I think there’s a fine line between creating work within your normal practise and making commercial or rather, more ‘saleable’ work.
As mentioned in my last blog post, I’d spent a whole day working and reworking 2D images with the sole purpose of making saleable items. The results were dire, I hated them. I was trying to do something that I thought people would want and it just wasn’t me.
It was only because I’d chatted with our press release person that the real reason behind my work came out and I was able to condense my installations into much smaller postcard size versions, which still fitted the exhibitions brief.
I felt comfortable with the work. After feeling a bit lost with the tea creations and not really finding a way of going forward with it, I felt this new work was a direction I wanted to follow and explore.
Even better that I actually sold all three exhibited. Now that’s a first!!
The spate of exhibitions I’ve been involved in recently have been good because all of the venues have varied immensely, each having their own quirkiness and sometimes limitations, so I’ve had to constantly adapt my work to fit.
I’d built up a body of work too, which was quite fortuitous as a friend of mine had been asked to take work to a small gallery in Berwick, inviting two guests. I was delighted to take part, but slightly stressed as the instructions were only given one evening for the work to be ready and framed the next day.
Since March, I seem to have been constantly exhibiting and although it’s been fantastic in that I’m working and pushing ideas to the limit, I feel I need to have more studio days (time permitting) to continue with this new line of work.
But then…If opportunities continue to pop up – I’ll keep taking them. The trick is just to be constanly prepared.
