The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

People ask me all the time why would I want to donate my glass to all these public places around the area. And I used to say, it’s my way of giving back. Which is as trite and idiotic an explanation as a politician leaving office to spend more time with his or her family. Oh right. Their family probably long ago gave up on seeing them and probably stopped caring. They leave office because some scandal or the long arm of the law caught up with them so who’s kidding who? Their family probably is about as happy having them come home to their loving arms as Covid couples enjoy the kids quarantined in their two bedroom rambler.

I even ask myself why I do this, if you want the honest to god truth, not that there is such a thing in post-fact America. When I was starting out trying to make a living creating glass art, I got a job with the WA Art Commission after I was fortunate enough to be juried into their roster on the second try. My handler told me when I was selected not to expect a commission to follow, but a few months later one did. Small, but bigger than what I’d been doing. I turned that small project into a 15 foot by 7 foot curved mural, about four times what the budget would have required. I thought why not do something on a grander scale than a bathroom residential to keep the neighbors from seeing my client tinkle. Even my handler warned me I wouldn’t make any money if I scaled up. I said what, you think I wanted to be an artist so I could get rich?

The second commission came 3 years later, the required wait until us roster candidates could receive another one. Trust me, I was spoiled by that first project and small residential windows and autonomous panels seemed, oh, a lot less satisfying. My next commission was an okay budget, but I gave them a 70 foot by 20 foot mural to fill up their curved front bank of windows. If you want to become addicted to large scale formats, this is how you do it, plunge the horse syringe deep into a vein.

To compete in the world of hungry artists hoping for these commissions, you needed, back then, a slide portfolio of work, usually 10, what now is a digital portfolio. I didn’t have 10, but that 70 footer was proof the guy could do projects of monumental size. Still, I needed 8 more slides. So I donated a few glassworks to the new Visitor Center on the island, the Stanwoodopolis Senior Center, the Camano Senior Center, the Mukilteo Library, the Mt. Vernon train station, to name the first few, and voila, my portfolio was fat even if my bank account was flat. And each one opened another door to a large art project. My foot was firmly planted in that door and I was a finalist for projects from Alaska to Florida. Nothing was too far away and none were too intimidating to keep me from going after them. I was younger then and a lot hungrier. I figured whatever I needed to learn, I’d learn.

Here at home I got stoked after building the Visitor Center and the Sculpture Park that we could turn our little backwash island into the Art Island. We organized an artist group, started a Mother’s Day Studio Tour, put art in the local schools, libraries and senior centers, gave the island a new and not always welcome identity where prior there wasn’t much of one. Why not? Well, I can answer that, but not here, not right now. But in case you’ve never worked with us artists, believe me when I say we’re not good in the sandbox together and so, after too many meetings and egos that would stretch a hatband to the breaking point, I decided to just lone wolf my efforts, skip the board meetings and drop a glass mural here and there like bread crumbs to follow back to some imagined cottage, a terrific time saver and a mental health tactic I recommend highly to others.

So why would I want to donate all this glass? I sure don’t need a larger portfolio now, I’m not searching for a ‘legacy’ and I have my doubts about creating that Art Island. I guess I’m getting older and more cynical. The simple answer is I like working large and there aren’t enough projects and commissions out there now to get my fix. I know, it doesn’t sound noble, doesn’t sound high minded, doesn’t even sound philanthropic. Just another junkie in search of his high. That, or maybe I just don’t want to spend time with my family. And the scandals have yet to catch up to me….

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2020 at 2:56 pm and is filed under rantings and ravings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.