On Sun, 4 Sep 2005 21:07:59 -0500, "jmcquown" >
wrote:

>modom wrote:
>> On Sun, 4 Sep 2005 13:16:42 -0500, "jmcquown" >
>> wrote:
>>
>>>> I was painting. I made twenty paintings this summer, which is a lot
>>>> for me. I painted so much that I actually have a callus on my
>>>> painting hand.
>>>
>Congratulations on your callus.

Actually that was a bit of a joke, though I didn't expect anyone to
get it. I was laying down the paint with a printmaker's brayer. It's
a kind of rubber roller that I had to press quite hard on to get the
coverage I wanted in many instances. The result was a callus after
twenty paintings. At my opening yesterday, a sculptor friend scoffed
at me when I showed him the callus. His hands, of course, are hard
and tough from the physical labor of his profession. One ordinarily
doesn't get tough hands from painting. Or even a single callus.

>Obviously you don't do this for a living,
>30 years and a degree in painting (? art, perhaps) notwithstanding.

Yes I do. At least the IRS hasn't objected to my declaring "artist"
on my tax returns yet. However, you are right that the majority of my
income comes from teaching. (The IRS knows this, by the way) And I
have a terminal degree in art with a concentration in painting. There
is no PhD in painting, the MFA is the top rung of the ladder.

>My LLL
>has been a professional artist all his adult life (40+ years as an artist
>and yes, he has a degree in art, too). If he got a callus from doing 20
>paintings I'd have to laugh, having seen him work. The man doesn't smell of
>aftershave, he smells of gesso and oil paint.

I get your drift. And I hold no animus towards him, though I find it
odd that we've somehow landed in a competition. It was never my
intention to compete, only to let you know that your advice was
somewhat elementary when directed towards a man with my experience.
It was rather like telling a software engineer when to click the
mouse.

>The "arc of your career" is
>you apparently don't earn a living as a professional artist. Not that there
>is anything wrong with that, but um.

A Seinfeld moment! Art is my profession, Jill.

>LLL paints on anything from paper to
>wood and both large and small canvasses. He's got repeat patrons all over
>the place. When we were in Kansas last June for the Prairie Village show we
>were invited to dinner by a couple who own *13* of his paintings. He also
>had an exclusive showing at a gallery there, but Bennie (the owner) is a bit
>of a temperamental Brit who panicked when John pulled some of his work after
>a month. A month was all they'd agreed upon but Bennie thought maybe he'd
>let things slide. Bennie was letting things slide by not sending him the
>money for his sales.
>
>Last year in Minneapolis at the Stone Arch Festival we were invited to
>dinner by - guess what? another repeat patron. In Davenport, where we will
>be in a week and a few days for Riverssance in Lindsay Park, again, repeat
>patrons. He's the featured artist this year.
>
These things are not to be scoffed at. Painting for a living is often
a hard row to hoe. I certainly do not dismiss his achievements.

>Do you stretch your own canvas?

Jill, I teach people how to stretch canvasses. How to build
stretchers using table saws, mitre saws, corner clamps, and so on. How
to fold the corners of the canvas and how tight to pull the fabric
before it is gessoed. It's my job. Trust me: I'm an artist. I know
how to do this stuff. During the rush to finish my last five
paintings before my term began, I hired another artist to make some
stretchers for me, but I stretched the paintings myself. For
technical reasons I had to paint them unstretched, but that's of
interest only to me, probably.

>Sorry if you didn't appreciate my
>suggestions (such as they were). I'm actually happy for your show and glad
>you like the gallery. Nice of them to be trucking supplies to Baton Rouge,
>too. But that doesn't necessarily mean they are looking out for your best
>interests. It's always the bottom line in this world, you know.
>
It's just that your advice was too elementary for my situation. I
have a contract with the the gallerists about which I am satisfied.
As I said (and you deleted) I've been around the block a time or two.

OBFood: The last chicken thigh will be my bedtime snack. Yum.


modom