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With the New Year come new opportunities and challenges. As an artist, finding a balance between creating new works, medical needs and the process of finding venues can be daunting. Do I work on art for the first 6 months of the year and then concentrate on the paper work aspects of entering shows and chronicling my work during the last half? How do I afford out of state shows with the costs of shipping, artist insurance and entry fees? What's the right venue for my work and what artist calls should I avoid? If all an artist had to do was create, with no other demands outside of the art itself, life would be easy. The challenges of getting art out into galleries, juried exhibitions, and museum shows is the most difficult part of being an artist. I have a lot of work ahead of me to meet that challenge and achieve my goals for 2011.
With that in mind, here's what's been happening since my last blog entry in October of 2010. I made it though another surgery in November and have a few more medical procedures scheduled in the coming months. I'm feeling better with my breathing now but my legs still seem to have an agenda of their own. That's the medical news in a nutshell and that's more than enough for these pages! Recent shows have included: "Ae Presents: Hitchcock," a group show that included my fused glass piece titled, "Angst" in Minneapolis, MN; "Art Ability," a group show that included my fused glass piece, "Curmudgeon," in Malvern, PA; "Resident Artist VII- Agents of Orange," a group show that included my fused glass piece, "Crayola II," in Minneapolis, MN; "Queer Me 2011 - Art & Gender Politics," a group show that included my mixed media collage, "An Orange Bison In America," in New York City. Reproductions of my work have been included in two publications: Hektoen International Journal of Medical Humanities and a Zine created for "Art, Aesthetics, Politics, Religion, and Censorship in honor of David Wojnarowicz," a panel discussion and screening of "Fire In My Belly." The pieces chosen to be reproduced were, "Manic Heart" in the Hektoen Journal and "Rosary for a Minority" in the Zine.
The last bit of news is that I'm getting ready for the 2011 Annual VA Art Competition. The show is from 9-4pm on Thursday, March 10th and Friday, March 11th. I'll have three pieces in the show which include: "Warrior Moon in Red" in the Glass Category, "A Night At The Carnival" in the Special Recognition - Physical Disabilities Category, and "Fingers of the Amazon" in the Sculpture or Assemblage Category. That last one could change since I'm not completely done with the piece yet.
To all who read this: Best Wishes for a joyous and successful 2011 and don't forget to support your local arts programs. Your patronage is especially important in the current economic crisis and with so many cuts to arts funding all across the country.
