Sketchbook

I hope you all enjoy the fresh layout of the page. There are a few changes I would like to tell you about.

First the side bar:

1. There is now a gallery in the side bar. It will randomly choose 4 of the images in the gallery every time the page is refreshed. If you click on the gallery the images will load in the center of the screen and you can click the image to go to the next one.
2. Next we have the new book review links. I decided to make a carousel instead of the long list of books. It looks nicer and takes up less space.

The pages edges:

1. On the right hand side you have links to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. They are right next to the scroll bar.
2. On the left hand side you have a nice new tool that will allow you to highlight something on my page and then you can make a tiny url and tweet a link to what has been highlighted. Just highlight what you want, take your finger off the left click and go back over what was highlighted.

I hope you enjoy these additions as well as the new layout. I will most likely play around with a few other things over the next few days so don’t be surprised if you come back and something is a bit different.  If you like something and I got rid of it, let me know and I will think about putting it back.

*I stumbled upon this amazing blog as I was cleaning out my following list on twitter. I added quite a few of her suggestions. Instead of using her links though I opened up the ones I wanted to us, opened my blog in another tab and just put in the names of all the plug-ins in the search box. Easy as pie.

1. When you leave a comment check the CommentLuv box and there will be a link to your latest blog entry!
2. I also added the share option so you can link with your favorite social media of your choice.

This question is discussed to death in the classes of art schools. It is asked over and over, each student striving to find the answer for herself (himself).

• 1.the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.
• 2.the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; works of art collectively, as paintings, sculptures, or drawings: a museum of art; an art collection.

This is Redgy. He is my clay board experiment.  I must say it’s a bit frustrating to go from the last painting to one that is in the ugly stage right from the beginning.

I have done about 3 steps to this. First is the brown one, second is the black (except eyes and nose) and third is the red and blue. I just put in the eyes and nose after the red and blue. I’m hoping that a few more layers on the rest, to darken some areas up it will look much better.

I think there’s a 50/50 shot that this will come out okay.

Everyone that I have seen use clay board makes it look so easy. LOL. I guess I’m just a paper girl.

The other day I was thinking that I only finished two paintings in the almost year since graduation. I was beating myself up pretty bad. Then I read this:

“…There are always some aspects of the goal that got accomplished, but the [artist] was discounting them because it wasn’t all of the goal. I have come to believe that even if it’s one out of three, it’s still one more than zero. Small gestures matter — and it’s high time we start recognizing what we do instead of what we don’t do. We do a disservice to ourselves by not acknowledging even the smallest things we do accomplish…” –Summer Pierre, The Artist In The Office.

(Psst…I read this book the other day and I highly recommend it, even for full-time artists or anyone who kind of hates their job. It’s a very quick read. You could probably read it at the bookstore in one sitting.)

This led me to think about what I did get accomplished this year. I also discovered paintings that I completely forgot about.

I would like to invite you to leave your list of accomplishments in the comments. No matter what your goal is (art related or not) and the small steps you took towards that goal that you haven’t been counting because it’s not the whole thing! Let’s celebrate ourselves and what we did do instead of wishing we had done more.

My list goes a little something like this:

• Painted 4 full paintings and several small abstract paintings.
• In the BFA show.
• Had the good wall in the BFA show.
• Shared a booth at the Art and Wine Festival.
• Realized I probably could have filled the whole booth myself.
• Made up my own business cards.
• Read a lot of books on business, art, art business, etc.
• Put business cards offering pet portraits at various vet offices.
• Started a mailing list.
• Handed out all my business cards at the Art and Wine Fest.
• Shared a booth (although very short-lived) at the Bolingbrook craft fair.
• My website is up and I started a new blog, Twitter account, and Facebook fan page.
• Maintaining said blog, twitter account, and facebook fan page.
• Went to Santa Fe and Thailand.
• Tried out a news letter site. That was fun.
• Have my own shop at Etsy and CafePress.
• Tried Ebay for the first time.
• Made and sold prints and postcards of my paintings.
• Had a successful first give-away here at the blog.
• I designed my own twitter background. That is big people.
• Sharon did my amazing logo!
• Started SAC, the suburban artist coalition so my friends and I can have a community outside of the art school. And we have a few awesome things ahead in the upcoming year.
• Experimenting with color,  texture, and clay board.
• Practicing telling everyone I meet that I am an artist and that includes a lot of people at the bookstore (when it’s appropriate to the conversation)
• Tried 300 figures in 30 days w/ Sharon.
• Entered the Art Calendar Self-Portrait competition.
• Had my very own article at Empty Easel (for which I was very grateful)
• Started two other paintings that I have since decided I do not care about enough to finish
• Various art related outings (LaSalle St. art fair, Mr. Kennedy’s show, the Art Institute, etc.)

Wow, what a difference a list makes. Considering how long some of these items took and the fact that I am working part-time, all the things I am trying to do to be healthy, spent the majority of the time depressed, learning to sew, all my other hobbies including reading for fun, throw in two weeks to visit my family and time spent with Joe and his/our family and friends, and  a week of sleeping, it becomes clear I have been a very busy lady.

