farewell

Farewell, acrylic on canvas, 30" x 40", copyright 2009 (title sort of explained below)
Well, it has been a while since I've posted all right. Have been getting outside to paint maybe once a week, working a lot in the studio. Would like to find homes for the accumulation. Fantasy is to find a corporate wormhole that will just vacuum up all my production straight into a venue where it will be loved -- no muss, no fuss, no gallery openings, no schmoozing; no hyperventilating, no angst -- no talk, basically. Aren't I terrible? It is exhausting thinking of all the things that must be done to create a dynamic opportunity for my work to go belong to someone else. I don't like talking people into buying work. Hate it, in fact. Never have done it. Yet there used to be clients in my life, back when I was a "real" painter! Some of them I knew, some of them I was never told their names by the gallerists or reps.
I have heard writer Kazuo Ishiguro quoted as saying people who choose solitary professions do so because they have something from which to heal. Whether the quote is accurate, this certainly applies to a lot of artists I know. We would rather work with our physical media than struggle with the vagaries and potential betrayals of human interaction -- at least a lot of the time! Objects can be our friends -- at least for a while.
Is there any reliable way for someone who hates to socialize to sell their art? If anyone has advice beyond "work your tail off" please share!
***
Recently learned that an iconic piece I thought I had in storage was sold at auction a year ago by a place here in Seattle called Pacific Galleries. They won't tell me who consigned it to them or anything else. Very odd. Back when it was new -- one of the times I had to drop the career and care for family, in 1998 -- I could very well have lost track of this piece. For a while it was on loan to Summit Travel and Cruises. Did someone there hang onto it and finally turn it over to the auction house, or did something else happen? I don't know. I have spent the last terrible decade not painting and believing I never would again, but have never heard from anyone regarding this piece; found this sale by accident on the internet.

Ton Plaisir II (Yellow Trees), pastel on paper, 29.75'' x 43.5'', copyright 1998

Ironically, this piece is one I reproduced for business cards I still carry.