In the Beginning

So. My last post was about how & why I began weaving with newspaper (it took over 1,000 words to say “poverty”). In this blog, I want to take it a step back and talk about Tucson, Arizona. Since I’m currently visiting Tucson, it seems appropriate.

I was 25 years old when I moved to Tucson and that’s there where I truly “found” myself. I went through the first 25 years of my life doing what everyone expected me to do & be. I graduated high school. I enrolled in college. I studied to be a teacher because that was what I was told I should do. I’m susceptible that way.

I hated college but kept at it. OK, no I didn’t. I was not a good student and I flunked out in my third year at Indiana State University. This was during Viet Nam. I was number 19 in the first Indiana Draft Lottery. I received my draft notice on December 23^rd 1970. When I read, “Greeting from the President of the United States!“ I actually thought, Richard Nixon had sent me a Christmas card! What a dumb shit I was!

I was drafted into the Army Infantry. It never occurred to me to take off to Canada to dodge the draft. I did have the presence of mind to realize that I should enlist in a different branch of the service. So I did; in the United States Air Force on the delayed enlistment program which kept me out of the Army Infantry. My induction date was April 1^st, 1971. I was 21 and I was an April fool. How very appropriate.

It was the absolute best thing I ever did! If nothing else, it got me out of Indiana and it opened my eyes to the world. I spent two and a half years in Thailand. I was an Intelligence Specialist and spent my time in Thailand in air conditioned buildings briefing and debriefing pilots. Pilots have egos like surgeons. Let them think they are gods and you can get anything you want. But that’s another story…..

I was a model Airman: Airman of the month a number of times and Airman of the Quarter several other times during my military career. I hated being in the military but played the game well. I was awarded the rank of Staff Sergeant (E-5) during my third year. After my four years were up, I made a bee line to Tucson, Arizona.

Tucson had three things going for it. 1. It seldom snows in Tucson, 2. It’s very far away from Indiana and 3. it’s the Sonora Desert (aka WARM). I loved the desert. I found a job at the University of Arizona Medical Center and after establishing residency, enrolled in Pima College.

I took Art courses. That’s all I wanted to do: study art. I’ve always wanted to be an artist. So, I took art courses. I loved ceramics and I thought that was what I wanted to do with my life: be a potter. In my second year, I made a mistake on my registration form. I’m dyslexic. I transposed the numbers and enrolled in a weaving class instead of my beloved ceramics class. I realized my mistake on the first day of class & I couldn’t change it without paying a $25 drop & add fee which I could not afford so I stayed in the weaving class.

I loved the class! I never took another ceramics class and have never regretted it! Jean Ohanian was my teacher and became a dear friend. I loved my teacher AND weaving. I transferred to the University of Arizona when I exhausted classes at Pima Community College. The U of A began a new Fiber Arts program that same year under the direction of Gayle Wimmer. For once, I was in the right place at the right time.

I was in a Fiber Arts class every semester while I attended the U of A with Gayle Wimmer as my Professor for every class. I still think of Jean & Gayle 30 years later whenever I’m weaving. Gayle and Jean were two major influences in my life as an artist.

It was during this period of my life that I truly “grew up.” I was in my late 20’s and fairly oblivious about many things. I lived alone. My dog was my best friend. I spent all of my free time (what there was of it with school & work) with my cousin & her husband. I discovered I liked guys. Actually, I knew it all along. Yep. I’m a slow learner. It came up to the level of consciousness when I was 30. A really slow learner.

And then things accelerated. I met my future husband. I helped move him to Los Angeles. I had another year at university to complete so I stayed in Tucson to complete my degree before moving to Los Angeles to be with him. We’re still together & married 30 years later. I retired from my corporate job in IT Healthcare Support and am now pursuing my art career.

