Pencil Shavings

NaNo-NaNo

A few winters ago I participated in the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) with the idea that over the month of November I would compete to write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel.  I completed the draft with a few words to spare and was happy to be done.

This year, for some absurd reason I feel like I should be trying it again.  I have no novel outline, I don’t have a vaguest idea of a plot and I certainly don’t have the time.  After all I’m a full time student and the work load for November is already looking unbelievable.  And I do have the Tiny Terrorists^TM to tend to.

So why do I have this nagging desire to start writing again?  It’s not that I’m not being creative.  I am majoring in art for god’s sake.

But there it is, I can’t deny it, I’m hungering for the feeling of keys under my fingers and worlds spinning out from my imagination.  There is something there that I can’t shake.  I really need to write and the more that I try to push it away the less I want to do of my other work. 

I know that I cannot complete the NaNoWriMo, but I am going to try and get a few creative bits out of my system before the end of the year.  After all there are some lovely writing contests to enter in the new year, and it would be great to have a short story (or two ) to fling at them. 

Meanwhile there are still several assignments waiting for my attention.

Is the Medium the Message?

She's Here, She's There, She's Everywhere!

I found out this weekend that I was going to be the featured on the EBSQ Blog as the "Blogger of the Week"

EBSQ is a great resource for self-representing artists.  You can load and maintain your own gallery of work (with links to your website, blog, and places you sell your work)

There is an artists forum where you can go for critiques, and a digital sketchbook section for little unfinished works that you have been working on.

It's a great, supportive environment to learn, and mingle with fellow artists.

I'm very please, and proud, to be the Blogger of the Week.

72 Hours For Haiti - Live!

The Three day art auction to benefit the Haitian earthquake victims is live!  At this point in time the Canadian Government will match any money we donate to the Red Cross.  So what ever you bid will be doubled.

You can go to my Facebook Fanpage to view the pieces for sale by myself and my good friend Jaqui Mitchells.

You will have to become a fan if you want to bid (or you can contact me through my website to place a bid).  If you can't bid (I know what that's like) I would really appreciate it if you could spread the word.

The more people that know the better chance we have to make a difference over there.

I am way behind on the 365 Days of Art Postings, all my computer time has been taken up by getting this organized and off the ground, but I will do some catching up this week I promise.

Social Media and The Artist

I was just featured in a class about using social media taught by Cathy Downey. Who knew that being a nerd/artist would gain me such academic presence?

Yes I do use Social Media to help market myself as an artist.  I have sold paintings through Twitter, through Facebook (a fan page... go figure!), as well as the other online marketing venues like eBay, Etsy and Artfire.  I have my website(that I am well aware needs some dusting off) and I use Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch with fellow artists, collectors, friends and potential buyers.

Here is my one and really only tip for using social media to connect with your prospective customer.

Be Sincere.

People know when you just want money out of them, treat your followers and your facebook friends like real, live people.  Treat them like friends.

Don't spam them with buy, buy, buy, buy (even if that's what you want them to do) but let them into a little piece of your life.  This is especially important to artists.  People love to know a little about the piece, what inspired it, how it moved you, why you were compelled to create it.  Share that with them, share a little piece of yourself with them.  Once they know you, they will be more likely to collect your work, because they are invested in you, your story and eventually your success.

Another tip that I have for the Twitter novice, let people find you organically.  Don't waste time with those auto-follow web-bots.  The people who you really want to follow you are people who will find you through their friends or because they are interested in you.  I don't automatically follow everyone who follows me.  I don't block people who I don't follow, but I also only follow people who interest me because their tweets are more than just the weather or what's for dinner. 

Finally.  Have something interesting to say.  You don't always have to be the soul of wit, but try to keep the conversation going between you and your followers.

So... there you go... my social media tips in a nut shell.  I have lots of opinions on this, so if you want more just ask, but I won't bore you unless you really want to know.

Now... for an even more riveting quesiton - can someone explain to me why my blog post about drawing my cat has had a half zillion hits over the last 24 hours?  I can't explain it...

Like The Wind...

I've decided to shut down my Cafe Press shop in it's current incarnation.  The last day for shopping is November 30 after that all the stuff that is in there will be "gone with the wind"!

When the shop re-opens in the new year it will be in a whole different format.  It will feature one piece of artwork only (and I sincerely doubt that any of the old art will re-appear there).  The one piece will be something that I have made just for that month and it will only be up for sale for that month, then it will be gone.  If you don't like it, that's ok, wait for the next month and see if that strikes your fancy, but remember that each item will only be available for a month on what ever items it seems appropriate to print on.  (and no, I'm still not printing ANYTHING on a thong.)

So if you really have been coveting that t-shirt with the robot on it, go get it now. 

I'm looking forward to this new enterprise.  I think you may be surprised by what turns up in the new shop (I might be too!)

A Strange Notion

As an artist I am used to spending time with myself, in my head, facing my canvas, listening to my thoughts on what I want to create.  As an artist who is not represented by a gallery I need to be outgoing, talking myself and my work up, in order to sell my work to support my ability to make more art.

It's like having a split personality.  If I didn't enjoy spending time with myself I doubt I could make it as an artist.  Talking to others is not my strong suit, and talking about myself to others, well it makes me stammer, blush, and feel incredibly foolish and arrogant.