Yes most of these things are small, but some of them are actually pretty big. I was thinking “I only finished two paintings.” Now I see how untrue that was.

So I invite you to do the same in the comment section. I can’t wait to celebrate with you.

[wp_cart:Back Of Taxi:price:600.00:end]

This painting, along with my self portrait titled “This Too Shall Pass” will be my submission for this year’s Illinois Watercolor Society.  Any critique would be much appreciated.

Here is the latest version.

I am really enjoying this painting. I believe it’s the first time I have ever been happy with the process and not pushing myself to an end.

Lately, as I mentioned in a previous post,  I have been in a very big slump. It happens from time to time, but this one has been particularly bad. One of the reasons is $$$$$. One solution to this is so obvious and simple it took me a couple of months to even think of it. I also didn’t think I would need to go this route, but you know, “this economy.”  So I bring it up in case someone else is not thinking of it too. I called all my student loan companies and got my loans pushed back until we move to cheaper housing in June.  I really didn’t think that they would just push my loans back. I called before and asked them to lower the payments, which they all did, but I thought that would be the extent of it. Not so.  That has relieved so much stress I feel giddy!

Now back to the painting. Normally I am beating myself up about how much/little painting I am doing more than anyone else. Then this week I realized that that’s not helping me.  That doesn’t put me in the mindset to paint. Those thoughts make me feel bad about myself and doubt my goals.  So instead, for the moment, I am just satisfying myself with sitting in my studio every day. I sit in my chair and look across the room at this painting. Some days that makes me want to paint, others I just enjoy looking at a painting that is going right. That makes me feel good.

I also mentioned a new medication in that older post. That medication made me freak out and it took another month before I could see the doctor again. However, this new, new medication does not seem to have any bad side-effects so far.  Another reason I am just content with enjoying this painting is because it is going right and so much else is in limbo and still needs more attention.  All this is really personal and I may decide to delete it all later, but it is part of my art experience and it does effect my creativity/motivation.

I have faith that I will know when to step up and push myself. For now I’m not going to feel guilty about not painting every day.  I think that will allow me to enjoy the times that I do paint and sooner, rather than later, I will be painting every day instead of pushing myself and beating myself up. It’s hard to learn to love painting again.  But we’re working through it. Clearly painting is willing to give me another chance, the image above is proof of that.

I have some great links for tomorrow!!

I finally finished this painting. I am very happy to have it off my board because now I get to focus on my Thailand paintings. It did not turn out how I expected, the great thing about the unexpected though is that you learn a few new things. For instance, did you know hair makes an interesting resist? I did not until this week.  Joe loves this painting and keeps giving me the puppy dog eyes in hopes that I will cave and give it to him.

I am now offering 5 and 10 pks of postcards on my Etsy shop.  I uploaded this painting as well as one new abstract that I did not add on Monday.

In very exciting news: I found out that I am going to be featured next week at Empty Easel. I am thrilled that they picked my work. This week has been a little rough. Work was tough for me and left me with very little energy the last couple of days and that in turn allowed doubts and other things to creep in. The week started off very well though and I did get quite a bit accomplished. I mean, I did finally finish this painting.  The email I received from Lisa at Empty Easel was a perfect book end to this week.

Next week is going to be a bit hectic due to the holiday and my work schedule.

I am excited to announce my very first give away. While I dream of giving away goodie bags loaded with awesomeness, you are just going to have to bear with me and we will start small together.

For my very first give-away your prize will be my oversized wall calendar. This way you get many lovely images (if I do say so myself, and you know I do) and you get something for the new year.

Now for the rules.

First answer this question (in the comments, not just in your head):   If you could own any painting which one would it be and why? If you would post a link that would be even better. Although it won’t help your chances of winning it will make it much more enjoyable for us all .

How this works: I will put the number of comments into a random number generator, whichever number that baby spits out will be the winner (if I can’t figure out how those work then I will have The Man pick a number between 1 and the yet to be seen number of comments, not fancy but it works).  I will then ship the calendar to you.

I will most likely do a top 5 comments as well. You won’t win anything, but it’s an extra way for me to thank you all for participating.

I will start, I would love to be able to look at this Pasini every single day.  It has that quality that just makes me sigh. Everything is in place and it all seems to hum together. Don’t even get me started on the gorgeous spot of teal. In real life it is lovely.

The winner will be announced next Wednesday! Good luck!

(p.s. I’m so excited.)

(p.p.s. Sept. and Nov. will have full size images by next Wednesday)

These are the three newest paintings in my Etsy shop.  I will mainly be posting new paintings on Fridays, I just couldn’t wait this week. The format for these posts will include a small “teaser” thumbnail and a link to the store instead of all the paintings I add.  Also Etsy has their site set up so that for every item a store sells the store must pay a small fee. This allows the item to be active for 4 months, then Etsy takes down the item and charges another small fee to put it back up. Because of this I will only be offering my paintings on here for 1 cycle.  If they don’t sell then I will be moving them over to Ebay or at the very least keeping them on my Flickr account under Originals For Sale.  Any postcards or prints will most likely be up for multiple cycles, but I won’t necessarily renew them right away.