Alaskan Artist - Elise Tomlinson
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06/04/2004: "Sketching in the park"


I went ahead and bought a sketch pad, some pencils, erasers, and a sharpener at the university book store (the conference is at the Idaho State University). I went for a walk after dinner last night and went to the Idaho State Museum where they were having a First Thursday art opening (free access) as well as an open studio tour. That was pretty cool. Encaustic work seems to be pretty popular here. I also saw some great photographs, HUGE photos larger than life sized, of windows with rain on the outside, and you could see a hazy image of the outdoors through the rain.

I also feel in love with this piece of work done by a student here in the university gallery. It was three ceramic pieces hung up side by side, long pieces with bumps and spikes that reminded me of a former ceramics professor, Lisa Conway. I have some of Lisa's work and thought this tryptych would be an excellent addition, it had one title card and a price of $150. So I spent all this time between sessions trying to track down how I could purchase this piece and left my contact information with a bunch of people and then, this morning, I went back to the gallery and the piece now had *three* seperate title cards, each with it's own price, now totaling $600.00! Well, I couldn't afford it at 150 bucks but was desperately in love with it and making an exception because I thought it was such an extraordinary deal. Now, I'm not saying they aren't worth $600 bucks, I just find it odd that they jacked the price up after someone acted desperate to buy them. phoey. Well, it's probably a good thing in the end, I don't have the money after all and would have had to charge it so now I don't have to worry about buying food when I get home. Still... I'm bummed. I had a place all picked out for them.

After the museum last night I sat in the park for awhile sketching. I tried to sketch in my dorm room but I discovered that I need to see something in order to sketch it. I was having a hard time just making stuff up. Then, I sketch some guys playing tennis but they kept giving me looks, like they felt self-concious, so I quit. I wonder, do most people ask permission before sketching someone in public? I never have but I wonder now if that's rude.

Anyway, one more session and then I'm off to the airport and homeward bound. I'm pretty wiped out. I haven't skipped a single session, and I'm bordering on information overload. At least I'll have the weekend to regroup, getting to see all that art work was really great...always helps get the motors clicking again.


Replies: 2 Comments

on Friday, June 4th, Howard said

Isn't that like one of the classic things not to do when trying to sell work? Hopfuly no one will buy it at that price and they might learn something from it.

on Friday, June 4th, support@elisetomlinson.com">Elise said

Yah, I was actually kind of angry about the whole deal. I mean, I went to extraordinary lengths to make the purchase, no one seemed to know who was responsible for brokering the deal, and then, after all that, to raise the price by $450. I highly doubt she'll be able to sell it at that...and as you said, maybe that will be a lesson for her.

It's unfortunate because it would have gone to a good home, to someone who would have really cherished it. oh well.