STAR TREK

"STAR TREK"

Mixed -media Collage 16" x 20"

In producing one's own art there are many aspects of preparation prior to the work actually hanging on a wall in a home or in a gallery or museum.  In a strange sort of way, creative preparation - such an amalgam of detail (today I'm leaving out the aspects of study/practice/craftsmanship/etc.) - perusing galleries, comparing styles, media, subject matter, producing one's own art -  the creative work or should I say play,  is a bit like television viewing.  Huh?

I'm not much of a tv viewer in that I don't have favorite shows that I set the clock to watch nor do I remember the actors' names or their history on stage, movie screen or theater.  However, I DO have favorite shows that find my computer screen via Netflix or ITunes -  a few of them I'm rather hooked on - but that's another post.  The point is that the shows I choose to watch and sometimes actually adore are probably not the shows that you would adore and vice versa.  My seeking out the latest PBS special to learn how apples originally migrated around the globe from Kazakhstan or Masterpiece Theater to find what the well dressed English Lord and Lady are wearing to dinner in their well-appointed abbey might not be the kind of television that you'd prefer - perhaps Monday night or Sunday afternoon football is your choice, i.e., .....the Super Bowl played in Dallas by teams from Pittsburg and Greenbay?  Oh well....there's something for everyone!

This is all to explain that when I finished the above piece of art and suddenly named it "Star Trek" I had to laugh as I never, ever watched a "Star Trek" television episode and the movie?.... forget it! I can identify prominent members of the cast but I never gave a hoot about becoming a "Trekkie" nor had the interest to sit for even half an hour with the show.  Yet, that's the name that came to me.....how strange.

But further, the television versus art - we ALL have our television favorites, our tastes, our selections, our utter disgust with one selection and our utter delight with another.  So it is with art.  We that produce it would be happy if everyone loved our work but that seems extremely unlikely doesn't it?  What one person proclaims a masterpiece, another proclaims a piece of junk.  With that huge upfront generality in their minds, artists have been drawing, chipping away, smearing oils, charcoal, and  even elephant poop and heaven knows what else on walls and canvases for centuries - fully delighting part of their public and frightening or at best confusing the rest.  Yet, no one asks us artists to put ourselves out there on the end of the diving board of public opinion - we just bring that on ourselves.  Why is that? Perhaps because we must - because we feel that part of us needs to speak, part of us needs to create, part of us wishes to be adored, applauded, and just plain ol' we do it for ourselves.

In June I'll be displaying my work in a true first "one woman show" - such an exhilarating thought for me as I prep with cutting, pasting, selecting, sifting, painting, prepping, framing, wiring, hanging, and starting over again on another piece.  It makes me happy to envision a body of my work in one place, at one time, with invitations and publicity surrounding it all.  I think briefly about those who will arrive at the show with loving support, those who will lie through their teeth saying they love the work, and those who will sincerely find themselves inexplicably drawn to colorful and unique pieces of artwork that I've created.  I dwell on the first group and the last group mentioned and on the mere fact that the work is from my heart, from my soul, from my call to create - so, today's work entitled "Star Trek" may be completely apropos to the journey that artists make when declaring to the world I am a creative talent, please join me in my exhilaration and sincerity in bringing these works to life.

The journey you're on?  Is it a "Star Trek" adventure - open, unbelievably exciting, something you've yet to share with others?  Give it some thought and consider that perhaps there are other "creative trekkies" out there just waiting to share in what you  consider worthwhile and life expanding.