Well, early this morning, I finished the last piece for my upcoming show, On the Mend. It is the floor sculpture I’ve been going on about lately. The only thing is that it can’t be totally completed (in its entirety) until it’s installed on-site, which is fine. We’re talking two little details anyway.

I can’t take a finished picture of it until it’s in the gallery, either. There’s no background here to take the picture against. I can’t cut it out in Photoshop like I did the mock-up because there are too many threads hanging from it now.

Mockup:

Actual:

Detail:

As you can see, in the actual finished one, the feet (shoes) and the fish that hangs from the dinosaur’s mouth are missing. This is because I have to move this thing in parts and reassemble it at the gallery. It’s already going to be a bitch to deal with the threads and make sure they don’t get tangled, let alone a curved connecting part that screws in with a heavy fish hanging from a long string. That part is super tricky to maneuver.

But, for all intents and purposes, this thing is done, and now it’s time to start taking it apart and wrapping it up for transit, along with all the other art. Aside from this monster, which stands eighty-eight inches high when assembled, I’m bringing thirty-seven other pieces to the gallery. Hopefully, we’ll edit some out. Because that’s a lot of art, and art needs to breathe. But we’ll see how it goes. That number includes four Artist’s books.

I wish I could say I was showing all new work in this show, but only a few pieces were made over the last year specifically for this show. Several others I’ve never shown before, and then many others are from over a decade ago. However, they all addressed the show’s theme and felt cohesive with the others.

Because of that, I feel a little less bothered about it, but I wish I could crank my art out faster. I’m not supposed to compare myself to other artists. That’s truly a trap that leads one down a dark place. Though, sometimes, it’s a natural thing to do, and it happens. But, anyway.

Some of the art has been wrapped already. I’ve managed to do a little at a time over the past week or so. It seems so useless when it’s only a few miles away, but the distance doesn’t matter. It’s the same whether I was driving all this stuff to Yucca Valley or LA. I’m just glad I’m not packing them all up for shipping! That would suck.

Speaking of which, I will be packing some stuff up for shipping. I have a group show at the University of Wisconsin, and lately, I’ve been talking to a new gallery on the East Coast. They definitely want some of my work; I just don’t know which pieces exactly, and I don’t want to jinx it.

Over the last week, I’ve also been fairly busy with a new thing I joined called NetVVork, which is an invention of Paddy Johnson’s through her workshops. I’ve received much valuable information and connections from it so far. Surprisingly, there were a few people there I already knew. Artists from all over the world are there, mostly mid-career. I did notice a couple of newbies there, too. They’ve been hitting me up, too. There’s a lot of curriculum for everyone to gain from, but perhaps a little less for newbies at this stage in the game.

Paddy’s curriculum is really great and well thought out. I felt kinda vindicated that much of it closely resembled my blog series from late 2022. She had some different things, of course, and so did I. She doesn’t get into details about core values, but she’s writing the lessons for mid-career artists, not people who haven’t figured out what kind of art they want to be doing. She does highlight S.M.A.R.T. goals like I did, which is important.

Of course, I don’t talk much about networking, but it is important. I’m not a fan of it because I’m honestly an introvert. So far, however, doing it this way—online—has been very helpful for me. I’m getting very good at Zoom meetings.