Being back in Tucson reminds me of how far I’ve come in the past 30+ years. Tucson has changed significantly as have I. Tucson holds a special place in my heart. It was there I grew up, where I found myself. I am always amazed by those who knew from an early age who they were and what they wanted to do in life. It took me half a life time. As I said, I’m a slow learner: but I eventually get it.

Perhaps this is the reason that at age 60, I’m acting like a 40 year old kid. I’ll be 61 in a few months. I don’t mind aging but I refuse to grow up. I’m in Tucson and I feel like a kid again.

And I almost forgot the Shameless Self-Promotion! You can see all of my artwork available for purchase on my website at www.JerryLHanson.com . If you want more information on any of my artwork or to make a purchase, you can contact me by replying to this blog, e-mail me at JerryL@JerryLHanson.com or telephone my studio at 760.992.3157. And, as always, I thank you for listening!

Jerry L. Hanson

Forty Years in the News

From as early as I can remember, I always wanted to be an artist. I come from a long line of frustrated artists. My paternal side was either woodworkers or architects. My mother’s family was gifted with their hands and could make and fix just about anything. Except for a few, they all worked in non-art jobs.

I always wanted to be an artist. My university degree is a Bachelors of Fine Art in Education. I spent the next 40 year working in Information Technology support for Healthcare. I worked with computers in hospitals. I followed the family tradition of gainful employment, not passion. I’m retired now and am pursuing my passion.

When I was a university student at the University of Arizona, I was going to school on the GI Bill (I’m a Viet Nam Vet) and working full time at the U of A Medical Center. No one can live AND go to university on the GI Bill alone! I’m sorry, Uncle Sam, but it’s true. I was poor. I didn’t have a car; I got around town on a bicycle.

Art school is expensive. If you take an oil painting class, you have to purchase all those oil paints & canvas. And then there are tools for ceramics class and supplies for graphic arts and then all those photography supplies. Conte crayon, charcoal, pastels, and on and on. Art school is not cheap!

I was smitten with weaving and textiles from my first year. (Thank you, Jeanne Ohanian.) My emphasis was in textiles and weaving. I took the other art courses and loved them but it was weaving that I especially loved. I think it was about working with my hands. I love to hold and manipulate the materials I’m working with. I feel a disconnect when using a pencil, crayon or paintbrush.

Like all the media used in Art Classes, weaving materials can be expensive! Check out the prices in any knitting shop. The materials for a knitted sweater cost more than a store-bought one AND you still have to knit it! Fortunately, I was in Art School and not making my own clothes. I could improvise.

I worked in a hospital. I managed to snag the cast off sheets from the hospital beds. They were thrown away when ripped or soiled (let’s not get into that, OK?). I used the old sheets, ripped them into strips, dyed and wove tapestries on hand looms. I begged rolls of plastic bags from laundries (the one ones used to cover your dry-cleaning) to use in my artwork. I found anything I could to use in my artwork that I didn’t have to skip a week’s meals to purchase.

We had an assignment to do a three dimensional woven sculpture. While everyone in the class was investigating armatures to support their fiber sculpture, I was looking for materials that would be self supporting. I couldn’t afford to be purchasing or building metal sub-structures for a class project. Newspaper!

I took the local newspaper and began experimenting. If you fold it enough you can get a nice long strip of newspaper with some body to it. I wove a basket. Is a basket a sculpture? That depends on how you look at it.

I needed to weave a basket that didn’t’ “look” like a basket. How about a basket with an opening that goes through the basked? The inside of the basket is inaccessible. I figured I could weave a square donut. That would work. The finished piece is 32 layers of newspaper.

I spend hours and hours weaving my sculpture. I still have this sculpture. After nearly 40 years, it is just beginning to show its age. But who in their right mind would be interested in a newspaper sculpture that took three weeks to weave? Who would pay for all that labor? I made two of them. I still have both.

I made woven basket-like items off and on over the years. It was an interesting “hobby” and make great gift boxes for simple presents. My family & friends love them. Who knows where they’ve ended up? I wove the envelope to hold the wine glass my husband & I stomped in our wedding ceremony. L’Chiam!

I began painting again in the mid 90’s. My husband and I moved into a great house with far too much wall space and a limited budget. “I can paint something for that wall!” So I purchased canvases and paints and rediscovered a love for painting. I painted a triptych for a bedroom wall. I did a triptych for the kitchen. I painted a diptych for the family room.

I began doing commissions for friends & clients. I painted a diptych for an anniversary. At one point, I’d painted a canvas but didn’t’ like where it was going. I cut up a newspaper and wove it back together and plastered it on the canvas. OMG! It was perfect! I tried another one. I loved it! A designer friend saw them and purchased them on the spot.

I took up painting 3ft X 4ft canvases and did a series of 12, each with a woven field of newspaper. Most of them had the woven field affixed after the painting was painted. In later paintings, I would affix the woven field midway through painting and continue painting. I sold all those paintings at a private showing.

I was discussing my paintings with an artist friend from Switzerland who said he found the woven field most interesting and asked if I had ever considered weaving an entire piece of newspaper and forego the painting. I had. I was afraid. “Do it!” Andres exclaimed. So I did.

I fell in love with the process and the results. I am now weaving newspaper, using the newspaper as the sole source of color and texture. There is no added color. The newest pieces are truly newspaper fabric: not affixed to a canvas. They are coated with an acrylic gel which fixes the ink and provides UV protection.

I continue to explore the possibilities with woven newspaper and after nearly 40 years, am still not bored with it. My growing love for color field painting provides balance. My appreciation for and love of color pulls me from the weaving and the structure and “logic” of the weaving pulls me from the color fields. Ying and Yang

My website contains most of my woven works available for sale. I have a large number of small woven assemblages (12 inches by 12 inches) not on my website, also for sale. If you are interested in information about my artwork or wish to make a purchase, you may contact me by replying to this post, e-mail me at JerryL@JerryLHanson.com, contact me via my website: http://bit.ly/aJy6St or telephone my studio at 760.992.3157.

Thank you for listening!

Jerry L. Hanson

Tin Can Alley

I have a hard time throwing things away. I collect all sorts of weird “stuff”. Ask my husband. Fortunately, (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) I tend not to collect things of value. I’m drawn to those interesting things used for one purpose which are then discarded.

I can tell you about my collection of staples – used staples. I’ve saved them for 15 years, removing them and dropping them into a beer mug. The mug is full. I still faithfully remove staples from paper before shredding it or throwing it away.

I save those weird plastic net bags onions or garlic comes in these days. I stretched one over a ho-hum vase & jazzed it up. Stupid vase gets lots of comments! Been saving those bags ever since. Don’t ask why.

I began saving soda can pop tabs 15 years ago. I don’t even remember why; there once was a reason. I don’t know it anymore. My current excuse is, “I use them in my art.” Yep, used them in exactly two pieces years ago. I still save the tabs. They look kind of cool, though, in that huge glass vase. Nice conversation piece. Art.

Looking back over what I’ve written thus far, I sound like a nut case even to myself! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have rooms in the house that are stuffed with crap to the point you can’t open the door. There’s medication for this, no? It’s not THAT bad. My weird collections fit in regular ol’ boxes on the shelf in my studio. And I purge it once in a while. I saved wine corks for years until I had two photocopy boxes full. I tossed them. Those, I should have kept!

Four or five years ago, I bought a new can opener; one of those new kind that remove the lid without producing sharp edges. The first time I removed that pristine disk of tin, I fell in love with them! “I should be able to use these somehow!” I’ve been saving them ever since.

This winter, I finally got my outdoor shower installed outside my studio. Seemed every house on the block has one except ours. Got one now! The shower is on the back corner of the studio, ten feet from the wall & hedge separating us from our neighbors, @TheDeeView and family.

