The Gift of " Letting Go" a very hard post .....

 Something arrived in my email the other day that had me go deep in thought on a subject that is difficult for most people. Okay Frank.... What's so difficult about moving on and forgiving someone? Obviously I make light of a hard subject. But the idea of giving gifts is in the air this Christmas ( not afraid to say Christmas on this Blog ) Season.

 But I need to back up a bit to frame this topic. As I talked to Jana this morning , I was getting a bit embarrassed about all the gifts we , as a family , have given each other this year. Jana comes from the tradition of the Main Gift, then the secondary gift, and then the practical gift ( socks and underwear ) and then the stocking stuffer. I thought this was going to end when our kids were teenagers but old habits are hard to break.

 We will have all of Jana's side of the family ( 4 sisters total ) over as well as extended members of each those sisters. Our relatives are experiencing the The Great Recession just like many other Americans across this country. One family member told us that things are so bad that there would not be Christmas gifts for their children. Jana and I just looked at each other and started to empathize with the conditions many family members are experiencing. Heck, we've been there too. But so far, the Gallery is doing well for me ( although not as well for other artists in the Gallery and I feel bad about that too! ) . Kids make it difficult because they can't help bragging. It's in their nature.... " What did you get?  I got ..... this .... and that ..... and that too.

I come from a family where 1 gift was usually enough and there was always a slight behavior condition attached  ( that naughty or nice thing ). I remember a particularly meager Christmas where we went over my cousins house and we all unwrapped our gifts at Midnight Christmas Eve. Or rather we watched them unwrap gifts that they had given each other. What struck me was the love that they all had for each other. I was so jealous. We were not a happy family and Christmas always brought up many bad memories and arguments.

 Its taken me years to run new tapes in my brain and many Happy Christmas moments with Jana and our little family have made Christmas Time a very positive thing. Just the idea of " GIVING" and not receiving has made all the difference in the world.

 So now my real story begins. How would I give a special gift to someone who really needed it in ways that were not your routine " go to Macy's and get a nice wrapped gift thing". I mean... anyone could do that. But how about giving something really important like saying ... " I was wrong about that ... can you forgive me? Or how about .... That was many years ago and we were young and foolish and can we just move on and be friends?

 FaceBook has really changed the way the world communicates. In an instant we can see and read the thoughts of friends known and unknown. One of FB's interesting features is how you can recommend a friend. Mostly its a friend of a friend and I confirm ... except for this old girlfriend of mine who keeps wanting to be friends with the line...Is this the Frank Ordaz that I once knew and loved? .... I mean ... that sounds like trouble! I'm not talking about you Hillary ( if you happen to read this ).

 But this time I was forwarded a name from the past that had much baggage. Many years ago I was a church elder and was involved in a church controversy. It came down to a big meeting with members on one side and one man representing their views and members on the other side and me representing another view. Needless to say it was ugly and the member on the other side and I had not spoken since. But as I was given his name to suggest as a friend ... I thought about it for a time. Should I ask to be friends or just hold on to the past.? I decided to move on and sent the Friend request.

 He emailed me back and wondered why I wanted to be friends as we had not spoken for years? I wrote him the following....

  Yes many years... I can hardly remember those times as it has been so many years. I prefer to move on. I hold no ill will towards you and if there is any residue, which appears to be the case, I hope you can forgive me for my brashness and arrogance. The years have softened my personality.

I was pleased that he too decided to move on and that we are now FB friends. I know it's not much but it feels like a minor miracle. A couple of years ago I wrote 2 ex - friends and also expressed the need to move on. However, they decided that in one case how I thought politically was more important than the friendship and in the other case ..... well it was politics again. They both could not move on from politics.


So this Christmas Season .... we here at ON BEING FRANK  wish you a meaningful and wonderful Christmas. May you give a gift from the heart. May it bless those who receive it. May what comes out of our hearts be Blessings and not Cursings. May we have the courage to say I was wrong and be gracious and take the teachings of Jesus and really make them live in our walk. Maybe  giving a painting can open the door to conversation where the possible can happen. This is the season of a Miracle ..... give what can happen!

Merriest Christmas to all!

What's under your bed? $$$$$$

I bet most of you have seen the PBS show Antiques Road Show or the Blue Collar Cable version called Pawn Stars. Usually the dynamic happens when someone totally unawares brings in some object that they have had in their attic and hope that the "expert" will find value in that object and they in turn will land a financial windfall. Well....

.....just the other day this man walks into the Gallery. He loves art. Says it really calms him down after a hard day and that art and a good painting has a transformative power on his spirit. Okay. We talk for awhile and he asks me if I know anything about Western Art. He says someone owed him some money awhile back and he accepted a painting as trade for the debt. He tells me that Western Art is not exactly his style and that he really did not like the painting. He could not stand looking at it.

 

 So..... he put the painting under his bed. He in the meanwhile tells me that he lost his art collection , which was substantial , when one of his  houses was destroyed in New Orleans by Katrina. Those paintings, he recalls , were beautiful.

Well, back to the story. So, after 15 years he remembers that he has the painting under his bed and just wants to get rid of it.

 He asks me... Have you heard of an artist called Frank Tenney Johnson? I responded absolutely! He was Sam Hyde Harris' , my mentor's next door neighbor. He looks at me with astonishment. I then tell him how there was an artist's colony on Champion Place in Alhambra Ca. It was considered the place to be around the 20's to 40's if you were serious as an artist. Norman Rockwell in fact visited this group when he came visiting Southern California. In fact, I told him, one of my art buddys had been actually painting in Frank Tenney Johnson's Studio which has wonderful north light with a very high ceiling and a loft. It had a distinctive spanish california feel.

