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Old vs New

I’ve been looking at all the artworks I have in my possession with a critical eye lately. Sometimes pieces come back from galleries or exhibitions and they haven’t sold, they’ll get rotated from one gallery to the next, come back to the studio, go back out; it’s all part of how the business works. Sometimes a piece that doesn’t sell in one place sells right away in the next. Sometimes it takes a couple years for the right person to find it, and I’m ok with that.

 

But sometimes a piece has been around for while and I start to look at it and realize that maybe it wasn’t as wonderful as I first thought it was. (Or maybe I wasn’t sure but I put it out there anyway, see my last blog post on that…) And then I have a new question, what to do with it now? When I start looking at a piece of work that I really don’t feel good about putting out in public, then I have a couple of options, at least with the way I’m currently working. 

 

Summer Song 2008

 

First, maybe I can fix what’s bugging me about the piece. Maybe it just needs some minor tweaking to make it stronger. Or maybe it needs some major tweaking. I’m in the process of re-working a piece just like that right now. “Summer Song” was one of my first large mixed media artworks and I really liked it for a long time. But it didn’t quite seem to connect with anyone else. And then I started looking at it with a more critical eye and realized it didn’t seem quite right to me, either. After some more mulling, I decided I still really liked it, but I just hadn’t finished it yet. So I pulled it down off the wall and started working on it again. It’s almost finished, but I think it needs just a little more tweaking. And I’m really feeling much better about it now, so I’m happy and I’ll put it out somewhere again soon, I’m sure.

 

Summer Song in progress 2013

 

But sometimes there’s nothing that I like about a piece. Years have passed and it just bugs me more and more and I’m sure as heck not putting it out in a gallery. And then it starts getting in the way. We’re blessed to have a good sized house and I’ve got a great studio space, but it’s not like I have an unlimited warehouse to store stuff. And certainly not things I’m not happy with. And I start to eyeball the potential of a new substrate that I wouldn’t have to pay for, because it’s sitting right there in front of me and just needs a coat of gesso to start over again. And that’s the place I’m finding myself in when I’m looking a some older works around here right now. 

 

Small things are somehow easier. Most of the time, my emotional investment is less with a smaller work and because they have lower price points, they’re more likely to find that right person. So if a smaller work hasn’t sold after a couple or three years, it’s most likely because it really wasn’t up to par. I recently gessoed over a couple of smaller pieces and they’ve become new vineyard works in the wine country. I have no doubt that they’ll find new homes and we’ll all live happily ever after.

 

gesso covering old work

 

But I have a couple larger pieces around that I’m feeling the same thing about and it’s not so easy. A large work generally entails much more work and effort and emotional investment. The higher price point means they sell much slower but I’m used to that, so I’m more patient. And then I start looking at it… I have a couple right now that there were things about them that I was never completely in love with but I put them out there anyway. Then the things that bugged me start bugging me more and today I gessoed over a large 3×5 foot piece. 

 

It felt weird but okay, I think as I start to transform it into a whole new better work, it will feel better and hopefully cathartic. And it’s not on the wall buggin me anymore.

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