Archive for the ‘artists’ Category

I’ve never read The Art of War by Sun Tzu. I suppose as a history major I should have, along with my reading of Machiavelli…but my college history department at the time didn’t have much related to Asian studies, let alone economics. So when I stumbled on this from Dumb Little Man, I was interested.

Hmmmm…..Five Factors for Life-Hacking Domination. Whoa – kinda strong when you think about marketing…but maybe not. Let’s explore this further. Something that has been around since the 6th century BC probably has something to teach us.

Life-Hacking – getting to the essence of life and making it work for you. Most of us struggle with this until we realize life is short and we need to get the most out of it before it’s too late. On a marketing level, most of us don’t know how to market our art, and we need to before we are left behind.

Teaching 1: The Moral Law

Sun Tzu said: “The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.”
Whoever is our ruler, spirit, creator, God – we must live in harmony with that. For me all my decisions have been predicated on the “do no harm” and “do unto others” principles. The same has to be true for me to be successful with my art and my business. What is the best possible product that is true to who I am, that is environmentally responsible, and that will bring me and an art buyer happiness? This can only be a great morality to live by.

“Every eye forms its own fancy.” from Mrs. O’Malley, Irish proverb, from “Native Wisdom for White Minds.” We all see what we want to see, or what we’ve been trained to see, and hence we miss whatever else we’ve not been taught to understand. Our reality isn’t the only reality…can we be open to other possibilities in our art and in our life that will serve us well?

Teaching 2: Heaven
Sun Tzu said: “Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.”
To Sun Tzu, Heaven is a consistency and a variable, all at the same time, and not necessarily religious. We know where we are going, we have a plan laid out, but we need to be aware of possible changes, pitfalls, opportunities. In this current economy, how are we reacting to sales and the health of our art business? What are our contingency plans till people start buying art again? Are we still making art, planning, creating product, connecting with others, teaching ourselves new skills? Above all, we need to be flexible: study the environment and decide how we can make it work (great advice from Tim Gunn…).
Teaching 3: Earth
Sun Tzu said: “Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.”
I’m quoting Dumb Little Man here: “Those entrenched in the status quo make the obvious and socially-acceptable choices – regardless of how ineffective and/or inefficient those choices are. They don’t take the time to observe the ground beneath their feet. Hence, they are incapable of seeing and feeling the optimal way forward. The life hacker thinks and acts unconventionally. She looks for the paths of least resistance, the 80/20 shortcuts, and the hidden passageways through life.”

That’s a huge mouthful, and one most of us will not consider. Having always been accused of “unconditional optimism,” I think I am quite prepared for this one. Everything has a solution; it may be one we haven’t thought of, one that is uncomfortable for us, or one that forces us to seriously change our paths. A sluggish economy is a huge problem, one that will take extreme  courage and innovation to survive. Are we ready?

Teaching 4: The Commander

Sun Tzu said: “The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, and strictness.”
This ties in to all morality. We must all take the higher path, and I editorialize here that in this economy – and our lives in general – I don’t see this. There is so much incivility the ugliness among us that I think we’ve lost our courage and sincerity. Living by a moral code can only help us be better individuals, more productive citizens, and better artists. We do art not for the short-term gain but because it feeds our soul and hopefully those around us. We do art because we must, not because we have found the secret to making great riches. We can’t sacrifice our virtue and integrity.
Teaching 5: Method and Discipline
Sun Tzu said: “By Method and Discipline are to be understood the marshalling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.”

This is marketing. How are we building our business? How are we preparing for sales? A personal story here: we did a number of demos of our marbling in the past, to some critical success. People loved what we showed them. But we missed a CRUCIAL piece – we had no product with us to sell. We had plenty of examples of what to do with marbling but nothing for people to buy. No sample fabrics, no remnant bags, no cards, no digital work. We totally missed the “buying” piece. Needless to say, we don’t make that mistake any more.

Think about everything you need to do to build your business. Do you have a plan? This is “method and discipline.” I need to take my own advice and be sure that I continue with the blogging; this is discipline, and this is focus.

