Monday, October 4, 2010

Upcoming Presentation, and more on the dreaded "Gimmick" potential

I present my art tomorrow at Grand Rapids Community College, along with three other Artprize artists with work at GRCC for Artprize. Three out of four of us speaking are using recycled or re-purposed materials. So, again, I'm wondering if my work is too inside a trend, just due to the numbers and not the content of these other artists' work. I look forward to their presentations.

Some consternation comes from a recently rejected submission. One never quite gets used to rejection, even if one "knows" acceptance/rejection can depend on a lot of factors, not the least of which is juror "taste." My piece was made of ephemeral materials, although that may have nothing to do with its rejection as the show may turn out to be filled with predominantly ephemeral work, given the material trend that keeps popping up when I look around these days. The piece was not fully realized -- it was a proposal with a sample rather than a final work, which may have been a wrong approach for this particular exhibition. Or again, the exhibition may turn out to be filled with realized "proposed" works; my "sample" and write up may itself not have been sufficiently realized. Or the jurors disliked the concept, compared to the works they selected. Or. Or. Or. I think the concept is good; so, I'll have to work on it more, and create more samples to present a better basis for visualization the next time I submit.

When I look at the work on my studio wall, the direction looks strong, though individual pieces need more development. And it looks different, for the moment, from what I see out in the world. This can't be a bad thing.

No comments: