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A comic trip. This morning I glanced over the comic section to see if there was anything that my seven year old grand daughter might find amusing. I do this occasionally because I think humor is necessary for a balanced life. I did find one comic. A child at her father’s bedside asks “Wouldn’t your dreams be clearer if you slept with your glasses on?”  Okay…so you’re not a seven year old.

But I also found another comic with less clarity…Dennis the Menace is with his parents in an art museum. He asks them “Is this for people who can’t afford a TV?”  Although I have to admit that I gave this a moment’s thought, I doubt that TV ownership has little to do with one’s income and nothing to do with one’s likelihood to visit a museum. 

But the comic did reveal a truth. Visiting an art museum is not a comfortable, everyday experience. Especially for children. I remember taking my children to the Norton Simon Museum of Art when they were young.  I promised my five year old he could go outside to the garden after looking at each painting in one of the small galleries. In order to prove that he looked at each painting, he loudly announced the subject…”that’s a house, that’s a man, that’s a tree, that’s a naked lady.”  And, we quickly escaped to the garden.

Nude on a Sofa  by Henri Matisse at the Norton Simon Museum

As adults, we vary in our choices of recreational and cultural outings. Not all adults are museum goers. There are lots of reasons, of course…disinterest in art, boredom, inaccessibility of art museums, intimidation, etc. I understand this. I only know that the Dodgers’ slump has ended because I inadvertently saw a headline. If I were forced to go to a baseball game, I would bring a book. But maybe if, as a kid, I had gone to baseball games, watched baseball on tv, and played baseball; today I would be a fan and enjoy the World Series.

I fantasize that the next Dennis the Menace comic will feature another visit to a museum where Dennis is lucky enough to encounter a naked lady. And in all the strips that follow, he draws and paints and plays with clay and goes to art museums. That’s my comic tip.

Facing facts. On Sunday I attended the Artists’ Reception at the Chaffey Community Museum of Art. The main gallery was filled with work by members of Women Painters of the West.  On Wednesday I was treated to the Pomona Valley Art Association’s Young Artists Show. The drawings and paintings are the work of artists in the 7th through 12th grades. The women’s show was aspirational and the students’ show was nostalgic…where l’m headed and where I have been.

As a kid, I drew faces…from magazines, friends, teachers. Interestingly, from looking at the students’ work, kids still draw and paint people. Out of 115 pieces in this exhibit, 65 are of people, faces, body parts, or skulls.  As an adult woman, I still paint faces and figures but, if the women’s exhibit is any indication, my peers do not. In the women’s show there are fifty works and only six traces of human DNA.

Perhaps young people paint and draw human images because they are exploring relationships, their place in the world, fantastic ideas, and their fears. Or, maybe because of kids’ exposure to anime, videos, films, and friends; they are likely to portray people. Maybe mature people are just done with all that.

As a painter of people, am I suffering from arrested artistic development? Are my preoccupations adolescent? I don’t think so. My interest in the human face is not unlike another artist’s exploration of the landscape. I get to know a human face just as another artist becomes acquainted with a place. I, too, can paint into the paint, play with colors, and create something recognizable in a very personal way. When I paint groups of people, I am relating to the outside world, just as a landscape painter connects with nature.  

But I am swimming against the current. Currently, traditional portraits and nudes are out of style. Abstracts and landscapes prevail. The faces and figures that do find their way to contemporary galleries and shows are often generic, narrative, or abstracted. They are purged of identity. 

Maybe the tide will change and we will begin to see more personal human images.  This past week I was encouraged. I saw an ad for wines from an Austrian winery. Each variety is named after a person and has a portrait of that individual on the label. The person gracing the bottle was selected because his or her characteristics also describe those of the wine. I witnessed another personal touch in the trailer of the upcoming documentary, Faces Places. The film makers “travel around the villages of France in a photo truck meeting locals, learning their stories and producing epic-size portraits of them.”  This is my kind of stuff. So, the fact is, I will continue to paint faces. 

FaceBook has its drawbacks…and its amusing surprises. Here’s an edited / abridged conversation that came my way on FB.

• Jose: How do you become a famous artist?

• Shane: Die

• Alanis: Draw trash

• Paul: Pay people to buy your crap

• Matt:  Work your butt off, spend time, add in some luck and you might reach a few dozen followers

• Adelina: Cut off your ear

• Jon: Inspire…inform and educate

• Grayson: Be an artistic visionary, have marketing wizardry, conjure oodles of charisma, work 70 hours a week, and have lots of luck fall on you

• Rob: I suggest you read The Artist Who Loved Women which describes the career of Patrick Nagel

• Carin: Read "How to Sell Your Art Online" by Cory Huff and attend a Limitless Seminar - it will change your life

• Mel: Get really good at what you do

• JoVon: Create from your soul and do what you love

• Julius: You work and wait. Do a lot and die

• Francois: Have famous parents.  If they’re not, you know who to blame

• Fouad: You’re asking the wrong group

• Tory: You must master the art of bs

Should l Iaugh or cry? Do and die?  Amidst the good advice, the gallows humor, cynicism, and grasping for solutions; this conversation reveals artists’ concerns and frustration.  I receive daily emails offering coaching and marketing strategies.  Many art blogs address issues of success, tapping into the angst. Clearly there are no easy explanations as to why many artists are not selling their work. However, I frankly believe there are some issues that struggling artists do not readily consider.  

• Our work simply falls short.  
• Our work does not stand out.
• Our subject matter is not popular with collectors.
• Our market is saturated.

Denial is understandable. Grappling with these painful possibilities does not exactly shore up confidence or impart optimism. Culpability and resignation are not big motivators. Yet, an artist with the courage to confront these concerns might opt to kick it up a notch and tighten up the niche. I’ll leave the program to the coaches and marketing gurus.  But, most importantly, I believe that viewing one’s art life clearly and realistically can be liberating. No more blaming or complaining. The artist is free to focus on the job. 

In short, failure to face facts has its drawbacks.