Monday, May 11, 2020

Gordon's Gohn & The Perks Of A Road Less Travelled


I sold my Gordon Gohns painting to a collector in Austria off my Singulart website awhile back: 



Gordon Gohns acrylic on canvas 16 x 20 x 1.5 inches 2014 In private collection.

I'm doing really well in the current. I got my health worker's raise at work and I'm averaging a painting sale a month since the pandemic started and selling prints too! The most steady it has ever been. To be fair, it's been a long time coming. When things weren't going so well a little over a decade ago I took a chance to go to nursing school to eventually, hopefully support myself. After landing steady part time work as a nurse, I spent the past half decade building an online presence, managing my own website, accessing online resources to reach a global market and painting a lot. My closet is stacks of rolled up, painted canvases, I have 4 different locations of these. It has been a long journey of picking and choosing my own path and for awhile there it always felt like everything took longer than my peers. I wasn't sure I fit in any camp having a foot in both camps. It took longer for me to become a nurse and find my first job because I wanted to continue painting and it took longer to find success in art because the paintings take a really long time and I had to cut back on promoting because I was studying to be a nurse too. For awhile there I was working all the time and going crazy trying to be 2 things at once (like Gordon!) and not knowing if I could really be good at either and today I realize, I am doing well, at both! and it IS paying off, it just took a really long time. I am Gordon, seamlessly 2 things at once and proud to be. This all has been a very interesting and windy path where how I feel about things have changed and what I thought things were and how things operated weren't what I thought they were and in this weird and strange time while many find themselves struggling, I find myself uniquely thriving! I feel blessed to remain productive and to have acquired ability to contribute in more ways than 1.

I'm backlogged on new paintings and art sales on here but I'll try to keep this post more about Gordon and post the rest later. Here he is hanging out in his new home checking out the other works of art. 

In case you have a Lisa Ng painting, I would love to see how it is hanging. This collector was generous to share these images with me. I've never been to Austria, all I know is that it is responsible for a couple of my favourite artists, Gustav Klimt (big on patterns and who also walked to the beat of his own drum) and his protege Egon Schiele (the way he draws and no subject matter too outrageous), right now Austria seems to me like a far away magical land where the art is beautiful and the people divine! 


Gordon before I re-stretched him, this is how I store my paintings, as flat canvases to save on space. It also allows them to be well protected from the elements that is my cluttered life. When they sell I pop them back onto a stretcher and off they go! ✈


My last selfie with Gordon Gohns, we had some really great times together:


Gordon Gohns is the Canadian cousin to the great famous contemporary American painter, Jasper Johns. Gordon is half black and half white because although America may be a melting pot, Canada is a cultural mosaic. 


One of my best portraits, I'm most proud about all the layering skin tones.


A recurring symbol in my work, the camouflaging lizard, what does it mean? The hidden creature of wonder.


I painted this piece as a funny joke I couldn't help myself and although always loved the piece, I wasn't so sure anyone else would share the same sensibility. Figured I'd just keep it forever and neglected to sign it until well one day, someone did buy it! They say Da Vinci neglected to sign work until he sold it too, to deter those darn art thieves. Hey 2014 was the year I passed my licensing exam. I painted this 6 years ago and only sold it 6 years later, what is it with me and my relationship with the number 6?


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