san francisco!

Last week I went to the always entertaining Maker Faire in San Mateo with a group of friends for a day of fun, sun, crafts, R2D2's, steampunk, and street meat. It was all there, same as last year. And therein lies my problem with the faire, it was all the same stuff that was there last year....and the year before that. The giant robotic giraffe was there, as was the tesla coil demo, and the mentos and diet coke performance. I am not sure if these things were different or improved upon this year, but across the board I saw nothing new. I feel like a faire like that is all about innovation, creating, and inspiring new ideas, and I guess I missed out on the change from year to year. I still had fun, I will still make it a point to go back next year, but I am going to really keep my eyes open for something new.

On another note, and what really got me to write this post, is my reaction after checking out the Craft Art section of the faire. I have noticed a trend in the art and craft world that my generation and the ones after it are not really investing in art anymore. But who or what is to blame for this? A huge contributor to this problem can placed at the hand of technology, consumerism, and shifting values. But a great part of the blame also has to fall on the artist themselves. It's a hard gig trying to sell your works at venues big and small, so to make this happen artist need to provide light, affordable products for that people can walk away with. This most often means a print of some kind. 11"x14" prints seem the most common, but I also saw a bunch of cards, t-shirts, and even some ties and mugs. What was missing from most of the stalls though was any original art. Now I understand that we cant expect to sell only one of a kind pieces of art or that all consumers would be able to afford such creations. But to have nothing original to show is feeding into the notion that we do not value it as consumers. And why should we? I can pay $20 and have an almost exact copy of the original.

I want to make a commitment to only produce original pieces of art from here on out. Better grab those $10 prints while they are still here.

Going back to the figure....

New concept.

Champ

Champ is finally done! It took way to long to finish this piece and I was not happy with it until I realized that I had no shadow on the ground making her look like she was floating. I'm ready to move on to my next piece now. Any suggestions? Send me a photo.

chachachanges....

Redisplayed studio spot. Much happier now.

Last nights art murmur was a fun one. After months of being overtaken by the mess in my studio, I finally fought back and took everything out so that I could start the display process over from scratch. What ended up happening is a ton of more space was found, and thing are now organized in easy accessible places. I actually enjoyed sitting in my space for 4 hours as I felt a new confidence in how my work was being viewed. And the feedback was definitely much more positive.
Also, it was great to have a ton of students and friends stop by last night. I love talking to new people, but I love seeing familiar faces stop by to say hi too.