stlukesguild
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Bongo, love those beards. 
Successes
- Thread starter Artyczar
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Artyczar
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Those are great SLG. I really like your titles too.
Sno, I agree on this all being very interesting. Artists often prefer the work that is meaningful to them and not necessarily what all the collectors or viewers like. I tend to like pieces that are pivotal or breakthrough artworks, like Bongo mentioned. Work where I felt I got somewhere. Where? I'm not exactly sure, but I felt better when I look back on them. Today anyway.
Also, a few of the ones I posted I've sold and wish I hadn't. I mean, a couple of them I wish I hadn't, but a couple of the others were fine. I got what I wanted for all of them, so that was good.
Sno, I agree on this all being very interesting. Artists often prefer the work that is meaningful to them and not necessarily what all the collectors or viewers like. I tend to like pieces that are pivotal or breakthrough artworks, like Bongo mentioned. Work where I felt I got somewhere. Where? I'm not exactly sure, but I felt better when I look back on them. Today anyway.
Also, a few of the ones I posted I've sold and wish I hadn't. I mean, a couple of them I wish I hadn't, but a couple of the others were fine. I got what I wanted for all of them, so that was good.
Thanks for posting theseI've posted most of these before, I'm sure...
From the early 2000s, these are my favorites. Mother, 2003. Oil, paper patterns, graphite, and thread on canvas, 24 x 24 inches:
Polar Bearing, 2003. Oil, paper patterns, Czech glasshead pins, graphite, and thread on canvas, 24 x 24 inches:
September Schizachryium, 2005. Oil, manila paper, acrylic, and graphite on canvas, 24 x 24 inches:
Then there was Forgive: A pivotal painting I did in 2007 that combined my Pattern Paintings with my cartoons, or my abstract art with the “figurative:”
The above was done in oil, paper patterns, pencil & thread on canvas, with a couple pins, 48 x 65 inches. Making this painting helped me to take off so I could make other things like this:
In my Dreams (also known as Dick Boat):
In My Dreams/Dick Boat, 2013/2018. Oil and pencil on linen, 30 x 30 inches.
Though pretty Amy Sillman-influenced, it’s still my own invention, and I feel good about how it turned out.
I also liked how The Adequacy of And and Not, (2012) turned out:
Oil on canvas, 34 x 34 inches.
Of the Rock and Refuge series, I see the two best ones being Doggie Trail and Round House:
The House on Doggie Trail, 2014. Oil, paper, and fabric on birch wood panel, 20 x 20 inches.
Round House, 2015. Oil, paper, and fabric on birch wood panel, 36 x 36 inches.
From my Memoir show, Watch How I Wrangle and So Gone:
Watch How I Wrangle, 2019. Oil on canvas, 34 x 34 inches.
So Gone, 2019. Oil on canvas, 60 x 40 inches.
Then, a recent painting I really like is a self-portrait called I’m here for the Party. It was an older painting that I hated and painted over. Now it’s precisely as I want it.
I’m Here For the Party, 2021. Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches.
One of the biggest things I'm proud of though is a video installation I did in 2015 (Camp Up To Now) that went with my Exodus Project.
. My favorite is forgiveness. 
musket
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Alright. This was a breakthrough piece for me--my first deviation from the norms of traditional, hyper-realistic bird carving, where all the "habitat" elements must be as realistic as the bird itself.
Tupelo
Acrylics
Chrysoprase
Grapevine
Mulberry Paper
Shredded Silk
Opal
Sunstone
Ebony
Jade (Jadeite)
Tupelo
Acrylics
Chrysoprase
Grapevine
Mulberry Paper
Shredded Silk
Opal
Sunstone
Ebony
Jade (Jadeite)
Hermes2020
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I wish I could contribute to this thread. I think I should start a Failures one to accommodate my stuff.
E.J.H.
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Don't.
I've seen enough stuff by you that can very well be qualified as "succesful".
And don't get me wrong, I really understand your attitude towards own work, I suffer from it myself, "being one self's worst critic".
It is a bit of a big thing but just in your mind, to present something here and declare it "successful".
I am a bit busy now getting the hey bales home, but I'd like to make a deal with you, show me yours, I'll show you mine
Desforges
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This is my favorite piece.
I sold it years ago to a friend who had a large office in Seattle. She has been back in Canada and the painting has been rolled up for a few years in a locker.
I bought it back and it is here now. I’ll have it re-stretched in a week or so and need to find a place for it, maybe at the public library. Perhaps the city will buy it. I am thinking about it.
