Studio Kit - Art by Kit Lang

Not really, but today I’m posting about a no-no. Or at least, it’s commonly described as a no-no.

I’m talking about re-working an old piece.

Truthfully, I’m often tempted to re-work old pieces. Some of them are hanging in my house (some of them are even hanging in OTHER people’s houses!); but mostly, they are rolled up and hidden away in the dark recesses of my studio, or in cupboards or storage units.

Just before Christmas however, (on the 23^rd, to be precise!), one of my collectors (they have purchased 5 pieces so far including a large commissioned piece); wrote me and asked if I had something approximately X size in X price range. I told them that unfortunately, no, I didn’t. I had some bigger pieces that would be quite a bit more.

They wrote back and said more would be okay because it was for their sister and they didn’t mind spending more. So, I sent a few pics of unsold work, but nothing appealed. Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) literally all of the work I have been doing the last four years has been commission only, so I didn’t have anything unsold.

But then I remembered that I DID have a piece tucked away that I had been wanting to hang in our house, but wanted to fix it up a bit before I did, despite the fact that it had been exhibited in the condition it was currently in.

I sent the collector a pic, told them the size and price, and they bought it. I explained that because it was the 23^rd, I wouldn’t have time to go to FedEx until the 27^th, and would that be okay.

It was.

So I dug it out of the bin it had been in (mounted on corrugated cardboard with double sided tape and in a plastic sleeve) and began to prepare a background for proper mounting - I chose to do so on a plain black painted canvas.

As I prepared the canvas, and waited for the gesso to dry, I kept looking at the piece, thinking “It really would be improved if I would just added such and such”

“It really would look better if I just filled in that a little.”

It really would… and before I knew it, it was in my hands and I was stitching. *le gasp!*

So, as you can see, I added some winter grass, I filled out the snow on the ground a bit with more French knots and beads, and the big problem - that evergreen that seemed to be floating in mid air, got lengthened and brought down to a more appropriate height.

Then I added another evergreen to the right of it. If I’d had more time, I would have added a bit of another peeking out, but I ran out of time and had to ship it.

I think it looks much better, and now I want to re-work ALL of my old work that I don’t like.

I know that people say you should keep the old work as it is, as a record; but who is really going to care, but me? Nobody is ever going to be doing a retrospective of my work, future scholars aren’t going to study it and write papers about how it’s changed as I grew more exposed to so and so, or took a such and thus course.

And then I might actually enjoy my work, and it wouldn’t be shoved in some bin in the back of a closet.

What are your thoughts on improving old work?

Yay, or nay?

I had mentioned the last time we talked that a publisher had contacted me and asked that I illustrate a poem in their upcoming book called “Power Poems for Small Humans”.

Eventually, I was paired with poet Liz Morgan, whose poem is entitled “When Someone Asks About My Drawing of My Family”

I won’t share the poem here, but its about non-nuclear families.

My original idea was inspired by the videos you may have seen that run on the theme of a blind dog who has a seeing eye goat bff, a donkey and a pig who are best friends, animals who adopt animals from other species, and a long time favourite: Roy and Silo, the two male penguins at NYC’s Central Park Zoo, who first fell in love, and then year after year, tried to raise a clutch of rocks, until the zookeepers finally gave them an eggs to hatch and raise.

The sketch I shared with you six weeks ago of the little pig, was part of a larger piece that was going to be a farmyard composed of many iterations of different types of animal families.

But then I was thinking about the brief I was given:

“… something between an illustration and an environment…the important thing is that the artwork meet and embellish the emotional place of the poem.

Now, I don’t know about you, but that gave me pause! It reminded me of when I was in second year at Uni, and a professor asked for “an intelligent, emotional response” to a text we had been given to read, and no further instruction. And it was worth 40% of our mark! Boy, that struck terror into my heart. Lol

Anyway, as I considered this “between an illustration and an environment” I thought that perhaps I was being too literal. That a more abstract idea was called for.

I slept on it overnight, and when I thought about it the next day, I could “see” this two page spread as you see it here, and realized that was they way to go. Shockingly, there are birds. lol But Roy and Silo!

In general, my most successful pieces have always been the ones that I see as if they were already made, before they’re actually made.

So here it is, “After Roy and Silo”.

Now that the publisher has the images for use in the book, I will unmount (dismount?) this piece and put a group of hares or perhaps a fox family in that blank space where the poem will be in the book.

When that’s done, I’ll show you that version too. J

Photo shows a Canadian artist in the wee hours of Sunday night - about to head to bed*

Lol

Since we spoke last (uhhhhh…3 weeks ago?); the following happened.

I was at work, and all of a sudden, I started getting vertigo. My desk would rush up at me every time I sat down or looked away from the screen, I was sweating and nauseated, and when I got up to go the bathroom I was staggering around like a drunken sailor.

I had broken my glasses that morning, so I thought it had something to do with my vision being borked. I made an appointment to see my opthamologist that afternoon, and left work early.

I went home, lay down and tried to make the world stop spinning – got up later to go to my appointment and ordered my new glasses, and then went back home to bed.

The next morning I woke up with the same symptoms.

Same thing the next morning, and the next and the next.

By this time it was the weekend, and I was fully expecting to go back to work on Monday. But on Monday morning I was no better, in fact, I was worse - with an ongoing fever added to the mix. I tried to make an appointment with my family doctor, but she wasn't available until the next day, so I called in nearly dead for two more days.

The next day I went to my doc and found out that I had a severe ear infection; hence the vertigo, nausea, imbalance, fever, etc. She told me that I would need another TWO weeks off work (!) and sent me home with a fistful of prescriptions and a "stay in bed" order.

I'm now back at work. I'm not quite myself yet (I still get dizzy when I get up too quickly or when I roll over in bed or get out of bed); and I had a bout of quite severe nausea and fever yesterday, but I'm more or less okay.

In GOOD news since we talked last, I sold "Starling in Hawthorne" and received two commissions. Yay!

For whatever reason, I tend to get most of my commissions in February/March; I work on them through June/July; take the summer off, and then try to get back into an art practice in the fall.

This year, I had hoped to get into a regular studio practice and never mind the rest of it, but my commissions started coming in early. I'm not complaining – and perhaps this means that I won't get any in March (although I hope that doesn't happen!); but this is why there will be a lack of posting over the next little while as I try to catch up/get going/produce work!

I'm also trying to make a gift for a friend – the original plan was that I would dash that off over the last couple of weeks of January, but now that needs to be put on the back burner and stuck in - maybe at the end of this month?

So… see you soon? I don't know. I hope so! :) :) :) I was enjoying talking with you all of you again.

* P.S. amazed that my all day lipstick really did last all day! It's Colourpop - an American brand out of California with a very friendly price point. If you like make-up (I LOVE it lol) check it out! :)

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