Painting in the abstract is no different than composing Jazz or constructing a sonnet. The labors are lyrical, engaging and entirely subjective. However, the challenges I face as a painter differ from those of the musician and the poet. Their medium allows them a more broad and versatile audience. After years of looking at the restrictions I had of showing my work through galleries, and being pidgeon holed by a few images that seemed, to them commercial and popular, painting that same basic “variation on a theme” over and over to amuse the gallerists, and my budget, I stopped growing, I got stuck, and my work gave out.
I was faced with the quintessential “artist’s lament” question. If I am going to share my rewards with someone, who might it be, a gallery? a commercial land developer? a design showroom? Who determined that as a painter, the road map for my success was designed to do it the way it had always been done, and that my success was dependent on a few players who didn’t, as I saw it, care about my growth as an artist? Who did I want to share the fruits of my labor with but for my family and friends? It seemed that community was the answer.
The model began as a small, local idea. Risk painting a series of large paintings, a body of work, that formed a story, with a non profit as my muse, host a solo show, inviting like minded, enlightened people to attend,and share the proceeds with that charity. Win win. Six years ago, and 14 solo shows since, I have helped raise nearly a million dollars. Now, when I open my studio doors each morning, I am rejuvenated and restored, influenced by the many beautiful stories I’ve been told and the images I’ve seen.This small body of work, “Healing Properties” is the first body of work dedicated to my very own charity janetroberts.org which will serve families struggling by the violent loss of a child.
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