I’ve been consistently sending out a weekly newsletter for just over two years and I have found it helpful in documenting my process, progress, my work and, over time, I am able to see patterns. That wasn’t the original intention but now I really enjoy and rely on having this historical reference and it motivates me to keep doing it. And it works the other way too: I need to keep making work, reading, learning, doing stuff! so that I have something interesting to share every week. Win, win 👏
I also post all of my newsletters in a blog on my website and I take screenshots, print them out and keep a binder with all the issues. So I guess I am intentionally archiving too.
At 67 I'm waaaay behind on cataloging my art. I have journals of drawings of the assemblages I do, as works in progress, but nothing in a computer whatsoever, and at best, photos in my iphone of some of the work. I don't even have a gallery (yet?) but have crammed the finished work into a spare room (hah, call it a gallery). As a procrastinator, I keep thinking my kids will have to deal with it all when I kick the bucket.....or tell them to keep what they want and give the rest of it away if they can't find a gallery to take/sell the work. So yeah, no plan. I do think about these things, but I'm still enjoying just creating the work and not thinking ahead. Bad dog. Guess since I had a professional art career some years ago and sold well, I just wanna make the stuff. Too tired to plan ahead and don't have the balls that it takes to write emails to galleries. Bad dog. No biscuit for me.
Hey Annette, As always, thank you so much for consistently commenting! And you are doing it without procrastination. I am not writing this stuff to make you feel bad! One of the advantages of thinking in museum time is that you can go at it slowly with the idea you still have 20 or so years to go. You just have to decide if it is worth it. If not, don't bother! Most artists don't. I am just offering ideas based on how I work. I knew a Irish artist - Phil Kelly (Artist) (1950–2010) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Kelly_(artist) - who I visited for a day in his studio in Mexico City when we lived in Cuernavaca. He made a lot of paintings on paper often using found papers and he just kept them in piles by the hundreds on the floor. In his case he seemed more interest in getting drunk in favorite cantinas most evenings and eating in favorite restaurants most days but he loved making art, was married, had two daughters and mounted shows now and then thanks mostly to his wife Ruth Munguia. But other than that just 2 to 3 foot high piles of paintings on the floor of the studio. A kind of Francis Bacon, Charles Bukowski raging alcoholic kind of guy it seemed to me as far as his lifestyle went. Very sweet guy. He didn't give a shit, he was just having fun, living the dream like all the rest of us. There is that way to live out your creative lifestyle too and a million other ways to do it. Whatever floats your boat.
I'd never accuse you of writing anything to anyone to feel bad. I love your essays as they get one to think about important things. And I enjoy pondering the ideas you write about. You mentioned a few artists who just created for the sake of doing it. Henry Darger popped into my head. Controversial some may believe but he drew/painted because he HAD to. He didn't have any representation until after his death where founded were thousands of drawings/paintings. One would think he was obsessed with his fantasies/demons and had to get them out on down on paper. I think of artists on the autism scale and there are many.....the woman who lived in an institution who obsessively wrapped branches/twigs in yarn...beautiful art or the savant guy who memorizes buildings/cityscapes while in a helicopter then later draws them out exactly as they are......this absolute need to create but not having a clue as to marketing/showing/selling. I'm no savant by any means but I do have a strong yearning to express the concepts in my head onto a piece of art as it can explain sometimes better than words for me. I may have some ideas as to how to market my art but I guess it's the fear of rejection or just the exhaustive work it takes to pound the pavement......I'd rather use that energy to create the art as I don't have an everlasting supply of energy to much of anything else.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about having an infinite canvas-type collection of my work, maybe in a Figma Board, or similar, where I can just look at everything, see similarities, make connections between works, all without digging through digital folders or having to unpack physical work.
I love the idea of „museum time.“ Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks for commenting, much appreciated Barry. That sound like an interesting idea. Early on I used to pushpin all of my collages as I made them on the studio walls. I had a similar idea of wanting to see as much of my work at a time as possible so I could do that kind of analysis as I was working. Eventually I stopped doing that once I could use a computer. Now I collect my works in digital folders, 100 collages to a folder in sequential order. Then in 2010 I started printing the whole body of work per year in an annual catalog. It is always an ongoing process. Being in galleries there is a whole other layer of dynamics with the works coming and going and being sold off. That makes everything more complicated keeping track of that part. Then you have to have gallery folders, 'sold' folders, current inventory folders etc.
