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Hello. Nothing much to say. I'm just writing this to try to get into the habit of writing. Umm, working on multiple ideas and projects right now and just trying to stay organized...that's pretty much it. I'll try to be more entertaining next time. Carry on.

Pop Life

I've been thinking lately about the whole 'Pop Art' label my work's been pinned with. Although I don't mind it too terribly (I don't, however, exactly welcome any label), I kind of feel as though it's dismissive - I get the feeling that, in this town, it somehow connotes a lesser than valid art form to some people. Like the exploring, addressing and referencing of popular American culture is somehow not seen as worthy of serious contemplation here in the NW as it seems to be in other regions of the country, for some reason. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

I was asked recently why my work is so 'Pop informed', and I took 'Pop informed' to mean influenced by popular culture, not influenced by the Pop Art movement. I was most likely incorrect in that assumption, but you know what happens when one assumes. Anyhoo, if there has been any Pop Art that has influenced my style, it's because that art has become part of mainstream popular culture and has therefore infiltrated my system - I did not seek it out to study and model my work after. I do invite the influences of our mass culture, the media, the advertising, the technology, the packaging, the entertainment, and the art. I'm inspired by all of it - but I did not set out to make art like anybody else or in a style so easily categorized. But if a label it must have, I'll take Pop.

If I sound contradictory and conflicted about this, you heard right.

Whew! Glad THAT's over!

Last night was my first ever 'artist talk' at Fulcrum in Tacoma. I didn't piss myself and I didn't pass out, so I count that as a success. I think it went pretty well. I had hoped for a bigger turnout, but then again, no matter what the turnout, I'm sure I would've hoped for more. That's what I do. I am thankful to the friends that made it out to support me! Big love.

Although it was a small talk in a small space in a small town, I'm chalking it up to practice for the bigger future. Hell, it was great - I shouldn't complain! I really need to figure out a way to be satisfied with where I am NOW. To be happy with what I'm achieving, not just concerned with what I may achieve or haven't yet achieved. Or is that feeling of never being satisfied the thing that is going to get me further along? No doubt, but I wish there was a way to reconcile this somehow.

Ok, ok...fine.

So, it's been a LONG time since my last post, and a lot has come to pass. I'm not going to go back and list the events and acheivements. I just really want to make a move to begin again, tentatively and a bit reluctantly, with the whole blogiverse thang.

I've been rebelling against blogging, because really, I don't see much of a point. Everybody and their dog has a blog, and I don't want to be everybody. The market is saturated. I've got plenty to do without writing about it too. What with the Facebook, the Flickr, the Twitter, the this and the that, it just seems like overkill.

Having said that, a good friend has been lightly harping on me about its worth lately, and I, as you see, have succumbed to her way of thinking. It's true, the blog is a place where you can speak relatively freely (bound only by one's own fear of the unseen and possibly non-existent audience) about your work, thoughts, feelings, etc.

Well, I've been rebelling. Just as I've been rebelling against learning art history. Which just sounds ridiculous - to rebel against learning. But I've bent towards her way of thinking as well. I've been thinking about this rigidity I seem to have, and how I need to bend with the wind so as not to break. This doesn't need to mean jumping on the band wagon, which I have a feeling is what my subconscious has been thinking this would be. I'm self-taught, or sef-developed, self-actualized, and I've always had this "I can do it myself, thanks" attitude that has been a barrier, I'm beginning to see.

So, here I am. I'm blogging, I'm reading some loaned art history books. I'm bending.

I've got some projects on the horizon. Fun ones, hopefully big ones. More on that later. For now, I'm happy to have rejoined the blogosphere (I know that's what it's called - I was just rebelling in the first paragraph;)).

Coo Coo for CoCA Puffs: Troy Gua exhibition “Do You See Me?”

Coo Coo for CoCA Puffs: Troy Gua exhibition “Do You See Me?”

The Boy King of Pop 2.0

Yippee!

Been pretty busy getting things ready for the upcoming Vermillion show in July called 'do you see me?' and painting new hybrids for SAM Gallery. The Seattle Erotic Art Festival was a success: sold The Pleasure's All Mine as well as two limited editions of it. Yippee! Mr. Joey Veltkamp also sold his delicious piece to the same gentleman patron. Yippee! Also, made some great contacts with some local artists that I really admire and respect. Possible collaborations on the horizon. Yippee! Got invited to donate a painting to this year's PONCHO Invitational Fine Art Auction. Yippee! Going to Hawaii next Friday. YIPPEE!!

Here's a mock-up of the 'do you see me?' show postcard: