Coastal Images and Galleries

As I mentioned last post, the only new piece of "professional" art I have done in the last year was a piece for my father. He had been bugging me to create a new piece of artwork for his office. I asked him what he wanted. A portrait? Maybe some something involving bones? Or details of the hands and feet? (He's a physical therapist.) No. He wanted something depicting the local area.

I squirmed a little inside hearing that.

The local art scene is filled with plenty of coastal imagery. Crabs, pelicans, bayous, beaches, crawfish boils, Barq's root beer (first bottled in the area), and so forth. A month after I had graduated college a local gallery was having a reception I believe for a grand opening. My parents said I should attend in hopes of meeting some local artists and possibly getting connected to the art community.

It was filled with a good deal of older people. It felt like everyone knew everyone else, as if it was some exclusive club. I can't recall any of the paintings or photography, but I do remember it was the typical things of coastal art. So after that I had decided that perhaps I wasn't going to be involved with anything locally.

And a year later after attending that gallery I was sitting down getting ready to do my first coastal art piece for my dad. I had gone out and taken some photos of the area for inspiration. Truthfully I enjoyed doing the piece for the simple sake of getting back into my chalk pastels. I realized I really do enjoy working with that medium. It was enjoyable and relaxing. Why had I been avoiding it for a year?

Then the teaching thing started and I ended up meeting this wonderful lady who decided to help me out as she was a retired art teacher herself. Turns out she knew someone who was opening up a new gallery in the area. A gallery that wanted to offer a different kind of art than what was found in all the other coastal art galleries. They wanted to do a section called "Art for the Very Young" and six of my illustrations were selected.

Since the grand opening last week I have sold two prints, which I guess is an accomplishment. First art I've sold. My goal would be to break even with the cost of printing, so we shall see how it goes.

Back Into Bloggin

Alright let's give this blog another try.

I originally started this blog over a year ago when I was a fresh graduate out of college. I started out by posting up a few things I felt inspired me, but then it fell forgotten. The truth of the matter is for a full year I was very lost. I didn't know what to do with myself- professionally, creatively, and personally. Leaving college and coming back home was hard, and I stopped doing art.

Well not really true.

Truthfully I have two different types of art styles. While in college I had almost completely suppressed one of these styles to focus on the other. After college the first style broke through and I spent a good deal doing art in that style. That style could be called anime or manga style. Not that I'm really ashamed of it, but I did avoid using it in college. It was generally frowned upon, and often when the anime style leaked into my other style my professors would point it out and say to change it. It was seen as unoriginal and unprofessional.

But I've always done anime style art since I was in middle school, and I enjoy doing it. I don't do it for anyone but me. So for almost a year I was doing nothing but anime art, while I almost didn't even bother to do illustrative or my "professional" style of work.

The first real professional (I need a better name for that style) piece I did was back in June. I did a piece for my father's new clinic which had much more wall space than his previous clinic. He had been asking for art for a while and so on his birthday I gave him what he wanted.

And then I went through an art block all together. I wasn't creating any art- anime or otherwise. However this is right when I got my teaching job, and my first year of teaching art to sixth graders has been very time consuming.

But I have been feeling a shift to get back into doing more "professional," illustrative work. For one I got into a local gallery featuring my illustrative work. My more children based illustrative work. I've finally come to a conclusion that I needed to stop running away from my illustrative art and face head on again. So what that I'm out of college- start creating new (professional) art again.