Salon des Previsibles

Started a new painting today; I have gone up in size for this one as I am filled with confidence and the return to a subject from pre-angel days. Elephants have always been good for me in terms of sales and popularity, and having spent yesterday in a mood of rebellion brought on by the exhibition rejection I am obscurely feeling like putting on my commercial hat to a certain degree. I temper this by adding that I have been spending far too much time in the company of Hieronymous Bosch and letting my mind dwell on puppetry, so there will still be an edge of the stranger things that I see in my head. Trying to get to sleep last night I was letting my mind wander as it felt and ended up with the strangest procession of crazies wandering by; all very Monty Python/Bosch (the aforementioned artist, not the power tool manufacturer). Makes me want to laugh out loud sometimes and also brings to my attention, not for the first time, how close the division must be between the so-called 'normal', sane person and those we bang up in institutions and feed on semolina.

The gallery selection thing is still praying on my mind; not in negative way but as a puzzle that will probably never come any closer to solution. Reading yesterday all the comments from the 'Salon des Refuses', most of it focused on the idea that they were outcast due to their deviation from the acceptable in terms of subject. The thinking that if they had listened to the people in their lives who had suggested they stop painting whatever comes into their head and concentrate on commercial or popular themes then success would be inevitable. This might apply if the selection was for a commercial gallery, but the Societies stand on a platform of innovation and boundary-pushing; to 'show the controversial and the unexpected and to give hanging space to new artists of promise'.

If this is true then rejection is more likely to be on the grounds of being less than unexpected and controversial; of being prosaic and normal; or lacking in promise. Makes the whole reject thing a bit less romantic and points to my mind more in the direction of back-slapping and nepotism. There are an awful lot of entries and the tendency is always going to be there to blinker the 'new artists of promise' bit and bung in a selection of the usual suspects.

I think that is the better reason to turn our collective backs and deny the funding our entries produce; maybe a bit more of the unexpected and the new artists would be welcome if there was suddenly less cash flowing into the coffers to show off the work of the chosen few every year?