Great neighbors! Small children. Their playhouse, swing set, slide combo thingie is in their back corner just on the other side of the hedge from my new shower. A privacy screen of some sort was called for. I began deliberating on this puzzle from the day I began planning that shower. I thought of erecting a lattice of some sort. I thought about planting more hedge but they grow too slowly. I wanted something “artistic” and it had to be portable for the few times it would need to be moved. I finally hit on the perfect solution! Tin can lids!

I drug (dragged?) out my 5 year collection of tin can lids. I needed to know how many I had. I felt like Ol’ King Cole counting out his money. In my case it was tin can lids. Turns out, I had quite a few! I sorted them into stacks by size: 80 of this size, 250 of that size, 100 of another and a whole bunch of odd sizes. I had plenty for a project.

Next, I had to figure out how to attach them to one another. It takes a lot of tin can lids to make a shower screen. Whatever the method, it needed to be easy and labor efficient. I decided to connect them together with connectors of some sort. I should be able to figure this out! I’m an artist! I headed off to my favorite True Value Hardware store.

I was telling the salesmen about what I wanted. He said two words. Hog Rings. I had no idea what he was referring to! Hog rings? Pigs wear jewelry? They do, actually. Sort of. These are the rings farmers stick in the hog’s nose or ear for tags. Enough said: too much info. They come in boxes of 100 and are reasonably priced. AND they make the coolest triangular ring! Perfect!

The next task was to drill holes in several hundred tin can lids. The holes needed to be in the four corners - 12 o’clock, 3, 6 & 9 o’clock - the four corners. I didn’t want absolute perfection but they needed to be close enough to match up. These are tin can lids for crying out loud, they are hard to disguise as anything else. I purchased a drill and was able to drill 8 or 10 lids stacked up at a time. That was my most difficult task.

Then the fun began! I laid them out in to see what short of pattern I could make and went for simple. Again, these are tin can lids, not precious materials here. Pattern identified, I began hooking them together with the hog rings. It went relatively quickly and produced a nice crop of blisters on my ring-crimping hand.

Several day later, it was done, I had to figure out how to hang the screen. I used coat hanger wire and a copper pipe. I want this thing to rust and patina. I hung the screen and it looks marvelous! I’ve been showing it to all my artist fiends and it’s getting good reviews. I may move it to a more “showy” spot and use it as ART instead of a lowly screen. Until then, I can enjoy my recycling efforts every time I shower.

My shower screen is not for sale. However, you can see all of my artwork that IS for sale on my website at www.JerryLHanson.com . If you want more information on any of my artwork or make a purchase, you can contact me by replying to this blog, e-mail me at JerryL@JerryLHanson.com or telephone my studio at 760.992.3157.

Thank you for listening

Jerry L. Hanson

Icarus

These past weeks have been idyllic! The weather in Palm Springs is warming up and the sun is shining. I’ve been on three hikes in the area to witness the profusion of wild flowers after our wet winter. Well, for Palm Springs, it was wet. We had nearly 5 inches of rainfall this winter!

Our annual average rainfall is 5 inches. We’ve exceeded our annual allotment. We’ve had flash floods and some roads have washed out or were buried under mud. And there’s still six months to go in this season! Rhodes Island had 9 inches of rain in one day! I cannot imagine!

The past two weeks have been dry, sunny and warm. And I’m a happy man! My kind of weather! I love the heat and the sun. But you know that if you know me or have been reading my blog. Being outdoor and in the sun recharges my batteries.

In a prior blog entry, I talked about my recent series of paintings. This week, I want to talk about the first painting in that series. It’s one of my favorites. All, right, OK. Each one; each and every one, is one of my favorites. I like them all.

This painting was difficult not only because it was the first one of the series but it was the one to provide the “key” to the series. When I began this painting, I realized that by affixing the woven field to the blank canvas, I had compromised the surface of the canvas. I had changed the pristine, clean surface. I had sealed parts of the canvas. I couldn’t use a thin wash on the canvas. That’s how I always began! The wash wouldn’t “stick” to the sealed surface. My first reaction? “I just ruined 10 canvases!”

