Doing what you can't not do

I am going to Paris in two days. All my life people have told me that my paintings look like France. I have only been there one week and now I am going to Paris. It feels like I am going home.

When I was ten years old I knew I would be a painter and I Knew in my bones that nothing would prevent it from happening.

I know that this trip will be fantastic because something will happen that was meant to happen right now. I know I will sell paintings soon in Paris.

It took a long time to get here but this is it.

People ask me all the time how do you do these things when you are just a middle class gal from Tacoma.

If you can't not do it it is easy. The only hard part of that is letting go of security. Security is only perceived. It is not true. A plane could come crashing down on you right now while you are sitting in your house being secure. Security is an illusion.

My secret is have the courage to do what you can't not do.

This true for everyone. Everyone is unique and wonderful if they have the courage to do what you can't not do.

I am writing this blog because I want everyone reading it to know this. I love potential realized. And you do too.

Monday morning plan

I am going to make a nice notebook of my paintings to show galleries in Paris. I had a friend that did this and it is a much less invasive way to meet new gallery owners. The gallery has to see who you are and feel you out before they need to see if your work is good for them. It is an intense relationship. You are totally trusting that they will promote your work and give you a check when it sells. Sometimes galleries are out of business and you never get your work back. So you both have to investigate each other.

Referrals are good for both artist and gallery owner. Having been on both sides of the fence, I know how important it is to have your artists get new work to you on a timely basis and cooperate when necessary(ie price) It is a symbiotic relationship.

Trying to get representation in a foreign country is even more dicey but the pay off is great. I am grateful now for the time when I was a gallery owner myself and an art broker. I loved it when the artists were cooperative and had good personalities incase they had to interface with the clients. I had one experience with a great artist but his personality was so abrasive it didn't matter how fantastic his work was.

How to be a Famous Artist

I have decided to document my striving to be a famous artist. If this helps anyone out there then it was worth it.

I have been a painter since I was 10 but I have only realized some accomplishment now. several decades later.

My gallery "Artforte" made me what I am today. The gallery owner took me on when I sent slides to her in hopes of finding a gallery about 10 years ago.

Well ten years is 10 years and I have done reasonably well with her. She is the only one that reps me in this metropolitan area.

My goal is to be in a gallery in Paris, New York, Chicago, Amsterdam, and Los Angeles. My goal is to be in the Berkeley Art Museum, The Met in New York and also in the Seattle Art Museum. I do not want to be a local artist. My work is all over the world just from being in Artforte and that says to me that it should be in galleries all over the world.

Why I am doing this when I am pretty comfortable now is to bless those that bought my paintings when I was nobody. To all those people that said "I am going to lay down money because I believe in her. " For them I want my paintings to increase in value ten fold.

I am doing it because I only have one life and I must strive with all my might.

I know this required total discipline and focus and action. Passion I already have but it is not lazer beam focused

I do creativity groups to sharpen the blade and get encouraged. Not enough I need to live and breath this dream.

I am a Christian so I am not starting today Sunday. but I am going to write about every step of the way to said goals and tell you all about it. You should follow this and respond if you know something I do not. Then we will write a book and make a movie etc etc etc.

why I like France

When I went to France the first time, I could feel the air was different. I had been to Germany and Italy and Prague but  the air was different in France. It was dream like. It felt so different from here that it was like floating. HOw can you not love a place that makes you float.

Now everything I brought back from there is my favorite thing, I love the necklace and earrings I bought in the tiny village where the leather work was so unusual. It was the tiniest village but they also had a high end British Clothing store where each dress was different and hand made. the clothes were remarkable in their simplicity. And femininity . and grace. they all were flowing.

The weather was not real hot but enough were you felt like you were in a warm bath.

 I am going back in six weeks and I can barely stand it. 

The french cooking classes I am hosting are just making me more and more crazy to get back there. The smell of the bread and pastries baking. and the strong coffee and the amuse bouche . well they are all calling me. I am floating just writing this. ahhhh

the city

When I was in my 20s, I live in San Francisco. I came from a mid size town and thought the city would be a better place for an artist to live. More things going on. As if a lot of people around me doing things would make me do a lot of things. Interesting things great things.

But , I found that the biggest creative things I have done we done in silence. If I cannot hear the quiet mutterings of my soul then I cannot paint them.  The noise of the city shouted out the beat of everyones  drum. The collective drum beat is thrilling but you cannot process it till you get into silence and hear your own. 

I wonder if I had moved to the country if I would have been a different artist.

rooms and roses

As spring is beginning, all I can do is wait patiently for the first all danger of frost has passed day. It is so late this year. 

Then the pruning of the roses and the hope for rooms filled with their perfume all summer and fall. Rooms and roses filled with life and excitement and beauty. 

The cold dark winter is over finally. Warm sun coming.

I adore redecorating my rooms in this old house. I like to change a lot every year. New curtains and new color on the wall. I crave the sun so I am painting it all over the furniture too. And pink lots of pink this year. and roses to match. roses roses flowing over the arbors and fences and vases all over the house. rooms with roses YES.

Beautiful Line

All these blogs out there. Blogs are like emails that go out into the whole computer world. But somebody has to read them. Why Does anybody read anyones blog at all. 

I read them for ideas and inspiration. It is like looking at pictures in magazines. Ideas flood into your brain and lots of time they are useable. 

There is a firehose of ideas  written all over the net and in books. 

What I am looking for is a beautiful line.

A new line  to draw and then change it into a woman and a story. 

A great line has three qualities. Surprise, Relationship, and Infinity. 

Surprise because it is not expected. You could not have just made it up. It is a surprise to the artist as well as to the observer.

Relationship because something inside you has to say "Oh yes I know this from somewhere."

Infinity because it never gets old. It is always new a beautiful no matter how many times you have looked at it or read it. It resonates every time. That is a beautiful line!