Sam Hyde Harris and Frank Tenney Johnson were neighbors.

 We are both amazed. He tells me that he had contacted Aldermanns Auction in Santa Fe and he was told that  his 16 x 20 panel painting could probably attract interest and fetch anywhere between 30 to $100,000 dollars! Wow he says out loud with a laugh. He then asks me if I could photograph the painting for him. Of course I agree .... mainly because I have been a fan of Johnson's Work for years. Any expert of Johnson will tell you that the artist is famous for his moonlight scenes where a cowboy is on a white horse and the caballero is smoking a cigarette. Unfortunetly, his painting is a daylight scene where he has featured a native american woman , which just might interest the Johnson collector for its novelty.

 He came back the next week with the painting which was unframed. It was wrapped in fisherman's paper. I was almost expecting him to produce a smelly trout. There it was ... a real Frank Tenney Johnson. Boy... would I like to have this painting in the Gallery! I tell him that if he wants top dollar he needs to get a nice frame to really show off the painting and its importance.Presentation is half the journey in Art unfortunetly.

 I call my buddy Tim who is equally amazed by the story. The world gets smaller by the minute... below is a pic of Tim Solliday inside Frank Tenney Johnson's Studio.

So ... What's under your bed.... okay .... don't answer that!

What I want for Christmas...an iPad

 

The Blog has been somewhat neglected , but that does not mean that I have not been busy. Having a studio Gallery has brought many challenges and lifestyle changes. Gone are the days where I would get out of bed and write something on my Blog and post pretty frequently. These days , all I can think of is catching a bit of extra sleep before I shower and eat and dash out the door to the Studio/Gallery. But I would not change a thing.

 Take last night for example, its about 4:30 and I am done for the day and I just want to relax on my easy chair and look at the traffic drive by before Jana comes by to take me to Michael Kent Murphy's ( our local esteemed architect ) office party. Just as I am about to sit down a gentleman walks in with his son. He wants to commission a family portrait with all his family members. After talking for about an hour we settle on a large painting to be started around January. What I find striking is that opportunities like these would not happen if I had my studio away from the public square. More and more, people are starting to know that there is a portrait artist in town and his Studio Gallery is at 843 Lincoln Way in Auburn.

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 So you want Santa to get you something practical for Christmas and maybe use it as a tax write off for you art business. Well.... why don't you  consider the iPad. Most artists hate painting from photos and unless you are really good at balancing the colors in photoshop what gets printed is often times not what you see in front of you. Its for that reason that alot of artists prefer painting from their monitors and laptops. The light that illuminates the video screen is purer and clearer than printed inks on paper.

 Check out the YouTube video below where Richard Schmid is painting from his Monitor screen as well as his laptop.



 Now, with the iPad you can have the best of both worlds and upload your photos into your iPad. The iPad is great for artists as it works exactly like a giant iPod or iPhone. Except now when your prospective clients want to see your great artwork they don't have to look at a small screen. I was sold on this when I was down in Tiburon and a client wanted to look at further samples of my work. I took out my little smart phone and went to my website but the images were so small. My buddy FX had his iPad with him and he said I could use it to show them my work. What a difference! It was like night and day. The client spent a good while looking at all my work. If you don't need the 4G model, then you can create photo albums of your work on iPhoto and then sync those into your iPad. Like an iPod, iPad is synced through iTunes .

 I bought the WiFi version as I plan to get the next generation iPad that is supposed to be lighter and have more power and hard drive space. My son is drooling to get my hand me down.

 You can also prop up your iPad and use it as a Digital Frame to show off all your glorious creations.

 What I like about the iPad is that I can hold it while I paint and I can squeeze touch it make the image smaller or expand it with the brush off my fingers. It truly has changed how I work from photos.

 I'm on my way to finish about 9 commissions. Most of these are small 11 x 16 paintings of loved ones that had died or grandchildren . Some of the reference was not good. But having a good scanner and then uploading the photo to my iPad has made a remarkable improvement on my efficiency and productivity. Where was this tool all these years? I love having something light enough that I can hold in my hand while I paint.

 So there you go. Tell Santa that it's gonna help you get more productive and it just might help you sell and get that next commission.

blessings

Portrait of Janette North in Progress...

24 x 30 Oil on Linen

 A short post. I know I have much to add.... like what happened at Thanksgiving ... but thankfully I have been swamped with orders .... what a blessing! .... sold 4 paintings in Tiburon .....  and the portrait of Janette North , Patron of the Auburn Symphony is coming along well, the client has seen it and is very happy .... they are having me add a pearl necklace which was her trademark .... I have been asked to design a WW2 monument for the Auburn AirPort. I will be working with a sculptor to realize this project ....  the Gallery has been a great way to introduce myself to my community.... blessings

In Tiburon Tomorrow

View of Belvedere Island , St. Hillary's Church , Olompali Eucalyptus

  Saturday is the big Arts and Crafts Holiday ( Christmas ) Fair in Tiburon and I will be there from 10 to about 2:30 PM. These small 9x12 to 11 x 14 oil paintings will be moderately priced. They are all depictions of Mt. Tam and surrounding areas around Tiburon Ca. I will also have a couple paintings of Bodega Bay.

Mt. Tam from Tiburon

Bodega Head