Phase 2d - lay the foundation for giving

close up of a brand new piece!

This past week I saw an exhibition that was right up my alley in terms of my interest in natural vs. mechanical copying - Ghost in the Machine at the New Museum. Not surprisingly, I loved the exhibition.  There were so many moving parts! It was fun and, to me, felt less like a visit to a gallery and more like a field trip to a science museum.  Because many of the pieces move or react to the motion of the viewer, the works are less of a spectacle (something to be looked at) and more objects (things to potentially be interacted with).  Being a sometimes sculptor, I like objects :)

Which leads me to my next thought (getting to the point slowly this week...) I visited Etsy's office in Hudson this past week. It was an open but non-sterile space, and the staff were really gracious with their time in terms of explaining how it works (and patient, because, being visual and curious, I asked lots of questions and needed lots of demonstrations). I've been thinking about whether/what/how to sell my work, and the tiny prints in particular seem like they might be happy on Etsy, hmmm. Still thinking about it - but I'm liking the idea - who wouldn't love receiving a tiny print in the mail? I could package them so that each one would be like receiving a whimsical mini-present! (In keeping with liking things over spectacles, I like giving presents).

Thinking about gifts, I was talking to Mary Anne about donating artwork to charities and benefits, and she has an interesting philosophy: (as long as it's for a good cause) the answer is 'yes.' I got to thinking about this, and if I were to edition the tiny prints, I could set aside 10%-15% of each edition for gifts and donations so that my answer could also be 'yes.' I really like this idea. While I'm working on phase 2 (be prepared for good things), I thought it would be good to include managing time/space in artmaking to be prepared to give to others.

In other news - I'm late in posting because I got distracted by art-making (haha - imagine that!)  In terms of building on past work (phase 2b) I made this yesterday (it's 18 x 24, and I made the entire thing in one, very intense day!)  It builds on themes and materials from "Neon" and mini 27 with the embroidery in the flowers from the houses piece two weeks ago.

Overall - things are looking up here in tinyland.