Friday, June 12, 2009

Facebook Fan Page

Recently, I've been doing more research on the art industry, art business, and art marketing and that includes reading a great number of blogs. It seems that the new way of getting personalized information and advice is from scouring the web, instead of asking a colleague directly.

To keep up with the ever changing times and broad range of customers and friends who lives all across the nation, I've decided to join the crowd and create a Facebook Fan page. I already have a personal page, but a person who is interested in my latest painting, may not be interested in reading a status update about my latest weight loss accomplishment.

Being all too unfamiliar with Facebook's Fan Page set up, I did some mandatory exploration. I found that getting to where you set up the page to be the trickiest part, but once I got to the create page function it was quite simple. I am only going to give step-by-step instructions on getting to the creating a page, the rest will be up to you. Facebook has useful information on how to edit the page.

  • First, sign into your own personal page.
  • From your home page, scroll all the way to the bottom of the screen and click ADVERTISING.
  • Once the Advertising screen is available, click the button on the top of the screen that says PAGES.
  • After you've arrived on the PAGES screen, take the time to read the overview, prepare, step by step, and find new fans tabs.

  • Once you've done all that, click on CREATE PAGE!





It seems quite simple once you've found it. This should be enough information to give you a start on creating your very own Facebook Fan Page! You can never learn enough or try too many things when it comes to new technology and your business.

Now that you've considered starting your Fan Page, please post yours in the comments and also become a fan of mine!

Monday, May 4, 2009

New Organizated Area



I finally got a new arts and crafts area set up over the weekend after cleaning the entire house from top to bottom.
I moved all of our furniture and rearranged everything, except Violet's room.

After I finished cleaning the apartment, I opened up space for a brand new craft/drafting table that came with a very comfortable chair, organizer, and lamp.

Once it was all set up, I began working on a commissioned painting that I was asked to do of a restaurant in San Antonio.
I will write more about that later.

I was so excited to have space of my own, that I worked nearly all weekend. I made 6 new pairs of earrings and got some ideas for new mixed media paintings. I even organized my paints in warm and cool color bins!

Monday, April 27, 2009

I've been Indie Spotted!


Check Here!

There is nothing more encouraging on a Monday morning when you're feeling so very discouraged, and having no beginning direction or motivation, than to see your work on the front page of Indie Spotting.


This should give me the willingness to persevere through the day.. . .

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Spring is IN!


I've decided that Spring not only brings green beautiful plants, somehow it renews creativity.

Over the passed several weeks, I've been working on new and different ideas to round out my store. I thought about what things I would buy. A less juvenile key chain is something I would buy.

So I found the hooks and decided that adding some pretty beads would do the trick.


Additionally, I will be adding 3 more mixed media pieces and 3 more pairs of earrings in the next few days to my Etsy Store.


Sunday, April 19, 2009

The art of writing an ARTistic (Auto)Biography.

If you look up the term Biography or Auto-biography in the dictionary you'll see the following:

bi·og·ra·phy (b-gr-f)
n. pl. bi·og·ra·phies
1. An account of a person's life written, composed, or produced by another: a film biography of Adlai Stevenson; an oral biography.
2. Biographies considered as a group, especially when regarded as a genre.
3. The writing, composition, or production of biographies: a career entirely devoted to biography.

au·to·bi·og·ra·phy (รดt-b-gr-f)
n. pl. au·to·bi·og·ra·phies
The biography of a person written by that person.


In the basic sense of a concise definition, it does the trick, but there are many subtleties to biography, (or to be exact autobiography), writing that I have recently begun to re-examine.

A few weeks ago, after many hours of Etsy and Blog research of my contemporaries; I realized that I must sit down to the task of writing a new biography. I have of course evolved since my last edition. There have also been many life altering changes; i.e. the birth of my daughter.

When my focus was as a gallery artist, the biography that I wrote sounded much like an over-intellectualized organized bit of artistic jargon. Is it me? Well, I do consider it to be a representation of ME, but no it's not me. The reasoning behind that type of writing was to capture the academic or professionalized aspect of my work to increase it's saleability. It has a purpose, but not my current purpose.


This is the moment during the process where I sit blankly staring that the blinking cursor with not an inkling of where to begin such a daunting process.

I could go back to where I started and rework this bio:

Isaac Asimov once said, "I write for the same reason I breathe-because if I didn't, I would die." I couldn't describe my passion for art any more adequately than with that very same quote. The desire to express myself is so strong that it no longer resembles a passion or a desire, but supersedes it and manifests itself as necessity. To live without it, I wouldn't have a life.
All of my work begins with observation and life experiences that have shaped my judgment and point of view. I describe the observation first with the lens of a camera or the line of pencil or charcoal. The subtleties of light, form, line contour, and color all interest my mind and imagination. Working with the photograph or drawings as reference, I use interesting angles and sketches to describe the intricate nature of my subject. Then through the process of abstraction, I eliminate color, shading, and detail. I break the image down into linear forms, shapes, and line. I extract the sense of dimension and shadow.
After I have de-constructed my subject to a pure and essential form, I determine the overall composition with cropping and manipulation. I determine size and point of view. Then, I translate it it onto canvas with abstracted linear forms. Working from that linear translations, I build up my emotional reasons to the existence of my subject with paint. I use color and texture to describe feelings, instincts, and moods. I create a sense of tension and movement with bold colors and thick application of paint which is often left on the canvas with visible brush strokes.
Color takes precedence and it is the propulsion that actualizes the personal expressiveness displayed in my work. Attention to detail is now re-introduced into the composition with layers of pigment. The linear strokes are manipulated with paint and pigment to articulate ideas, thoughts, and expressions about my subject reinstalling detail, shadow, light, and dimensions.
Describing subjects in an entirely realistic manner does not interest me. I leave that to the photographic lens. I am more interested in the psychological responses of my viewers to the emotional and bold expression of my interpreted subject. I create my work with a deeply personal ardor that explores the humanistic process of judgment. My altruistic intentions are to illicit a response from the view regarding interpretation, emotion, and belief.

