Edward Hopper

In the July 2007 issue of Smithsonian magazine there is a wonderful article on the works of American artist Edward Hopper. In October of 2003 the High Museum in Atlanta did an exhibit of some of his works and I went to see what all the fuss was about. I was stunned with his work but also fascinated by a book I bought that day called "Edward Hopper: A Journal of His Work".

Page after page I viewed copies of his personal journal, his ledger, his thumbnail sketches and his thoughts about his paintings. Thirteen carefully lettered ledger books recorded each of his paintings. He made a sketch of each work, recored the date, size, places exhibited, current owner, notes on palette, sometimes a physical description and more rarely, the price. After he married, his wife Jo became his manager and she maintained his journals for him using the same format he had started and she filled the journals with lists of newspaper, and magazine articles, gifts, purchases, exhibitions and an account of trips and prizes.

The business side of making art is sometimes a boring task, but one that has to be done unless you are one of those artists that just leave things like this up to chance. If you leave it to chance, chances are you will not have what you need when called upon. Keeping all your records in an orderly fashion actually will save you time in the long run.

I have two thoughts on making record keeping easier. First, I know it has to be easier when you have a business manager and second, if you have to do this chore alone, at least make making it a work of art like Hopper did, and many others like him, would help keep you in a creative zone. Hope you enjoy looking at this scrapbook.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum presents An Edward Hopper Scrapbook.