Loss (Memory Pods) 2016 copyright Douglas Stockdale
It’s the end of another year, so time to celebrate new friends, closer relationships, accomplishments and good times. So today I am looking back and in the next day or so, I will be looking ahead as to what I would like to accomplish for 2019.
The life of an artist also has its ups and downs, sometimes success and sometimes not. Earlier this year I wrote about dealing with stress, which for many folks goes well beyond being an artist, so worth reposting the link. I also find looking back at all of the year’s accomplishments to help keep things in perspective; life is best lived one day at a time and that living is a process of putting one foot in front of the other, whether at a crawl or a sprint. Interestingly, of the many things that went well this past year, only one or two were really anticipated, while many of the others were great opportunities that materialized and I was ready to take advantage of the situation (maybe another good post for next year; be like a Boy Scout and “be prepared”).
So Chronologically, here are some of the really nice creative things that happened this year.
Middle Ground; self-published my limited edition (E of 99) artist book last spring, which I had in development for the past year and half. I also learned about the vexing intricacies of leporello (accordion) book binding. I had not anticipated that my living room was going to be a dedicated book production area for almost two months.
Solo exhibition, gallery representation and an Artsy.net featured artist for my project/artist book Middle Ground at Fabrik Projects, Los Angeles at the end of Spring.
Book designer for Christine Kaplan’s self-published photobook On My Walk that was launched at the UCLA Health’s “Back-yard Concert” & fund-raising event during the summer.
Started another new project, Trabuco Flats, while working on my Gardening for Ordnance project when I happened upon what the OC Sheriff called a “suspicious circumstance” (what they thought looked like an old sunken shallow grave). Start of a mystery investigation. So I now have three long term projects that are on-going. Yikes.
I attended a number of Los Angeles area art and photo exhibitions, book events and art fairs meeting up with old friends while making numerous new friends and acquantances. The Jasper John’s retrospective exhibition at the (Los Angeles) Broad Museum was one of the highlights of the summer.
Provided artist talks and portfolio reviews with a number of local artist organizations, including LACP, Palos Verde Art Center PADA, and during my solo exhibition at Fabrik Projects. I also inked a book design workshop with the Medium Festive (San Diego) for next March 2019 (limited space still available).
Ended the year with the Holiday Sale exhibition at Fabrik Projects and very honored to sell the two photographs (including Loss, above). I quickly framed another edition of Loss for the gallery exhibition (I can now talk about this as it was someone’s special Christmas gift) and provided a third framed photograph that was in reserve, both of which are still available for a special price until the end of this year (yes, a couple of days from now). The sale of these two photographs from my Memory Pods project has reignited the creative flames and I have been working on this over the holidays.
For my photo book review site, The PhotoBook Journal, we had some nice accomplishments as well. This is the tenth year of publishing this book review e-zine and in conjunction with the growing editorial team, we have published over 500 contemporary artist and photo book reviews. Wow.
I am sure that I have missed something, but overall, I think it was a pretty good year and now getting ready for 2019. Yes, I did purchase some photographic equipment, such as a new (used) lens for the Hasselblad, as well a bunch of new brushes for my acyclic painting (that I resumed my interest in painting might be another subject to post for next year). More about what I would like to accomplish for 2019 in another post shortly.
Cheers!
Doug
PS (update); also realized that in 2018 in conjunction with Gerhard Clausing, we started to curate a series of on-line exhibitions with the Photographers Exchange, a group of photographers who meet monthly at the Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA. I curated three on-line exhibitions for 2018 and I will have another, “Water & Ice“, in early January 2019. We are planning to continue this series through 2019 and probably beyond.
below: cover of Middle Ground (Note: copies of this artist book edition are still available)
