scrub out

I'm continuing to work on this new series of what I'm calling 'altered photos'. I've learned so far that it's better to scrub the photo when dry if I want to keep some of the more subtle colors and patterns I've masked out.

In other news, I managed to make more work for myself in the studio today courtesy of tiny paint spatters that have managed to find their onto the surfaces of newly completed works. I thought I had them out of the range of my main working area, but obviously I was wrong. Of course my better judgment tells me to turn works I'm considering finished towards the wall. The problem is that my better judgment likes to go on coffee breaks at the most inopportune times.

It's not too bad. I think I'm fairly good at camouflaging unwanted stray marks. There have been times when I've left the strays where they landed, but it's not a preferred way of working.

......

Last week. I delivered my registration form and check to be in the next Philadelphia Open Studio Tours. I almost considered not participating this year, but that bit of madness passed quickly. I couldn't come up with a legitimate reason not to do it, so I ponied up. Now I won't think about it again until the month before. Then again, knowing how organized POST has become over the past couple of years, with new email updates almost once a week, it won't be that far removed from my daily consciousness.

Seriously, it's good to see (and participate with) an arts organization that's almost completely artist/volunteer-driven thrive and get better with time. With the way the art-scene in Philadelphia has grown and changed over the past 10 years, it's vital to have an organization like POST around to bring artists and the general public together. They do so in ways that can foster better understanding of art and art-making in ways that visits to galleries, museums, reading the latest 'art and fashion/music/pop culture' magazine articles and scandalous headlines from the art world can never accomplish.