The Outer Box

I haven’t posted a lot on the ol blog here lately I know. Ive been really busy with the show out at Pink Ghost in Ft Lauderdale and The Hot Seat show with the Art Center here in Jax ( more on the Art Center later). I have come to a sort of realization about things lately. It is damn hard being and artist, blogger, event planner, gallery organizer, community supporter, and local art support person. A lot of things are happening that are taking me away from what I should REALLY be doing…making my art work. My art work, as of late ,has somewhat suffered from me being a little too involved in what everyone else is doing via the blog here. My work also took a back seat during the planning and preparation for the NEXT show out at Flux Gallery. I was so concerned about everyone else that I had like 3 days to bust out some work that I should have been working on for 2 months. This is a cycle I keep on running through..month after month. So, with having said all of that…i need to slow it down with the blog here. Its not that I’m quitting and giving up, its just that I cant post stuff every single day like I was. I truly need to refocus on my work and get back into the groove again. This all came to pass with me working on the seven deadly sins for Pink Ghost. I want to up my game and work on more detailed work and some experimenting as well. I just cant do any of these things with constant show deadlines, blogging, etc,etc…ya get the picture. The past few months I have been painting just to get the job done so I have some work up for a showing…I don’t want to do that anymore. I liked it better when I had a plan of attack and really thought about what I was doing…not just creating work as fast as I can at the last minute for a gallery/show thing and then turn right around and have to cram in some more art work for another show the following week. Like I said…I’m gonna slow it down a bit and focus on what really needs to get done for me. In closing here is a damn good read that I suggest every artist in Jacksonville takes a good look at over at globatron.org. Here is a quote from Mark Creegan and Byron King that I really enjoyed and really hit home with me-

I think there comes a time tho, when one is weary of having to keep inventing the wheel, keep re-creating or re-invigorating the community, hoping that something is going to stick long term. You come to a point where you just want to enter a community that exists, the infrastructure is built, all you have to do is move in. I am so there now.

I also think artists like myself are inherently bad at maintaining “the scene” anyway. I mean the organizing, running spaces, putting on shows, all that jazz. I mean, every once in a while is fine, but most of us (and i am there right now) need to hunker down in our respective hobbit-holes (to work, to think, to breathe, whatever) Artists should enliven the art community with their work, period.
I think Jacksonville lacks patrons more so than collectors. And we lack enough writers and curators (not that the ones we have don’t rock!- Madeleine!) These are the worker bees that keep the ship afloat. Artists are the cargo.

Byron King responded later in the post to Mark saying-

And Mark I agree, there should be people trying to figure out all the organizational type stuff out not the artists. Curators, etc. do this work and get paid to do it. Not artists. Artists create. That’s what we are supposed to be doing, not mucking around trying to solve all of these huge city, and cultural problems. If we do that we have no energy to create.

I would much rather just be an artist here in Jacksonville and stop sending work out of town. The problem is that in order to do good in Jax( whatever that amounts too..LOL) you have to be an artist, a promoter, a gallery organizer, and person who puts shows on, a curator, a nice guy, don’t step on any ones toes, and be a frigin marketing and advertising guru to get anything done. I’m not sure what the future hold but, I do know that I will find a happy medium between my work and the life of a Jacksonville artist. I just need to reorganize and prioritize whats really important. I’m out-

-B.Gray

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