But how do you add soul to something that is so pretentious and academic? Again, just another question that I cannot answer, but I feel is directing me to the right place. I know that I started my career with the intuition to know that I wanted art to be for ALL people, somehow that idea got jumbled.

So listing my raison d'etre is a starting point, or I could begin with an outline of what I feel is a long list of accomplishments, but then again I have an even longer list of unaccomplished wishes.
Another fight between ego and intuition begins: one side nearly begging me to list off my amazing achievements, the other humbly encouraging me to concisely speak of how art affects my soul.

As for the reader; I can't image either form of (auto)biography would lead to greater interest in my art. So again, I think that I could write it solely on your behalf; although, that may sound quite odd: "I love to paint just knowing that this will get hung on a long ago plastered wall in a dingy smoked filled unfit apartment, realizing my worth is about $2/hr after having figured in my time, self promotion, material cost, and the little bit of soul that gets taken away anytime I work." If you understand sarcasm you've also quickly realized that approach will not at all be conducive to this exercise.

Another idea forms and I think now that I am a blogger I can take the "One-a-day" approach. I could add a new fact or interesting tidbit of informative verbiage to this blog everyday, but that would not have a lasting effect on the reader. It could end up being confusing and boring, neither of which describes me at all. How long until my ego would be exhausted of irrelevant self fulfilling bullshit; one day?; one week?; one month?

Maybe, I shall scrap the entire idea and put my ego away for safe keeping. I know if it wanders out too far, it will probably come back damaged. In no other profession, but that of an artist, do we really truly let our essence wander for such public and often harsh criticism. So often the damage is sustained for eternity, forever impacting our present and future working selves. How can that be worth the price we're paid?

Knowing that to pursue art as a business I must try to represent ego, accomplishments, and my humble and reclusive nature. This sometimes incomprehensible juxtaposition is exactly what buyers, collectors, and lovers of art latch onto. This personal and revealing description of the very essence of human nature, which so many of us cannot fathom let alone describe, is what makes art appealing.

So it seems I was able to redefine (auto)biography, but has it gotten me closer to my objective? I could answer that by immediately saying it was a great task in rumination and procrastination; just what an artist does.





Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The day is never done.


Becoming a mother has been a bigger batch of life lessons than I had initially expected. There are numerous little things that are added to my memory nearly daily, but one of the lessons that is repeated is that the day is never done.
I start off the day with a clear and concise list of objectives. It usually consists of the normal house duties: dishes, laundry, vacuum, Etsy shop duties: new photographs, renew a listing, participate in the forums, ChaCha or _kgb: which means I spend at least 2 hours on the computer answering questions, etc, etc. The list goes on and on.
The smartest thing I decided to do about 10 months ago was to realize that my daily list didn't really ever get done in a day. I keep trying to complete it in 24 hours, but now when I don't finish it I don't beat myself up about it.
I just smile and look over at how my blossoming daughter is now feeding herself a banana and that successes can be measured in smiles.

I did make some new earrings and I think I've begun to reach the formula for creating good Etsy photos.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Searching

It seems that today was really an official start to our searches for a new bigger house. We moved already in Dec of 07 and it seems that I have a trend of moving nearly every year. If I told you I have moved 9 times since 2003, would you think I was crazy?
I had a gallery space and a 3 bedroom house in Buffalo, which I took both for granted. I guess you live and learn. I wish I could have that space back, but here in Philadelphia!
We narrowed down our list, but I am sure it will be an uphill battle from here on.
Committing to a house is one thing I am not afraid to do.

My desire for a larger organized work space, which I don't have to pick up for dinner time, or clear off the coffee table and vacuum like a madwoman thinking Violet will choke on a bead, is really a huge motivational factor.

I am sure I will have LOTS more to post about house hunting.

In the mean time, check out these spectacular new earrings I created in my living room.

Imagine how great my work will be when I do have my own messy space!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

StyleHive Link?

I'm a follower.

There were many times in my life where I had considered myself to be a leader, today I am a follower.
This will be my first official blog post. I have been using other social networking media sites for sometime, but never had an official blog.
My current reading material has consisted of numerous online marketing blogs, websites, and newsletters, all leading me to believe that blogging is the new black.
I am sure this was true 2 years ago. So, I guess I should re-phrase that and say that blogging is the new brown?
I will welcome myself to this new world of online mental voyeurism.

Please join me on Twitter as well.