Where I Stand

I've got all my art, art supplies, and miscellaneous stuff out of my old house now. Every thing I own is with me in Paducah. It was quite an effort getting it all here, I had more there than I remembered. I'm not doing very well on my art sales as of late. I'm marketing and promoting the hell out of my work, but haven't sold anything in quite a while. I went to a job interview today. I'm not sure how I feel about having to go back to work. I don't mind working but it's been almost a decade since I've had to work for someone else.

My Week

I went last Saturday to my old house in Cape Girardeau to pick up the rest of my stuff. My sister is taking over the house and needed me to get my stuff out so she can gut the house. I thought it would be a simple trip up and back, but I had forgotten how much stuff I still had there. I did get my collection of Artist Magazines and American Artist magazines and some art supplies I had forgotten. I also got lots and lots of art that I had forgotten about. Acrylics, some oils, pastels, watercolors, some as old as twenty years. I still need to go back next Saturday with a U-Haul to get some big stuff, and in the mean time I'm unpacking and sorting my stuff. I unpacked some art supplies today. I may have to go test them out and make sure they're still good. That'll probably set my unpacking back a day or so. Oh, well, the boxes aren't going anywhere.
AKU ANG HARI

I'm Confused

I recently ran across an art website that acts as a go-between for artists and collectors. Naturally I was excited, as I've been trying to find someone to help sell my work for what seems like forever. I sent them an email and they said they would contact me. Apparently not everyone gets in....outstanding! It will be much better if they separate the chaff from the wheat, it makes the site look much better. At least that's my thinking. After playing phone tag with a really nice lady named, well, maybe I shouldn't say, I finally got some info on their submission standards. High quality images, prices, location it all sounded great and it all sounded like stuff I already had. I emailed them my website so they could check out my gallery and verify that I had high quality work. I waited all weekend to get a phone call back from them. Finally on Monday I got an email which read:
"Your work is provocative and high quality, although it is not quite right for our market. Most of our clients (both buyers and renters) are going for more abstract contemporary “emotionally neutral” pieces."
How do you get emotionally neutral art? Isn't that contrary to what art is? So I looked up the definition of art. It reads:
"the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance."
Does that sound like it could be emotionless? I've also tried to think of something that could be considered art that is emotionally vacant. I've got nothing so far. Even a canvas painted white stirs something in the viewer. Maybe not as much as an emotionally charged piece of art, but it evokes somewhat of a stirring in the soul. I'm thinking this is going to bug me until I can find an example of such art. I also wonder what collector would want something like that. If you think of something, please let me know.
DOUG
AKU ANG HARI
www.ArtworkOfDougBaltz.com

Post

I'm still trying to figure out why my blogs are posting multiple times. I can't seem to delete the extra posts either. It's just more frustration for me. On the plus side, I am painting a lot more and have caught up on photographing my art. I haven't posted all my new paintings yet, but that's because I like to take some time in between postings. I feel that gives me more exposure to more people. I'm not really sure if it works or not, but until someone proves to me that it doesn't I'll stick with it. I'm also getting my promotional train back on track. I've opened accounts on lots of website and I lost the paper that I had them all written down on, so I've been attempting to find them all again. I may never find them all.

A Day in the Life

I've been very inspired lately, but haven't been painting as much as I should have. I've been putting a lot of time it to promotions, and time in to taking care of my family. Those things definitely need to be done, but I still need to find time to create.