Splash © Roberta Murray

Do you ever think all this new media (cell phones, the Internet, text messaging, etc.) which was designed, or at least sold to us, as being able to make staying in touch easier, has actually created more separation? That as the technology becomes more commonplace, we are becoming more alienated; unable to carry on proper conversations, have arguments, resolve issues, or even just be real friends. The Tweeting, text messaging, instant messaging all have limited fields so your conversations are fragmented and broken. Our attention span is also limited. How much can you really say? Enough to break up with a girlfriend or boyfriend. Enough to ask someone on a date. Enough to cause the receiver to have an emotional reaction, whether it’s good or bad. But can we say what we really mean?

Even the most cowardly person can send a ranting email without having to worry about facing the immediate reaction saying such things in person would bring about. There’s no tone of voice in email. No facial expression to soften or harden the words. There is no looking into the face of the other person to see if your words need to be softened, or hardened, or if a hug is warranted…….or a slap in the face. It also allows someone whose voice is never heard, to be heard. If their voice is never heard in person, chances are that person is marginalized and finally being heard will not have a positive effect. In an email it’s easy to hit the delete button and pretend you never read it in the first place. It’s also easy to forward it on to a whole group of people who shouldn’t be involved. And when someone takes exception to an email, without asking for clarification, they are willing to destroy an entire relationship…….all without ever speaking in person.

For strangers, this technology has allowed us to ignore each other. Standing in line, on a bus, at a restaurant…..anywhere……rather than make eye contact with the people around us we can make contact with our devices. We don’t have to smile at the little girl and her mother sitting across from us. We don’t have to say thank you to the store clerk. Instead we can talk on our phone, or text our friend. Sometimes we may even be texting to make fun of that store clerk. On Facebook, everyone knows everyone else’s business. What are we doing with that knowledge? People friend people they don’t even like. Why?

Technologically the world is at our fingertips, yet people everywhere feel more isolated and lonely as ever before. You may be playing in a lake full of other people, but they all seem just beyond your reach. At this moment……right now……just before the splash…….you are all alone. You might be having fun, but how much more fun would it be if you had someone in your corner yelling “jump“?

Viticulture Ripening

As is shown by the colors in the ripening grapes, life doesn’t have to be an either or proposition. There is enough room in life to include both sides. I have had many discussions in the past about open edition and limited edition prints, about online selling vs gallery sales, and about pricing work. Most of the conversations have been about me trying to understand my position with all of the options that are available, and the different models of conducting an arts career. At the back of my head has always been the thought “why does it have to be an either or situation”. Isn’t diversity almost always a good idea in any business?

I have always applied the idea of diversity to some degree in my career. I have always felt that having all your apples in one basket leaves a person vulnerable. Today, with a shaky economy, that one basket of apples becomes an even riskier investment. I have, from the start, always had three or four areas where I market my work:

1. Gallery Sales & Art Exhibitions
2. Stock Photography
3. Licensing

Licensing pays a low commission per image transaction, but makes up for it in volume. I have some images licensed to various places/things, including cards. While I may only make 20 or 30 cents on each card sold, the potential to sell thousands of cards makes up for it. If one card design sells 2000 copies, and I’m earning .20 cents per card I will earn $400 on that image. If I took that same image and made a 16×20″ print for a gallery show which sells for $500, I would have to pay the gallery a commission of (usually) 50% leaving me with $250. Plus I would have had to pay for producing and framing the print, and getting to the gallery. If the same image goes to a stock agency, it could earn any amount of money, or none at all. I’ve had some images sell once for $1000, and some good ones that have never sold at all. It’s a gamble. It’s also a highly competitive and unstable market right now.

I like all three areas, and I won’t give any of these area’s up. But there’s a fourth potential out there which I keep looking at, then deciding against, then looking at again. The open edition low priced prints. I have stayed away because of a perceived threat to the value of my gallery art, but I am about to change my policy. Here’s why:
I have been moving more and more to creating one of kind mixed media work for my gallery work.
I am a productive photographer. I have more images in my files than I could ever possibly use.
Gallery sales have been slow (plus there are some government policies coming in to play which will continue to hurt my sales for some time)
My images make people happy.
I enjoy creating my images.
Who really cares?!

What I mean by that last statement is, the people who are prepared to pay large sums of money for art are mostly going to buy original pieces (paintings, sculpture, etc.). There is a heavy bias against photography because of the ease of reproduction. Even printmaking is seen as a more valid, accepted, and collectible form of art than photography. The photography that is being bought by collectors is not at all in line with my work. My work is decorative, which means it appeals to designers, home decorators, and others wanting more traditional “pretty” imagery.

Awhile back I wrote:

I would trade you any day 1000 “pretty picture” viewers for 1 viewer who has a sensitive understanding of the work. But just because, as an artist, I’d rather have just that 1 viewer, does that speak to the authenticity or a quantifiable acceptance of my work as art? To me it doesn’t. (I can also say faced with the imaginative dilemma of 2 people who want to by a work; 1 who offers a thousand dollars because they think it’s a pretty picture, and 1 who offers a hundred dollars but is moved to tears – I would rather the person moved to tears own the work even if it means a financial loss. My perceived value is in how people respond to the work.)

It is easy to get wrapped up in ego and perceived biases about what my work is or isn’t about. The bottom line is I love what I’m doing, and I want to continue doing it. I want people to enjoy my images, not just online but in their homes and offices too. I am not in this to create a name for myself. I don’t care about fame. I don’t particularly care about fortune either. So when I look at the truth behind why I do what I do, what reason do I have to get wrapped up in labels and cliques? Creating a line of open edition prints will free me from the headaches of tracking editions and all that other stuff, which ends up creating more paperwork (which I don’t enjoy). I know there are people who will be disappointed in my decisions, but I’m okay with that.

Stay tuned…….

Wheat © Roberta Murray

I have been having a stressful time with the events and people surrounding my dad’s death. It is easy to let everything that’s going on get the better of me and get me down. It is easy to let myself get into a deep, dark funk. But all of these emotions or feelings are based in the mind and how you perceive things. You choose your own destiny in life by choosing how to interpret and respond to the events and people in your life. Your feelings can either encompass the negative (sadness, anger, greed, jealousy, ignorance, disappointment) or the positive (happiness, acceptance, generosity, love, compassion, wisdom). It is up to you which ones you allow into your head, and which ones you accept as the truth.

In my art I have often referenced this phenomenon, and how two people can live in the same place, or experience the same events but retell the experience in completely opposite light. The Buddhist’s speak of delusion, not in the context in which you would think of them as being attached to people who have lost control of their mental faculties, but in terms of how you perceive life. In so much that negative, disturbing states of mind are based on misconceptions: misleading pictures of the world out of step with reality. That our underlying disposition is positive with qualities of wisdom, love, and compassion being our natural state of mind.

If that is the natural state, how come so many people (the majority of people in fact), seem so far from that natural state. How come so many people react to events and situations first through a negative frame of mind instead of a positive? It seems easy to react through the negative emotions to life, but requires a real conscious effort to react with positive emotions. How come a person has to work to maintain a positive state of mind that embraces the qualities of wisdom, love, and compassion if that is supposed to be our natural condition?

I know it makes a world of difference in my life when I make a conscious effort to chase these negative emotions away, but every now and then they sneak up on me, catch me by surprise, and get the better of me. In any situation you can choose happiness, or you can choose anger and sadness.

Pinot Noir © Roberta Murray

From the Mission Hill vineyard in Oliver, BC.