I knew that I wanted a light, sunny field painting. I wanted to see how many colors I could get onto the canvas and have it read as “white”. I wanted it to be filled with color but give the illusion of “white.” Sort of like a pearl. I think of them as “white” but they are filled with all sorts of color. The opalescence is filled with blues, green, reds, yellow. It wasn’t working for me.

The surface of the canvas wasn’t cooperating. It is the fault of the canvas! Right? Yeah, right. I just ruined 10 canvases. I set them aside and worked on a commission and other “stuff”. But those troublesome, “ruined” canvases met me every morning, inhabited my studio and refused to be ignored.

One beautiful sunny morning, I opened the doors, let the warmth and sun into my studio and spread my tubes of paint on the table. I returned to my idea of multiple colors in a field of white. But rather than white, I wanted sunshine and all that warmth. Instead of a thin wash over the canvas, I used a gel medium with a touch of pigment. I covered the canvas using my favorite palette knife. I let it dry. I added another layer and another and another. I began building up layers of colors. Each layer added depth and let the prior layer shine through. The canvas took on a waxy “feel”. I added iridescent white and gold.

Thirty plus layers later, I have a painting that changes with the light. It changes as you walk past the painting. The opalescence is incredible! It is not the white I had envisioned. It is a buttery, sunny color filled with other colors: waxy. It almost looks like it is melting. “Icarus” flying too close to the sun.

This painting is available for purchase. If you are interested or want to know more about this painting, please respond to this blog, E-mail me at JerryL@JerryLHanson.com or contact me at my studio: 760-992-3157. You can see more of my artwork for sale at www.JerryLHanson.com
Thank you for “listening”

Jerry L. Hanson

Problem Child

Recently, I read an article in Newsweek by Cathleen McGuigan in which she mentions Mark Rothko’s reluctance to part with his finished paintings. “He considered his artwork to be his children, and he didn’t like to send them off to live with just anybody.” Personally? I find this a little weird.

There are; however, problem children.

My current series of color field paintings came fairly easily once I figured out my approach to the woven field affixed to each canvas. I find a clue on how to proceed in the weaving and the paint flows. Usually. I do think of a painting as a problem child when I’ve lost my way in painting it. There’s always one problem child. My problem child is “Parchment,” one of my favorites.

We do tend to favor our problem children and pets more than the trouble-free ones. I don’t have actual children; I do have cats: Will & Grace. (I never said I was clever thinking up names for my pets. We also had Bill & Hillary). Gracie is sweet, loves to cuddle, hacks up hairballs with wild abandon and had major litter box issues. Will, on the other hand, is gentle, cute, makes no messes and comes when called! They’re both 9 years old. Gracie is my favorite. Gracie’s litter box issues have been resolved in the past two years (surgery was required). Hairballs are still an unpleasant surprise in the middle of the night. But, I digress . . .

I began talking about my problem child painting. “Parchment” was it. I began this canvas envisioning a very white surface filled with color. I wanted it to feel like the white of a pearl, the inside of an oyster shell or white, fluffy clouds; white without being white. The “feel” of white. Pearls and fluffy clouds are anything but white! They are filled with color if you look carefully. That’s what I was going for.

I was well on my way to achieving this with the painting. I used iridescent white for much of the canvas. I had about 20 layers of gel with the slightest touch of pigment. I would paint it on then scrape it off leaving traces of color on the canvas. Blues, yellows and greens were hinted at in all that white.

Red! It needs red! Did I tell you I don’t yet understand “RED”? I don’t. Fools walk in . . . I mixed up some reds in my gel and painted it on. I got side tracked. When I came to my senses and remembered the canvas, the paint had dried. It looked as if the canvas had been attacked by a can of tomato soup. I was ready to destroy the canvas, I was so upset.

