This weekend is the last chance to catch the South Carolina State Fair and the exciting exhibitions that go with it. As usual, my husband and I did our autumn ritual entering of our art work; photography for him and a painting and drawing for me. This time my painting was juried in but my drawing, which I actually thought was much better, was juried out. I chose to enter my painting of a collapsed building not because it was a work that I was excited about, but because I thought that I had painted it at the end of 2011 and therefore about to “expire” with regard to the nothing over two years old rule that usually is the guideline for public exhibitions. This rule has always been a bugbear for me. It is ostensibly meant to deter people from being lazy and not producing anything new for a few years or so. But it also penalizes artists too prolific to exhibit everything they make. Time goes by, and before you know it, the studio is filled with “expired” art that never sees the public light. Then it goes on line or in brick and mortar galleries for a while, then back to the utility room or studio. It rests there for a while until a time that I really want to be rid of it. Then it goes to a fund raising auction. Such is the life cycle of art in South Carolina.
But I can live with this painting of a collapse building, it roof forming a gentle arc like a Brancusi sculpture. I was happy to capture the structure at this particular stage of collapse, in between a time when it was a functional piece of architecture and then no more than a pile of rubble on the ground. And since it was actually painted in early 2012, it can be recycled into the County Fair next year.
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