Update

I have been working on my photography skills lately. I have also been considering that I need to make my kscopes out of items that people are passionate about not just buildings and landmarks. These are my favorites but you can't market a kscope about a local building like you could a car kscope or a kscope on say a piece of music paraphenelia. So I am rethinking what to make kscopes on. It really is all about marketing.
If anyone would have told me that an artist must be an accountant, marketer, advertising agent, promoter and creative consultant I would have laughed in their face but now I realize that being an artist and trying to promote your work is LOT of work. Creating art just for the sake of your own pleasure and not sharing it with anyone else might not be such a bad thing. But what is the point of creating your art if not to share it with everyone.
It almost takes the fun out of it. ALMOST when you are passionate about your artwork it takes that edge off of it.
The latest skill I have worked on was strobe flash photography and light painting. Oh my gosh how fun! I took pictures of a balloon popping with the action stopped midair, it is very exciting. Fill a balloon with water, pop the balloon and stop it midaction and you get the most amazing pictures! I will post samples of these later after I have had a chance to sort these out.

Exciting News!

I have had the most exciting news! I received an email from someone at Adobe and several of the folks at Adobe have seen my artwork and they want to feature my work on the Adobe Design Center on the Adobe Website! I am so psyched!
I must write the bio (done) send them a photo of myself, a short video of me talking about my artwork if I choose, and a few of my images for display! I am so excited about this! It has taken me time to write the bio, it must be short and for me that is a real challenge since I tend to be wordy!
Can you imagine? Adobe likes my work! This will be seen by millions of people in the industry. Maybe this will open some doors for my work or for a new job! Ahhh back to working on the wording of that bio again, maybe it needs tweaked! ha hah!

Another Inspiration

New Creations

I think it is important as an artist to explore every avenue of your creativeness, and when an idea pops into your head you should explore it. These are examples of those explorations from my creative noggin!

Excellant Article on Freelancing

This is an excellant article on freelancing which could also be equated to your art.
Read it!

Explore the site while you are there, it is full of resources.

What have I done lately?

I have been going to the photography club. I have learned quite a bit so far, but it is not just about learning, it is about being around other like minded individuals who don't see me as strange because I look at the world through different eyes. It is also about making connections with people, helping them, getting help and expanding my world.

Okay enough philosophy for now. I have put four pieces up in the photography club's show at the local library. There is an opening today and I think I will go to it.

I really need to work on my drawing again. I know that my work really doesn't involve too much drawing but I feel it is important somehow to keep that skill fresh. It might come in handy someday.

I have been doing tutorials and reading books on Photoshop and working on using that as an artistic tool not just a utilitarian tool.

Well there you have it in a nutshell I suppose.

Huge Disappointment

Well this is how a plant with union, and Management works.....You see I designed the door sticker and won hands down by anonymous voting....but when the union guy found out that I had won all of a sudden there was an issue with the prize being not made in America and so they couldn't give it out...then....they bought an American Made prize to give out, and then from there it went to she is not union or management (I am contracted within the plant from another company) she can't win. So they decided I couldn't win....you should see the second place contest winner. Sigh....So the Quality Council is going to give the award to the second place winner which doesn't even come near my design in quality, or design. So you see it is really not about quality but about politics. This is the worst part about this job. It would be a great place to work if you could change the manangement versus the union mentalities. It is so very disappointing and worse of all I feel like I have to act like it doesn't really matter, and that I don't care, when really I am very very hurt. Why can't my design work ever get out of the ordinary stage? I finally felt like maybe this was a step to being recognized as a real designer and not just a creative person with design skills.
I am very very hurt....

Total Excitement!!!

I am so over the top with excitement at the moment! The GM plant had a contest for a new sticker that would be put on the side of the door of every vehicle leaving the plant. I submitted my idea - and I won! Never mind that I won a fantastic wall clock that chimes, that to me is the least of the reward. The greatest reward is knowing that every truck built by GM at this plant will have my design on it! WOW! This is mind-blowing to me! I asked if I could put the first sticker on when they finally use them. My design will be seen by millions of people (let’s hope anyway with GM struggling so! Ha ha!) that buy the Silverado or Sierra trucks! What a rush! I am so excited!