The next day, I had a paint date. An artist friend and I get together once a week to paint, share a bottle of wine and talk all evening about art. I look forward to these evenings. I was telling Steven about my ruined canvas. He took a look at it. “Yuck!” I so appreciate discrete criticism. We both burst out laughing. Steven suggested I keep going to see what I could pull out of it. “It doesn’t have to be white.” Why hadn’t I thought of that?!?!?!?!?

I took Steven’s advice and continued working with my problem child. Like Gracie’s litter box issues, it began to resolve itself. (Horrible analogy, no?) I began to enjoy where we were going. As I painted, I pulled in light browns, amber and lavender. The red still shines through from the depth of the layers and it has become one of my more complex color field paintings. From a distance it looks like parchment. Close up, it has the multi-colored layers of a pearl.

I named my problem child “Parchment.” It also reminds me to not be so brittle in my thinking.

If you are interested in purchasing or knowing more about “Parchment” or any of my paintings, please respond to this blog, E-mail me at JerryL@JerryLHanson.com or contact me at my studio: 760-992-3157. You can see more of my artwork for sale at www.JerryLHanson.com.

Also notice that in celebration of my re-vamped website, I am offering “Sailor’s Delight” at a 50% discount.

Thank you for listening,

Jerry L. Hanson

He's Up and Running!

I’ve had a web site for 4 or 5 years now. Until this week, that was it: I’ve had a website for 4 or 5 year. I did nothing with it after it was launched. It looked great! I loved the look of the site. The guys who set it up did a phenomenal job! Thank you, Kevin & Chip.

When I initially set up the site, I was planning to leave my wage-earning career and become a full time artist. I knew I would need a website where interested parties could see my work and where I could periodically update the site with current work. Shortly after we launched the website, I received an offer from my employer I couldn’t refuse. I put my big career change on hold for another four years. It was a smart decision at the time.

My trendy, edgy website sat there. Unattended. I did nothing with it in all that time. Chip & Kevin moved on to other ventures. The site was ahead of its time - 5 years ago. By today’s standards, it still looked great; however, it was no longer “easy” to maneuver through the site by today’s standards. It needed updating.

If you read my blog, you know my 2010 New Year’s Resolution is to act on my artist’s career by promoting myself. Part of this self promotion is to have an up to date website. I began looking at websites, comparing them to my “old” one. I looked at functionality, design, the “look” and, especially, maneuverability. There is one site I’ve always loved www.domisolhomes.com . It is one of the coolest sites I’ve ever seen! I contacted the web designer, Kinder Relations at www.kinderrelations.com to create my site. We clicked: the contract was signed within days.

I will admit to having used my Social Networking Media Goddess, Carolyn McCray: (craftycmc@aol.com, or @craftycmc on Twitter) throughout the process to guide us through creating a website to support my purpose while providing the functionality and “look” I wanted. Our month of hard work was worth it! After final tweaks to the images and copy, the new web site was uploaded and brought LIVE on my host server! And it looks wonderful!

I had a lot of fun working with Kinder Relations and Carolyn during this process. It gave me an opportunity to model. (That’s a career to cross off my list of possibilities.) I updated my catalogue of available artwork and I realized how many paintings I’ve actually sold in the past five years as I removed those images from the catalogue.

To celebrate the re-launch of the www.JerryLHanson.com, I am offering the painting “Sailor’s Delight” for sale at a significant discount. I invite you to check out my website: www.JerryLHanson.com, take a look at my new body of work to see what direction my painting and weavings are headed and how they’ve merged. I welcome your comments and critique of both my website and artwork.

I had a lot of fun working with Kinder Relations and Carolyn during this process. It gave me an opportunity to model. (That’s a career to cross off my list of possibilities.) I updated my catalogue of available artwork. AND I now realize how many paintings I’ve actually sold in the past five years! I’ve also enjoyed reviewing the changes in my painting and weavings over the past several years. I like the direction I’m going.

