Can I tell you a secret?
I don't know the rules, and maybe even more disturbing, I don't care.
I am doing my art the way I want to do it, without consulting the wisdom of the ancients or the critics or those that have spent decades learning and defining the rules.
At a recent art event, a man walked into my booth and did the full circuit, squinting carefully at all the pieces.
"Who painted all of these?" he demanded.
"All the work is mine," I assured him.
"How can you prove that? None of the work is signed." He sounded as if he'd felt he'd caught me out on something.
But my work is signed. I pointed out the signatures on the backs of the hanging canvases and the signature on all the prints.
"That's wrong though," he insisted. "You have to sign them on the bottom right corner."
"I'm the artist," I responded. "That means I can do whatever I want."
He looked perplexed for a moment. He turned away and stared at some of the pieces on the opposite wall and then turned back to me. "My wife picks out all the art," he informed me and then wandered away.
Sometimes I feel a bit like an imposter because I'm not following the rules. I don't know the rules. I'm not even sure where I can get a copy of those rules.
I know that makes some people uneasy. They want a clear definition of who I am. They want to be able to label me and then put me neatly away into a box.
"What kind of art is this?"
"What am I supposed to feel looking at this?"
"What is happening in this picture? Why are they standing there? What are they even doing?"
I acknowledge that my work isn't going to push the narrative in big ways. I don't really create political art or art that will change the nature of the social discourse.
I create art that speaks to me. I like to think of them as snapshots of stories where we don't know the beginning or the end. I like just jumping into the middle.
A lot of my inspiration comes from dreams, which by their very nature are fragmented and strange. I'm hoping to make sense of them and, whether I can or not, I like to push that strangeness out onto my viewer. Maybe my dreams will make more sense to you than they do to me.
This is probably breaking one or more rules. I probably shouldn't even admit to not having a copy of the rulebook. I suspect that may be the first rule.
Never talk about the art rules, but here I am, just quietly making trouble and perplexing innocent bystanders.
Speaking of rules, I often get confused looks when my browsers move from the art hanging on the walls to my books and my decks. Apparently, I'm not supposed to do more than one thing, but I can't help myself.
I'm a trouble maker and I'll never be any good.
Please help me stay a trouble maker and back my newest project: The Bloom Where You're Planted Oracle Deck which is currently funding on Kickstarter.
