Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I don't know much about art but I know what I like







First I have to say that I am happy with the sales of my class on CraftEdu. Thank you to all of you who have taken it. I haven't heard anything so I am going to assume that y'all loved the class and made beautiful canes. And if you didn't I surely wouldn't write about that here! It took me a long time to do the class and I have an idea for another class. This one will be more project oriented. And hopefully won't take me as long to finish. Of course I have several other projects in the works so there is no telling when I will get that class up. Stay tuned if you are interested.







If you are reading this (and it amazes me that people do read this) you know that I am into face canes. I like doing face canes because they are a challenge. I don't do shows to sell my work but I do put some items up for sales at various events that I might be teaching at or attending. Recently I was teaching at Cabin Fever in Baltimore. I have to admit I am glad that I don't do shows because I would hate trying to figure out what people like. Now I had a few items made up with my latest mosaic cane, the birth of Venus. Now this is my favorite cane. Up until now my favorite had been my African woman. I sold only one piece. Not too surprising since I have decided to up my prices a bit. But what surprised me was the reaction of my donated auction piece. This was made out of a cane I made last year. It is a mostly black and white "graphic" image. I think I could have sold several if I had had any with me. People commented that it was more wearable which I guess is true. But the amount of work that went into the birth of Venus cane and the end result (at least to me) puts it up there as a work of art. (sorry if I sound pompous here) I still like my mosaics better but I have decided to do a "pop art" piece next. I think I just wanted to be more whimsical not just bending to the desires of the public. (But hey if I sell some that wouldn't be bad either) I guess the other thing is getting that thicker skin that is required when people look at your work. Everyone in Baltimore was complimentary of my work but I have to tell you a story. As I have told you I am a bit of a media whore and I check my blog stats to see how many hits I get each day. Well not long ago I had large increase. I checked Polymer Clay Daily which is what has caused bumps in the past but that wasn't it. The best I could determine was that I had gotten mentioned on a Russian website that must be big in polymer clay. After a while I found the link. I had to use Google translator to translate a comment. Basically it said that my mosaic "wasn't that hard to do just tedious". I had a few comments for the author (I don't think Google would have been able to translate what I said!) It just brings me back to how grateful I am that I don't have to sit at table and listen to people remark on my work. My hat is off to those off you who go through that.







If you are still reading I have to assume you have no life. Sorry that I got to rambling on this post. Now go work on some clay!