The Great Reveal-O

Fry: A magician never reveals his secrets! Except the Great Reveal-o.

                              Zoidberg: That guy stinks.

-Futurama

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If I tell you too much, will it spoil the surprise? Will it make you think I don't know what I'm doing?

Well, sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but I really don't care about that. I like sharing my images. Even with my efforts to protect my work, I even still have a pinterest account... I know.  

I have been told by other artists, peers, and friends that I should not share my works when they are in progress, or even post tutorials of how to do these things. But I am no magician, as much as I would like to think I am ;)

an acrylic in progress (Queen of Hearts)
still several layers to go-  wait don't look! too late... I shared hehe...

Visual art, when it comes to drawing and painting, is a fine motor skill. That means it takes practice to perfect over time. This also means that no amount of revealing of my tricks-o-the-trade will make anyone better who does not put them to studio practice. This may not be a success either considering the rules I tend to break within my personal style.  But regardless of this, I can appreciate those artists who keep to themselves and hide their top secret techniques like guarded recipes and mystical spells. I have my hidden rituals too, it's not all for the public eye. The act of making the pictures is ritual as well, I don't have a fancy photographer friend behind me at every second making sure I am looking my best or trendiest as I paint. If you see me in a photo, I probably roped my husband into trying to figure out my camera (again). But the degree to which one "shares" is not directly proportional to professionalism, merely a wish for you to see images! If that were the case I wonder how many animators and comic book artists would be cast out by the "professionalism police"...

... pretty pictures, messy pictures... a peek into the "hey look, I can make a mistake and here is how I fix it..." or "see how this detail is done? you may have wondered how it was created..." and sometimes I just want to document progress myself and this makes my blog and Facebook page one big happy creative journal. The only times images will not be shared by me is if I have an agreement in place with a client or venue.

My next exhibition will be at Red Dirt Gallery in Piedmont, opening September 21st. It is open to the public, no cover charges or ticket sales for you to see me as their guest artist and experience the current  works from the Red Dirt Artists! Hope to see you there!