The Sheer Joy of “Just Desserts”

I recently rediscovered a part of myself when I gave my “Just Desserts” painting demonstration and art marketing talk to the Scarsdale Art Association.

The experience of speaking about art was so much fun that it took me back to my life as an Art History Teaching Fellow at the University of Michigan. I loved it then, and as I found out, I love it now.

The difference was that this time I was speaking from an artist’s perspective, rather than an artist historian. This was a major shift as I found out years ago from many art students in my art history class, who groaned loudly every time I began talking about any topic from ancient to medieval art.

My original plan had been to be an artist and to support myself as an art history professor. That was before a depression hit Detroit in the 70s and art funding dried up, so I went back to the drawing board to sketch out a new marketing career. With this lecture, I came full circle.

The challenging part of this particular presentation was the painting demonstration, which meant I had to talk and paint at the same time (think of President Gerry Ford, also from Michigan, who reportedly found it hard to walk and chew gum at the same time…).

Since I usually paint while listening to classical music by my favorite composer Aaron Copland, it took some adjustment to painting while answering many thought provoking questions from an enthusiastic audience. I was up to the challenge and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

For all you artists out there looking to exhibit and sell your work,  I offered up a few art marketing tips – definitely a subject for a separate blog post. For now, the best advice I can give would be to start by picking something you love as your subject, with a personal story behind it that is easily communicated, and focus on getting a cohesive body of work together that is linked visually or conceptually before going to galleries or other organizations. Becoming an expert in that area and developing a niche that is distinctive and memorable is a good thing.

And how did the afternoon end? With desserts, of course.

Thank you to the Scarsdale Art Association for inviting me to speak on “Just Desserts” (and for helping me revisit the Fountain of Youth for one afternoon). Thanks to everyone who came out and supported this event, and to Jackie Lupo of the Rivertowns Enterprise for this terrific article.

I got a kick out of the first line: “Breaking into the art gallery world is no piece of cake.” So true.

In the future, I want to pursue lecturing about art, and capturing the joy that goes into it.  I hope to see you all again soon at my next talk – wherever and whenever the opportunity presents itself.