The Great Orchid Hunt 2008

Here is a pretty picture from Wikipedia of Calypso bulbosa, the Calypso Orchid. Also known as Fairy Slipper or Venus's Slipper. I saw these orchids blooming about 30 miles out of town while on a horseback ride 2 years ago and swore to see them again one spring. This past week, some friends from work and I went out to hunt for these elusive and rare creatures....

Corinne and Erin-----Corinne has a Master's in Arctic Biology/Botany, so she brought a HUGE reference book for us to accurately identify anything and everything that we found. Here, Erin found a little prezzie in the roadside weeds....

And gave it to her sister.

This is the culmination of our search----many, many clumps of Calypso orchids in their nascent bloom state. Buds just forming on tiny stalks, they'll be open in a few more days. When I told people that I was going orchid hunting, they all asked how I would dig them up or transplant them. No! I wouldn't even touch them. My approach to orchids is as to something sacred and sacrosanct. I would NEVER dig these up. Also, they die in captivity, so why would I ever kill them with my selfishness? Sometimes, you don't need to have or own a thing to know it is good and beautiful and enjoy the heck out of it. These orchids will be there for years to come if no one disturbs them.

Also along the trail we found and identified many sprouting clumps of Lousewort. Corinne identified it for me as Pedicularis, which I promptly forgot and called it Ridicularis. (It just sounded so Harry Potter....) Oops.

I carefully dug up a clump and brought it home, recognising that I have very similar soil conditions to that which we found it in. Fun! So far (three days later) it's doing well.

I haven't had such a good time in quite awhile. This spring seems to be all work and no play thus far. It was awesome to grub about in the underbrush examining plants and identifying them. Seriously awesome! We're going out again next week to see if we can catch the Calypsos in bloom..... More fun!

Life

Beautiful plants at work: Heuchera, Lamium

The view of my 'office'.....

Reiger Begonias in full bloom....

And one of my favorite people doing a new trick her Dad taught her. You're never too young to rock out......

Opening Night!

Here is the show, installed. 15 paintings ranging in size from 12"x12" to 30"x60". Prices range from $250.00 to $1200.00. Yes, these prices are low. To be honest, I want to sell this work very easily. I want my work to get out in the world more, and if that means less money for awhile, fine. One painting sold before the party got started and two sold during the opening. The show is up until the 26th, so hopefully....

On the table, I set out a big bowl of fortune cookies---images of them appear in almost every painting in this series, so I thought it would be fun to offer them to the partygoers. I didn't guess how enthusiastic people would be at the opportunity to eat as many fortune cookies as they wanted----all were cracked open and eaten in the first hour!

Rather than set out a comment book----usually a blank book where visitors can write things----I set out a three ring binder with my artist resume, artist statement on the series of paintings, pictures of my studio and 'action shots' of working on various paintings. Also, I include a lot of very good photos of past work with dimensions, materials and prices. (If any paintings sold from being seen in this book whilst in the gallery, I would give the gallery 10%.)

The reason for this is that comment books, in my experience, are generally useless. The party is too hectic for anyone to write anything meaningful. Usually, one gets comments like, "Good show!" and a scrawled, illegible name. When I go see an exhibit, I wonder about the artist: who are they, why do they do this work, how do they do it and where? I think the binder is a good form of advertising, however subtle. Also, with this exhibit I put out my newly minted business cards so that more folks might visit my website (http://www.eeroarts.com/, by the way....).

And....the opening. We're heading into our 3 months of daylight here near the arctic circle, so although this shot was taken around 7:30 pm, the sun is still bright outside.

It was interesting to collect a different kind of comment/review from people, now that my work has changed so much. My fellow artists that visited said a lot of the same things: they like the work, they like something specific, and then we talk shop for awhile---technical issues, tools, etc. The comments/reviews from 'non-artists' were much different that in the past. I attribute this to the appearance of representational imagery in the new work. Non-artists had something more to 'grab onto,' I think. They commented in more detail, asked more questions and seemed much more enthusiastic.

And the final result?

I'm starting a new analysis project, which I hope to do after each exhibit. In this analysis, which I did yesterday morning (slightly hung-over) I listed the materials expenses for the 15 paintings, the gas expenses and mileage to/from the gallery, estimated revenue lost from taking time off work to finish the show, etc. Also, I wrote notes on what I did that worked in preparation for this show, as well as what I hope to do differently next time. (Next time is in 2 months, by the way---a solo show at the Bunnell Street Gallery in Homer, AK.) In addition, I made a note of the possible revenue if every single painting from the show sold.

I like quantifying things this way. I enjoy getting a sense of the expense of a project, the potential revenue as well as the actual revenue. I DON'T base the success of an exhibit solely on sales! However, I am seeing my work as a potential source of income, and like understanding how much of a positive or negative impact my art life has on my financial life. Just with the three small paintings sold, I am already in the black, however slight a margin it is. Yay!

Now?

I am going to give my sweetie road bike Sheila a bath and get her ready for commuting to work, starting tomorrow. It's almost +50 outside (double Yay!), and the snow is melting fast.

Spring blizzard....

Three to five inches of snow on April 29th....the wonders of living in interior Alaska.

Still Going...Alnost there....

Another in the production line that my studio has become. This one is part of an idea I've been wanting to do for about a year---but only in miniature. Sometimes I call these partial uses of an idea "light," as in, 'Branches Idea Lite." Using it in this form has only whet my appetite for the real deal, which I will get to after this show is up. So many things are going to happen after this show is up and done.....the list has gotten pretty long. There is a bottle of champagne in my fridge that will be guzzled, for one.

