Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before. . .

Or Don’t Believe What I Say, Just What I do.

Ready for Pro Arts Open Studios 2014

Those of you who know me well or who follow this blog know I have a love/hate relationship (well, hate maybe too strong a description) with Pro Arts East Bay Open Studios. Every year, after of taking a good 2-3 weeks to prepare the studio for outside viewers; spending two exhausting 7 hour days mostly standing on my feet, chatting with friends and strangers about everything from my work to THEIR work, to the weather, or the A’s/Giants, or the price of potatoes; and then another 2-3 weeks putting the studio back in working order (now, where did I put the ­­­­___________?) I tell everyone within earshot, “This is the LAST TIME I do Open Studios. You heard it here first.”

And every year it seems something happens to change that very firm pronouncement.

This year, two things happened. The first was a shocker. After doing Open Studios in our expansive 2200 Adeline live/work and work lofts building with only one or two other artists for years, this year 10+ signed up! How could I not be part of this massive “block party”? I honestly couldn’t say “no”.

And then, much to my surprise, another bump came from having my work on the wall at the Pro Arts Gallery along with the 400+ artists who are participating in EBOS. This year it was a bit more challenging putting up something representative because the Pro Arts people insisted we hang an actual piece as opposed to just putting up a picture or poster of our work. After I deemed this wall piece, Broken Dreams, made specifically for the 16”x16” square each of us had for display too fragile, I went with plan B.

 

Plan A - Broken Dreams - porcelain with glazes and oxides on painted masonite

Plan B - Eggs & Nests -  stoneware, porcelain with glazes & oxides

The glass whatnot box provided a perfect shelter for three of my new Egg/Nest series. Unfortunately, its mirrored back wall doesn’t lend itself to a good, clean picture, but it gives you an idea.

But more importantly, this display caught the eye of Aimee Le Duc, Director of the Berkeley Art Center, where, this year, BAC began a new partnership with Pro Arts to showcase the breadth of talented artists who participate in East Bay Open Studios. BAC launched an affilitate exhibition of “work from this year’s most compelling EBOS participants”. Aimee chose ten of us for the exhibition, "Known Associates", which opened on May 31 and runs through this coming Sunday, June 15.

So there you have it. All my bellyaching year after year and yet, year after year, doing Open Studios has been opening doors for me in so many different ways.

It’s only been five days since I closed my studio door to the throngs, and I'm still exhausted. I’m already thinking I truly am getting too old for this. This really IS the last time I do Open Studios.

You heard it here first.

Once again taking the Open Studio Leap . .

Or Just Another Excuse to Clean up the Workplace?. . . 

Right brain vs left brain

 

Sometime ago when I most assuredly was not in my right mind (or more likely having lost the memory of all the stress, hard work and angst that was bound to come), I agreed to join my good studio friend and artist, Tyrell Collins in participating in the Annual Pro Arts East Bay Open Studios this year.

When I had my studio in a separate building at our house in West Berkeley, I managed almost every other year to join the over 400 East Bay artists who most generously opened their doors to strangers and friends alike. There, I was on a virtual corridor of studios and so, more often than not, people came who had no idea about my work, what they were about to see or about me personally. I’ll never forget the woman with 6 year old in tow who came in from seeing my “Open Studio” sign on the corner of 8^th Street and University on a Sunday and asked me, “What are you asking for it?” I wasn’t sure which piece she was interested in until she made it clear she was wondering what the rental price of my studio was!  Open Studio/Open House – same thing in her mind.

Opening my studio has always been an interesting ride, although exhausting. What I remember now very clearly is it usually took me about a month to clean and organize the studio in order to show the work in the best light and then another month to get the studio back into working order. And this was when I was a lot younger! This year I will be spending the next couple of weeks before opening on June 1 actually working on the pieces I hope to show. Hopefully, that will give me enough time to get the studio in “show” order. If not, at this point in my life, I’m getting more attuned to the attitude, “what is, is.”

But already, there has been a lot to do.  Once I decided to actually pay my Pro Arts dues and sign up, there was a list of dates to remember – a date for getting the digital image and studio info to Pro Arts so they could include it in their 64 page color directory; a date for getting the 16” piece I planned to install in the Pro Arts gallery for the month long exhibition; a date for posting 8 images on my personal online Pro Arts page along with my artist’s statement and resume; a personal deadline for getting postcards and any other marketing materials printed . . . and I’m sure I’m forgetting something else I’ve had to press myself into action to accomplish in the last few weeks.

All this, of course, on top of getting the work done. And not surprisingly, getting the work done is really all that makes me feel that I’ve accomplished anything whatsoever.

No wonder very few of the artists I know have little if any interest in marketing their work. It’s a matter of dusting off and revving up the less often used left sides of our brains. Which makes the case for my point  – not being in my right mind when I signed up for Open Studios.

My only hope is this momentary lapse will be worth the effort expended.

Maybe you should come to my studio on June 1 or 2  11 AM – 6 PM and see for yourself?

http://db.proartsgallery.org/ebosGallery_13.php?iconNumber=210