Well…..I didn’t expect this to turn into an essay, but I guess it did. I had read the piece initially and felt it would be good for a post on marketing, but with the writing came analysis and lots to think about. Ultimately I feel validated, in that the moral life and the decisions and turmoil that come with it are the way to go. I am interested in your comments….what resonates with you? What method do you most follow? Leave me a comment below.

Native Wisdom for White Minds

Once again, over on Fine Art Views, Moshe Mikanovsky has a great topic. As artists, should we change our names? Interesting food for thought. Here ya go!

Visual Artists: Would You Change Your Name?

by Moshe Mikanovsky

This article is by Moshe Mikanovsky , Regular contributing writer for FineArtViews.  You should submit an article and share your views as a guest author by clicking here.

Actors have Stage Names. Authors – Pen Names. Even wrestlers are known by different name, a Ring Name. So what is it about visual artists that does not make us change our names for the trade?

Historically, throughout the Renaissance period in Italy, some artists had nicknames that stuck. Like Donatello, who was born Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, Tintoretto whose real name was Jacopo Comin, or Boticelli – Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi. Another culture that produced art names is in the East Asian countries, where Chinese, Japanese and Korean artists receives names based on their level of proficiency and experience in their trade. In the modern ages though, visual artists are not known to change their names in order to promote their brand.

Some of the reasons artists might want to change their name for could be:

·         Uniqueness – My art teacher and mentor, artists Gary Smith, told me once: “I have a very bad name for an artist. But you have a great name”. Although a talented artist with unique style and an amazing art coach, Gary was worried that his name doesn’t help him to become unique, above the rest. But with a name like Mikanovsky, he proclaimed that at least that will help me stands from the rest…

·         Privacy – Some artists prefers to keep their private life separate from their public life. Especially nowadays, with the Internet and data overflow, some people are anxious about putting their name out there (for different reasons that we could discuss in another post), so they might prefer using another name or a company name.

·         Different styles – one of the challenges for prolific artists that developed more than one style or artwork is to keep their artistic portfolio consistent. Authors who write in different styles usually adopt a pen name for the different style. That could be a solution for some artists, but it might create a huge marketing headache.

·         SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – as a topic close to my heart, this was the reason that triggered me to think, and write, about this topic. One of the things that artists and marketers learn about SEO is that the keyword that mostly used to find them is their name. Imagine a contemporary artist named “Picasso”. Would we ever find him on the first or second page of Google? And what about my mentor Gary Smith? The combination of a common surname and given name brings many results that are not relevant for the search we are looking for. And another example, my friend, artist Myriam Levi. You might notice the spelling of her name, Myriam with “y”. Everyone who looks for her usually would search for Miriam Levi (with “i”), and therefore can’t find her. Would it better if she changes her name’s spelling?

There are other reasons why performance artists change their names, like ethnicity, ease of use, relevance to the image they portray, ease of remembrance, family connections, and guild and association rules (read more about it in Wikipedia), but these seemed to me a bit less relevant for visual artists. But I am sure there could be other reasons that artists might want to change their names, or different ways to look at it.

So I’ll leave this open to you – the visual artist – would YOU change your name?

Cheers
Moshe
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How did it get to be August? We returned from vacation on June 21st, and I started working on the business on June 23. A lot happened, I can tell that from my sheets of lists, but part of me is thinking, Oh my, so much left to do before schools tarts again.

One of the marketing things I did over the weekend is to make a list of what has to happen with social media for each day, once school starts. I have gotten so many things in place that I was swimming with all the details. Once I took the time to think about how I could work with these pieces each day, in a 30-minute time block, I could feel the stress start to diminish. This looks to be very do-able, and I have this week to make refinements.

As you can see from the graphic on the left, I was busy getting this symbol ready to attach to artwork on line, which means going back and protecting a lot of my earlier images. I did some reading about the legalese that should be on our blogs and websites, and I know now what I need to take care of – pronto. The logo is transparent, done in Photoshop, so I can just add the layer to my images. The problem will be actually getting to the images from earlier posts.

