A piece from my “Earthly Desires” series, “Guilty Pleasures,” was just accepted to a show put on by the Lexington Art League in Kentucky. The show’s called “Paintpresent,” and I applied to it because the call was very specific in a way that I felt resonated with my work:

“In painting, like most contemporary art media, one can find a great variety of techniques being practiced, images being created, and content being discussed. We can, however, identify specific major currents that resonate with our present conditions. With this in mind LAL seeks work that addresses any or all of the following phenomena: decoration density, fantastic figuration, and architectural anomie.”

I just got the acceptance letter today. It says 54 pieces were selected out of more than 700 submissions, so it’s great to hear that mine was one of them. I hope it will be a high-quality group show; they seem to do interesting and thoughtful ones.

Applying to juried shows is something I haven’t done much of in a few years, and I’m trying it this year as part of my goal to get my work out into the world more. I have mixed feelings about it. I think it’s good for my resume, and the ego boost of acceptance is certainly gratifying. I hope it will get my work noticed more: as they say, every little bit helps.

But the time needed to apply to shows can really add up, since everyone seems to want something slightly different, and sometimes it can take a lot of peering through application-instruction fine print to figure out what format images they need. Even more dismaying, I’m afraid the cost of applying is going to end up being prohibitive, especially if you get work accepted across the country. I just shipped a 24×24″ piece to Detroit for an erotic art show, and all told, with packaging and return shipping, it’s going to end up costing around $200. I cannot be doing too much of that.

For the most part, I’m avoiding applying to shows that have an entry fee - some of those are completely outrageous! And I’m trying to be discriminating, only going for calls that sound really up my alley, artwise, or that might be particularly advantageous to show in. It can be pretty hard to tell from the description, though. I will give it a few shows, and if it feels like I’m just throwing money and art into a hole, I’ll let up.

Secession welcomes a new year, and is offering a sale in appreciation of your support. Thursday, January 22 through Sunday January 25, 12-7pm. Twenty percent off all art and ten percent off clothing and jewelry! All my new pieces, and the butterfly pieces, will be available.

There will also be a happy hour Friday, January 23, 6:30 - 9:30pm - stop by if you can.

As you may know, I paint at Secession Art and Design, which is a storefront as well. Yesterday Eden, the owner, had window and door decals installed with the address and our names. Hey, I’m an in-house designer!

Although I guess if you are here you already figured that out. I hadn’t updated the look of heatherrobinson.com since maybe 2004, so I figured it was time. Thanks to Amanda at Sleepless Media for all her help and for the beautiful new design! I’ve been busy putting all my work into the gallery section of the site, and I also have this lovely blog now, of which I plan to make good use.

I have some of my smaller Butterfly works for sale at Secession Art and Design, and also on my Etsy site. Check it out! They are affordable, petite at 5×5″, and make great gifts.

For the past few weeks, I haven’t been painting very much, since I’ve been getting my website in order and also dealing with the holiday season. I have been working on a couple of new paintings here and there, though, continuing the “Earthly Desires” series. I’ll post pictures of them in progress here. Most of the rest of this series is hanging at the Crepe House, 1755 Polk St @ Washington in San Francisco, through January 21.