Father Time

My daughter commented the other day that earth and water are referred to in the feminine. True. (I thought that was quite the observation for a 7-yr-old). Time in it's linear concept, however, is referred to in the masculine. Frankly I'd rather be associated with earth and water. As I get older I get less and less fond of Father Time and more and more in tune with Mother Earth.

It's great having work at galleries since they do the legwork and in theory, sell, sell, sell your stuff. They usually take 50%, so in effort to actually make money on my work I need to figure out how to spend less time on it. I'm giving these sawtooth hangers a go to save time and reduce my out-of-pocket expenses on my grackle line.

This is what I was doing before, which required measuring, drilling, screwing, and then wiring. Glad to be done with that business! The sawtooths are easy. I do need to pack the grackles more carefully when transporting to make sure they don't get scratched up by rubbing against one another. I'm using scrap pieces of mat board from my framer, which do the job quite nicely and neatly.

Initially I primed and painted the edges of my panels black or this fun blue color, but I'm trying out a more natural and time saving look by leaving them plain wood. I am taping the edges now before priming the top so they stay nice and tidy. The boards are  not inexpensive, so I'm toying with making changes there, but for now I'll keep them since I have several more and they do look very professional. When adding the cost of hardware, the substrate is almost 1/3 of my 50% share, so making a change is most likely in my future. Even if I stop making these smaller pieces, this has been an interesting exercise. I've really had to track my expenses and time to figure out if this path is fulfilling enough to pursue. The verdict? The jury is still out. But for now I'm continuing on. I delivered more work this weekend to Kirchman Gallery in Johnson City. They sell the best there by far.