Another thing I did was to start a master list of the “long-range” projects for the next five-six months. Anything on the list this week is a priority – like a new newsletter – before I go back next week. This list will go above the sewing table with reminders of what is coming next. I find it is very helpful to do this type of exercise, primarily because now I won’t have to spend the mental energy trying to remember everything. Items on the list:

* Affiliate information and applications

* Licensing information, pattern repeats and developing a collection

* Spoonflower.com for printing fabrics

* Zazzle.com artwork and potential items

* Cafe Press items in preparation for the holiday season

* An Etsy store

* A tutorial on quilting marbled fabrics

* Feedback pages

* Updating links (and collecting new ones, so send yours along) on the website

* Linked In

* Update the Polyquilt pattern

* Confer with an attorney to vet all the legalese (copyright notice, disclaimers, FTC guidelines for affiliates, privacy policies, just to name a few)

* And…foremost with all of this – to continue making art.

What’s on your long-range list?

DON’T FORGET – sign up for our newsletter to get entered into a drawing for a Sampler 1 package of marbled fabrics! See the sign-up at the top of the page.

It has been a busy week on the web for marketing. Two weeks ago in a post for Top Ten Tuesday, I had a number of comments about how helpful some of these marketing links are. I hope this is my way of giving back through my blog, with some of the best information I am finding as we artists navigate our way to building a viable business. I didn’t post last week, as these posts take a lot of time, as I want to have pictures from each site to enhance the appeal of this blog and make your reading experience more enjoyable. At the bottom I’ve given you a couple of links back to other Top Ten posts for your information.

Fine Art Views

* From Fine Art Views, the Triple Impact. Keith Bond describes this as Triple Impact or the 3-2-1 Impact.

3.  The work catches your attention from afar and draws you in.

2.  The work holds your attention from normal viewing distance.

1.  The work delights and captivates you upon close inspection.

This resonated with me, as one of our early pieces (which we just don’t have a good pic of, so scroll down to the bottom) is The Wave – marbled on blue cotton. From a distance you see a huge rolling wave. The closer you get, the more you see of the texture of the breaking wave, until you are right on the piece, watching the wave break. This was our first piece where I realized it worked from close up and afar.

* Also from Fine Art Views, “Say the Right Thing.” Interesting look at comments from viewers of your art – what’s the intention behind what might seem like a stupid comment. If you’re serious about your art and not following this blog, you need to do so.

Stock Xchng

* Stock Xchng – the leading free stock photography site – free photos – since good blog posts are also very visual.

Sketch Notebook

* Blu – you just need to go to this site – some very cool journal sketching – loads of ideas….someday I will actually do this!

From Wishful Thinking

* From the folks at Wishful Thinking comes “Why Artists and Creatives Have an Unfair Advantage at Internet Marketing.” This is not something we artists would think is working for us…very interesting article and worth the read.

* Six Facebook Applications to Sell Your Products – I am learning so much as I surf! I didn’t know you could set up a store on Facebook….

* Top 10 Features of a Winning E-Commerce Site – got your privacy statement? Got legal in the works? Lots of things to think about here.

* Three reasons You’re Not Charging What You’re Worth – from The Launch Coach – as artists we really undervalue ourselves…again, some very good points here.

* Art Licensing: Achieving Brand Recognition. Joan has a great blog if you are interested in licensing your artwork. But you need to know what your brand is before you start….

* Mike’s Life – 11 Things I Learned When I Became a Professional Blogger. So many of us blog and are thinking about going “professional.” So just what does that mean??

* From PluginID – 7 Luxuries You May Forget You Have….like running water. We all need to read this periodically.

* Also from PluginID – How to Live on Your Terms – very interesting idea, and those of you who are journal artists are way ahead of the rest of us.

* Joanne Mattera ArtBlog – Co-op galleries and vanity galleries – a look at both, and artist beware.

* Maria Brophy –  10 Questions to Ask Before Hooking Up Your Art with a License. Distribution channels, top retail clients, product categories, distribution markets, and so much more.

And now, just for fun…. from The Best Article Every Day – go see the big version!

Let me know what interesting things you found on the web this week!

Another Top 10:

Steve Jobs and Apple Lessons

I have been very interested in licensing my art images for quite a while. I’m doing a LOT of reading, as it is a complex issue. The first source I found that got me started in the right direction was Tara Reed’s Art Licensing Blog.* I confess at this point I am still in the reading stage, but slowly moving in the direction of working on patterns, repeats, and mock-ups. Funny how full-time teaching gets in the way….