I know this doesn’t totally fit in the artist category but in a way it does, doesn’t it? My artistic skills are what helped me with this kind of recognition, and who knows what doors it will open!

What a week!

What a week I have had! On Tuesday I received a congratulatory email stating that I had won an award with the work I had sent to an Art Show in Plano, Texas. I was SOOOOOO excited! But the awards were present on Thursday to an event that I could not travel too. But they had a webcast of it you could listen to with synced slides.
The wait for Thursday afternoon to come was almost unbearable!
Finally Thursday arrived and I signed in to the web cast. Well to make a long story short, my digital illustration Chocolate won First Place in the category of computer art, and my kaleidoscope with my giraffes won honorable mention in enhanced photography! Since my pieces won awards they will now be shipped to Dallas Texas where they will be displayed in the North Park Gallery to be seen by an estimated 2 million people! What an honor! Now the question most people ask is "how much money did you win?" I didn't win any monies, I just did it for the recognition. What an ego boost that was!
Maybe getting in the Texas Market will have some kind of ripple effect and I will get someone calling me asking me for more! I hope so!

One bit of bad news....I had worked so hard on the multimedia piece for the Chicago show and with all the excitement of this event I totally forgot to mail it in until it was too late to get it to them in time.....all that work.....sigh....I need to find a new show to submit my multimedia piece to. I believe there was probably a reason I didn't get it submitted to the Chicago gallery. I will see the purpose in this later, I suppose!

I keep saying I am going to get a planner just for art show deadlines, that I can keep track of these deadlines.

Today

Today is Saturday, I am determined that I will work on my journal today sometime. I need to do some drawing.

I received word that my artwork arrived in Plano Texas, and all is well. No breakage, all in one piece! For $160 I should hope so!
This thursday they will put all the entries online to be judged by all the employees world wide. I can't wait to see what I am up against! It is exciting, I am not allowed to solict votes from those I work with but I can get them to the site and voting!

I am almost done with the video and can't wait to get it submitted to the art show in Chicago. I just want to get it packaged nicely in a well designed DVD video cover. I feel perfection in everything and appearing professional is important. No half-assed presentation. If you want to be taken professionally you must act the part.

New Project

Okay many art galleries are displaying new media, slide shows, animations, etc... There is a call for art at a gallery up by chicago and they are accepting this media, so I figured I would have a better chance to get in the show if I entered my animated kaliedoscopes. So I am building a DVD with 15 - one minute animations of my artwork. I will only have to mail a DVD case.

I have also had several people say I should make screen savers. Do people really buy screen savers? I am not sure about this. I know how to do it but I am not sure it would be worth the time and energy to pursue this.

There is kaleidoscope convention every year that it might be worth it to create screen savers to sell at a table at that convention, as well as display my artworks and sell them.

I really must get a membership in the Brewsters Kaleidoscope Society. That might help promote my work as well.

So my goal for this month is to become a member of BKS.

I did it!

I did it! I took the plunge entered a show out of state, was accepted into the show and shipped off two of the my pieces. No wonder they call us starving artists. It cost me $160 just to package and ship those two pieces the largest being 24"x24"! Wow! That is precisly why I don't quit my day job!

The next piece I am getting ready will be much much cheaper to enter. More on that later, I am not ready to talk about it yet!

What I have been doing

I have been busy. I found out that my employer (a worldwide corp) has an employee art show. So I submitted two of my pieces of work, they were accepted and now I must get busy and ship off the first pieces of art that I have ever put into a show that was not local! It is exciting, but yet I grumble because of the expense of it. The expense does little to detract from the excitement of a show out of state. There will be entries from all over the world! They choose a peoples choice award voted on by the entire corporation, and then best of show. I can't wait.

I have also been busily working on my digital media piece to submit to a show in Chicago. I feel like I have a better chance of getting in a show with my digital media as more galleries are wanting this type of work but yet they get very few submissions for it. So... here is hoping. It will also be much cheaper to ship!

