DJ Geribo

I don’t quite understand how my artwork has been proclaimed by some people “cute”. Is it the subject matter? Or perhaps the size of the paintings – recently I participated in a show and I displayed a series of paintings that were all 5”x7” animal paintings. But I’m thinking it is the subject.  But unless I’m painting animals that are wearing overalls or dresses and sun bonnets, there really is nothing cute about them. And I’m not painting clothed animals.  I’m a serious artist, I paint serious animal paintings. (Oil painting at left, Mustangs, is 30"x40").

When someone calls my paintings ‘cute’, I feel insulted. I feel as if they are saying, you aren’t a serious artist, see, your paintings are cute, something kids would like. I feel like suddenly, I’m not a serious artist (yes, yes, I understand this is ultimately my issue.) I’m doing this just for fun. Look how cute they are, let’s put them in the baby’s room. Not that there is anything wrong with putting my artwork into a baby’s nursery, but to me, that devalues them. They don’t want them in the living room, they put them in the kids’ room. Now, I understand that kids, many more than adults, love animals. I think that is great. I wish more adults loved them as much as I do, or at least as much as their kids do. A friend of mine who also paints animals moved to Montana so she could find other serious animal artists. We used to participate in art shows together and would laugh when people brought their strollers into our booth, exclaiming to their toddlers about the animals we had painted and encouraging them to name the animals we had on display in our booth. I called us “the learning booth”.  My friend and I got a laugh out of it – she moved to Montana where the serious animal artists live, I’m still in New England, hoping to convince people that I am, indeed, a serious artist and I paint animals.