However, I am a firm believer in doing my homework. One of the things the “big boys” in internet marketing talk about is the actual format of your blog, and that the recommended format is Word Press. I was wondering about why the need to move from Blogger, and I was disconcerted when I learned I would have more difficulty protecting my images on Blogger. So when I had this opportunity for a guest post from Tara – and David – I thought this would be appropriate. Plus, as Tara mentions below, I wanted something classy for my blog.

Tara writes: David Darrow has been in my online life from the very beginning of this (Art Licensing) blog… he was one of the first subscribers to my Art Licensing Info eNewsletter and I remember him sending one back to me with a note: “Do you realize this is what this looks like?” That was when I was “following directions” and keeping it all text, never more than 70 characters per line, like I was told to do.

David wasn’t the only artist to think this was a BAD IDEA so I realized artists want something a little more visually pleasing. David helped me figure out how to do it. A talented artist and techie – he’s passed on more good information that I can “Share with the group”. When he was listening to the replay of last week’s Ask About WordPress for Artists call (do you have your copy yet?) he sent me the following information that I thought would be helpful.

He knows of what he speaks since he has a blog – on blogspot – called “Where art meets technology”…

I believe there is a misconception about Blogger vs. Blogspot.

Even that phrase is misleading, because they are the same thing.

The best way I understand it is that

1. Blogger is the on-line tool which allows one to create new
2. posts, which are individual, chronologically ordered in reverse “entries” or “posts” in your
3. “blog,” which is your journal, diary, log or web-log, from which we get the word [we]blog.

Blogspot is actually blogspot.com, a domain where all the Blogger-created blogs are stored or hosted.

You cannot use Blogger to create a blog and store that data ANYWHERE else but on blogspot.com — Both are owned by Google. Additionally (corollary) you cannot create/edit a blog with any other tool but Blogger and have it stored or hosted by Blogspot.com .

***Every Blogger-created blog is stored as a unique “subdomain” of blogspot.com , which is why every Blogger blog address has in common “blogspot.com.” A subdomain is the unique “areacode” that comes before the phone number, and the phone number is always 2 items: domain name and venue, “terareeddesigns” and “com” — you could have a separate site at store.terareeddesigns.com ; it would be a “subdomain”

Like Kim said, one issue to consider is that all Blogger.com blogs cease to exist the moment Google decides to stop supporting them. WordPress blogs will only disappear if you delete them or stop paying your domain-hosting bill. You control that. If WordPress.org disappears, you will still have all your data and your most recent installation of the version of the code that runs it.

Wordress.org is a group of programmers worldwide that work together on standards for an Open Source blogging service. WordPress.com is a Blogger-style tool that allows a simpler blogging method and can raise money (through more premium blogs) for WordPress.org costs.

One other thing; people with Blogger.com blogs VERY often misaddress their blogs, adding a “www” ahead of their blog address. Both will work, but one is wrong.

http://www.EverydayPaintings.blogspot.com is wrong
http://EverydayPaintings.com is right

Learn more about David Darrow at www.DaveThePaintingGuy.com

Be sure to check out his painting classes too – I’m told they are amazing!

Here’s to your creative success!

– Tara Reed

P.S. To learn more about how to earn an income licensing your art, visit www.ArtLicensingInfo.com* for a wide array of free and for-fee information from experts in the industry.

* FTC disclosure: any links with an * is an affiliate link and if you make a purchase, I will earn a commission for the referral. This helps me keep buying art supplies – thank you for your clicks!

It has been a very busy July for marketing and the business. I think those of us who are artists wonder at times about 1) the need to market, 2) continuing to make our own art, and 3) how we pull it all together. I sure don’t have all the answers, but I think at this point I have some insights on the process.

* You need a plan. You may not know what you’re going to do in the plan, but you need one. Sounds contradictory, I know, but you can make it work because part of your plan is to plan your plan. At this point my high school students would look at me and say “Huh?”

