What Have I Become?

These are trying times and I must admit that without huge profits the toiling that is required to keep a business running over the years often removes the fun and joy that having a job should include. I don't like having to be happy that I am still in business as an accomplishment like somehow I have climbed Mount Everest or survived a fall from a tall building, but this is the way things are in the United States in 2010. Especially for those of us in business on the ground, those of us who don't have deep pockets or a govenment bailout, those of us who are not too big to fail, but are too small to care about. Many are gone and the leasing agent for the property is the only one standing around telling the story of the businesses that once were.

I've kept my head low and moved through the crossfire of this economic downturn. I've modified pricing, reduced hours and streamlined my services to limit my exposure to risk, but I have never wanted to be in business just to be in business. As such the slowing economy has forced me to go back to the things I enjoy, to create. In the old days, the nineties, during the off season/winter months after Xmas, I used to take up my screens and play with canvas. For awhile I even used to sell my paintings on the street in San Francisco as an artist until the spring returned and t-shirts came back in demand. At times I look back on those days with nostalgia and wonder just What have I become? Why haven't I turned my business into a successful art gallery or continued to build on my talents instead of scraped for pennies in wholesale t-shirt barrel?

To some degree I have used my business to broaden my skills, but there is always a commercial element that cheapens the results. I always feel like I have to sell or create sellable items. Now I am driven deeper into this valley by having merged my printing with painting and I have finally found the right combination of art and merchandise that entertains my brain in the process. This must be what I have been after all along, or this is simply the result of being thrown back into an economic downturn that lasted longer than one winter break. Usually I don't get to finish my projects because the snow melts and the business returns, but not this time. Last year I waited until spring like Bandini and I didn't have to drop my brushes and return to the Mill. I just kept mixing and painting and stretching and printing. I trained and thought and tested my materials. I discussed the process at length with specialist here and there. I found the right materials that combine economy, color and texture in so many ways that I don't know where I started and I am not sure where I am. This is why it seems like I am at the right point to name, produce and promote these works which I currently call "photfrescos".

The images shown on the linked website is not the most recent work, but some of the results of my summer experimentation. I think I have reached a new horizon by dealing with and overcoming a fragility issue, as well as, going back to the drawing board for creating original artwork that I can use for making these "photfrescos". I don't think I am at the end, but I need to move into a production phase or I won't have enough time left to make the final pieces that need to be created to show this type of work. Basically this item is a faux ceramic, plaster based, print that is made from photographic artwork. In this case the artwork is screen printed paintings, or screen paintings. The pigments or dyes are merged with the plaster in a wet process that often adds back into the work a texture, but also allows me to produce tactile prints that aren't like flatwork and don't feel temporary. I'll provide some photos now that I have explained what I am after here.

In the meantime I am also developing the website for t-shirts and expanding the product line, but since things are slow, I don't feel the rush to get things done. Check out my progress on expanding the cheap blank t-shirt wholesale line here.