Anyway---the above painting, (not finished, in this photo) is called "Collect," 24"x24" Acrylic paint and ink on wood.

...and a detail of the same painting. I've been using one calligraphy pen/nib for this whole series of works. The nib has actually worn down! The first painting I used it on, I could get spider-thin, delicate lines from it. Now---only thick lines. Pretty funny. I'm going to bring it to the opening with me in my pocket. It's been my main tool for so much work in these paintings that I think it deserves a night out and some recognition as much as I do.

5 days until the opening.

I have a careful list of everything that needs to be accomplished on a daily schedule. Tonight will be the olympian effort to take care of details----tomorrow afternoon, the art goes to the gallery.

Wish me more luck.

The Work Continues: Two weeks and counting

I can go on and on about artworking, which does take up many hours of my time. Of course, I do have a "day job," which is working at a commercial greenhouse. This is a view of my office. It's pretty lovely going to an environment equivalent to Hawaii everyday----oxygen, humidity, natural light and green, green growing beauty everywhere. I get a decent wage AND really like my boss and co-workers.

When I first started working here six years ago, I felt like I had found my place and my people! Here was a group of very hard working women who loved plants, loved working in the soil, were well-educated and spent their free time in the winter months traveling the world. It keeps me coming back every season. I only wish I could get a similar job in the winter... The seasons are so dramatic here and the winters so long, dark and cold that greenhouse operations shut down for 5-7 months of the year. No call for plants of any kind when it's -40F outside and there's 3 hours of daylight.

Speaking of winter....

This is a view of outside the greenhouses.... Winter has not yet released it's hold. As I write this, it's snowing even more. A forecast for a paltry inch of snow overnight looks like 3-4 on my car in the driveway....urgh.

More than enough reason to stay in the studio today and work on the continued series of paintings.

This is one of the new ones from last weekend's heroic 20+ hour effort. "Inflorescence." 24"x30", Acrylics, gold leaf on wood. This is only a small section of it. I do love to line up images in perfect grids, as you've seen in previous posts of my paintings. This one required some offbeat composition work with the gold leaf. Kind of a nice change. I'm drawing in the Iris with red FW Acrylic ink and a very, very small paintbrush. I tried using a calligraphy nib, but couldn't find one that gave me the right line and wouldn't hang up on or scrape up the delicate gold leaf. Overall, this painting isn't as successful as say, "Garden Apotheosis," but it does have a certain something....

Now---on to more work. Two weeks from today is opening night of my exhibit. I have one week to put finishing touches on paintings, then 5 days to frame, then all goes to the gallery. Stressful schedule.

Art Update

Hours of every day have been delineated to work time and studio time. I get in an hour of painting before work, then, after 8 hours at the Greenhouse, another two or three more of painting. I'm well on track for this show at last, thankfully, as I only have 15 working days and 6 framing days to complete the exhibit. So far, so good. I can't help but think what I could accomplish in my art career if I were able to keep up this dedication, focus and productivity....

Above is another Grove painting...could be a nice, fat series developing here. This one may be titled "Canopy" and looks really good upside down, as well. Details to be added soon---the image here is an incomplete painting. Size is 3'x5'. Look at all that obsessive compulsive Shape making!

And another shot of the original "Grove." This one seems to have struck a chord with many people that have seen previous snippets of it on this blog. I hope to strike a chord with an Alaskan buyer who is sick of the continued snowy days and winter landscape....someone with deep pockets who truly needs some tropical imagery around their cabin.

Fellow artists out there may recognize this sentiment---I feel a deep thankfulness and gratitude towards "Grove." It was the outrider for a whole new series of works. The first painting of a new genre may not always be good, but it's brave. Often, it has a nascent power; very fresh and innocent somehow. Anyway---I love looking at this one. Sometimes, for a show, I'll stack the paintings as completed to get a thrill out of the growing heap. "Grove" gets pride of place on the studio wall to make sure it inspires me and the other paintings to greatness.

Gold Leaf! Incredibly challenging to work with----it's so delicate that errant breezes in the studio can literally blow any attempt to apply it on the canvas. It has such great presence in a painting that one can't get any other way---gold powders and paints just don't get the same light refraction! It's real gold leaf or nothing. (Well, composite gold leaf, anyway....don't think I can afford the "real" real thing.) Just when I think I'm done with this element, it returns in ever greater quantities. A viewer of my show, "9 North: Multimedia Alaskan Perspectives," made a comment that they didn't like the glitzy look of the gold. 'Glitzy' is a pretty bad word to lay on my art.....but I took it like a trooper.

This painting, "Garden Apotheosis" practically completed itself this week. There is a fantastic experience in making anything, when you reach a state of full understanding with whatever you've put your hands to and each choice is very simple, clear cut, and executed with direct grace. Paintings like this practically paint themselves. (There are other paintings which whine and beg and moan and talk in confusing riddles. ) This painting advanced several ideas at once in the series I'm working on. Yay! I am happy to report that "Garden Apotheosis" feels like a complete success.

I honestly have NOTHING else to report in my life except for painting.

I do have a list I've titled, "May" on which I write everything else in my life that I need to attend to----everything that is on hold until the show opening is over on May 2nd. It's getting to be a rather long list....