The Jury is In and/or Out

Creative JumpStart 2016 examines the work of Jean Michel Basquiat an artist whom I had never heard. However, I certainly identified with his quote that said, "I was a really lousy artist as a kid. Too abstract expressionist, or I’d draw a ram’s head, really messy. I’d never win painting contests. I remember losing to a guy who did a perfect spiderman.” I don't know whether I THOUGHT I was a really bad artist, but I was told I was. Art teachers told me never to try art, or to go into it. I just wasn't good.

For 2016, my word is Jury or "to be juried".  I know, however, that juries can make you feel like a failure. One can say that it is only one person's opinion, but still it is like going on a blind date or Match.com date. First you hope that you get someone to answer you, then a conversation, and maybe you like him or her enough to go out, once.

I had a painting in my journal that I added to yesterday, and added a page to "construct" a jury. The spread is here:

The side with the purple/pink was done last year. But I worked with white and different colors, to smudge it and to add different shapes. Then I played, totally on the left hand side and actually put in people. If you know me, you know I don't do people.

I know a lot of people who don't enter Juried Shows, neither the type that has awards, or worse, the shows where you are juried into the show. I admit that the later type is much harder. If you consider your painting to be like your child you want to know why it didn't get accepted. And you are lucky, if you just find out that the painting got there through online gadgets!

I still have to work on these jurors and on the other page.

While the pictures above were done for JumpStart 2016 and Colour Me Positive, I think that paintings I did last year work very well for them. Consider Boundaries and Masked Towns.