November 3, 2008
3:59 pm  Catch Up

Since my last entry was almost a year ago, a lot has happened for all of us. Yes, the studio is opened and working as planned. I now have a studio cat, Mooshie. We inherited her from our neighbors. As my attention span isn’t that great she keeps me entertained. I work on projects, moving from one to another, and play with the cat; she helps me to focus. Pat and I attended quite a few shows this past year. We saw Martin Puryear and Kara Walker Exhibits at the Fort Worth Modern. As you know, the University here in Austin opened a new Museum Building, the Blanton, also this past year, which is a huge improvement over their old facilities. The exhibits mounted by both the Blanton and the Austin Museum of Art (AMoA) have improved considerably, from my point of view. So Austin is a good place to be an artist and hopefully, despite the economy, sales will come.

I sold my first work, Pop Can Art, and it’s going to Paris of all places. It belongs to Helené Keller-Lindt, and is posted on my web site.

This past summer I devoted time to learning to draw, and I think I can say progress has been made. While my focus has been working with pencils, this fall I want to expand to charcoals, pen & ink and conte’. I am preparing myself for the East Art Fair by building inventory in anticipation of sales. However, my main piece will again be political this year. It looks like this is becoming a yearly statement for the East Fair.

The past year also gave birth to ‘Shop dropping’. You can google it to get the full story. It started with clothing designers in the early ’90s and is the reverse of shoplifting. I started by putting my business card in art books that interested me in bookstores. Then I expanded it to include sending pieces of my art to collectors who lend to exhibits I attend and enjoy. I have heard from the collectors I’ve sent work to, but no purchases as yet. While I’m currently developing a new shop dropping program, I can’t divulge yet. In the mean time, I’ll continue working on the first two as I consider them to be a success for me.

I won’t be so long between entries in the future. Please contact me if you want to start a dialogue . . . also, expect new photos.

Luke