This drawing was a true hard labor of cruel agonizing love.
So what do you think Miso? Do you like it? It's you.
When I started this drawing it was about the sailboat. But who are we kidding? It's about the cat. I toiled over this drawing until I went slightly deranged from solitude. Now I'll spend two days among others until they drive me mad, and then begin work on another drawing.
I once knew this guy named Remmy. Remmy could spot a police car from far away he said just by their headlights. "You see that car?" He would ask pointing an index finger waaaay off into the distance. "No, not that car. The one behind those cars, past the car dealership, past the sand lot, and the Arby's four lights past that. Do you see it? That's a cop car." And as certain as at least four people had their wallets stolen in Vegas over Memorial weekend, by god it was indeed a cop car, every time. How did he do it? "Can you tell airplanes apart when they're up there?" I asked Remmy pointing at the sky. "No." He replied looking at me like I was crazy. "What about guns? Could you hit a target from a half mile away?" But again Remmy simply looked at me like I was crazy. I just couldn't understand why or how someone would have such remarkable visual skill but decisively only use it for the one thing. One practically useless thing. Perhaps I was just jealous of his vision.
When I draw I use a lens to gage my process. When time permits I draw for hours on end. Yesterday I put in ten glorious hours and it can be like driving on a freeway at night not realizing you're going 95 MPH, when you think you're going 60 MPH, but it feels like you're only going 30. Ten hours later things get drawn I didn't mean to draw. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I hear certain movie directors say they never look at the small screen on their cameras when they direct, they only focus on the scene. I have to look at the small screen from time to time. Back in the day, when I used to paint, before cell phones, I'd shoot my paintings with a Polaroid just to see my work in process through different eyes. Circa 1992 Los Angeles art galleries made artists shoot their works and transfer all the images onto tiny square slides. We'd bring in our slides, and the show coordinators, gallery owners, would look at them on a brightly lit backboard through shot glass magnifiers. Much in the same way fashion shows pick their models, and how photographers build their portfolios, with brightly lit backboards and tiny square slides. They want to see your works on small screen. Perception. Everywhere else around the word just bring in your drawings into the gallery, that's what portfolios are for, but nope, not Los Angeles, SLIDES or they wouldn't even consider looking at your work. Now, you have the Internet.
The most maddening thing for me personally is photographing my finished drawings for submissions. I don't care how expensive your camera is, there's only one way to see art properly and that's in person. Once show coordinators become familiar with your work you don't have to jump through so many hoops. Thankfully by then you can just email pictures so they get an idea of what you want to display.
Pricing. I've heard all the jokes, made a few myself, about how some artists arrived at the outrageous pricing of their work. My sailboat drawing will be priced at $600 if I sell it myself. More, much more if I go through a gallery, of course. Why? Sure you're only buying the milk, but the cows have to be fed too. Did I just compare gallery owners to cows? Oops.
Here's why the original price is $600, I only sell originals, never prints, they're large scale drawings, and it's a fair price considering artistry, parts, and labor. I've yet to meet another living graphite artist who draws like me. I was first a painter. You never forget or undo your original approach to art. My brother would instruct me to add a zero and sell the drawing for $6,000. Correction, and attempt to sell the drawing for $6,000. Outrageous. I'd rather sell ten drawings at $600 apiece to regular patrons than one drawing at $6,000 and risk not selling another drawing for months and months because my prices are too ridiculous.
I realize you kids today have the Internet, but nothing replaces an actual exhibit. Because, again, art needs to be seen in person. Furthermore YOU need to be seen in person, meet other artists, curators, show coordinators, press, gallery owners, and business operators. You need to meet these people, shake their hands and have a drink. I absolutely hate schmoozing much for the same reasons I hate dating but it needs to be done or nothing gets accomplished. They already know artists are pretty much alcoholic assholes. That's why they need to meet you, and see you're not only talented but can also be a decent human being if only when it counts, then they'll be more willing to work with you.
Information cards. These cards have changed over the years. Before social media the information cards were short and sweet. "(ARTIST NAME) SAILBOAT 18x24 graphite." And that would be it. Now they want you to write a small paragraph about the drawing. Three or four sentences. Why? What for? Art sells itself because the image, the style, the subject matter, clicked with the buyer. Gratuitous words aren't necessary on info cards, are they? Do you want to know how and why this drawing came to be? Follow my Instagram: 2_stray_cats
I finally saw REBEL IN THE RYE. I love this movie. Every artist should watch this movie.
Two movies every artist should watch are ANONYMOUS and REBEL IN THE RYE.
Signatures. I'm on my second signature. My first signature had 14 letters in it. Way too long. Nonsense. Now my signature has only 5 letters. Your signature is not why people buy your art. If it is, you're not selling art, you're selling your name. Make sense? John Lennon made drawings any five year old could make and instantly those drawings were worth millions of dollars because of his signature. He wasn't selling art. He was selling his fame through glorified autographs. Brilliant musician. The very definition of a humanitarian, or so I hear. Terrible artist. Please, I'm begging you, watch REBEL IN THE RYE.
Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola have great lingering images in their movies like in GODFATHER II, where Vito Corleone, as a child, is sitting in a chair in his tiny room on Ellis Island, looking out the window. It's just so beautiful, powerful, like a painting I would hang on my wall. I hate movies involving sports but I love RAGING BULL. Scorsese directed that movie like an artist. Every scene in CASINO makes me want to come to Vegas. I love visiting Vegas. Living here however... Ehhh. I'm pretty much here just to die. So I've come to the right place.
Artists watch movies for the directors. I follow male actors because they're hot. Keanu Reeves. Tom Cruise. Channing Tatum. But I watch movies first and foremost for the directors. I wish I liked female directors but they never seem to direct like artists, or story tellers. They just point and shoot, sloppy, lazy. No care for lighting, angles, dimensions, colors, etc., etc., all part of visual story telling. In my lifetime the only other female visual artist who's work I absolutely loved was Simone's. It's not because they refuse to give women a chance, it's because women refuse to earn it. Bleed for it. Starve for it. Go insane for it. Battle hell for it. Simone took it one step further, she died for it. Give me more than a scene from the corner of my street on any given weekday. Is that asking for too much?
I could never direct movies. I love Shakespeare too much. Everyone would die in the end. Everyone.
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