannot get it above them, than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.
–Henry David Thoreau
In this case, I think I know where I am…
Redtree Times 
It’s true that some might look at one of your paintings and feel nothing. On the other hand, it’s also true that they might look at the painting and feel something quite different. There’s just no way to control how others will respond to our work; that’s been one of the hardest lessons for me to learn.
I learned a long time ago that you can’t reach everyone. I had an older businessman who helped me when I was very young tell me that even if you did everything perfectly in your business there would be around 10% of the people you will never be able to satisfy, no matter how much you might bend over backwards to do so. While that business– swimming pools!– and the business of art might seem worlds apart, that lesson still applies. Actually, because art is so much more subjective than pools, that 10% number is much, much higher. Understanding this, I know that all I can do is create work that is genuine and satisfies my needs then hope that it reaches others.
Haven’t received any blogs from you in a while. Hope you are ok.
Jackie
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Hi, Jackie. No, everything is fine and I’ve been posting daily since this particular post. Sorry they didn’t show up for you. You might want to check your settings. Maybe you somehow unfollowed or unsubscribed from the blog.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.