First contact...

I headed to the Monterey peninsula to make first contact. The Monterey Museum of Art was closed for renovations, reopening in mid-March. OK. Reset. Then, off to Carmel, with attitude fully engaged ("If it's rejection, bring it on. If not, whoppee!).

I Stopped at the gallery where the staff person previously said she liked a photograph of an image I'd sold. Didn't see the first person I had earlier talked with. Those present (a painter who'd done some of the beautiful clouds that I find inspiring and two staffers) weren't thinking the surrealist angle was a good fit for them. Not surprising, as the gallery is largely seascapes, Mediterranean harbors and bucolic scenes of cows, pastures, etc. They also didn't particularly like the promo card. I was told that the card didn't give any sense of the scale of the work; big, small, whatever. They think I should take a finished canvas around with me to show what I've got.

Not sure on that. Suggestions would be welcome.

They referred me to a place down the street. That gallery featured a lot of very slick, corporate-type abstracts. Anodized, crystalized metal sheets, op art style visuals, color field abstracts. They weren't interested unless I had already been in some major museum shows ("Not yet, but soon." I said to myself). Stopped into another gallery that had some nice surrealist style work and the lovely woman there (with a fabulously sexy middle eastern accent) said they were definitely interested in showing some selected works of mine but... the owners of the gallery were currently in divorce proceedings, closing two of their galleries and consolidating all the works into the Carmel gallery. They like my work but wouldn't show anything until early next year when the current artist contracts get reviewed. I then dropped off a card at the Marjorie Evans gallery at the Sunset Center and went to do some chanting and meditation. "Om Namah Shivaya...."

Primetime

I've got a majority of the paintings completed and now it's time to do the deal, starting with the cold calls necessary to make all this go. I freely admit to being scared. I've done nice work and presented it in various ways in the past and... nothing really gained traction. This time around, I'm relying on my unique vision, my digital skills at visualization and my love of paint to create work that is thematically and spiritually challenging, while being technically skillful enough to draw admiration for technique. Technically, if I could, I'd like to work like the best of the Baroque and Rococo painters, with a style that's flashy, skillful and bombastic; combining that with the mystery of the surreal, not just the surreal, but the surreal world of someone like Poe. Now, that would be an awesome accomplishment. Boucher meets de Chirico, meets Poe. I wish!

I guess it's time to venture back to Facebook, which I've been avoiding since God knows when. It's time to network and get the word out.

Here's a copy of the promo card I intend to send out. Let me know what you think. 

"Sometimes the shortest distance between two posts...

...is a crooked path through the twilight zone." That's a paraphrase and the complete quote is at the bottom.* I think I have to go back through my artist's statement and cite Twilight Zone as a major influence in my life and my artistic journey. From Twilight Zone, I learned the compelling call of twisted narrative, turning straightforward storytelling into an interdimensional pretzel of unlikely and possibly insightful meaning. For that, folks, is a core concept of my consciousness. 

On this day, February 16, 2018, I think I've completed the hardest work. I've reinvented myself and taken all that I could from the old life and molded it into where I go from here. I've reshaped my skills and applied them to the dream, the dream I've had since I was young, the dream to be an artist worth knowing about. Long before I wanted to be a good teacher or a skilled surfer or a dedicated father, I felt the impulse to be an artist. My first awareness of intellect was a visit to LACMA when I was still in grade school. The work I saw resonated so deeply that it amazed me that I was paying attention. I knew I was young, too young for such an impact from the work in a museum. But, what I saw in the museum that day clicked something deep within me that has focused the primary intention of my life ever since. 

And, now today, I've got a series of serious works that I'm preparing to show to the world, in an attempt, courageous or frivolous, to change how we think and feel about what we see.

*Narrator: "In a way, it can be said that Walter Ryder succeeded in his life's ambition, even though the man he created was, after all, himself. There may be easier ways to self-improvement, but sometimes it happens that the shortest distance between to points is a crooked line - through the Twilight Zone."

First try

Welcome to my site. I've done a site or two before but I was never all that serious about the construction or the content. This time, it's more for real and I'll keep it updated on a regular basis. If you're following along, nice to have you visit.