Sliding Doors

Last night I was propositioned. Nothing unusual in that. It happens occasionally..... enough to make life interesting anyway. But this was different. Not a sexual proposition - but a business one........

A guy I met for the first time a couple of weeks ago and have not seen since, has offered to go into a business partnership with me. He's willing to invest a lot of money into building up my art business, promoting it and backing me as an artist. He knows, as well as I do, that I'm not going to sell my work in the area I live in, I need to go to London, Birmingham or Manchester - where the big money is, and the people who have the inclination to buy my sort of erotic art go. He's talking about a showroom, where people can visit and where I can exhibit my art properly. And his offer has come at exactly the right time - I've been looking for a good gallery for a while, one that is suitable to my needs, where they can promote my art and I can get a good price for my art, which I know is good, and has appeal to a wide audience. But if I go to a large gallery, they will ask a high percentage commission on my art - I'll be lucky to get 30% of the value they sell it at, my framing costs will also soar and I may get less money than if I sell my art privately. This has always been a problem for me - do I sell my art though a prestigious gallery and get less for it, but get fame and acclaim, or do I stay private and reach a smaller audience but keep a higher percentage of the proceeds? Plus there's my website to consider - technically I'm advertising to the world on it, and although my work resides in other European countries and the USA, I'm not known, as yet, as an international artist. I want to reach a wider audience. If I open my own showroom, I would be doing that and I would be taking the profits (or losses) and would be able to reach a richer audience perhaps, but would they be willing to spend the large amounts a venture like this would need to be profitable?

This businessman is willing to invest a lot of money in me, but he also wants a large slice out of it - he's in business after all, and that is to be expected. But do I go with him and invest a lot of money and maybe make a huge pile of money with his backing, or possibly even lose a lot through unforeseen bad decisions, or do I carry on as I am, slowly building up my business, pushing my work through the channels that are interested, and selling well enough to keep a steady income, but not necessarily a vast one. Or even keep on looking and maybe another offer better than this will appear around an unsuspected corner. Or is this as good as it gets? Should I snap his hand off and get him signed up before he changes his mind? I have to consider all angles, and run the two scenarios as parallel universes - as in the film Sliding Doors - one of these open doors leads to success and the other leads to ignominy - but which is which?

Choosing the chosen few

I've taken the chosen few..... well ........ten.... paintings to the exhibition. The best of the years work. The ones I'm happiest with, most want to exhibit, the ones, in my opinion, most likely to sell. Wrapped lovingly in their protective covers, they're taken to the venue, a few questions as to where they should be left, unwrapped they're brought blinking into the sunlight, and left in the charge of complete strangers, who I entrust to look after my precious creations. These strangers will hang them, choose where they look best, and the next time I'll see them they'll be part of a large exhibition of 900 or so pieces of art. And maybe, just maybe, some of them will get the coveted red dots. The mark of a sale. The greatest prize of all - someone wants to own one of my paintings. Wants to buy it, and take it home, to cherish and adore it, as part of their home decor, to enhance and decorate their home....... But because the exhibition is so popular and attracts so many visitors from far and wide, there may be too many paintings for the hanging space. Its an extensive area, but the organisers have no idea what size paintings are going to arrive, and just how they will be hung. Its a mammoth and daunting task. So they ask each artist to pick four, just four, from their chosen ten which will be the first to be hung and after the first ones have been sold, they will be replaced with the next paintings, so that the exhibition will hang as many paintings as they can for this prestigious exhibition, the funds of which are for a charitable organisation. So, tell me this, HOW do I choose? How do I pick just four in a split second of time, do I choose the best, the most likely to sell, the largest, the ones that give a good example of what I do. How on earth do I chose?

Its in the blood

People often ask me how long I've been an artist and are usually surprised when I say "Always". I think they expect I'll say "Oh, only the last year or so". But I was born an artist. We all are. We all want to paint as very young children - brightly colourful drawings of houses, mummy and daddy, brothers and sisters, trees, dogs and cats, on large expressive sheets of paper where we can swish the paint around and get thoroughly messy. And we creatively scrawl on the walls, caveman fashion, to the annoyance of our house-proud parents who shout and scrub it off; its within us to create, and be artistically expressive. The only difference between the majority of the rest of the world and me is that I never stopped. I've always painted and drawn things. As a child I painted and drew houses and people and animals. As a teenager I painted weird and wonderful surreal fantasy paintings with a macabre edge to them, that used to perplex most of the adults who viewed them. Then as I reached adulthood, I progressed, and went away from the weird fantasy drawings and perhaps lost some of my creativity because I started to paint the pictures I thought other people wanted. I painted family dogs and cats, other peoples houses, flowers, other peoples favourite scenes, and put the fantasy pictures to one side. I was trying to please, but didn't please myself, or my creative side.

But now, as I've gown older again, I've progressed further and become what I want to be, I've found my creativity again, I'm painting the pictures that please and excite me - the fantasy pictures, whether its fantasy landscapes, even of "normal" scenes when I add interest with splatter or pour-on paint, or highlights of bright sunshine or deep purple shadows. Or fantasy pictures of wildlife - the ferocious tigers or prancing horses, or purely fantastical creatures like glistening mermaids, magical unicorns, glowing angels and fiercesome dragons. Or, best of all, the erotic fantasy paintings, where I depict someone in the image they want for themselves. Their creation of their own fantasy - making them feel sexy, tantalising, erotic and ultimately desirable.

I wonder what I'll be painting should I live to old age. Will it be fluffy kittens and landscapes. Somehow....... I doubt it.