9/26/06 My Next Goal - The Guild
This past week I also completed and mailed my submission to The Guild www.guild.com
In my opinion The Guild is the premier on-line company to sell one's original, one-of-a-kind art work. I have been researching their website and catalog for almost three years now. Finally after completing my newest body work "Earth Elements" the handmade paper collages on canvas, I felt that I had work worthy of submission.
It almost funny how this new body of work developed out of desperation and panic. I was preparing for my April/May 2006 solo exhibisiton at Fernwood Botanical Gardens, Niles, MI www.fernwoodbotanical.com when I got wind that my contact had left. When I checked in with the new organizer I casually asked how many displays did they have for my 3-D cast bowl forms? They replied, "Oh, none. Everything that is exhibited here MUST be 2D and hang on the wall."
Talk about being in shock!! I was a year and a half into casting bowl forms and has approximately 6 completed and had very little time left to start over - especially when considering that I had to create almost 85 pieces to fill the Clark Gallery. Not only that, I was simply not prepared to get into framing, mat, glass and so on. It is both the issue of expense and of storage for me. (My under bed storage was already filled with my Indiana Dunes artwork.)
Somehow from this place of desperation, I came up with the idea of handmade paper on canvas and spent the next year figuring out how to adhere the paper to the canvas. From that chance encounter, "Earth Elements" was born!
So after almost three years of working on canvas I felt ready to send my newly photographed work to the Guild. The application process is rigerous and time consuming and according to the information on their website, "less that 50% of artist who apply actually get selected." Daunting!
My own observations is that the bulk of their work for sale is functional and 3-D. From my experience as a gallery owner, wall space of homeowners is limited. Both factors may limit my chance of getting selected. But on the positive my work is totally unique, it is created in earlh tones, soothing and contemplative (what a lot of people today crave in their homes) and is VERY seasonal which should be a real plus at their catalog layout and design is set up by the season.
My slides and submission was mailed in mid-August for the September 15 deadline and jury. Now the waiting begins.
The Mythical Chain of Chance: "How can you say luck and chance are the same thing? Chance is the first step you take, luck is what comes afterwards." Amy Tan
