It’s been a busy art week. I learned I was in the second round of Jurying for an artist residency that is a dream of mine.
And then I learned I was Shortlisted for the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition in London. Every year since the RA did online submissions I have submitted work. The first year I was shortlisted and my piece “Midwives and Lady Macbeth”, made it all the way to the end but did not end up being hung. At the time we were making regular summer trips to London to cycle the Prudential Ride London Century and getting our fill of Shakespeare and theater. We went to the RA summer exhibition that summer and it made perfect sense why my piece did not end up on the wall. Walking around the exhibition it was easy to tell what room and wall my piece was going to be on. In terms of color and style it would have fit in perfectly. But I framed the piece with a large 2” matte and the room was hung salon style. My piece and the way it was framed would have broken up the rhythm of the room. Every year since I have submitted work and every year I have been rejected despite submitting work I feel confident about. Every year I tell myself that plenty of famous artists have been rejected by the RA. But it always stings just a tiny bit. Last year I was super frustrated because they asked for pieces that captured this unique moment in history. I felt I had two perfect pieces that captured the moment. The works I submitted addressed the mis-steps we made with covid and the losses that occurred. But I had mis-read the room. People did not want dark pictures that reminded them of the excess deaths and loss. They wanted joyful pieces that captured the feeling of “Hot-Vax” summer 2021 and celebrating things re-opening. I knew this was the case as soon as I saw an instagram post by an artist whose woodblock picture of a happy dog was shortlisted. This year the theme was climate. I submitted one very dark charcoal drawing of a forest made up of scissors and the ground littered with figures and animals and detritus. It’s title is Alignment problem referring to the challenge we are having aligning our actions with solutions that will actually address the climate problem. It was rejected.
The other piece is titled “Tempest”. It is a swirling tornado of my dolls. I created it this past fall after tornados ripped through several midwest communities flattening them. Tempest also contains references to Bernini’s angels as I had drawn the angel with frisket before painting the dolls which is what gives it that snow like effect. I am also excited that our friends we made in London during those cycling ride-london years are going to handle delivering the work for me. One of those friends will be here next week with her ten year old daughter . Her and her brother spent part of their childhood in the US and her brother and his family live in Rhode Island. I am excited to see them as the mom has this amazing wonderful joyful energy. But also she is a lawyer and can help me figure out the stupid VAT form as the RA needs me to get a VAT number by mid May. Last time I totally messed up which ended up with mess of confusion with the HMRC.
Alignment Problem
Tempest