Two Years and Two Months

Charley's Hideaway

Just before the Governor shut out state down and declared the arts non-essential I had been given the honor of displaying my paintings in the Angel Fire Library. Of course in the two years of the pandemic I sold nothing. But I hung some of my work in the vrbo when I finished it a year ago.

Then came the Calf Canyon and Hermit's Peak Fire. And my evacuation to Eagle Nest. And all the questions about was I taking all my art with me? I have an Explorer but there was the dog and Thicke and their necessities. Then my various electronics and their accessories. And all the various backups. I had just gotten the Mac when the Windows 10 Acer failed. Fortunately I had the backup of that hard drive.

But today as I became aware I was going to participate in the Angel Fire Studio Tour, September 24 and 25, 2022 and I needed to submit photos for brochure and website, panic set in. Seemed there was a hole in my backups of work.

Music From Angel Fire Intermission Display

Yes, I had done paintings. Yes, I had taken photographs of them. But where were they? This morning I dug into the two cases all packed up from evacuation, and still packed, but out of the Explorer. But not far out of the escape capsule. Spoke seemed appropriately named. Memory pods lined up on the desk I proceeded to learn how to upload data to MyMac. And what all those little icons at the bottom of the screen but not yet needed meant. The blue and white smiley face to the far left proved helpful.

Soon half the day had passed but I seemed to have found all my art except for the End of Day Series. But luckily they were still in my possession. Not sold. I have managed to sell a goodly number of works in the last year. And fortunately I had photos of those.

But oddly I seem most attached to my End of Days series. The last two years and two months seems very much like the end of days. So after copying my photographic record to MyMac I proceeded to take photos of the End of Days. One of them will be going to the library soon as it will be replacing Venue of Ravens which is being sold. 

Venue of Ravens

Photography and jump drives and external hard drives are the only way to save your art from fires.

Art Markets?

Rio Grande Fair 2010

At what I considered the height of my art business I was doing eight big fairs in New Mexico and other cities in the west. One even in San Francisco with masks before transitioning to paintings. It wasn't easy getting in those touted markets. There was a jury process which in the age before transition to digital required slides which had to be prepared and mailed.

The Rio Grande Fair in 2010 was one of my last. I was seldom turned down for any fair I applied for.  I had all the professional equipment at no small investment. But when my Astro van, the required conveyance for all that equipment and inventory, blew a connecting rod I sat down to an agonizing reappraisal of costs versus profits and quit.

Fairs at the time were going through a downturn. The middle class was vanishing with their disposable income. They went to fairs with their smart phones and took photos and ate at the food booths and more and more bought from the vendors selling Chinese products pretending to be originals. And digital technology made the ink jet (Giclee in French) ridiculously cheep. The first year after I quit I received calls from those running fairs I had tried so hard to get into at one time. "We have eleven booths open. Say yes and I will halve the booth fee."

Now I do only one little local fair. No travel costs. No hotels. No Chinese with their smart phones. No vendors from everywhere but here. And I have my studio. And our arts group does the studio tour every fall. Art does not have to be packed up and moved until it is sold or displayed at a local venue.

One Studio wall 2019

The Angel Fire Holiday Market December 7 and 8 this year is the one fair I do. I no longer have all that fancy professional booth furniture in the top photo. I have to be very creative on displaying my wares. And this year I have decided to concentrate on little arts. The big paintings stay in the studio which is open three afternoons a week.

Little Original Watercolors in Small Frames and on note cards

The walls of my studio are full but as a painter I must paint. So I went back to the basics; tiny watercolors on note cards and in frames for gift giving.

Shelf Paintings and Little Gem Ornaments waiting to be packed.

And since I was printing out photographs for note cards I produced some Giclee prints, matted and put them in frames of various sizes. My big Giclee's on canvas are hanging on the walls of Enchanted Circle Brewing Company in Angel Fire.  Or my studio. The great thing about photography is its versatility.  Want it a different size? Or on canvas? Just order it.

