Lemons are Bitter

Lemons are Bitter

Lemons on trees are lovely. The tree looks other worldly, full of perfect bright yellow spheres hanging on every limb. Against the green leaves they are deliriously silly somehow. No one can explain to you how bitter they are till you bite into one. Beautiful lemons are like beautiful artists making a living and maintaining a beautiful life. For some artist having a lovely collection of work which has not yet been seen is realizing Lemons are Bitter. We might offer our work to the market place hoping we can target the audience who will react to our new spin on things at the risk of rejection.  Definitely scary so be prepared to persevere. I feel very insecure at times offering a new idea to an old world mentality. I imagine the impressionists got a tremendous amount of grief for their departure from renaissance technique and image. I am an artist with an enormous volume of work, and inspired every day to do more.

Creating the work is work, now finding an interested client can be the bitter part

For some, it is a bitter pill to have to learn today’s electronic and media world. Some art work is produced with absolutely no involvement with the digital world which is so prevalent today. Too bad, like TV computers are not going away, so persevere. I am an icon painter using egg tempera, two ancient techniques requiring no technology. On the other hand it is a marvel the resources available on the net. For the first ten years I found little written technical info but now there is an explosion of image and text. I will find a way to market ancient images in today’s modern world. Internally iconographers along with some artists believe “beauty will save the world”, the beauty of humankind and our potential to see the divine in all things”, even marketing. So in the end Lemons are bitter only for while.

Artists are not always business people

I have lived like a hermit in my studio for 15 years producing and creating one fine art work after another. It has been a luxury living without the pressure of selling.  It has not been for nothing. The time artists spend developing our work and refining our intent is a necessary ordeal.  The proof of the work and its quality is in our commitment to it. Artist are particular in their curiosity for creating what they are attracted to, it  keeps us producing. Most artists, after a great deal of trial and error express their own interior dialogue through the work.  Often if you paint nature screens you love nature, if you paint sports images you like sports, etc. it is kind of obvious. The people who like your work  may or may not realize in some way it is a portrait of you. Stand by your work, the journey has  been bitter sweet.