* You need to set aside time to read about marketing. What should you be doing? What tools should you be using? Set a deadline, so you don’t spend months at this stage, like I did until I finally started to do some of the things. When I ran my learning center and we had no money, I would do what I called “shoe leather marketing.” I was out talking to everyone I could about our learning center. Nowadays that “shoe leather” is social media, so spend time learning about that. You don’t need to be a net nerd for this step – there’s lots of available materials to read to get you started. Look at Social Media Examiner for a quick tour of Facebook and Twitter and what you need to do. Read Problogger about setting up and running a successful blog. Buy a book or two…or sit with a coffee in Borders or Barnes and Noble and browse the books.

* Set up Twitter and Facebook and start posting. Set up your blog and start posting. Read other blogs and start commenting. This becomes very important as you write more and create more of an active social media presence.

* Make your art. There is no point doing all this if you have nothing to offer the public. In our case, we have already established a few outlets: Ebay and website. Our website has a gallery with art work available for sale. Ebay has small pieces of fabric for buyers to create their own artwork.

* Decide who your customers are. This was a big issue for us, as a result of all the reading I did. I want to sell our larger artwork, but we have a great market in selling small pieces of marbled fabric for others to use in their creations. The more you read about selling on lie, the more you will see the suggestion to develop a product to “launch” and make money. I stumbled with this one. What would I do? Then came the proverbial 2 by 4 over the head – we already had customers. I needed to refine what we had already been doing. Consequently we continue to sell our fabric as well as put our artwork out in shows, galleries, and on line. It’s not an either-or. I am after art collectors who like fiber and mixed media, as well as quilters and crafters who like to do their own thing. Two worlds come together.

* Just do it. To quote Nike, nothing’s going to happen if you don’t do it. Just thinking about it will give you lots of ideas…and will make you go nuts in the “to-do list” department. (Ask me how I know this….) But there comes a point when you have to do it. Then…..

* You need a plan. Yup, all over again. I have discovered that I will need to have a very set plan for how to handle all of this once school starts again and my art/marketing time is limited. So over the next two weeks I will set up a calendar: 1) what gets posted each day, 2) when to write and schedule the blog posts, 3) how to schedule Twitter posts, 4) maintaining the Facebook Fan page, 5) writing a newsletter, and 6) making art.

I’ll keep ya posted! Any suggestions????

Like so many of you, I am a regular reader of Robert Genn’s Twice Weekly Letter. This latest one looked at the traditional master-apprentice role in the arts, and I was particularly taken with some of the thoughts, especially since marbling has always followed this road. Apprentices worked with masters for years, learning and absorbing every trick and skills through watching – and later on by doing.

This made me think of how we get our own art educations, a topic near and dear for so many of us. I’m self-taught in virtually everything I have done artistically. I would hazard a guess that this is true for most of us baby boomer women. We were encouraged to go into paths that would support us or provide for families, with little thought as to what would make our hearts sing. As we’ve gotten older we have become more expressive.

Self taught. It seems to be fine in so many fields to say you are self-taught – tutored in life. But not in art. At least for me, I still feel intimidated when I see in a CV of someone in an art show all their schooling and formal coursework in the arts. My own art education early on consisted of a few art projects in elementary school and then a “class” as an elective in high school where we churned out particular projects. But nothing in creativity. Which ties in to a recent article in Newsweek on the dearth of creativity in modern classrooms and education.

I’m rambling, I know. But I’ve had to learn how to be creative, to break through the “OMG, what will it look like?” phase of making art. Would working with a master have helped this? I don’t know, but it probably wouldn’t have hurt any.

Who are our masters in the arts today? From whom do we study and learn? Enter the Internet, the cheap equalizer to getting an art education. The joke in our family always was that if my dad wanted to learn how to do something new, he would read a book. Well, I got that gene. I read everything I can get my hands on if it’s something I am really interested in. But that can get to be expensive, although still cheaper than a formal education or coursework.

The internet has opened up huge resources for us. I started on TV with Sewing with Nancy and Eleanor Burns and Kaye Woods. I picked up all kinds of hints – and reasons why something I was already doing (through guesswork) wasn’t working. Like many of us, I have taken workshops when I can afford it. Jennie Rayment and her muslin creations still stick in my mind – such possibilities for texture!

Just one of Jennie Rayment's books

The first professional workshop on marbling was with Galen Berry (over a year ago) and it was wonderful – lots of questions answered, problems solved, and energy renewed. We started to zoom ahead in our skills.

