In, then Out?

There is a paradoxical trait in all artists to be both introvert and extrovert. Both are stable traits that differentiate people. Many of us have suffered to the extrovert feeling, more at home painting in the quiet, preferring introversion. I was an introverted observer of the world as a child, but now my adult personality enjoys the camradierie of others, especially other creative types. All of us are required to be "out there" to sell our work and talk about it. It is more and more important to the work to be extroverted, and talk openly about the interior side of our lives like it is special and sacred. It is sacred. We are drawn to the interior side of our personalities and express it with quality work, but require an audience of buyers to participate in the full exterior experience. Without both, we artists can not fully experience the full circle of our existence. We need to share our findings in how our tools work, how the brush feels in our hands, how the sweet smell lingers on our clothes, how we feel when our day is done. Since we look more closely at the turmoil of nature, and see the rough chaos of trees, tumbled rocks, cracked earthy crevices to find order in its predictability on our canvas, we need to communicate this disorderly mass of life to order the existence of our universe. The more we see the order from chaos, the more simple it becomes; so simple it becomes abstract, the work and the feelings. Simplified order of mind and body, a nice contrast! I see it in personal lives of artists as well. We seem to create interesting problems worth solving to order ourselves. When such problems are solved, we do it again, creating and solving, thinking it up, creating to solve, packing it up, moving it out, and over and over again.  It is a repetitive order we know. It is so personal and worth the depth that it shines on our walls and on our intrepid extroverted body of shinyness for those special fleeting moments when we stand in a gallery with our works.  It is our interior 'emmy.' The nomination is on the wall, the trophy is in our quirky smile when the gallerist sells. The work is an instance of time extraordinarily valuable, an exceptional example of existence, so why not get out there and show it off? Painful and daunting as it feels, it is so good when it has rounded the circle of life by finding a place in the world, then we can do it all over again. Each experience gains us confidence. It is the fanciful formation of a lallapalooza, a remarkable thing. This is the reason to be extroverted, to celebrate being brave enough to do this, to be a part of this lallapalooza of life we have created. So pluck up and enjoy it!

Join me and my studio mates next month for viewing our production of works (mid April 2012). My new space is in Broken Road Studios on 115 Roberts Street in the River Arts District of Asheville, NC. Open 7 days a week!