Blue Hum

Today someone asked me if i had entered my art in the San Diego County Fair this year, they were looking for my work and didn't see it.....well, the answer was no. i wanted to, in fact, i had even decided on titles for my work and sent in the entry fee.....but then i was gently advised by one of my mentors to move away for the county fair scene if i am showing in high end galleries like Amsterdam Whitney in Chelsea, New York. Also, I have collectors now that are interested in my work for their future value...it would just be wrong to see their "investment" in a town fair.
i have to say---i have been moving up mindbendingly fast into the higher market world of art. Although it is a dream come true; it is also completely unsettling.
I really am grieving about the fair. Each year I had shown there it created a cool whirlpool of excitement for me. It was instant feedback, praise, comments, sales and emails from other like artists. and, I made new friends.
So bummer.
At this point, as i get ready to fly back to North Carolina to be a guest on HGTV next week, I wonder where and what I will be doing in say, 6 months from now. I am fulfilling my obligations to show locally for the year.... that much I know, the rest, the new opportunities and challenges have a grip of me like a starved shark on a lone plump seapup.

So this piece (which showed at the fair one year) is called "Blue Hum". I said earlier that I had my titles ready, well this was how i would get ready for the fair each year: (most artists don't do this, BTW)
the titles, size, description, medium and price are due along with the entry fee almost a month before delivery date. so each year i would take a day to consider interesting names....i would select about 10 and submit them with a description, price, fee, etc., of the phantom works.
then i would get to work. I had about 2 plus weeks to do 10 already titled pieces. i like working under pressure and with a challenge. of course, about 3 days before the delivery date, i felt like hell and hated everything that had to do with life. ironically, those pieces i did in the final hours ALWAYS resulted in award winners.
"*sigh* that only encourages me to do things at the last minute.

meredith was with me one time on delivery day....she could attest to the fact that at the final hour i literally race to get my paintings in 5 minutes before closing --- literally on the track in my van going about 50- 70mph, somehow i ended up on the Del Mar racetrack inadvertently chasing the poor racetrack worker guy while he was operating the long armed sprinkler tractor that had freshly wet down the field. And, I believe i was lapping that dude while riding on only 2 wheels. he got out of the way in time. oops, sorry dude, and my paintings all got in. later, as usually, we had the after-stressful-event-hysterical laughter for hours. (meredith and me, not race track dude) it is a fond memory.
another *sigh*.
er, meredith hasn't volunteered to go up with me again.... just as well. and now i don't do it anymore (sniff)...good thing i don't deliver pizza for a living.

so, one year i stuck myself with the title "Blue Hum"...i needed a subject.
i pondeered, but discarded the idea of a blue hummingbird as being too trite, too predictable...finally like an heaven sent joke, she came to me...the lady in blue....she represents the young lady who came to my door that summer after my son had been away to college his first year. she was his girlfriend, young beautiful, trim, big eyes and a continual hummmmmmm sound that came from between her ears. after every question put to her, no matter how banal, her answer was always an unequivocal 10 second or longer uhummmmmmmm as her lovely blue eyes rounded up to the ceiling where i suppose the answer "i don't know" comes from.
"Hi, (my-son's-first-girlfriend-from-college-that-i-can't-believe-he-dragged-home), how are you this morning?"
lady in blue's answer..."Uhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (eyes to the sky)mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, "uh, good, i guess".
so she is the Blue Hum and the dragonfly is in there too because it is only half as trite as a blue hummingbird, and a radar disk in the sky (in the right-hand panel).....because, uhmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,uh, i don't know.