|
Hello Friends! Winter in British Columbia can feel long and gloomy, especially when we live between the Pacific coast and Coast mountains. So I eagerly accepted an invitation to spend my birthday in Powell River with close friends. IDEA students were on reading break and I had a gap in my work commitments - timing was perfect! A mini-quake Days before I left, we had a small earthquake, which rattled the studio for about 30 seconds and my nerves for a lot longer! I was working on the ground floor, building a shipping container for 2 of my paintings and felt the tremors directly. The noise puzzled me - it felt and sounded like snow sliding off the roof, but heavier and much louder. My first thought, as I watched the foundations in my studio quiver was “I am not prepared”! British Columbians are very aware that the Cascadia subduction zone, which runs from Northern Vancouver Island down to Cape Medocino, California may rupture anytime. They say it’ll be a Big One and it’s overdue. This was different, but certainly got me thinking about a survival strategy and camping kit. The road trip to Powell River on the Sunshine Coast involves two ferry rides and a stunning drive through moss-filled, temperate rainforest. The sun came out and we had 3 beautiful days beach and forest walking with Tazz the Blue Heeler, making delicious meals and catching up with friends. Gallery representation Gallery representation poses an ongoing quandary. In February I answered a call for submissions from a new gallery in East Vancouver, initiated by the fellow who does my image capture and archival prints. He was looking for artists to collaborate with - a mutually beneficial arrangement where prints would feature for sale in the gallery. My Wild Bird series seemed perfect for this - The originals have been popular enough to consistently sell out and I’ve been offering prints for years. “Maybe” he said, the next time I went down to fulfill more print orders “if you can find other artists who do ‘birds and flowers, kinda thing, you could do a group show?” and “really we’re looking for artists with between 5,000 to 10,000 Instagram followers.….” 10,000 followers Does an army of social media followers really translate to the holy grail of gallery sales? I don’t think so. I’m not interested in being an online influencer, a content creator or a mover & shaker on Instagram. I want to make meaningful art, exhibit it where I can and write about the process. Social media is turning everything and everyone into a commodity, reducing our value to the number of likes generated on our accounts. It’s just not conducive to being creative and I seriously worry about the mis-use of personal information by Meta. A virtual home So I’m in the process of moving! If Instagram is primarily a marketing tool, I’ll continue to use it as such - but for meaningful discussions around making art, my research and influences, I’m building a virtual home on Substack. I’ve named my publication Coho Park Studio, after the green space behind my home. Please check out my site - it’s early days, but so far it feels like a great place to be. It feels slower paced, expansive and I love the variety of thoughtful, independent voices I’m finding over there! My first post is a little forest story inspired by my Nature walks, with a message of hope and resilience. Check it out and subscribe if you like - it’s free :) Until later in March, Happy Birthday dear fellow Pisceans, Zoë XO
|
