New Work - One Small World

One Small Word
© Deb Chaney 2007
Mixed Media, Acrylics on Canvas
16” x 16” ready to hang with 1” painted edges

Feng Shui Recommendation: Health & Vitality. Place this piece in the centre of your home or office walls to support inner health and vitality in your life.

$380.00 USD MasterCard/Visa accepted
(805) 403-9870 deb@debcreative.com


Last weekend Saturday morning I submitted a new piece entitled “One Small World” (shown above) to the Small Images show at the Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College. The ingathering was packed with a line up of artists submitting their small pieces also. I took a peek into the gallery and saw easily over a hundred small art pieces lined up against the walls. Waiting for jury.

Late Saturday afternoon I came back to pick up my piece and be told I was not accepted, me, and a lot of other artists left with their work. The gallery had a few clusters left of small art leaning along the walls. I’ll be curious to go see what art was chosen and perhaps glean some answers as to why those pieces were chosen over mine. The only criteria I was aware of was that the art piece had to be 18” x 18” or smaller and recently hand made by the artist.

We all get rejected if we take risks. Is it failure? Was it failure that Edison made hundreds and hundreds of attempts before he created the light bulb? Surely we would all agree it was just ‘what it took’ to get him to the end product – the light bulb. No, I think the failure is if we stop because we don’t get it on the first try, or the second try….

It’s also why enjoying the process, relishing the moments we’re in the studio creating are so important – because maybe we won’t be achieving the gallery show we were hoping for but maybe the real gift is who we are becoming in the process of creating that art. Not that we’re giving up on that gallery show!

I also received a great gift in learning from the Atkinson gallery curator who told me it was best to sign the back of my canvas painting in charcoal and spray it with a fixative instead of signing it with a jiffy market as I’d been doing. He explained that jiffy markers have been known to leak right through to the front of the canvas and their acidity also begin to deteriorate the work. Good tip.

The Small Images show started today - November 9th – and runs until Dec 17th. I’m going to go check it out and see what else I learn. Maybe I’ll get a better feel for what the jurer, Alison Saar , was looking for.