Bad Art News, Good Art News

Birds, Mammals and Fish of the Everglades Acrylic on wood, 48 x 24"

Some good news and bad news for my art no-career/career. I donated this piece for a silent auction fundraiser on Friday night at the annual Renaissance Academy Charter School for the Arts. Rose and I dressed up in our finest used slacks and costume jewelry for the first upstanding citizen event of our lives. $100 a plate. Cash bar. Cleaner restrooms. Live bidding for auction items was open on everyone’s cell phones throughout the student and faculty performances, and buffet dinner. The majority of items were “experience” packages—trips to Florida, golf and lunch at the country club, canoeing on Lake Ontario... Some finely turned salad bowls and wooden vases enjoyed bidding wars all night long. My painting, however, didn’t get a single bite until the last few minutes of the auction. $95. $20 over the reserve.
It would have been embarrassing to say the least to have taken back a painting gifted to an art school fundraiser. I wanted to personally thank the buyer when the usher brought the piece over to her table. Turns out, and this is the good news, that she is the Vice-President of the Memorial Art Gallery. It and the Eastman are the signature art museums in Rochester, NY. She got a deal, and I get her cognitive dissonance talk about it at the water cooler today. If she hangs it in her office, I can declare representation along with Monet, O’Keeffe, Rembrandt and Matisse.
What luck!
Nearly a represented Stuckist painter!
29 years to go!