Mounting Difficulties

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I'll admit it - I've been totally neglecting mounting my artwork. And for the simple reason that I was intimidated by the idea. What if it wrinkles? What if it tears? (Where am I gonna store it all?!)

Well, I'm over it. With the huge backlog I've accumulated, I couldn't afford to let it just keep piling up, so I took the plunge. And it turned out to be not so scary. Naturally, there is a significant danger of damage, but slow and steady does the trick.

It's actually just a combination of stretching watercolor paper and pasting wall paper in the end (see still moist results above). Silly me. Now if I could just find places for it all... any volunteers?

How to Fail as an Artist, 6

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

If you want to get ahead in the art world, you have to know how to play the game. But it helps to know that the fastest way to get ahead in the game is to take the normal rules and turn them upside down.

For example, if you're going to write a paper, you probably know that you'll get a bad grade if you 'Beg the question' instead of really making a proposition.

Completely the opposite for success in the art market. For something like the last 50 years, artists have been making money off the dregs of their genius forebears by begging the question, "what is art?"

It goes a little something like this: The less it looks like art, the more it *is* art. The more people question if what you are doing is art, the better. It's kind of like an extra long, extra expensive episode of punkd.

And the biggest secret to this is that rich people love buying stuff that's inexplicable. That way, they can claim to have this extra-refined sense of artistic taste that you just wouldn't understand. (Remember the emperor's new clothes, anyone?) But of course, they still need their investments to appreciate in value, so it's not quite as easy as all that.

Still, it's good to know that you don't have to deal with actually making art to be an artist. As long as you can beg the question, you can rise right to the top.

Next week, how to make platinum, jewel -encrusted skulls that *don't* look like they're supposed to be on your stick shift.

Watch out for those viri

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

My brain is incapacitated this week due to some virus, so I'll have to avoid thinking for this post.

I decided to let you have a look at the frame job I did for this little iris painting. I've gotta say, the frame can really make the painting. It looks 400% better now.

I wouldn't normally think to use a mat with a painting, but the painting is 4x6 and the frame is 5x7. I used silk to spiff it up, and it looks quite classy.

Please join me again next week when my brain should be in working order to do another installment of 'How to Fail...'

By popular demand (sort of)

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Here's some raw, wrinkly bamboo. I just couldn't resist using some blue. I still have to work out mixing proportions for the ink; I'm using too much binder.

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