Galen Berry

Then I went to the School of Threadology with Superior Threads. Yes, I know I rave about their threads, but the professional education I received over the three days with Bob and Heather Purcell was priceless. My work has taken a dramatic turn for the better – and I don’t break thread anymore….

School Of Threadology

Now I’ve discovered Interweave and their dvds on quilting and other artistic endeavors. Better than a book because I can see things actually being done.

Interweave

I watched a leaf tutorial by Heidi Lund and already picked up a bunch of hints to try something totally new for my bamboo piece. Carol Taylor’s video on her Arc-i-Texture techniques had me making a new quilt last night to try out the ideas…and I must say I’m loving it! And Susan Brubaker Knapp’s video on machine quilting corrected a whole bunch of errors I have puzzled over.

Carol Taylor

Susan Brubaker Knapp

Heidi Lund

And of course we can’t forget YouTube. I have been devouring and studying very closely the wealth of marbling videos on line.

So my question to you is: What’s the best professional development you’ve ever attended – the one that has changed how you do your art? I want to know!

PS – all of these recommendations are unsolicited – they’re just stuff I have learned from and appreciate – nothing comes to me as a result of you checking these out! (OK, FCC – happy?)

This has been a great week for goodies on the web. Great eye candy and inspiration.

* I subscribe to Dumb Little Man, and every now and then they have something that really resonates. This week it was “How to Adopt an Attitude of Gratitude.” The article is based off this quote from Tecumseh: When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself. ~Tecumseh You can read the article here. Great words to live by.

Bien Mur

* Speaking of Native Americans, I picked up a great book at Bien Mur, the art gallery at the Sandia Pueblo in Albuquerque called “Native Wisdom for White Minds.” This is full of wisdom from indigenous people around the world, set up as a saying a day, so you have inspiration throughout the year. The book is available from Amazon – search on the left (disclaimer – I’m an affiliate, so if you order, I get a few pennies.).

From today, July 13 – “Nature is the storehouse of potential life of future generations and is sacred.” ~Audrey Shenendoah, Onandagan writer

Jane Dunnewold

* “What’s Trite, What’s Not” from Existential Neighborhood by Jane Dunnewold. Jane is an amazing fiber artist and I was licky enough last year to follow along on her daily photo inspirations. Is life trite? Here’s a provoking thought: “And there’s the paradox. The activities that keep me centered, authentic, and real could easily be dismissed as trite. It’s all phrasing and context. How much outside influence have you bought into lately?”

* Making Mondays – and Your Week – More Productive. Well, who doesn’t want to! There are seven questions to help guide you to more productivity – all of them worth thinking about.

iStock

* Self-Inflicted Time Management from Time Management Ninja (great name!). If you have issues with any of the following, read this post!

• Missed Deadlines
• Late Fees
• More Work Due to Undone Tasks
• Lateness
• Disorganization

Productivity501

* The Myth of Multi-tasking from Productivity 501. I thought it was just because I was getting older – I really thought I could multi-task well. Age has shown me I can’t… “It turns out that humans are amazingly horrible at multi-tasking. Many people feel like they are improving their focus by multitasking when they are really doing the opposite.”This is a good read.

PluginID

John Pugh

I discovered – probably way later than most people who use Google     Reader – that I could much easier keep track of the blogs I follow and the new entries. There are some times when I can be really slow…like realizing just what they mean by scrolling through the RSS entries and updating immediately. That said, there was a really interesting post today from Problogger, whom I have been reading for over a year, and I am finally putting a lot of his suggestions to work.  You can find the full post here, but the title was very thought-provoking: How Do You Give Something Back With Your Blogging?

Now if you’ve been following lately, you know that I am spending a lot of my summer vacation working on building my art business and all that entails. Blogging is a way of driving people to your business. But for me blogging has turned into a way for me to reflect, in that I never really cared for journaling. But I don’t want my blog to be soley a business tool. I like to think I give something back….

I’ve met some wonderful people in over 400 posts on this blog. As I started to correspond by comments, I was able to answer some questions about marbling, commiserate with school issues, help out with math problems, send sympathies,  and send out goodies. My high school sweater from Sterling High School in New Jersey is nearly 50 years old, and it went to a new home at El Milagro Studio last year to become part of a felting project…and something about the colors of the Toronto Maple Leafs……It has a new home and new life – a repurposing, as they say on HGTV.

