Sheila M. Evans

It’s Art Show Limbo Time again, that usually painful two-month waiting period between the first and iffiest art fair jury results (Cherry Creek, et al.) and the rest of them. Skunked again by the C.C. jury, I am naturally questioning my very worth as an artist, at least until the next bit of good news. This is pretty much an annual event.

My coping strategy is to start work on next year’s application a tad early. Since I actually did Cherry Creek a few years ago, I have a successful set of images to compare to my less successful set. Although the pieces are all from the same body of work, there are definite differences. The newer pieces are more literal, caught up in detail. The earlier set was quieter, simpler, more abstract.

Cherry Creek is a show that leans toward a modern aesthetic, so that makes sense. But they also have a whopping eight Drawing spots and receive literally thousands of applications each year. There is no magic bullet. Juries are always subjective. The same images that got me into the coveted Cherry Creek in 2008 won me a rejection from Boise Art in the Park. You just never know.

Fortunately, my first effort in the Jury Project has an ulterior motive. Waxing Wing, above, is not just a contender for 2012 Jury Image #3. It is the first piece destined for the Salon in St. Aulaye, France this summer. One of many good things coming up that I should probably be thinking about instead. Onward.

As an artist, I talk to a lot of people about my work, especially at festivals. And I get asked a lot of questions. Many of them I hear over and over again. Some are questions such as, “why do you look tired?” or “do you really like leaves?”. These are not the questions I will be addressing here. Luckily, even more often I am asked really good questions about my medium and how it works. So, I decided to put together some relatively quick (for me) answers and post them on a new page, Pastel FAQs. For example:

1. What is pastel?
Pastel is a dry drawing medium, created by mixing pure powdered pigments with a minimal amount of binder and water, rolling it into a stick form, and allowing it to dry. The pigments used are the same pigments used to create all painting media, but the pastel form allows the pigments to appear closest to their original color. There is an enormous variety of pastel available on the market today, ranging from inexpensive, student-grade, chalk-like pastels to handmade, buttery, pigment-rich—and expensive—professional lines.

This one goes to eleven, so for the remaining ten Q and As, go here. Enjoy!

This week, I hung a nice, simple, low-key, easy-going show… a show which had caused me no end of stress for the past month.

Not the show’s fault, mind you. Nor the fault of the lovely Spokane Club, where the pieces are currently installed. Nor of Dean, the friend who scheduled and helped me hang the show. The stress was all me, of course. The short time frame I had to paint following a protracted studio move, the amount of art I had out in galleries, the learning curve of the new glass cutter. But all’s well that ends well. Everything is painted and framed and hanging and I can move on to what’s next at a more relaxed pace. Yay.

For those of you not familiar with the Spokane Club, here’s the deal: it’s private. This being the case, there was no public opening for the exhibit. As much as I’d love to invite you to see the show, unless you happen to be a member, I can’t. So in leiu of the actual show, I’ve made a virtual gallery of the pieces in it. If you’d like to see them, go here.

Update: The Spokane Club has featured my work and me with a very nice article in their magazine, Signals, on pp. 18 – 19.

Also, it turns out you CAN see the show if you are not a member—the members-only thing isn’t so strict as I thought. Fair play!

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