Style, Direction, Series

They say you must find your style and stick with it, be unique to yourself.
How long can I keep making the kaleidoscopes? (As with most of us who are artists I have a short attention span and get bored quite easily) I enjoy making them and they are unique but how many pieces can you make when no one buys them? Maybe I will make the occassional kscope and work on other areas. I am taking more and more photos and find myself somewhat of a purist, I don't like doctoring them in photoshop so much, but then there comes along that unique photo that just cries out to be altered, added to and included in a montage, so I do it. I almost let the photos speak to me after the fact.
I do have a new series that I think I am going to put up in a show. I have an open invitation from the Artist in Praise gallery. If I want a show - bring in the pieces.
This series is a group of photos I took on late afternoon along the river. I am going to entitle the series "a different perspective". I took quite a few shots along the river banks as we went on a pontoon ride. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining, the deep shadows and the leaves of the trees blooming with colors of all varieties. The water was so calm and you could see the reflections of the riverbank so clearly in the water.
As I looked at these photos I (thinking way outside the box as usual) realized that it was more fun to up end the photos and look at them with a different perspective, they seemed more interesting! I think I will do a whole series on trees. I seem to have quite a few tree pictures that are stunning, individual trees, tree lines, leaves, branches and so on....I think a series would be good.....
I have ideas for other series as well. So by doing this am I neglecting my trademark? Or am I diversifying and showing what else I am passionate about? Do I open up new markets by doing this? See there is that business side that seems to need to creep in when I am doing my art. I would love to just sit and create but I want to share it as well, and in sharing it I must focus on the business side of art. Because this requires money to frame, display, enter shows, and so much more. If I could just get my artwork to support the framing and show fees I would be happier, then having to count on my day job (which I hate) to pay these things.

So I guess I shall see if sharing my other work is good thing or not.

Here is a sample of the tree line I was talking about.
A fresh perspective....

Call Back

The museum that I made an inquiry too about the Digital Media called back. They said this was a new area for them. If I give them something that must play on a computer I will need to supply them with a computer. If I give them a DVD they can play on a TV they will provide the TV. Hmmmmm what choice do I make? ha ha! TV definitely!
So I am excited about taking my animated Kscopes to a new level. My big decision now is do I take the 15 minutes of animated kscopes and let them stand on their own or do I put words in with them, bits of wisdom, in and around them. Everyone loves watching kaleidoscopes, but do they want that experience interrupted with words? I don't know I can't decide, but I must decide soon because the deadline is August 22. This could be a new open door for my artwork and the direction it can take.

Second thing, I talked to a prominent local gallery that I am a member of and asked them about selling my work in the gallery. They have a sling of sorts that members can put work in and customers can buy them. They said $45 is the price range they sell the most of. So now I must figure out how much matting, and printing costs and what size I can do that in. My work just doesn't hold up well in the smaller sizes. It is my opinion you can't see the details and I don't like them that small, but hey I want my work in the hands of the potential client for the big pieces right?

What I have done today...and yesterday

Okay, I didn't call on the notecards. I don't feel comfortable calling on work time, and when I get home at night I am too tired. If you are a young artist still living at home I advise to promote, promote, promote while you still don't have bills to pay. Or be prepared to be broke as you work to promote your artwork.
I did however mention my artwork to a whole group of ladies from all over the country in a chat room I participate in. So maybe I planted a seed there for some one to see my artwork and help spread the word.

One thing I did was get signed up for the email list of a local art gallery. They send out all the calls for art that they think would interest people in our area. There was one show that has a call for art up by Chicago. As I was reading it something inside myself said I need to polish the animated versions of my artwork to present for this show. So....I am going to pursue that. Another problem I have in being a free spirit is in letting deadlines for these calls come and go and missing them. I keep telling myself I am going to get one of those cheap calendar books and keep track of the deadlines in that so I can keep them in front of my face, it is too easy to lose them in this cyberspace called "My Documents".

So today I called the museum where the call for art is at and asked them if by Digital Design they meant animated digital art such as my own, and if so in what format did they want me to present it. I am waiting on a call back.

