Free-Market Capitalism

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Well the upside of gloomy days is you can take great photos of your art. The downside is realizing the hypocrisy of free market capitalism. Yeah in the industrial revolution, you could create something and actually compete - but now with the consolidation and mergers of companies it’s nearly impossible. Take for example this 36 inch by 48 inch painting, there’s only two shipping companies I can use. If I were to ship this in a box that’s literally the same size of the painting the cost of shipping is roughly $36 USD one way. Let’s add 1/2 inch of bubble wrap and 1 and 1/2 inch spacer. That’s a box roughly 40 inches by 50 inches by 6 inches that weighs less than 20 lbs. shipping cost increase to $150 USD for ground shipping. Let’s say you’re shipping that to a juried show where you have to pay return shipping. That’s $300 USD for shipping that you’re eating. There’s no way to recoup those costs and some instance you could buy a plane ticket and fly with the painting or take a day few days off work to drive the painting and still come out ahead. It’s ridiculous and super disheartening, I can’t roll the shipping costs into the cost of the painting to recoup my expenses. What are the odds of actually selling the painting? Will being in a new market increase those odds? Is exposure worth the costs? Those are all subjective answers I suppose, for me it’s just a bummer that there’s only two options for shipping. It’s pretty hard to compete with a gallery or artist that can eat $300 for a one painting in a one month show - just saying. 

Last Chance

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To see this painting “Protect Ya Neck” before she gets shipped off to another juried show in Texas. part of the “Dog and Pony” exhibition at Core New Art Space, juried by Doug Kacena of K Contemporary  

Apparently 2017 has been about doing only juried and curated shows as well as running out of things to do in the Denver art scene, which is kind of a bummer. Oh well at least I can raise my price per square inch. 

Just some sketching

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5 minute quickie from a couple nights ago of Lola sleeping. Just playing around until a big gallery comes along and realizes I'm good and they want to foster an artist that will do anything to make everyone money. Ha.  

Here We Go!

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Hung a few of my small works in the annex of Core New Art Space, they'll be on display along with two of my full size painting for the "Dog and Pony" show juried by Doug Kacena of K Contemporary, he also partners with Abend and 1262 Gallery in Triptych. Then I'm shipping one of the paintings off to the Fort Worth Community Art Center in Texas for the "Courage" exhibition. It's been a busy year of juried and curated shows so far. 

Buffalo Bill

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Started this Buffalo Bill test piece or as my great-grandfather would of called him, Bill Cody. Apparently whenever he was in Colorado he would come by the family ranch and they'd go "paint the town." Usually I'd chalk this up to family legend, but then again - I've seen letters with his signature.

Drawing Denver

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Had a chance to do some drawing downtown yesterday , trying to work out some 2018 exhibition ideas. Playing around with the idea of old Denver mixed with contemporary subjects. The first one incorporates the Terminal Annex, 15th St. Viaduct, and local graffiti over the years. the Second is a mixture of a white buffalo, the old Elitch Gardens sign, and the cross street where Elitch gardens used to be. That neighborhood has gone through such a transformation I hardly recognize it anymore.

The crazy thing about Denver, all the places where artists called home have become so desirable that for the most part we've all been forced out. Rino, Navajo, and soon the Santa Fe Arts district. The city doesn't seem to care, and for the most part neither does the public until its too late. Westword recently ran an article about artists leaving mementos on the RiNO Arts District signage in memory of the arts district. The sad thing is little do they know that the Santa Fe Arts District is the one they should be worried about. It's the only cohesive, walkable Arts District in Denver that has a mix of Commercial Galleries and Co-Ops. When Spark and CORE's leases are up in the next two years and we end up disbanded or moving it will be a huge hit to the district and spell the begining of the end of what makes that part of Denver interesting. You'll still have hippy hat stores and whatever Artwork Network is, but you won't have the high quality, thought provoking work that comes out of an anchor gallery and co-op with 36 years of continual operation. 

Divided

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I've been trying to wrap my head around WTF happened in Charlottesville Virginia and all I can come up with is thanks America for still being awful and making my work even more relevant. Torches and chanting, armed militia wandering the streets, a clear lack of police force, it was a recipe for complete chaos and tragedy. Unfortunately that's how things eventually unfolded. I'd like to think someday people will look back at my work (hopefully in a museum) documenting the last eleven months - the social and political maelstrom that's been 2016/ 17, and they'll say something like "man this guy was ahead of his time, and had his finger to the pulse of what was really going on." But trying to compete with meaningless art in the digital age is freaking exhausting and demoralizing. 

2018 Ideas

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Start with the Mobil Gas Pegasus, flesh it out some so it looks like a actual horse - then get to work on the details of making a painting. 

Behind the Scenes

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Yesterday I was on a beach in Kauai, today I'm hanging my show after a 13 hour flight. My new exhibition opens this week with Donny Dixon at Core New Art Space First Friday on August 4th from 6-9p and an artist reception on August 11th, swing by and say hello, 900 Santa Fe Dr.