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| Watch Over Me Stippled Graphite Pencil Drawing, 5 1/2" x 4 3/4" |
My apologies to any listeners still monitoring this frequency. For those who don't know, and new readers: In 2014, my mother, Eileen Hackett Reep became gravely anemic, suffered congestive heart failure, and underwent emergency surgery. She spent several weeks in hospital, and three weeks of rehabilitation followed before she regained enough strength and mobility to return home. My responsibilities as her caregiver left little time or energy, necessitating a hiatus from artmaking, gallery commitments and the like. On September 17, 2016, my mother passed away. I'm grateful she was able to spend her last years at home, and I was blessed to have her as long as I did.
Meanwhile, in May of 2016, my longtime partner Parnilla, who had struggled for two years with an illness misdiagnosed as diverticulitis, underwent emergency surgery for ovarian cancer. Four weeks later, she began undergoing heavy chemotherapy, which lasted for five months. Side effects linger, but she's returned to work, and all reports are good. I'm so grateful. For the first time in years, we're looking forward to a good summer.
When I was ready to make art again, Parnilla suggested I list some unframed drawings on eBay. Response has been encouraging. Some drawings have sold for much less than they might have brought in gallery shows, but commissions and costs are correspondingly lower as well.
I’m happy about this for several reasons. Most importantly, my drawings pay bills. They keep the light on over the drawing table, pay for my utilities, my internet connection. One day soon I hope they’ll pay for some upgrades, a more reliable connection to upload video files, etc. And of course, the big bills too. My goal remains a simple one many of us share: I want to make a living making art.
Another reason I’m excited about making work available directly is that more friends can afford it. Over the years, many have purchased prints, cards, notebooks, other products featuring my images from print-on-demand sites like Redbubble, Fine Art America. Now, without the necessity of maintaining pricing understandably driven by galleries’ much higher overheads, folks who couldn’t have afforded to buy my work at gallery prices can afford an original drawing. That’s important to me. Feels good.
Over the past three years, I've neglected my website as well as this blog. Updates soon. I post new originals and prints, eBay listings, work-in-progress scans and comments, interviews, other news on my Facebook page, Twitter, and Patreon. I blog occasionally at Niume, and I'll resume posting here as well.
Some of this blog's sidebar links to older published work may no longer be active. A sampling of flash fiction, poetry, drawing-and-text pieces is archived at Fictionaut.
If you're new to my work, welcome. You'll find plenty at the links above. Questions are always welcome. Hope you enjoy!
As always, thanks for looking.
