Thursday, March 30, 2006

one is silver and the other's gold

thankyou
thank you for all of your ideas & support on organization and perfectionism. it has helped me gain some clarity and feel in good company. i'm going to continue blathering on about my current thoughts, realizing this is just where i am at right now, so bare with me please:) OK, so that Quaker song "make new friends, but keep the old... (see header)" is resonating with me in my thinking about art and life symbolically speaking. my current dilemma is deciding: an illustration path versus a painting path. it gets me in a head loop connected to money, which is connected to most things, but there is no garauntee that either path pans out. so in the end... i want to continue to embrace the good of both and keep exploring and building up my skills. phew!

when i decided i wanted to go back to school for illustration my biggest dream was to publish a children's book and to have a rep like lilla rogers and was/am attracted to that kind of pretty & feminine "naive style" art. while at school, i got discouraged because my peers are into a different genre... comic books, realistic, andrew wyeth type of art and focused on editorial instead of the children's book & the lifestyle market i was aiming towards. anywho, i felt like people didn't/don't relate to my work in the illo dept at school (that is why this blog has been such a blessing to get feedback from people outside of school!) additionally my illustrations sometimes don't COMMUNICATE very clearly, and for some reason i like that, but it is defeating the point of "illustrating". i like more lyrical approaches to illustration.

on the flip side the painting department feels more like home, but shuns all things illustrative or trendy. and let's face it, i am attracted to both! i do think by switching my major to painting i will be able to explore my own voice more and someday apply that more fully to both illustration and painting. what trips me up is when i think about making my new website and already feeling constrained by showing both illustration and painting together, when approaching a gallery. i can always develop a psuedonym in the future because let's face it the galleries i'm approaching don't care. i realize in my mind i put the cart before the horse, but when you are in school they are preparing you for the Whitney, so they make it seem like it's a big deal about being associated with illustration as a painter. the next question is about pursuing an MFA in painting, still connected to $... i would so love to teach college students painting someday, but that seems like a competetive field and a long way away.

after all this writing i'm realizing: I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT AS IT PERTAINS TO ART, i can break those boundaries and don't need to feel so head trippy. i still would love to publish a children's book and be associated with art lila rogers style, and i want to have art shows as a painter.

part of what is bringing this to the surface is that Hugh and i met with our friend Kevin on tuesday to talk about investing (well, he educated us on this) and had us list our financial goals/dreams for the next 5 years, 10 years, 15 and so on.... it was pretty funny in that we felt we were the wrong people to be talking to (2 artists who have no savings) and sobering and made my palms sweat a bit, but in the end made us feel more hardcore about the present, as related to our dreams. so i'm trying to clarify my dreams a bit... where is that magic 8 ball?! the root of all of this may be are that there are so many choices in life and that we lead really "priveleged lives" (i realize this word is loaded) in having so many amazing choices.

5 comments:

majamom said...

Hi Mati,
Have you considered teen- young adult? your characters -I have only taken a quick lookeelew)instantly made me think of my daughter (now 20) who adored Francesca Lea Block- mispelled im sure longed for characters that captured childhoold(the past) teenagerhood(the present)and that all so complicated transition into "adulthood" the future. As a mom, i wanted to meet her "needs" when searching for books, clothing, accessories, but at the same time provide images with a positive energy!
I get that from just viewing your blog header-she is wonderful and i think would be appealing to girls and females of all ages!
Namaste,
MB

majamom said...

P.S. I dabble in a myriad of paper arts and as of yet NO ONE has made a set of YOGA related stamps. I have no idea if that even faintly interests you, but, the market is huge! Someone like Teesha Moore could tell you about the process, costs, time, profit and all that detail stuff =)
THe marketing strategy would be to do a small release and give them to all the major publishing mixed media artists, who in turn would use them in works that are published in mags like Summerset Studio, Rubber Stamp madness, Cloth- Paper Scissors, then the readers have to have them!

lisa solomon said...

mati... this is such a loaded subject... esp. coming from where you are going to school. i don't have any "real" answers, but we can certainly chat about this sometime... you know where to find me!
xo

j. vorwaller said...

this feels plucked out of my own implorings too-but reverse the ill vs. painting to art school vs. self taught....and rewind a few years and i was also wondering the painting and illo...it defintely feels like to tag "illustrator" gives a more business stigma to the person...put "painter" on and tranformation into something where i feel like i fit more too...but the thing is, i look at wyeth or others who had the illo title and i felt painter about some of them...and the other way round...


its funny what a stinkin word does to us artists huh?

and this is definetly a post that i gobbled up-since art school is something that IS so competitive, and there is no right answer...

i cant pick for you, but if i could, i would begin semester 1 for an mfa in painting with you in a heartbeat.






(heart.



beat.)

kelly rae said...

i recently discovered my art, but it's interesting hear your internal questions about your art, what direction you want your art to go. makes me realize that we all ask these questions of ourseles, no matter our stage in artmaking. i love your stuff. will be moving to san fran in a couple of months. would love to see your stuff in a gallery! and as for the financials, my hubs and i are in the same boat. it's a bit discouraging, but keep working at it...
take care
kellyrae