But, I must market myself.  There is no one else who is as invested in my success as I am, and no one who is motivated to promote me, except for myself.  There are friends and fellow artists who will link to my site or mention me in passing.  But it is really up to me to do the legwork of getting my images out there where the right buyer might see it.

That is another difficult reality of being an artist.  Very often I am waiting for a singular, unique person to whom my work whispers, to be inspired to own it for themselves.

So I am utilizing social media.  I Tweet.  I Blog.  I hand out cards with my web address on it.  And now I have created a Facebook Fan Page.  It really goes against my nature to have a "fan page".  I mean really who do I think I am that I might actually have fans?  Maybe it is the Canadian sensibility that I was raised with, that says that calling attention to yourself is arrogant.  Perhaps it is the humility, that my  mother taught me, as a virtue.

But the reality is that unless people get to know me, they will likely not want buy into my view of the world.  So there it is.  The "fan page".  It is with a great deal of blushing and stammering that I even mention it to you.  What happens next is anyone's guess.

Chaos, Panic, Disorder.... You Know, The Usual!

I know it sounds so elitist to say it, but I love my laptop and the fact that I can write my blog while lying in bed!

Why am I in bed on a beautiful sunny day?  Well this is the last few hours I'll have to myself for many days, and it's also some of the few hours that I have had for myself in weeks!  And I'm worn clean through.

I haven't updated this blog in a long time, mostly because I either have nothing to offer, or because I'm so tired at the end of the day that I can't string words together in any meaningful way.  Although a lot of interesting (and weird) things have happened recently, I really can't write about them without exposing my family.  I'm OK with exposing myself to critique, but my family and friends don't need that in their lives.

School is winding up and I've been busy helping out at the school, and winding up all the paper work that will set the kids up for next year.  I've been finding books, and socks, and papers.  I've been sorting and fussing about things, and going on a lot of “end of the year” field trips with my girls' classes.  I did get confirmation that the teachers do give me the more difficult kids on the trips “because we know you can handle it”.  Which makes it mighty tempting to “misplace” someone occasionally.  But of course I would not do that (as tempting as it might be).

So here are the highlights:

My buddy, who I paint with once a week, hasn't seen me for nearly a month.  At least she is understanding and is giving me 21 days to get my act together and get back to work with her!  Which is good, because I need the deadline right now.

I am working on a project, but I'm not sure how it's going to turn out, so you will just have to wait and see (I'm such a tease).

I discovered that two-bite brownies spread with peanut butter is an excellent treat (and may have saved my husbands life last week when I was feeling particularly stressed).

And finally, for those of you in the art world, I will be starting up a product review section of the blog over the summer, and let you know the results of some of the new things I've tried recently and how they worked for me. ( I'll even put in pictures, how's that for a deal)

But today.  Well today I'm going to put on some fresh coffee, lounge about, read a magazine and maybe work on a poem or two.  Tomorrow the chaos begins again!

While the Paint Dries

The worst thing about being self employed is your boss.  My boss is constantly bugging me about getting stuff done, and is really on my case this week because I haven't knocked the things off my to-do list that I wanted to get done, but I did play a lot of games on Facebook.  No wonder she thinks I'm a slacker.

 I am participating in the monthly painting challenge at WetCanvas, and my painting is long way from being finished (I thought I would be done last week... but I'm sitting here looking at my painting and wondering if getting out the hairdryer to hurry things along might be a good idea.

On the upside I did a few things that weren't on the list, like making some “lenses” on Squidoo about art.  That was very satisfying. 

I didn't get a painting of the week again this week (once again wondering about the hairdryer) but I did finish five scrabble tile pendants that I listed in my ArtFire Studio.

Uh-Oh my boss is wondering when I'm gonna wrap this up and get back to work... better get going!

Is It The Best Of Both Worlds?

I love writing.  I am actually not bad at it either.  I was going to apply for a job writing columns for a daily art blog, because I thought that it would be the best of both worlds.  But it turns out that they wanted columnists for specific topics only, and that I needed to turn out a large number of columns monthly (at least 9).  Now, I have to admit that my attention span is pretty short, and the idea of writing 9 columns a month on the environment and art, or art techniques, forever, well it leaves me a little cold.  I am not interested in reading 9 columns a month about those things, why would I be interested in writing them?  Also, 9 columns a month is lot of time that I wouldn't be spending making art, which is my over-riding passion these days.

That being said, I was really excited about writing on a regular basis again.  I love writing my blog, and I love writing other things.  Writing isn't always easy for me.  Sometimes I find it physically difficult to sit down and write.  Sometimes I find that the demands of my day job (aka being mom) are such that I can't write as much as I would like.  But I do like to write and I would like to write other things that are more challenging than baring my soul, and my personal life in this blog.  You know, I'm not a bad writer, I've received honourable mentions in three writing contests. 

I think this is something that I would like to do again.

So when I stumbled upon Squidoo this week I thought, now this is something I could do.  It's not a column, I can write about the topics I want, when I want to write them.  It's not a blockbuster money maker either.  But, it is a wider audience, that is as diversified in it's interests as I am.

So, I'm going to start creating lenses on Squidoo.  I actually worked very hard on making one today, that is a demonstration painting of a technique I like to use.  I would really love it if you went to have a look, and even more so if you would give it a rating.

If I make more, I'll link them up here so you can have a look. 

In the meantime it's back to the pendants that are flying off the shelf at Artfire.  My second job!