Stolen Art Update and more...January Newsletter
Followup to my December post on a $3,200 artwork stolen in transit
The freight carrier has stopped investigating my missing/stolen artwork that I wrote about last month. Briefly, it was in transit from California after an exhibition in the Haggin Museum and made it as far as Kentucky. Then went missing.
A fellow artist who apparently knows some of the inner workings of mass shipping facilities….informed me they probably destroyed it accidentally and just threw it’s remains away. He said it’s just easier to pay the claims than ship something back so damaged that they would need to go through the claims process anyway…..or that is how I took his comments.
However, when I said I would file a police report of it stolen, they were quite willing to give me a number to add to the report should any investigation be started. But I do not believe a piece only valued at $3,200 is going to prompt any real inquiry when there are works out there worth millions and hundreds of thousands that are missing. I suspect my friend is right, but adding it to the list — if by chance it was really stolen — might prevent someone years down the road from adding it to art auction.
(If you want to see the original post and image, click here.)
A New Year of Art Making…….
I am not one for traditions. Long ago I dropped the idea of New Year resolutions.
But my family….you don’t get to pick your family — they had traditions out the yang yang. Mother never let a New Year go by without having cabbage for one meal. Lists of resolutions were many ….. I think The cabbage represented money….green money and eating cabbage would assure a year of financial success.
However, if I adopted one tradition, it might have been to work on something that I wanted to accomplish throughout the year. In this case, it is painting. I always worked New Year’s day, even when I was a journalist. In fact, I volunteered to work all the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s because I really get bored sitting around at holiday celebrations, and working kept me busy.
I must have continued to carry this habit through to painting, because I always want to be in the studio and working.
Looking back, it was a great 2023. The success with national and international shows laid the groundwork for more sales, museum exhibitions in various parts of the country and a building demand for me to teach more workshops.
I am reminded by all the biographies I’ve read and bio-pix…..many persons have stated that their success was always tempered by a fear that it might not be repeated. While some people would call this pessimism. But the reality is, there are no guarantees that 2024 will see the same success on the national stage.
I don’t intend to let these thoughts throttle my efforts, but there is always the possibility in the back of my mind…a tiny voice saying, don’t get used to this. Bottom line is regardless of what happens, I must keep working. I must produce and what I produce must continue to represent growth and exploration.
Plans for this year include more national workshops, entries into national and international shows, as well as starting some online projects. What happens, happens.
Keep enjoying your own artwork and buy more art….More next month.