Art Candy

Mission Accomplished!

Its been a year in the making and I can't believe I am actually finished! I finally completed my 3 foot by five foot pastel painting for the Maple Grove Hospital. The Art consultant for the hospital came by the studio today and gave the final piece a thumbs up... hopefully the hospital selection committee will agree and won't have any changes. Personally, I am happy with the outcome of the project. This was my first large scale painting for a hospital and also the first time I had to get panel approval from the initial sketch  down to the full color pre final sketch(by the way I NEVER do full color sketches so it was a stretch for me). The picnic theme was chosen by the art consultant and the piece had to incorporate the color scheme of the room it is going into... but the composition is all me. It was a good experience overall and I am anxious to get the piece off my studio wall and to the framer. The hospital will be having an open house in December and at that time it will be up for all to see! 

Here is a picture of the final piece... it is still attached to my studio wall.

Funding my Bliss

As Gloria Gainer put it so aptly..."I will survive!" Artists are hard pressed in the current economy to make a living. I can only speak for myself when I say I've had to work harder this year than any other to make ends meet. I love working for myself, but to get paid I need to put myself out there more then ever before and have had to decide whether to create things that will sell or follow my bliss... which may or may not end up in a sale. I have decided to take the middle ground and do both. But to do that I have had look for extra funding to pay for my so called bliss. Lately my new obsession is grant funding and I have found a few promising grants- The Bush Grant, MCAD fellowship and the Jerome fellowships. I am new to grant writing so there is definitely a learning curve that I have had to deal with. I am an artist, not a writer so putting into words what I put on canvas is a little tough but I am slowly figuring out the process. I have learned fun new terms like narrative and my personal favorite budget. It really makes me think about what I need to get my idea off the ground and what my ultimate goal is for my current series of work.

On View Today... An Artist in Her Natural Habitat

The following is a segment from a video on artists in the Northrup King Building... or as I like to call my 5 minutes of fame running on cable channel 6.