Much is going on! I am excited to type this right now. First of all, I went to see art consultant, Ellie Blankfort the other day it went so great, I can’t even tell you! It was like psychotherapy for artists! While it was only our first meeting, I can see that she is going to help me a great deal.
She is helping me how to identify the strengths of my work, gain confidence, how to avoid the weaknesses in my work, and how to best release my energy so I can stimulate my creative process. She seemed to open the door for me to get through this weird artistic crisis I had been going through. I am very excited and am going to see her again in a couple weeks and make it a monthly thing. She gave me some great exercises to do. Trade secrets I can not tell you.
I met Ellie back in 2005 or thereabouts. She was on the art committee for the LACMA. Each year, Howard Fox and the committee do studio visits with selected artists, and after they complete their rounds, the museum makes a purchase from one of the artists. I came close, but I did not get the purchase. But I was very fortunate to have received the visit from them at all. Honored actually. That studio visit went so well, I will never forget it. Ellie was the most encouraging on the panel, so once I caught wind of what she was doing nowadays, I contacted her and we made an appointment. I am so glad I did too.
Today I even got a big rejection, but I don’t even care because I think my visit with Ellie got me to be in the right head space to deal with it. (I was turned down for the CCI Grant: Investing in Artists, which would have helped me to pay an editor and a proofreader for the book I’m working on.)
I had mentioned Shrapnel in another post not long ago and spoke about how I was going to lose friends because of some of the information I was going to be writing about their religion, but it turns out that might not be the case at all and the friendships I have will be able to endure pretty much anything. I am grateful! That one family member might still try to sue me, but I’m not worried about it.
I am now 3/4 the way through the rough draft. I can’t believe it! I have written 115,000 words so far! I think I started this almost three years ago now, but once I got the Scrivener program, everything just came SO much easier! This last year I have been able to write out most of the book. I swear, if you are working on any kind of manuscript, you MUST get this program. I am a super-endorser of the thing, as is my partner in life, MJP. He has been working on a memoir about his musical experience for even longer, and he is just about finished.
Also, I had been talking about four paintings that I started that were really unlike anything I’ve done before (or at least feels like it). Michael says the new one looks like something I’d do. You tell me:
“The Devil in Me,” 2012. Oil on canvas. 24 x 24 inches.
This next one is still in progress, but it’s really close to being done. I think it is called, “Edith.” It’s 20 x 16 inches, oil on canvas:
The other two are no where near at a point where I’d post them. They look like sloppy blobs.
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Recently I saw Fiona Apple play at the Greek Theater. It was so majorly inspiring and amazing, I don’t even know how to put into words! Get her new album. It’s absolute genius! For her, the more hash, the better. (She was recently arrested for hashish in Texas.)
I also got a wonderful gift in the mail from none other than one of my most favorite artists on Earth, Neil Farber. He sent me a little gouache and ink painting on a small piece of paper because my publishers, Chance Press, gave him a copy of Scribbles in a Sandstorm. Neil made me a red cat wearing blue eye glasses. See?
