SANDY GARNETT ART BLOG

Here is a painting I delivered today.  I am finishing a Fingerprint Portrait, a smaller version of my 1998 Musicians paintings, I am working on my new Field of Figures sculpture, I am working on the sidewalls for my Twister paintings, the list goes on.

At first I walked on a razor blade, which became a tightrope, which became a 2x4, which became a plank. Now I’m walking on a sheet of plywood. By the time I am done I will walk freely in a field of my own making, solid earth beneath my feet. This is my career track in a nutshell. I look back at the high wire and sometimes miss the thrill of it all, an easy sentiment from my macked out loft a decade later, looking for the next battle.

Here is Figure #4, The Miles Figure, which goes into the Field of Figures sculptures.  Each new collector sponsors the next figure, and the new figure is disbursed into the existing sculptures until there are 32 unique figures in each sculpture.  I am building the environment for this sculpture now.

Here is a Fingerprint Portrait of Vanessa and Gerd.  The painting goes to Germany and is a surprise gift for a couple I’ve not yet met.

Here is the new environment I have designed for my next Field of Figures sculpture.  The figures will be completed next week as will this box.  The piece will be installed on a wall and I have to fit a glass or plexi box on top so that the figures are protected.  The figures look very pretty with the lighting I’ve played with.

I’m working on my next Field of Figures sculpture.  Figure 4, The Miles figure, will be done in a week.  My collector will be placing this in her restaurant so I need to create an environment that mounts to a wall and contains proper lighting.  I will also need to plexi the exterior so people won’t touch the figures.  I would prefer glass but I think this might not be practical in a high traffic area.  I like this lighting so I will design the metal environment accordingly.

 The Field of Figures sculpture continues to unfold in exciting ways.  Each collector who buys an edition sponsors the creation of the next figure until there are 32 collectors and 32 sculpture editions; each sculpture will eventually have 32 unique figures.  I could not afford to make all of the figures all at once so each new collector comes into the project and helps me make another figure.  I also like that I get to create new environments for each sculpture.  An edition is essentially a set of figures and the environments can change.  I have in mind a show with 20 or 30 completely different environments.  I  think this would be powerful and beautiful.  The current price for an edition is $15,000. USD.  With what it costs to make these sculptures this is a good price, which will continue to rise as demand for the series increases.

 In a media stunner The Wall Street Journal, one of my 3 daily papers, has altered its dimensions.  It is strange how powerful a simple change like this can be.  It’s like taking an image in photoshop and squashing it by 25%, where your brain starts questioning your eyes.  In another groundbreaking piece of news Steve Jobs over at my obsession Apple Inc. introduced the iphone yesterday.  I’m just  getting used to my sweet Crackberry Pearl… we’ll see how that iphone looks and works.

Sorry for the slows posts.  I’m dealing with some real estate prospect that is consuming time and energy. 

I am ambitious in 2007.  Here’s one from the vault, 1997 or so.  An old best friend called before midnight and we listened to some old Dead.  Chasing that band around started my career, selling art for tickets, travel and fun in those parking lots when I wasn’t in high school.  In college I found fifty bands to make real art for as the Dead were a little big for me, but they gave me the fire and here I spend my life making art professionally.  I painted this for my friend way back when.  I ended up making the sky sweepy blue, but I never got a proper shot of the altered version.

I had my best year this year.  This was the year of the Field of Figures and my Revolutionary Totems.  I completed the renovations on my Connecticut work/live loft, which taught me a great deal, cost me a lot of blood, sweat, tears and money.  I had my first intern last summer, and I have part time help now, something that changes the face of my studio and frees me up to do what I’m supposed to do.  People have been saying for years that I ought to get help.  They don’t know what it’s taken for me to afford such a luxury.  Like any growing studio or business, a luxury today will be a necessity tomorrow, so this is a good thing.  I am getting more assistance, which makes me faster as the demand for my work grows and my prices move in the right direction steadily.

 I like stats because my family members are all jocks and I treat my career like I’m stepping on the field to play the art game.  This analogy may seem absurd but the game face is a dynamic tool that allowed me to survive in this brutal business since the day I left college.  I have painted 840 paintings in my career.  Since 2000 I have painted 300 paintings, 263 of which have sold.  In 2006 I painted 45 paintings and I sold 45 paintings, 15 from inventory, five gifts which leaves 10 inventoried in 2006.  I have five Twister paintings I am working on from 2006 and several other pictures that remain in my inventory.  I sold my second body of work from 1995(the Green Series) to one collector for $50,000.USD, my largest cumulative sale.

I am working on my Field of Figures and new Twister paintings currently.  I am also working on several books that represent my career.  I have been working with the Fingerprint Project for 17 years and suddenly there are several artists and companies who are claiming to be ‘Fingerprint Artists’, which is admittedly frustrating.  So I’d like to get some art world attention on the Fingerprint Project and for my Twister pictures.

Happy New Year and thanks for checking in.  I’m getting 400 visitors a month, up from 3 monthly visitors six months ago, so I’m doing something right with this blog.  It’s a good communication tool for collectors and this format satisfies a part of my ravenous writing tendencies.