{"id":2383,"date":"2019-05-29T13:42:44","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T18:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsallmalarkey.com\/staging\/?p=2383"},"modified":"2020-03-16T11:16:13","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T16:16:13","slug":"when-things-go-a-little-pear-shaped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itsallmalarkey.com\/staging\/2019\/05\/29\/when-things-go-a-little-pear-shaped\/","title":{"rendered":"When things go a little pear-shaped."},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, m’dears, it is possible I may have temporarily lost what is left of my mind.<\/p>\n

Lots of things are happening at the moment. Tuesday, June 11th, will see the opening of a dichotomic show, Flora and Fauna<\/em><\/a>, with my botanicals representing the flora, and photography by Birgit Pruess<\/a> representing the fauna. It will be located at Nicole’s Fine Pastry<\/a> in downtown Fargo, and I hope you will stop by if you are in town.<\/p>\n

July will see the completion of my large project I keep taunting you about (and I will finally be able to share pictures of what I have been up to!).<\/p>\n

I will also have a solo show starting in September at Salon Three Five<\/a> (also in downtown Fargo), and a large solo show at the Bismarck Art & Galleries Association (BAGA)<\/a> in February 2020 (paintings needed to be completed in November). Plus all the various little shows one submits a piece or two in. Things are coming together, and it is all very exciting, except for one tiny detail.<\/p>\n

I don’t have the pieces finished for them yet.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is still “plenty of time”. However, instead of spending the last weekend completing various in process paintings, or working up new ones, I spent it throwing paintings in various states of progress into the garbage.<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago I went to Minneapolis for a workshop on painting pears, which was a lot of fun and an excellent refresher on a few of the basics I seem to have misplaced in my brain, as well as a wonderful opportunity to wander around the beautiful Minnesota Landscape Arboretum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Pear Study
Watercolor
8.5\u00d711<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This also meant that between what I had learned during my large project and this workshop, I came home to stare at my in process paintings with dread. It isn’t that they weren’t potentially redeemable, it was just that the idea of actually redeeming them was exhausting. I spent an entire week finding every possible excuse to avoid them until this weekend, when I snapped.<\/p>\n

My work areas are now remarkably clean and organized, I have a small pile of paintings I haven’t given up on yet, and I flat threw out many, many things that were taking up space in my brain, in addition to my house. I should feel terrible about it–I now have a lot of work to do, and absolutely zero things to point to to prove I am working on it–but I don’t. I feel wonderfully pleased about it, as if an exhausting guest has finally gone home and I have put the house in order and am ready to get back to normal. I have been reorganizing my paints, getting my glass area sorted out, and finishing up a special commission-glass hearts in custom colors for an entire family.<\/p>\n

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So hopefully the near future will be full of posts with lots of pretty art in it now that I have removed multiple obstacles. If not, I am gonna have a problem.<\/p>\n

Charging boldly forward!<\/p>\n