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Hermes2020
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Don't.
I've seen enough stuff by you that can very well be qualified as "succesful".
And don't get me wrong, I really understand your attitude towards own work, I suffer from it myself, "being one self's worst critic".
It is a bit of a big thing but just in your mind, to present something here and declare it "successful".
I am a bit busy now getting the hey bales home, but I'd like to make a deal with you, show me yours, I'll show you mine
Thank you for your encouraging words! I need to overcome this hypercritical attitude to my work; I usually hate my paintings and sculptures. I will try to find something of mine I am reasonably proud of and show it here.
Artyczar
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Hermes, believe it or not I have the same debilitating hyper critical problem about myself. My therapist forced me to change the wording in my mind and say positive things in my head instead of the negative. It's SUPER hard, but when I manage to do it, it does work. Doing it is the problem because it doesn't come natural, so it is something you have to force yourself to to. Finding the good aspects, accepting compliments and trying to see what the other person's view is when they give you that compliment.
Desforges
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I have the same problem. I keep attacking myself as if that is all I deserve. I don’t think that I’ll ever be cured. All the therapists I have ever seen are always younger than me and they tell me to talk walks and sit in the sun. I don’t want to walk anymore. 
They never prescribed me what I want but only what I need.
bad day today!
They never prescribed me what I want but only what I need.
bad day today!
Desforges
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Is that Vincent?
musket
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They key to surviving being your own harshest critic--and I was certainly mine--is to understand that all the things you think are wrong with your stuff will almost certainly go unnoticed by anyone else. I'm not saying it isn't difficult anyway, but better to be harsh with yourself than overly self-indulgent, which makes improvement impossible.
People have this weird idea that making art means a little frolic in the park (especially people who don't make art, but also a surprising number of those who do). Well, it ain't so--not if you want to be any good at it. A certain degree of mental toughness is required, and that includes the toughness to see and admit where you've gone wrong by your own standards, not somebody else's, and take steps to see to it that you don't keep going wrong in the same way. After all, there are a million other ways to go wrong, so why stick with just one?
"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great.” ~A League of Their Own
People have this weird idea that making art means a little frolic in the park (especially people who don't make art, but also a surprising number of those who do). Well, it ain't so--not if you want to be any good at it. A certain degree of mental toughness is required, and that includes the toughness to see and admit where you've gone wrong by your own standards, not somebody else's, and take steps to see to it that you don't keep going wrong in the same way. After all, there are a million other ways to go wrong, so why stick with just one?
"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great.” ~A League of Their Own
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Desforges
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I had read that was never pleased with what he had done.
musket
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A word from my sadly late littlest sister in all but blood. She had her blind spots, as do we all, but she was very wise.
“Consider the value of most of the opinions that have to be courted. If you met your own standards at all, you're already in the stratosphere. Most people let others set their standards and end up nowhere. But any road followed to its end leads nowhere, because then you have to find another road. Or not bother.”
“Consider the value of most of the opinions that have to be courted. If you met your own standards at all, you're already in the stratosphere. Most people let others set their standards and end up nowhere. But any road followed to its end leads nowhere, because then you have to find another road. Or not bother.”
Hermes2020
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I like your comments, musket. I find the process of making a painting or sculpture as painful as I imagine childbirth to be.
I must also say I am not falsely modest and can see and acknowledge, without any embarrassment, that I have on occasion made something good. Here is an example (not sure whether I've shown it before) of a ceramic piece that is not just aesthetically pleasing, but required technical skill to make. It is a coiled and pinched object in stoneware clay that was rubbed with oxides and glazed lightly, then fired at 1280°. It was 350 mm high before firing, and everyone in the studio predicted it would crack and collapse, because the walls are only 3 mm thick, less on top where the gills are. As you may know by now, I simply adore this kind of texturing and colouring in my pieces.
I must also say I am not falsely modest and can see and acknowledge, without any embarrassment, that I have on occasion made something good. Here is an example (not sure whether I've shown it before) of a ceramic piece that is not just aesthetically pleasing, but required technical skill to make. It is a coiled and pinched object in stoneware clay that was rubbed with oxides and glazed lightly, then fired at 1280°. It was 350 mm high before firing, and everyone in the studio predicted it would crack and collapse, because the walls are only 3 mm thick, less on top where the gills are. As you may know by now, I simply adore this kind of texturing and colouring in my pieces.