I’ve been consistently sending out a weekly newsletter for just over two years and I have found it helpful in documenting my process, progress, my work and, over time, I am able to see patterns. That wasn’t the original intention but now I really enjoy and rely on having this historical reference and it motivates me to keep doing it. And it works the other way too: I need to keep making work, reading, learning, doing stuff! so that I have something interesting to share every week. Win, win 👏
Yes I like substack for this documentary process for me too. Fun.
I also post all of my newsletters in a blog on my website and I take screenshots, print them out and keep a binder with all the issues. So I guess I am intentionally archiving too.
At 67 I'm waaaay behind on cataloging my art. I have journals of drawings of the assemblages I do, as works in progress, but nothing in a computer whatsoever, and at best, photos in my iphone of some of the work. I don't even have a gallery (yet?) but have crammed the finished work into a spare room (hah, call it a gallery). As a procrastinator, I keep thinking my kids will have to deal with it all when I kick the bucket.....or tell them to keep what they want and give the rest of it away if they can't find a gallery to take/sell the work. So yeah, no plan. I do think about these things, but I'm still enjoying just creating the work and not thinking ahead. Bad dog. Guess since I had a professional art career some years ago and sold well, I just wanna make the stuff. Too tired to plan ahead and don't have the balls that it takes to write emails to galleries. Bad dog. No biscuit for me.
Hey Annette, As always, thank you so much for consistently commenting! And you are doing it without procrastination. I am not writing this stuff to make you feel bad! One of the advantages of thinking in museum time is that you can go at it slowly with the idea you still have 20 or so years to go. You just have to decide if it is worth it. If not, don't bother! Most artists don't. I am just offering ideas based on how I work. I knew a Irish artist - Phil Kelly (Artist) (1950–2010) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Kelly_(artist) - who I visited for a day in his studio in Mexico City when we lived in Cuernavaca. He made a lot of paintings on paper often using found papers and he just kept them in piles by the hundreds on the floor. In his case he seemed more interest in getting drunk in favorite cantinas most evenings and eating in favorite restaurants most days but he loved making art, was married, had two daughters and mounted shows now and then thanks mostly to his wife Ruth Munguia. But other than that just 2 to 3 foot high piles of paintings on the floor of the studio. A kind of Francis Bacon, Charles Bukowski raging alcoholic kind of guy it seemed to me as far as his lifestyle went. Very sweet guy. He didn't give a shit, he was just having fun, living the dream like all the rest of us. There is that way to live out your creative lifestyle too and a million other ways to do it. Whatever floats your boat.
I'd never accuse you of writing anything to anyone to feel bad. I love your essays as they get one to think about important things. And I enjoy pondering the ideas you write about. You mentioned a few artists who just created for the sake of doing it. Henry Darger popped into my head. Controversial some may believe but he drew/painted because he HAD to. He didn't have any representation until after his death where founded were thousands of drawings/paintings. One would think he was obsessed with his fantasies/demons and had to get them out on down on paper. I think of artists on the autism scale and there are many.....the woman who lived in an institution who obsessively wrapped branches/twigs in yarn...beautiful art or the savant guy who memorizes buildings/cityscapes while in a helicopter then later draws them out exactly as they are......this absolute need to create but not having a clue as to marketing/showing/selling. I'm no savant by any means but I do have a strong yearning to express the concepts in my head onto a piece of art as it can explain sometimes better than words for me. I may have some ideas as to how to market my art but I guess it's the fear of rejection or just the exhaustive work it takes to pound the pavement......I'd rather use that energy to create the art as I don't have an everlasting supply of energy to much of anything else.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about having an infinite canvas-type collection of my work, maybe in a Figma Board, or similar, where I can just look at everything, see similarities, make connections between works, all without digging through digital folders or having to unpack physical work.
I love the idea of „museum time.“ Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks for commenting, much appreciated Barry. That sound like an interesting idea. Early on I used to pushpin all of my collages as I made them on the studio walls. I had a similar idea of wanting to see as much of my work at a time as possible so I could do that kind of analysis as I was working. Eventually I stopped doing that once I could use a computer. Now I collect my works in digital folders, 100 collages to a folder in sequential order. Then in 2010 I started printing the whole body of work per year in an annual catalog. It is always an ongoing process. Being in galleries there is a whole other layer of dynamics with the works coming and going and being sold off. That makes everything more complicated keeping track of that part. Then you have to have gallery folders, 'sold' folders, current inventory folders etc.