Sunday, September 12, 2010

Road blocks happen sometimes

Sometimes it's really hard to stick with something, especially when road blocks keep popping up.  It makes me worry that I'm on the wrong track.  Or maybe the Universe is just testing me to make sure I'm serious about my intention.  It's a little bit hard to tell the difference sometimes.

Here's the deal.  My art show opens October 1 at the Visual Art Studio here in Richmond.

I've been working on a catalogue for the show for a couple of weeks now.  It's been grueling getting everything together.  The first printer refused to print it because there are naked people in it and they don't print nudity.  The second one is doing a great job so far, but, when I picked up the proof Friday, I realized the colors aren't right and I don't know how to make them right.  Plus the fonts look bad, some of them, so I need to re-work all that.  It's going to take many hours to sort it all out.

I shipped a piece of work to someone, and the glass broke, messing up the mat.  I had to cut another one to send to them but forgot for too long, so now I feel guilty that that's late.

People are starting to have feelings about some of the art that will be in the show.  I will need to be very centered before I go to the Opening so I can be detached and open about the work and not take their concerns and feelings personally.  My intention is for my models to be 100% safe and as comfortable as they can be given their own feelings about being seen naked in public (if they happen to have any feelings about it).  If other people have feelings about the nudity, it will be interesting to hear about it, but I hope I'll manage to not personalize it.  I'm starting to sense that there might be some discomfort provoked by the content of my show!

A question:  do you happen to know if a woman or man can be fired from a job for posing nude?  Several of my models have expressed concerns that they could be fired if anyone at their work found out about their posing for me.  That is one of the main concerns expressed about working with me.  I don't know if it's true.  If it is, I want to protect my models in every way possible.  If it is not true, I want to let my models know so they needn't worry. It could be, too, that there's a grey area - that wouldn't be a legal reason to fire someone, but companies don't really need a reason - they can just fire someone - so, if they found out about it, the person could be fired anyway.  I'd love to have some facts.  If you know of a lawyer who handles art law or someone in HR who would know, I'd LOVE it if you could put me in touch with them.

I hate it that this could even possibly be an issue.  It is MY body.  I should be able to do what I want to with it, including having it photographed naked and painted.  Especially for a project which is all about honoring women and their bodies.  It is NOT pornography.

Tricky stuff!  Wish me luck!

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