Thicke holding space open in the bin of matted and framed photographs

This holiday season stop by the Brewery, the Market at the Community Center, or my studio. Or Binford-Bell Studio here or on Facebook.

The Freedom of Studio Tours

Binford-Bell Studio in mid project

In the uncertain economic times galleries are becoming more limited. And even the once popular art fairs are in crisis. But there is a boom in private studios open to the public at least a few hours a week. And now a rise in studio tours which combine great scenery and spruced up studios on handy brochures.

The studio tours are becoming increasingly popular among collectors and artists. They provide a variety of collectibles and great prices for the art shopper. And for the studio they provide an easy and economical way to show their wares: no packing and unpacking.

But even more they provide freedom and flexibility to the artists. To get into a gallery or a higher class art fair an artist must submit a body of work for approval and stick to it. If you juried in to a show with colorful watercolor mission churches you cannot decide to show your photography to fill the space. And a gallery which represents you isn't thrilled when you decide to deviate from your usual pallet or subject matter.

Black and White sunflower photograph

Or even depart from gallery wrapped canvas to explore the creative format of standing cradled panels suitable for display on book shelves or tables instead of hanging on a wall.

Artists must create and grow and yet vying for space in an art fair or acceptance in a gallery, or maintaining your space and representation, can be stifling. 

Standing Cradled Panels 

And heaven forbid you should decide to paint furniture or create beaded jewelry or make note cards with your watercolor sketches or photographs. Things suitable to a gift shop or crafts fair but which a gallery and its exclusive contract with you will take a dim view of.

Painted folding table

Studio tours have no such restrictions. If you did it you can sell it.

Wire wrapped shell necklaces

Painted end table or plant stand

Art Chair

I find the time leading up to a studio tour very energizing and creative. When I did art fairs I dreaded this period of time when I was working for volume to take to a show. Not uniqueness. 

Be sure to mark your calendar for the second annual Angel Fire Studio Tour September 29th and 30th. It is sponsored by Art Up Northern New Mexico. And in December there will be a Holiday Market which allows exhibiting arts and artisans and craftsmen more flexibility in what work they choose to exhibit.

Week 32 - 2018 in Photographs

Day 217

 I toyed recently with doing a week of at home snaps. But these are at home snaps. My snaps are just different I suppose. Four of this week's photos were taken while standing on my deck. I had to be a bit off the deck to take the rest.

Day 218

 Upon moving into my house in 1998 I discovered I had the gift of dawns through the eastern window. That window is now a doorway into my studio which has four windows and a glass French door which face the same way.

The studio windows

And outside of those windows used to be a small temporary stoop upon which I stood in bare feet to record clouds and dawns. It took years to convert that stoop to the deck I currently enjoy. With a heated door mat so I don't freeze my bare feet in the winter.

The deck also provides space and reasons for container gardens. I have to walk to the far end of the deck to capture the African Daisies which grown in a container. The earth upon which my house, and deck, are built is not good at yielding to shovels so it is containers or raised beds.

Day 219

And the deck looks over the valley of the Little Coyote and a very large fenced yard where I entertain the my friends' dogs. They of course frequently become subjects of my photographs.

Day 220
Lucy, Metta, and Dottie

But the expansive vista of the eastern and southern sky rarely disappoints. I still am enchanted with the dawns and I have always loved clouds. The photo below was a record for my pleasure of some particularly peculiar clouds before a storm. The bird was a bonus.

Day 221

And if you stare at the photograph below and let your creative mind float you will see a huge bird in the clouds.

Day 222

And beside my lower deck, under those four windows of the studio is the hollyhock bed. I have loved hollyhocks since I was a child. The studio wall provides them protection from the winds and they gratefully pose for me in the summer. 

Day 223

Welcome to my snaps from home. BTW on September 29 and 30 my deck and studio will be open for the second annual Angel Fire Studio Tour. My studio is open by appointment most afternoons through the summer, but the studio tour is special. I will have my artist friends Carol Rupp and Judy Kosanovich showing their work too. Note the photo of Judy and Boca was taken on my deck. And of course there will be my work there too.