Mixed Media Collage - what"s going on?

So, can any of you tell me why these small little collages 8 X 10 and 10 X 10 have not been juried into 2 shows? One up in Kirkland at Parklane and one down here in Canon Beach - both were collage exhibitions. This makes a difference to me because I can't get a fix on what the reason is they are not getting in to shows. Is it because they are too small? Is it because they are not considered fine art? Is it because they are too bright? Is it because they are too detailed? Is it because they each have words, some of which could be construed as a message - titles are Work, Life Spice; Planet Asia, Peddling; Earth Revisited; Sculpture Gate; Raku, the Source? Is it because of quality? Also look at several of the collages in August blogs - these 2 were the latest not to get juried in.

So readers, what do you think? I've never not been juried in before in any exhibition that I've entered so I'm at a loss. These are paintings I've just started doing this year and are interesting to me because I can use lots of different techniques and is a way for me to express detail. Are these a dead end? Do I stop doing this kind of work altogether? Please, your comments are appreciated!

Ta...Da.....Pub Sign

So here is the finished Pub Sign. Well actually 2 signs exactly alike which were hung on either side of an old sign which remained in place. We had the hanging and unveiling last night with some local friends over for some delicious soup, pizza and a fresh peach pie.

It took about 104 hours from start with initial consultation to hanging. In real life it is a little more yellow in the background than what it shows here. By yesterday when I was taking this picture the weather had started to become overcast and unfortunately today it's going to rain buckets and the wind is already fierce with 30 mph gusts.

So my next project other than teaching my upcoming classes and finishing our house is to assemble 18 paintings and start showing them to galleries. I'm really going to focus on finding regional representation even though this may be an uphill battle in this economy. First with my encaustics I think and 2nd with my newer large acrylics on canvas. They would find different galleries I believe who would be interested - no overlap.

It's interesting to realize that I do (and probably most artists do) go through a little bit of a depression after the completion of an intense bit of work - even if you're really happy with the final result and are glad to see it go to a good home. It's coming down from intense focus and intense work and intense creativity, but it's also natural and it does pass. The way I get through it without letting it overwhelm me is to clean up my studio and reorganize so that I can move on to new projects. This little time away allows me to figuratively clean out my mind too and get me some free space so to speak to allow for a fresh new idea for the next painting project to emerge. And it inevitably does. If the clean up time doesn't seem long enough, I take the time to blog, to update my website which needs to be done and to make some more business cards to hand out. Now is actually a good time to market and use that left side of the brain.