Good Morning, Gents!

Just a couple of collages today. 38 pieces representing over 572 hours of work. The oldest is the Blue Jay in the first pic (2021), but the rest of these are between 2023 & now.

I outlined a pair of Bluebirds in a snowy scene last weekend. I hate it. I can't tell you why, but I hate it. Burden of the artist, I suppose. You spend an hour or two sketching something out. Everything is fine. There's nothing wrong. There were no problems. You get done with it. Ready to move to the next step, but something holds you back. You can't shake it. You don't necessarily love the piece. You don't need to. It's not really a big deal. Until it is. Like I said, I can't tell you how it turned to hate or even why, but I hate it.

So, this wonderful, long weekend, I'll be starting something different. There is a couple who have been pestering me to make a Cooper's Hawk. I started it about 6 months ago, then had an accident about halfway through that destroyed it. Unfortunate. They may buy it, so I may start that. I need to get moving on something. I talked to that cute banker yesterday & she said that she wanted to see whatever I was working on.......if I came in next week. Zoinks.

August sales have been sluggish, which isn't super surprising. It's hot AF up here. And that's not likely to abate until about mid-September. However, I was able to get some drawings into the gift shop this week. I'm very interested to see how they do. So far, at this location, every step I've made has been off the back of success with something else. Because the calendars did phenomenal last winter, she let me bring in some greeting cards. Because those have done phenomenal this year, she let me bring in some drawings. Four to be exact. I'm hoping they exceed expectations also, but we'll see.

Anyway, if you have a hobby that you spend dozens, even hundreds of hours on, it might be worth your while to see if you can make some money off of it. At least make it pay for itself. Maybe turn it into a part time side hustle. Even a full time job if you can. There's nothing wrong with exploring the option. What have you got to lose? What if it's no good & this endeavor proves it? Well, then at least you'll know.

Might I say that whether people buy it or not doesn't necessarily reflect the quality of your work. As I've shown here the last couple of weeks, my B list pieces (by the way, some of which aren't "good" enough in my opinion to warrant including in this collage) out perform the ones you see here (my A list). The very first one in the collage (the Downy) has been passed over several times for a B list piece. (The F is wrong with you people?) Even if no one buys these or no one buys any of my art, I still think they're intrinsically valuable. I can draw exactly what I see. I think that's intrinsically valuable. And if this generation of people can't appreciate it, it might be because my work sucks, or it might be that this generation sucks & future generations might appreciate it. That's what I think & I think you could say the same thing. I guess I would say to measure worth against your own standard, not society's nor even whether it sells or not. Only 7 out of this list of 38 have sold so far. But 2023 til now is only 3 years, so it's still early.

Besides, there is another problem besides no sales. And that's selling everything. If all of these sold in the next 6 months, I would be unable to maintain my place in the locations I'm in right now. And some of you probably know how I HATE giving up position. Not to mention, I have a more than full time job, so that would be a lot of work & not a lot of time available to do it in. I'm in this for the long haul, so I'm kinda thankful that this is taking its time doing whatever it is that it's doing. I wouldn't mind turning this into a full time job (if it's capable of doing that), but in the meantime, I'm very happy not to get in over my head.

Anyway, hope all of you have yourselves a 3 day weekend too & enjoy!