So I have done two things to promote my artwork this week, and that is better than what I have been doing. In a sense I gave up, took a break, a siesta, a walkabout...whatever you want to call it. I wonder if I will ever know how much that has set back any progress I had made up to that point.

I had no understanding of just how hard of work being an artist truly is!

So what have I done today?

Okay, you should do something for your artwork everyday. So what have I done today? Nothing...I really must make up a to do list, even if it is to take a cool photo. The fog has been really awesome the last two mornings. I really must take my camera to work.
Tomorrow I will call and see how much notecards cost or do an internet search. Small seems to appeal to the market in our city.

Artwork opens doors

I have been realizing that my artwork can open doors. My boss at my day job told me that the reason she hired me was because of my artwork. Never mind that my job has nothing to do with the artwork I create. And now today I have an interview for a job and the person said, don't you belong to the Artist in Praise group? I have seen your work.....

I have a piece in the local art gallery show. I have to admit I have been very lax in trying to promote my work and in creating new work. It has just seemed useless. What is the point in creating artwork and having everyone love it, working hard to promote it and then you never sell it or go anywhere with it. I sometimes feel like I need to go back to creating it just because it gives me great pleasure in creating and not because it can make me money. But yet I would like to be a full time artist and live off of my art.

Hey secretly? Just between you and I? I would like to be like Picasso so that when I go into a restaurant or a store all I have to do it sign my name because my signature is worth more than anything I am trying to purchase! Wouldn't that be awesome?

I bought a marketing workbook for Artists, it has questions you are to answer and then it helps you with the marketing of your work. I have had a really bad time of it emotionally with all the garbage going on in my personal life, so I am waiting to be in the right frame of mind before I start on it. When do you suppose that will be? I am in good company when it comes to that area of my life. So many of the greats sound like they have lived my life. So maybe there is hope for me since I have so much in common in that department!

Bottom line is I have given up on my artwork going anywhere and I know I mustn't give up. Has anyone else been there? What keeps us going?

Inspiration

Today is a local art fair. I love to go and see what others are doing and to gain inspiration for my own work!
More later.

I went to our local art museum yesterday and paid for an artist membership, very inexpensive compared to regular membership. I had no idea there was so much of an art scene until I got the newsletter that came with the membership. Wow! That was a good $20 investment right there! I am hoping to network with other artists, and like minded individuals. After all Warhol had Benquoit, and Picasso had O'keefe (or was that the other way around? hmmmm) and who do I have?

I went on a picture taking spree out in the country on Thursday and I also went to the botancial gardens with a friend. Yesterday I picked up a magazine about taking your photos and creating sketches from them or water color effects. I hope to play with that after I have read the whole article. Hopefully I will post an example here for you.

just creating art is not part of it

Anyone who thinks an artist just gets to sit around and create art has no idea of what being an artist is all about. What good is it to create a masterpiece and then wait for someone to discover it? No...you must promote yourself, your work and your talent. You must be a marketer, an advertiser, a schmoozer, a networker, and a salesperson all wrapped up into one. Your skills must be vastly beyond just being cretive and talented. If you give up on any of these then all you have is your art sitting in a closet somewhere. And then of course if you are creating your art you don't have a lot of time to do all of these other things, or if you are doing all of those networking things then you don't have time for your art. It seems to be that being an artist requires a LOT of discipline. OK creatives out there....how many of us have THAT? It seems we might benefit from a scheduled time to be creative...but maybe I don't feel creative at that moment, then what? I must figure out a way to balance this dilemma!

An update

I started working full time and of course since I have a steady paycheck coming in I don't need money and I am too tired to try and do artwork in the evenings.
I had a friend who had a son who was going to go to go to college for his pottery. The professor said that he was to devote his life to his pottery or not bother coming to his school. No job, nothing but devoting himself to her pottery. We really didn't understand this at the time but it makes sense to me now. I have stepped back and don't "need" to make my artwork earn money for me so it drifts. I still take photos, I still think about what I can do to promote my artwork but I am too "BUSY" to push it.
So there you have it.....
How do I make money to dedicate myself to my artwork. I still must support my family.
Any thoughts out there?