Jessica Grace Bechtel

Artist, Gypsy, Wallflower

on my mind

So for many years now I have not looked at commercial galleries to show my work because of the exclusivity clauses they carry in their contracts and the 50% commission they take. But I'm just little me, I've been hoping that one day a big shot artist star would think the same thing and find a better way. Below is an excerpt from an article about just such a situation. Viva La Change! "British artist Damien Hirst's bold strategy to bypass his galleries and take his art to auction paid off Monday night when Sotheby's in London sold £70.5 million ($127 million) of his pickled animals and polka-dotted canvases. The sale, which surpassed its £62.3 million high estimate, underscored the resilience of the art market despite woes in the broader financial markets. The artist broke his own record at auction when his pickled bull with golden horns, "The Golden Calf," sold to a telephone bidder for £10.3 million. In June 2007, one of his medicine cabinets, "Lullaby Spring," sold for £9.6 million at Sotheby's in London. A tiger shark floating in a black steel tank, called "The Kingdom," also inspired a lengthy battle between a pair of telephone bidders, eventually selling for £9.5 million, well over its £6 million high estimate. All but two of the 56 artworks offered during the evening sale found buyers, with the sale achieving 96% of its potential value. At least three lots sold for more than £5 million, and 18 lots sold for more than £1 million. Wealth Report
Luxury Marketers Brace for Wall Street HitThe result validated Mr. Hirst's populist assertion that art collectors might want to join in the bidding for his new work rather than buy from his art dealers. The direct-to-auction concept was considered risky in part because no living artist had ever tried it before. A swath of unsold works might also have undermined buyers' confidence in the overall contemporary-art market. But art buyers evidently felt safe putting their money into Mr. Hirst's work: Sotheby's says at least 21,096 people viewed the sale's offerings in person in the past two weeks, with 650 attendees packing into its salesroom last night. Sotheby's had shopped the works across several continents to give the sale a blockbuster atmosphere." MexicoHave you ever heard that James Taylor song about Mexico? There's a line, "I've never really been there so I don't really know." Well now that I've been there I want everyone to know. Ask me really, I have so many stories to share. One of the people I traveled with kept asking, "are you going to do a painting of that?" Thanks for the positive peer pressure, Beth. My plan is to begin work on some new paintings from this trip (as well as a collaborative project based on some images from Uganda).

The organization we partnered with in Mexico is call Back 2 Back. They're at http://www.back2backministries.org

links I've recently reconnected with some artist friends. So as I come across their websites in my sketchbooks (if the links are still good) I'll post them here.

Julianna Boehm, photography, http://www.juliannaboehm.com/
Jenna Bischel, painting, http://www.jennabischel.com/
My friend and fellow artist, Kathleen Deyer Bolduc, has included one of my paintings on her website. http://www.kathleenbolduc.com/

This website has been super helpful. I learned how to make paneer (indian cheese) and simple syrup. http://www.wikihow.com/