Jump onto my website: www.JerryLHanson.com . Peruse the gallery. Click on the thumbnail images to see the entire painting. Buy something. (Hint, hint.)

If you are interested in purchasing “Sailor’s Delight” or any of my artwork or want more information about one of the paintings or woven pieces, contact me via this blog, through my website www.JerryLHanson.com or e-mail me at JerryL@JerryLHanson.com. Thank you for “listening.”
Jerry L. Hanson

Shameless Self Promotion

I love a good birthday party so long as it’s not mine. I enjoy anniversary parties but not if it’s my anniversary. I love a good party: I don’t want to be the reason for the party. Our wedding was nerve wracking! I do not like to be the center of attention. That’s one of the great things about my husband; he loves to be the center of attention. It takes the focus off me.

I suspect this is why I am lousy at promoting my own artwork: it is all about me. I am my artwork and I have to be the center of attention. If I cannot promote my own work, who will? Well, given sufficient financial resources, one could hire it done. I don’t have those resources. Therefore, it begins with me. Dammit!

I retired nearly a year ago with a goal of beginning a second career as an artist. I am an artist, mind you. I want an actual career as an artist. I’m leaning that I have to confront my fears and be willing to be the center of attention. I have to learn to sell myself. I hadn’t actually thought about that part of being an artist!

I’ve been painting and producing art for the past 9 months. My studio is bursting with canvases and newspaper fabric. I have to move canvases around to get to my supplies. My bookcases are covered by stacks of paintings. My studio walls are covered in multiple layers of artwork. This stuff isn’t selling itself.

I made a New Year Resolution for the first time in 10 years. The last one was in 2000 to stop smoking. I stopped. If I can stop smoking after 32 years, I can learn to promote my artwork. Smoking cessation may not have been the most difficult thing I’ve done, I fear.

I did nothing with my Resolution until the end of February when I contacted a Social Media Expert: Carolyn McCray (craftycmc@aol.com or @craftycmc on Twitter) my Goddess of Promotion. With Carolyn’s coaching and guidance (OK, OK, she uses a whip sometimes) I am learning to be the center of attention. It scares the hell outta me but I’m learning. And, I whine a lot.

Carolyn helped me set up a Twitter account and taught me to tweet. We set up a blog. She’s an expert editor. She is a Social Media Expert, after all! I set out my goals and we discuss how to go about achieving them. She guides me in setting up goal related tasks and pokes me with a stick to be sure I’m completing my tasks. I am an expert procrastinator. She calls me on it.

I have been working on my Artist Career for a month now. How am I doing?
I think I have made some positive steps. I have over 600 people following me on Twitter. I have a blog in which I write about my artwork and my journey as a Career Artist. I have sucked it up and talked to gallery owners about my art. Whew! This is the hard one: talking to gallery owners.

I receive comments on my artwork from gallery owners and other artists. These positive comments boost my morale and ease my fears. I have received positive comments about my blog from Europe and China! Perhaps China will censure me! Would that make me a dissident artist? Wow!

I have a long way to go and it’s still frightening and intimidating. I do not like being the center of attention and I’m beginning to do it anyway. It still is not easy. I’ve spent many years behind this barrier and I’m taking it down one brick at a time. Every time I approach a gallery, it gets easier.

One day, I hope I can look back and wonder why I was so resistant to selling my art and myself. I still don’t like my own birthday parties, though. That may never change.

So, Please do visit my website: www.JerryLHanson.com and visit my blog often: http://JerryLStudio.blogspot.com AND if you use Twitter, follow me @JerryLStudio.

Oh! And all the artwork on my website is for sale. If you are interested in any of my work and want more information about one of the paintings or woven pieces, contact me via this blog, through my website or e-mail me at JerryL@JerryLHanson.com. Thank you for “listening.”
Jerry L. Hanson