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cogwurx

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Well...hello anyone who still follows me. It's been quite the journey these last three years and since I had a habit of giving updates in my journals I figured on the 3 year anniversary of my last journal it was time to give an update. I know...I missed the actual anniversary by about a week.


So for starters, let me just say that ever since the Eclipse version of deviantArt was flushed upon us my engagement with this site has dwindled. I find its user experience to be counterintuitive, buggy and slow. I've made my opinion on several official journals and such and that is all I will say about Eclipse. I will persevere.


In the last 3 or so years a lot has happened. My work has been a bit of a roller coaster with a year of non-stop production to an epic, grinding halt of an artist block. I'm still trudging through the block but this year has been a bit of a dumpster fire and it's not even pandemic related.


Work. I'm thankful I have a job and that I can provide for my family. However, I've hit a burnout stage with work that has been contributing to my artist block. It's not an overworked burnout, it's more a lack of meaning in the job and work. I could go into further, but I'd rather not at this time. The reason I share this is both cathartic for me and that I discovered that there are different types of burnout that one can feel.


Personal. As parents get older and being an only child out of state the challenges can be quite unique. When the pandemic/lock down happened I wasn't able to see them much and then my dad ended up in the hospital with Covid. It was a long couple months with being long distance and trying to help my parents. He survived and is doing well. My mother, on the other hand, presented a more unique challenge. I can go into a lot of details, but this is social media so you get a more limited story. My dad is a saint who took care of my mom as she was declining in her health both physically and mentally. I didn't fully know the extent of things until I was having to help my mom while my dad was in the hospital. After he got out and recovered, things with my parents got back into a routine, but with the pandemic it was still long distance help.


This August, all that changed as my mom passed from this life. Art and interaction on this site took a stand still and thus began several months of getting family affairs in order and moving my dad closer to us. Thank you hot realty market. Dad is now moved about 10 minutes away and he gets to spend more time with his grand kids than he's ever had. So the light at the end of this weird tunnel shines brightly and warm.


What now? Plugging way. Hopefully in the next couple months with new routines I can start up painting/creating again with a renewed vigor. I'll try to be a bit more active again here, but the way the message center is on this site leaves much to be desired in it's usefulness.

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So...on this 3 year anniversary of my last journal post I thought I'd update this thing with all the goings on since the last time I wrote. It's funny I use to write in my journal quite frequently but that time is not longer. Mostly due to the fact that I have too many distractions these day that writing in this journal isn't a priority. Anyway, enough bemoaning the lack of journals for 3 years.

What's been happening? Lots actually.

Family
As the kids are getting older life evolves in fantastic ways. The kids are getting bigger and growing so fast you wonder where the time goes. It's wondrous to see their interest in things and the art I create inspire them to do their own unique things. My kids love to paint, love to sculpt and are creative in some many ways. The quote: “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” is so true watching not only what they create but asking me to teach them how to paint or sculpt or create.

Art shows
I've had a few art shows with varying degrees of success. I currently have a good relationship with local cafe where my art has been hanging on rotation. I've sold a couple paintings from there.

Art style change
Not sure if you noticed or looked through the gallery but my work has changed a bit over the years. I've developed a bit of technique with the help of water mixable oils that allows me to paint in 15-20 minute increments. This, not only, allows me the freedom and movement that has become part of my work; but time to actual do a painting. I only have a small window of time to paint in the evenings or weekends due to the fact that my kids deserve more of my time than the canvas.

and finally achieving a small goal
For about 15 years or so I've had a goal to get my work to the level of consideration in the decor market. Last year all that hard work paid off when I signed on with a Fine Art Publisher to have several of my pieces licensed. It's been a fun ride with that and one that I hope will grow. It's also a really interesting challenge between what "buyers" in the decor market are looking for and my self-expression. Looking forward to see where this goes.

What's next?
We'll see. I'll keep plugging away. I'll also try to get more engaging journals happening again. I'm planning on posting one sometime soon showing the different stages of my work in progress. I take a lot of photos when I paint so that when I'm stuck in a spot I can take those photos and digitally paint on them to push the painting to where I want it to go. I'll explain more in a future post. Stay tuned!






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Many thanks!!

4 min read
Wow!

I was a bit surprised yesterday with getting a Daily Deviation for Smoldering:

I usually try to thank everyone for the :+fav:'s and I'm going to attempt it eventually, but for now I want to say a general: Thank you so much for all the favs and +watches!

Would also like to thank OfOneSoul for suggesting it and jempavia for featuring my painting.





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So I've been a very busy boy of late in a way. In August, I had a small show up at a local library that is really friendly to local artists. I had my work up there for the whole month and had 6 original paintings sold during the run and 1 that was sold a week afterwards as a result! Pretty amazed by that and the library was so thrilled with the success that I'm booked for the next 2 years there, August 2016 and 2017. Happy times!

So riding high on that success I decided to enter another art show, this time being held at my Alma mater. It's a group show for the art alumni, not a solo show. I put two paintings up that didn't sell, figuring why not. That show starts I think this month and culminates at the university's Homecoming thing...which I'll be missing so I won't know the responses the paintings get. I'll have my work in one the apparent lesser gallery. There was a juried thing to get into the main gallery of which my work didn't not get in. Kind of deflates the ego a bit. I also don't know/haven't seen the work I was up against. All work will be printed out in some mailing so I'll eventually see the rest of the art in the show. I can't make the artist reception.

While that's going on, the company that I work for has been redecorating and re-configuring the office space and they were looking for artwork from within the company. And since I was promoting my library show at work I decided to mention that I have some artwork that would look great for the office. Long story short, my company is going to be buying my latest "circle" abstract paintings with 2 additional "circle" paintings being commissioned. So my evenings are booked now! I wasn't planning on doing more "circle" abstracts, but plans change and I'm happy about it.

Speaking of originals...I have a lot just sitting around collecting dust. Literally, sitting in a closet not doing anything. Because of this and because I desire to make more paintings...well compelled is more accurate. I can't NOT paint. Anyway, I decided to open up an Etsy shop to sell my originals. The price point is pretty reasonable for original work, though shipping is out of my hands since these things are fairly large to ship. So if you want to own an original painting of mine, I've put up all the ones that are currently available in my shop:










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So it's been awhile since I've updated this journal and I've been meaning to do so since I rebranded Cogwurx a while ago; lots going on so I couldn't devote any time to any journals.

So..um...what's new. I have an 8 month old who is now crawling, so that's taken up most of might time, but I'm fortunate enough to be able to squeeze some paintings in. I'm so glad I switched to the water-mixable oils. Takes a lot of the worry out of painting around kids, though still need to be mindful of them.

I have an art show coming up at a local library. Nothing major, but it will allow me to sell my originals and clean out some space from a closet I dubbed "art storage". That also means that I'll be getting my latest batch of paintings (about 19 of them) professionally photographed so I'll be able to offer some new prints! YAY!





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