leucadia art walk

did the leucadia art walk yesterday with julie.  this photo shows my half of the booth we shared.  yes, it needs work.  everything about my display needs work, but that's another post all together...

anyway, we both did okay, all things considered. i sold one art piece, one "art in a bag" and a bunch of 'past season' card packs.  i also received great feedback, my favorite being from this young, hip girl who really loved my work.  she made a point of telling me she was the typical art student snob (gotta love her honesty), very jaded, seen it all, etc., and she dug my art.  i love when young, hip-to-the-sceners "get" my work.  it makes me feel relevant.  is that wrong?

also, one of my customers from seattle was down and stopped to say hello.  it was great to see her.

we also met a fellow artist who just moved here from northern california who teaches watercolor painting and does yearly classes in italy and france. (how do i get that job?) i hope to touch base with her soon and meet up for coffee to talk art.  her work is darling, and i actually broke my rule of no spending when i'm working, and purchased one of her watercolor prints of ponte vecchio in florence, which is where joel and i were married.

frustrated artist at pangaea

i'm officially in my first retail shop:

pangaea outpost, del mar 

thank you heather roddy

and pangaea!

what a difference a month makes

heather roddy

today was a great day.  my friend and fellow artist julie met for lunch in del mar and afterwards checked out a new gallery she's noticed across the way.  we immediately fell in love with the gallery and the artist/owner, heather roddy.  she was busy painting a pair of chairs for one of her signature art pieces and welcomed us in.  we told her we were struggling artists just starting out, and could we hang out for a while?  we ended up spending the next few hours there picking her brain, talking about art, admiring her work, checking out her gallery, and learning about her journey from beginner to successful artist and gallery owner. she was generous with her advice, totally genuine and funny as hell (of course: she's a gemini. holla!) julie was able to connect right away, describing her work and painting style to heather and asking related questions, getting tips, etc.

surfer - 2008,  suzie joganic hill

i on the other hand, once again found myself struggling to describe my art. is it mixed media? is it assemblage? what is it? i've never been a hundred percent happy with the "recycled art" description, so i wanted to get her opinion. i showed her a few pics from my iphone, including "surfer". she immediately thought it looked like pop art. she was right! (why hadn't i seen that?) she seemed to like what she saw, thought i was on to something and asked why my work wasn't out there? i explained that while i've had some success, i find a lot of people don't seem to "get" it. she said it's because i just haven't found the right venue and she might have some ideas. she also said i should get my work into small shops that sell art, and that in fact, just a few doors down from her gallery was such a shop, and i should "go talk to them". of course i replied with my usual "yeah, i know. maybe i will", blah blah blah. next thing i know, she stops painting, grabs my iphone and said "let's go talk to them now and show them these photos." 


long story long, she showed the shop my images and explained what i did and they said they'd love to see my work in person and could i bring it in tomorrow?  it was that simple. WOW. honestly, i was embarrassed and semi-mortified, but i also had a huge grin on my face. this was exactly what i needed. i believe i was meant to meet heather today...


**julie and i are thrilled to have met heather and made a new art friend.  she is beyond inspiring!  for the record, her gallery is called heather roddy gallery and it is located in del mar's flower hill mall. upstairs near the pannikin. check it out. this chick rocks the art!  www.heatherroddyartgallery.com

"noir et blanc"

noir et blanc - 2009  suzie joganic hill

here is my latest piece. i entered it in the 1st annual southern california black & white juried exhibition at the la jolla art association gallery, but was not accepted.  this gallery made their jury selections from a single digital photo, rather than seeing the work in person. this is a disadvantage when submitting my work, because you really can't tell what you are looking at from a photograph, especially if you're not familiar with the work.  

for some reason this particular show was really important to me so i'm pretty bummed.  oh well. it's a nice piece to add to my 24 x 24 collection.  next up?  a piece titled "foo dogs".