Leah

so that's the achievement for today I guess lol

Broke a mason jar over my own hand somehow. Literally no idea even how the physics of that worked- I would think my hand would've moved when it hit enough to not break the jar but here we are. & as prepared as I was to treat a technicolor mess of injuries- not a scratch. Just covered in broken glass

YouTube video by Leah MacLeod "Penitent I" Artist Talk and Virtual Viewing

I decided to start making short artist talks and virtual showings of my original paintings. This is the first one focusing on the Penitent series and "Penitent I" in particular. As always, what it means to me, doesn't dictate what the art has to mean to you.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQVH...

Really awesome art market, tho I'm now recharging from meeting like a thousand ppl lol. Thanks to the ppl who were not weird about me answering art questions while my eyes were closed w/migraine aura. Thankfully, I don't get headaches after it, but I'm sure it's a little weird for ppl talking to me

Oof. no joke.

This weekend Oct 11-12 I will be at MMoCA for their Art Market! I will have a significant number of orig paintings as well as open edition prints.

General public admission is free on both days:

Sat: 10 AM – 4 PM
Sun: 12–4 PM

**227 State St, Madison, Wisconsin**

honestly teaching should count as a PhD in hostage negotiation if we're being honest. Who, exactly, counts as the hostage is ofc situationally dependent, but I think it's still valid.

Oh when did you fly over to the US?

(kidding kidding) sorry.

At least here, "hostage negotiation" is a skill the lanyard class picks up via day or weekend seminars. Very much like the "CQB" classes being offered all over around here ostensibly from ex-spec ops "experts". And also like those seminars, civilians can often attend lol

For CNN or any other US news org I think it's just pulling from the very very large pool of local cops who attended a day seminar once. Or, in truly impressive instances, read the book of someone who, at some point, might have negotiated with someone.

omg that looks incredible!

"One small tentative sniffy step for pine marten; one fluffy step for pine marten kind."

I feel like you have to gaze wistfully towards the horizon and mutter something like "ayup, winter's gonna be bad this year. Elbow is never wrong."

happy 5 week early birthday!

Penitent IV: An oil painting of a young woman sitting in front of a sunny landscape filled with hills. The near background features blue and orange pollinator flowers. The sky is blue with clouds stretching into a distant horizon. The woman wears a pink top and a golden medallion of a butterfly on a strand of barbed wire around her neck. Her head is ringed by a golden nimbus halo depicting butterflies.

Penitent IV 9x12" oil on board.

This is the final (for now) painting in a series of work honoring and mourning endangered or threatened species.

This is not art of a specific saint, but represents humans who are being forced to watch the destruction and desecration occurring around them.

Penitent III: An oil painting of a young woman wearing a loose white cloth robe. Around her neck is a golden medallion on a strand of barbed wire depicting a howling wolf. Her head is ringed by a golden nimbus halo with embossed wolves that are shown walking clockwise around the disk. There is a dark green landscape behind her, ending in blue hills on the horizon under a dark blue cloudy sky.

Penitent III 9x12" oil on board.

This painting is part of a series of work honoring and mourning endangered or threatened species.

This is not art of a specific saint, but represents humans who are being forced to watch the destruction and desecration occurring around them.

Human artists, use one piece to convince people to follow you

We are drowning in an ocean of meaningless slop that constantly pulls us down trying to take our time & attention. I think the answer is quality, personalization, thoughtfulness & intention. Mostly out of basic decency, but there's prob a business case in there too if you lacked ethics or decency

I don't message or email unless there's a good reason. I especially don't bother collectors or gallery/industry ppl, with "content." I'm not going to slop every professional contact I know w/AI slime bc it's unethical & disrespectful. But also bc I want those ppl to actually read what I do send.

Someone told me last week that I could use AI to send email newsletters. But why? If a newsletter or email is worth someone's time to read, then it is worth the time & attention it takes *me* to write it. If it's not worth my time to write, then it's not worth reading, & it's disrespectful to send.

Where’s a Moral Panic When You Need One? - Truthdig Sold as The Answer to Everything, AI has become a factory of custom manias, faux-companionship and typo-free teenage suicide notes.

So if I'm reading this right, the value proposition of AI is that it doesn't work and doesn't make money, but it can kill you now and kill you later.

Still remember one study where they had "AI" look at photos to diagnose cancer and it had like a 98% or 99% accuracy...

...except all the photos of actual tumors had a ruler next to them for scale. And the algorithm just got really good at spotting rulers in a photograph.

Conventions are super risky, even ones that have been profitable in the past can have a bad year- sometimes a VERY bad year. The more cons you are able to do, the more that risk can be spread out. Which, esp in this econ, is super important.

Oh yeah- I hear a certain con is pushing a non-compete clause on vendors. And, while venues, galleries, publishers and conventions are very important partners in making a living off of art, it's important to read agreements & make decisions that protect your interests.

Spent an hour gently washing the leaf fungus off my cherry tree, one leaf at a time. Bc apparently I didn't so much change my lifestyle as deorbit it. Just ablating danger & excitement off my life like it's the discount heat shield on a boeing capsule lol

here's hoping lil tree friend makes it tho

Anyway, working in diff sizes is a nice break and I find that if I spend too much time working in one size, my eyes/judgment get almost out of practice when I move to a larger or smaller work. So the smaller works are good for that. I like working big too- it can just get expensive to ship etc

The original of this one is $200. I should have prob said that. Really good at the promotional part of my job. Just absolutely *Dialed In* on the sales part of this. Really out here CLOSING THE ART DEALS. lolol

I feel like some of us really excel at the selling/promotion & some don't. I don't lol.

Sigil of the Heron: A stylized oil painting of a blue heron. The heron is depicted with a series of sweeping curved lines and swirl patterns as is the simplified foreground of a wave and plants. Around the outer edge, a darker blue border contains more linework that hint at flowing waves.

New art: A smaller oil painting on panel "Sigil of the Heron" 6x8".

Occasionally I take little breaks from my bigger, more realist work, to do these. They're rooted in the style of linework found in Pictish carvings, lots of swooshing lines and spirals, but have more detailed/complexity

Penitent II: An oil painting of a young woman wearing a blue robe edged in gold holding her left hand up in a sign of blessing. From her hand a golden medallion showing a whale hangs from strands of barbed wire looped around her fingers. Behind the figure, a dark sea stretches to the horizon with crashing waves under a darkened sky. A golden saintly halo rings the figure’s head with a series of golden whales arranged around its circumference.

"Penitent II" 9x12 oil painting on board ($450 USD). The second in a series of paintings mourning the effects of climate change and increasing waves of extinctions.

Open edition art prints will be available in the near future.

ever go through life just waiting for other shoe to drop? for the blade of fate to notice that you were blessed with an existence too nice & "correct" the mistake?

me neither. which is good.