New Artwork & General Update

Hello world,

I’ve got some new art to show off, and a long winded bunch of life-related babble just after, hehe! Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Ohm Cohm Ohn Mulah Cohm
aka: Pennies From Heaven (It’s A Zen Thing)
by Kenneth Rougeau

Lowbrow enlightenment... A little base & a little sublime... I just hope it doesn’t overly offend anyone’s delicate sensibilities, hehe ;) The last couple of weeks have been a psychotic rollercoaster ride, especially financially. The next few weeks look like they’re apt to be at least as insane, if not moreso. On any given day, I’ve felt like a complete failure, a huge success, and a total failure again. So... I created this to express this latest bit of madness & now send it out into the ether with (what passes for) my prayers for prosperity. I also thought it’d be a fun piece to make... A bit sacreligious, a bit irreverant... I like it anyway ;) I just hope the Bhuddists don’t take it too seriously!

I’ve also been fiddling with some new critter creations for my Anthromorph/Manimals series of images...

The Cheat (rough draft)
by Kenneth Rougeau

The more I look at The Cheat, the less happy I am with it. Charlotte has suggested that I add a hint of color & also says I should put a flower in the lapel of the cheetah on the bicycle... Sounds good to me, so expect a revision soon ;)

The Pilot
aka: Amelia Gooseheart
by Kenneth Rougeau

Squirrelly Kid
by Kenneth Rougeau

And finally, here’s a rough draft copy of my newest steampunk piece (based on yet another concept from the beautiful Charlotte Self). It’s a design for a tarot card. If the finished version suits me I’ll likely try to create an entire deck. We shall see ;) As it sits, I’m not very happy with the clockwork bunny. It doesn’t look bad, necessarily, but it’s not as good as I’d like by a long stretch either... I’ll be working on it this evening if there’s time & will hopefully have a revision up soon.

The Magus (rough draft)
by Kenneth Rougeau

In other news... I’ve been running around like a lunatic for the last two weeks and am just exhausted.

The gallery show is going well... I hope... I haven’t actually heard anything from the owners in a week or so & haven’t seen the place since they really started getting everything in place.

I’ve got another small show going on downtown at a really popular bar ( http://kellysolympian.com ), but I haven’t seen that one either, lol! I just dropped off 9 prints one day, picked out some wall space and had to run off on another crazy errand.

Charlotte ( http://bluebutterflyart.etsy.com ), Dylan ( http://dylanself.etsy.com ), & I were all three showing our work at the Last Thursday artwalk in NE Portland, but the weather wasn’t very cooperative (it’s open air, sidewalk) & traffic was pretty thin. I did sell a few prints & we handed out a number of business cards, which was great.

Then I was sponsored in the First Tuesday artwalk in Hillsboro, a Portland suburb, but the location was a bit hidden & the traffic thin. Nothing sold, but I hadn’t really expected anything to. It was just a quick 2 hour event & I’m happy to have had the opportunity for exposure. I did get to meet a lot of other brilliant artists at the event & got a lot of much needed encouragement (things have been rough & I wonder sometimes if I wouldn’t be smarter for having kept the 9-5, even though it felt like it was killing me - I love what I do, but can I live on it? Will it fly? It seems to want to, so I’m flapping as hard as I can, lol). Whew... Let’s see... What else?...

We tried to make it to the ritzier First Thursday event in downtown Portland, but we got started late, couldn’t find anywhere to park, and then the friend we went with ran out of gas (and while she was getting gas, her daughter locked the keys in the car, lol). By the time we would have gotten setup, we’d have had to take it all down, so we called it a wash & figure we’ll try again next month.

This weekend we tried our first "Lawn Boutique & Art Sale" at a friend of a friend’s house. Saturday we got started late (again) & ended up just preparing in advance for Sunday. The weather Sunday was schizophrenic at best... Sunny, then hail, then some sun & a buttload of rain, followed by more sun. It kept us running & kept things interesting hehe ;) We must have had to pull everything off the lawn 5 or 6 times before the weather finally made up it’s mind & stayed sunny. The funny part was that, even in the hail, we did more business with the precipitation than we did without it, lol! Oh, and some highly entertaining foreiger’s who stopped by almost made off with an 11x14 signed print of In The Garden Of Live Flowers for $1... They were convinced that since it was on a lawn, everything was a dollar ;) Charlotte’s convinced they were buying the frames & thought the artwork was just a secondary thing (like they came with the frame from the store or something, lol)... Anyway, I did end up selling a print of Dandy Lions, which was great, but I think it’s pretty funny that I got more inquiries about how much I’d sell my tables for than I did about the artwork itself. 

We’re going to do the glorified yard sale gig again next weekend, with a lot more preperation & rain gear. Hopefully it will just be nice & we won’t need it, but it’s Portland so I just assume it’s always going to rain, no matter what.

As for the rest, what can I say? I’m beat. My feet are yelling at me and my back hurts. I haven’t stopped to eat & I’m too tired to bother at this point, lol. I do feel like I can stop to breathe for a minute or two though (thus the overly long post, lol) & I’m relishing it while I can. We got the rent covered for the month (squeaked it in there) & now I’ve just got to sweat keeping us alive and covering next month, hehe. I’m hoping the gallery shows both do well, that etsy sales get better (been really slow lately), and that the artwalks/yard sales go well. I’m pretty sure that if I can pull off this month, it’ll be relatively smooth sailing from there. I’m lining things up as fast as I can & in as many places as I can & I’m also trying to create as much as I can with the time that’s left. I’ve gotta start trying to sleep a little more though, lol. I feel like I’m on Thomas Edison’s 5 minute powernap plan or something. I’m a zombie!

I’ve got tons of ideas to play with lately & I’ve really been wanting to finish "Faster! Faster!" as well - it’s not lacking a whole lot, but I haven’t found the perfect pieces yet & I’m a bit of a stickler... If I’m not happy with it, I don’t expect anyone else to be ;) I’ve got some new bits and pieces to try out though & am hoping to have it ready for the gallery reception on April 19th (hopefully sooner, but I plan to "unveil" it there).

Whew, look at me babble! I guess I should call it quits here... Forgive the ranting, raving, and generally unfocused nature of the post - just sort of clearing my head.

Hoping you’re all having a marvelous week,
- Ken