Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The Sense of Touch


I delivered the following three paintings to the Cannon Beach Gallery to be juried for a January show with the theme of The Six Senses. None of them were accepted into the show but at least I stretched myself and increased my self confidence.  I was disappointed that the work was rejected but after seeing photos of the show I understood why the juror passed over these... they didn't play well with others. After all, when a juror makes selections from available works her job is to build the strongest, most cohesive show possible. My work simply didn't fit.


 Each piece is 12" x 12" on stretched canvas with a 1.5" cradle (side depth). They are mixed media, mostly acrylic with cheesecloth.  The titles are: "If I Could Touch the Night Sky", "Close Enough to Touch", and "Beyond Our Reach", and as you can see each name could go with either piece.


My work refers to the sense of touch.  One wants to touch the work because the visual texture is appealing, and also I considered the universe of stars and planets in our night sky that are absolutely too far away to touch... beyond man's reach.

It's an interesting theme. Doing work about the sense of touch was personally appealing because I am drawn to texture having worked with fabrics and threads over a lifetime. I can't keep my hands off appealing surfaces.




7 comments:

  1. Jo, I hear you and feel for you....at the mercy of the juror...Great attitude about it. I'm in understanding that we as artist will face many of these rejection points as we travel our path...Cross roads of the job. and you just never know their might be a better place for them along the way. I'm glad you share about this and showed these piece. Their a wonderful series and study. There is a plan for them just not right now though.

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    1. In my younger days I was devastated when rejected from a juried show, feeling it as a personal rejection or that my art wasn't good enough. And perhaps sometimes it wasn't good enough sometimes, but I wasn't looking at the whole picture either. When an organization or gallery chooses work for a show they look at the big picture which includes how well the individual art works fit into the whole and whether it contributes to making a great show, as well as whether it has a chance to sell. A gallery is in the business of selling art, not in making the artist feel good.
      Thanks for your comments about the work. I still like each piece and perhaps there's a place for them.

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    2. Great attitude to have Jo

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  2. Beautiful pieces, love the dreamy feeling you created with your colour choices and of course I love the texture!

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    1. Thanks Bren. You ARE the texture person. Somehow I knew you'd respond to them. There are 3 others in the series and someday they'll find a home.

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  3. Cannon Beach -- how fondly I remember that area and its beautiful artwork -- a tradition of which you are definitely a part! Next time you enter them in a show, it will be a different story. That's the way it always works... They are wonderful!

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I appreciate comments and questions.