Wainwright Arts Fest and painting...

I'm heading into Monday with one week left until the beginning of the Wainwright Arts Festival. I think that organizationally, it's gone pretty well, with only some minor hiccups so far. We still have some work to do, but I think it's going be pretty great. I've been working really hard to produce more and more work so that I'll have a good body of stuff to go into the art show part of the festival.

I'm not sure if the wax work, the "Clemmer technique" will actually go over well or not. People seem to like it, but you never know if they're willing on spending their hard-earned money on it, and take it home with them. It's also a small town and all that, so I'm not sure what the response may be for my work, as different as it is.

I'm used to the regular art shows here, for the past three years the majority of paintings that sold were of flowers and landscapes, and I just don't do that. My watercolours of women were pretty good, but not something that the average person would put up in their homes. That's okay, I wasn't expecting those to sell, I painted them merely for myself. I see something that inspires me to paint, or draw, I do it.

The wax stuff is a little different, I'm still learning its limitations, and I ran into one of those limitations the other day after I had basically finished with the wax part of the process, but before I glued it all into place and the canvas slipped off my lap and crashed to the linoleum floor. The wax shattered into a million little unrecognizable jig saw puzzle. After swearing a good amount, I started nearly from scratch, being more careful and then glued the crap out of it when I was done. I actually put two layers of glue on it to make sure, and now it's more solid than I thought possible. It's not going anywhere now.

I just finished photographing my two newest pieces, a killer whale and an African elephant, both again, in wax. I'm impressed with the finished results so much that I sometimes wonder how I managed to do it, and that it turned out. It's sounds a little cheesy, but once in a while, I'm really surprised on how good a piece looks. I'm pretty confident about it anyway, and I'm a pretty harsh critic of my own work, but I love the adrenaline rush I get after I see the finished piece and it looks better than I could have hoped for.

I guess that's why I do it. Cuz, it sure hasn't been for the money...