All day at work, no, all week, I have been struggling to figure out where my paintings are going. I have not written because I have been working to pull my work together. I am working on three paintings: one midsize, of a chair, another small piece that will soon be a bird and branch, and finally a large five foot piece that went from, 'I'm not sure', to 'ooh maybe'. Whatever comes of this struggle, be it good or bad, one thing is for sure, my work is changing.

Hichcock once said "be as artistic as you like, just dont let anyone know about it".

My work and I are all out of sorts. I suddenly can't seem to get a handle on it. This happens from time to time, like growing pains; you can be plugging along, everything is hunky-dory, when suddenly nothing works the way it should. It's really quite frustrating but if you can push through it, the work usually comes out stronger. In the meantime, I am cleaning and rearranging my studio.

My vision for my own work waxes and wanes. Sometimes I am right with it, I understand where it is going and am excited about the direction. Suddenly, out of the blue, we are at odds. Sometimes I push myself into a new direction, or I will work on something else like frames or making boxes. Lately, I just keep working until my vision comes back. I get anxious from time to time and want my work to move faster, but with art, you cannot skip steps. Its Just a steady pace of diligent work.

Is My Work An Aquired Taste?
Last Friday I decided to torture myself by asking some close friends to critique one of my paintings. Unfortunately, they did exactly as I asked. I found that my skin is much thinner than I thought it was. I also got the information that a great opportunity to do a large commission fell through. All this has made me feel a little down about my work. Not really my work as much as how the work is received sometimes. I admit it, I want everyone to love every painting I make. Art can be very subjective. We make it the best we can and put it out there in hopes that others will see what we see. Next week I am going to spend a lot of time trying to convince gallery owners to take my work on. This is the part of being an artist that every artist hates. "Please love my work". Sometimes I wish I was a professional pool player; either you sink the ball or you don't, no grey areas.

Today was the first day of my new work schedule. I am taking Thursdays off from my job and working in the studio. I felt a new sense of freedom, like the shackles had been taken off my ankles. I got up and did my normal routine which consisted of sitting with the dog in the corner of the couch sipping Cafe Bustelo for a half an hour. I then headed off to work, after a shower, at about 8:30.

In the studio today I stretched eight canvases and primed them, made a frame for a piece I just finished, set up a meeting with a gallery owner for next week, (a new one, that makes two for next week). I also took a couch out of the studio and drove it to the dump because all I do is pile tools on top of it. I picked up my work from the photographers. Oh, and I also got some supplies at lowes earlier. Finally I began to rearrange my studio because I want it to look cool in case anyone decides to "drop by". I love this new schedule.

I set off on a great experiment into the world of ebay. It looks like there is a lot of art listed already so really I am just lost at sea. We shall see what comes of it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ORIGINAL-OIL-PAINTING-ON-CANVAS-BY-ARTIST-AARON-TUCKER_
W0QQitemZ7412251240QQcategory
Z551QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Ok, so here are some images of paintings I have been working on for the last month or so. I have been making frames as well. I framed up six paintings and they are at the photographer's being slided. I finished a small bottle painting that is about eight inches square and am considering putting it up for sale on ebay.

Today in the studio I really made some progress. I got to the end of a small bottle painting, I stained it and began to add some highlights, which give the bottles some three dimensionality. After that, I began to work on a large painting, which for some reason a few weeks ago, I decided to make completely blue. I wish I hadn't done that but am rolling with it at the moment. The small painting was bugging me because the more I looked at it, the more it felt subtley off. I wasn't sure if I should let it dry and add more stain, or wipe it clean and start over. After some deliberation, I decided to wipe it clean and start fresh. I wiped away all the highlights and restained it. So I was back where I started. A few of the earlier highlights I really liked, so I added just a touch in a few places. This made me realize why they had gone wrong the first time. The highlights in the bottle paintings need to be very subtle, almost unnoticeable. My work is becoming a delicate balance.

I am now taking an extra day off of work in order to devote more time to developing my career. I am very excited about it and think that it will free me up to work on my portfolio as well as give me time to meet with galleries and such. My goal is to work even less next year, but we will see how that goes.

One more thing: Shannon and I went to the book store on Sunday because she gets a large discount due to her new job at Lark Books. I looked at some art magazines and drank some coffee. I have not looked at art magazines in a long time. I used to look at them a lot back when I was in college and when I was younger. This time, I just felt like I wanted to see some art. A gallery would have been nice to go to but since there aren't many in my area, magazines would have to do. What I am leading up to is a small criticism. I know that these publishers of art magazines have to sell subscriptions, but give me a break. Just because the art is depressing and we get to see someone's wingwang, dosn't mean it's worth an article. I am not commenting on an one write up in particular, this is an overall generalization of most of the artists I saw covered in a majority of the art magazines I flipped through. I think that a lot of great art is being done by seasoned artists, who are being overlooked because they don't live in NYC and don't produce art that makes the viewer want to jump off the Empire State Building in despair. That's all.