I went to my first artists lecture Monday night at the Arts Center at Kingdom Falls. It was very good, but now I remember why I’ve missed all the other lectures there over the years…I didn’t get home until 11:00pm which makes it pretty hard to get up at 5am to draw before work. The artist lecturing was Tom Burckhardt, child of Rudy Burckhardt and Yvonne Jacquette, both established artists from the 60’s. Something that Tom said had me thinking a couple of days later. He was describing his creative process and allowing that there was a point when his successes within the gallery system afforded him a certain validation, which of course, being a determined artist he shortly tried to undermine in a creative way through his subsequent work. I thought, wow, wouldn't that be a great thing to offer to every hardworking but under-recognized artist out there? Validation services! You could walk in get your work validated and leave feeling all puffed up and good about yourself, energized and ready to dive into some new and wonderful art project. In my own experience a little encouragement often goes a long way, maybe there could be these cards with little boxes on them that get funny shaped holes punched in each box every time you go to get validated? Hmmm...I like it!
