Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Montreal Artexpo
Participated in the Montreal Art Expo this past week-end. Huge expenditure of money, time and energy for very little return. However, I think I am learning more about where and how I want to present my artwork. After having spent the summer painting in the earthy surroundings of the barn the artexpo was the exact opposite. Art as commodity and a full on business practice. I have always struggled with reconciling these two forces. On the one hand I want people to see my work and have the chance to respond or not to it but to turn it into a blatant commercial enterprise just turns my stomach, it's like putting your children up for sale. At the same time, the event allowed me to interact with other artists and meet several people who were drawn into my paintings and left with a part of them in their soul. The people who were drawn to my work almost always commented on the energy they connected with in the painting. This is more the direction I want to go, I want the viewer to feel what I am feeling deep down inside my own soul. The urgent lament of our earth. I realize that most of the people living in an urban setting don't connect to the landscape visually anymore because it is so foreign to them. I am starting to understand how important it is to me where the paintings are placed because the environment around them allows them to breath and speak or not. The barn was sacred space as such and now in the city, I must find a similar home for them or begin to work in a different manner...not sure where this art journey will lead me from here.
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