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The Perks of Being an Artist

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The Perks of Being an Artist

Category Archives: technology

I’m a SYTYCD Kind of Artist

30 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by emilypageart in art, blog, culture, dance, dementia, Fractured Memories, gratitude, painting, technology, Uncategorized

≈ 11 Comments

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art, artist, Beatrice Allen Page, dance, dance art, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, paint, painting, realist art, So You Think You Can Dance, SYTYCD

As a young artist fresh out of college, I was told by multiple galleries that I needed to “pick a style.” Every time I showed them my portfolio, that’s what they told me. My art had too big a range for them to consider me. They didn’t know how to represent me. Having worked in art galleries since then, I understand their point of view. They need to know that I will continue to produce work in a style that sells for them. The problem with this, though, is that it doesn’t suit my personality as a person or an artist. I have too many ideas that make my brain itch and twitch, and there isn’t one style that can encompass all of them. My hands and my brain get bored repeating a single formula in a variety of ways.

This is not to say that there’s not a benefit to being forced to create series of works that can be grouped together. I have found great reward in creating first the Thanatology series, then the dancers, then the works about dementia, and now the realist work. But I like to dip my toes into other art forms and styles periodically to test the water to see what the next new series will be. I also like having the freedom to revisit past series when a new idea comes along, like when I did a the new dancer painting by letting you all “crowd source” each stage. And when you do several pieces in a certain style, you can start to get followers who look for that particular work.

I was watching So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD), and it occurred to me that their all-stars must be, in some ways, like me. The fact that they return to the show means that they enjoy dancing outside of their “own styles.” They like to stretch, literally and figuratively. And each new style, each new dance, each new partner helps grow their abilities and add to their repertoire. And so it is with me. For example, taking watercolors along on my trip down the Danube helped me expand my own artistic vocabulary. I have a feeling I’ll return to them periodically, particularly because there are so many more styles to try within that medium. Branching out and illustrating my friend’s children’s book was a new way to stretch for me, and makes me think that I would actually consider someday illustrating the beautiful stories my grandmother wrote for my dad and uncle.

There are just so many possibilities with art.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by them all, because I want to do everything, make everything. When I see an artist whose work I like, I mentally file the style for use later to express my own ideas. And there just isn’t enough time in the day to work a job, promote the art I’ve already made, and make everything that I want to make. That being said, I’m grateful that I’m living in the technology age, where I’m not dependent upon galleries to represent me in just one style. I can throw everything on my website, SYTYCD style, including the stuff that doesn’t fit neatly into a single body of work. I call that stuff my untamed art. I can promote various styles and subjects through various online venues. But I get bogged down in the tedium of promotion. I just want to create, and I want a fairy godmother who will magically find homes for my creations. Le sigh.

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My Phone Doesn’t Understand Me

08 Wednesday Jun 2016

Posted by emilypageart in dementia, Fractured Memories, humor, technology, Uncategorized, writing

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I tried using the voice recognition software on my phone to take some notes while I was riding in the car, but it wasn’t very successful. It was, however, highly entertaining. Here is a preview of the first paragraph of the first chapter of my book, as understood by my phone:

“Running for president Roosevelt died of an overdose you can tell me all the stories you want about how awesome your daughter but you will never convince me that you’re getting close. If not I will probably have dinner before the concert and I think we can try to raise their kids and it does not say that. I said he was fan freakin tastic my dad would throw in the 1400 temporal dementia at the age of 55 she started trying to get her ass out here so I’m not bugging her cause she’s got we can talk more later about all the work I got it better than us.”

A second attempt resulted in:

“I’m starting from the night I was just got out of the house but you wasn’t even close to as good as mine I mean person the Crawford hotel close on a 2014 745. I started saying it’s not bad for a minute I’ll be back later. My dad is better than your dad for the house. I’m going to get dropped off.”

Compelling, no? It reads a little like the first chapter of The Sound and The Fury, I think. I’m tempted to read the entire book to my phone in the car and then send excerpts to publishers. I’m expecting a Pulitzer.

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Computer is a Four Letter Word

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by emilypageart in sip and paint studio, technology

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Tags

ADD, ADHD, artist, computer, drug bust, Emily Page Art, follow the light, SWAT, tech

I’m in technical computer crap hell. We are switching our whole calendar and reservation system at the studio over to a new one, and having to depend on a tech guy to get this stuff done is killing me. He’s awesome and hilarious, but I think he might secretly also be part puppy, because that’s about the attention span he has. I don’t think he has a half speed mode either. He’s just full on jumping up and down and peeing on your shoe with excitement, or he’s fast aslee- SQUIRREL! But again, he’s awesome and is developing a great system for us, I just know that when I get off of the phone with him I’ll feel like I’ve had 4 Red Bulls and am crashing. And then when he does get it done (because, let’s face it, I’m a damn luddite and couldn’t even begin to do this shit on my own), something goes wrong on the host site. Just trying to get an SSL certificate linked up correctly so we can accept credit cards has had to involved a special ops unit barging in, code blazing.* **And when I’m talking to the host site tech people and trying to figure out what the hell they’re saying so that I can relay it over to my site builder tech guy, I’m pretty sure my brain is going into convulsions. And I’m pretty sure all these tech guys aren’t really saying anything anyway. They just make up words as they go along, as in, “Yes, if you reconfigure the satiforus and the hantoon rantoon, you’ll be able to subplot the jiggawhoozy.” And then they throw in a couple initials like IP, and API, SSL for good measure, so you’re left wondering what the hell those letters stand for. My guess is that IP stands for Internet Porn, API stands for Always Porny Internet, and SSL stands for Super Sexy Lingerie. They say them and snicker because they’re being dirty and I don’t even know it. Well, I’m wise to you guys now. Why do I think I’m going to regret having typed those words on my blog? Can you imagine the people who are going to stumble across this blog post after hunting for online naughty bits?

*Which reminds me, I once went on a ride-along with my friend who was a cop, and I got to go on a drug bust. And by go on, I mean hide behind the car door and watch from a distance, because the bullet proof vest they give you doesn’t protect your head. Or your hands. What if I got shot in the right hand and couldn’t paint anymore?? I need to be like those supermodels that take out insurance policies on their legs just in case anything ever happened. Anyway, the whole big SWAT team pulled up really fast to the house and busted the door in, only to discover that the drug dealer lady wasn’t even home. The people who were home were a couple little kids and their grandma with no legs. So then we had to drive around for a while looking for drug dealer lady’s car, because you know she wasn’t coming home with 10 cop cars and vans pulled up out front. We ended up stopping some poor dudes who had the same kind of car but not the right license plate, just in case. You know they were shitting bricks trying to figure out what the hell they’d done wrong to get pulled over.

** Also, do you like how I accused my tech guy of having no attention span, but my posts are one giant digression? I had a boyfriend many years ago who was a college professor and he could never concentrate long enough to grade papers or write research papers, etc. He was constantly getting distracted by things that were more fun (which means that I graded more than my fair share of exams, and I didn’t have a psych degree of any kind – sorry kids). His student assistant was forever telling him to follow the light, which really sounds like she was telling him to die and cross over. But she ended up marrying him, so I guess not. But then they got divorced, so maybe she originally meant it, but then didn’t, and now does again. Maybe she got distracted.

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Emily Page

Emily Page

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