For someone who has always been quite the introvert, blogging has given me a wider window into the world, and I love being able to chat around the world. I have gotten so much more – amazing writing, wonderful art in its stages,  other intriguing art fields, food for my love of history. Do I give back enough? Probably not, but I do appreciate each and every interaction with readers, and I promise to be much better responding to you.

So – how do you give back through your blogging? Leave me a comment.

Check out this post for our give-away – you have till July 13 to become a subscriber and get a chance to win a lot of marbled goodies.

There were so many amazing visual sights in Sedona! The Lou deSerio Gallery has amazing Southwest art, including photography workshops – and a 15-year-old son who has been doing photography (award-winning) since he was three. He trained with Ansel Adams, and his black and white are spectacular. These images are from his site.

There were some amazing “leather” sculptures in one of the galleries. The artist is Pat Fetters, and I wasn’t able to find any info on her on line. She molds the leather to glass or plexiglas vases – the texture and colors were fabulous. You had to see these to really appreciate how wonderful they were.

Then there was the Golden Lotus Gallery – oh, my…..Nick Honshin is the artist – in what he calls Asian Fusion. His paintings are a combination of Asian influence – you could meditate to his paintings and never want to return. As his website states: “His art is inspired and flows from the sacred meditational space of the transcendental archetypal symbols of Christianity, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism as well as the shamanistic practices of the world’s perennial philosophies. This fusion of the traditional with the modern highlights the natural harmony of the beliefs, symbols, & practices of East & West. The work reflects the transformation of Perennial Philosophies and symbols into Modern Mythic images of the transcendent moment.”

You simply HAVE to visit his site.

Those of you familiar with sumi-e – a Japanese water-art of brush strokes – will love the work he has done – snakes done in ONE brush stroke. Absolutely amazing!!! Unfortunately, the links aren’t working – but check out his site.

Loads of eye candy – Enjoy!!

We spent yesterday setting up to marble (which always takes so long, with pretreating and actually setting up the liquid bath), but then today we got to play – marbled about 6 yards of fabrics, and once again everything went really well. It is so nice to be back in the large tray again – we actually feel like we are creating art again, not just little pieces to sell. Yet again today we were talking about how much of a void there was in our artistic lives when we couldn’t create large pieces of fabric. When you define your art this way for over 14 years, it really is distressing to lose the skills.

Especially nice is the fact that we are working with other fabrics. Tried some larger heavy-weight silk that worked wonderfully, as well as some faux suede pieces, and the velveteen also worked. I still need to treat the velveteen to soften it up, but overall extremely pleased. Still haven’t been able to do the chiffon again – those people who bought that two years ago certainly have one-of-a-kind pieces!

We want to marble more often now that things are working again. It is SO GOOD to be creating fabric again! We even are revisiting marketing and revving up the business end because we are turning out really great fabric. The disadvantage is that our bodies have changed enough that we can no longer go for six hours straight, not including clean-up. There was a time four years ago when we could do 60 fat quarters in a day. Can’t do that any more, and we also discovered we don’t like turning out fabric that way – we would just as soon do a smaller amount and have a chance to play on each of the pieces.

We are still looking for a particular fabric that we used for so many of our art pieces – we used a poly-satin that kind of worked, but not to the detail we would like. I found an old piece that we’ll use in checking around fabric stores. All the really great pieces are from bridal fabrics, so we just have to shop around for those.

This piece that I’ve scanned shows the incredible detail you can get on the poly fabrics.

Then I started playing with some of the new tools from the Photoshop lessons. This next is with the Shadows and Highlights adjustment. I particularly like the neon effect on the orange.

This next is playing around with the eye dropper tool and the white space. Each gives a different feel, which is why I have wanted to learn Photoshop for so long. I want to be able to take a really great piece of fabric and use it to create lots of other images, so the particular piece doesn’t have a short shelf life till someone buys it.

And finally – the joy of playing with filters in Photoshop! Take a look at what happens with the emboss filter with the same piece! Reminds me of maps of the Continental Shelf.

All in all, a great way to spend a day off from school (Rodeo days here in the Old Pueblo)!