Puppy Papers Needed!

Like a puppy, I was eager for some verbal petting. Squirming in my chair I downed a plastic cup of white wine before heading up to my time in the spotlight at the Bakersfield Museum of Art. Normally, I prepare and practice what I'm going to say, but I thought I would wing this one so I would come off comfortable. My heart was pounding and of course, I started sweating again. I'm not sure what this recent trend of me, my art and sweat would be but I'm not a big fan of it!

So, I swagger up to the front and do the obligatory (but sincere) thank you's to the museum for the show and hosting first Thursdays for the community. In a classy artist fashion, I pull out some materials from a plastic grocery (Von's to be exact) bag. I start off by telling them my background then into my imagery and finally my process in making my work.

It was interesting to see the difference in my presentation from work Julia to artist Julia. Work Julia doesn't smile as much as artist Julia. Work Julia certainly wouldn't make four references to dead animals as artist Julia did. Yep, dead animals. Now, I'm not a fan of hunting but I found myself referencing my father's need to blast poor defenseless animals to hang on the wall. Now, in his defense he eats the meat and hunts within the legal boundaries but that doesn't make me appreciate carcass filled walls of the family home. I then referenced my favorite tool I use in making my work...which is also used to skin seals in Alaska. Nice, huh. Yep, artist Julia mentioned that lovely bit of trivia too. Luckily, I believe I humored the audience with the strange, artist Julia persona and I had a brief, but ego stroking moment at the end of people wanting to continue conversation. Unfortunately, there were no more mentions of dead animals and the puppy in me finally calmed down.