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New stuff, new show

I got accepted into the Lynnwood Library show! I’m so excited!

I’m also a little blown away (is that possible? It really seems a contradiction in terms) that I’ve entered three times (2007, 2008, 2010) and was accepted all three. I wanted to enter in 2009, but I was, sadly, too busy buying a house and moving to actually make any art other than a few pieces of jewelry over a couple of days’ vacation last summer. I’m hoping “Fronds” will sell, but at the same time I’m concerned; sooner or later I’m going to have to get a business license and collect sales tax and all that, and I still find it a bit confusing.

That said, I think I’ve finally got a logo I like:

Paper Man Studio Logo

I’ve been trying like crazy to get some business cards printed, but when I do them myself they either turn out printing in a way too low resolution, or the cardstock is the wrong kind, or it jams in the printer. I uploaded a card design I created to VistaPrint, but because I wanted to save money on the shipping I won’t get to see them for three weeks. I think they might print the orange as too red; my monitor color may be off. How can I tell? Augh! I wish I had trained as a graphic designer or could afford to hire one.

I’m also trying to figure out this whole Facebook thing. I’ve created a page but it’s hidden, since I haven’t had time to set it up, add content, etc. I don’t think anyone reads this blog, so I don’t think anyone would visit the FB page, but you never know if you don’t try. We’ll see. If I can figure out a way to have a Blogroll in my sadbar over there and still have everything look the way I want it, I can start collecting blogs, too.

I have added a whole lot of new images to my CafePress store and updated a lot of the old stuff. Particularly relevant to me at the moment are the Analog Mind-themed items (Texting it Old School and Analog Handheld) . My goal with the store is to get people acquainted with my art and have the shop pay for itself. It’s almost done that in the past. So I have to figure out all this marketing stuff, submitting to search engines, etc. etc.

The love-hate relationship with technology continues.

Studio time that’s NOT fun

I spent the morning taking photos of my jewelry– I’ll be selling that later on when I have more pieces. I discovered that I really don’t like photographing my own work. I love my camera, I love getting a great nature shot or interesting scene, and I love editing photos I’ve taken. But staging, lighting, trying to get the best picture without distortion– ugh! If I could afford it, I would DEFINITELY hire a professional to do that for me. Thank God for Picasa, or none of them would have come out at all. It appears I really don’t know what I’m doing.

Bloodstone and Jasper Necklace

Bloodstone and jasper, silver-plated bail, hand-made clasp

Now, you want to see someone who knows how to stage a photo, take a look at Little Byrd Vintage on Etsy. Her photos of her merchandise are so beautiful, she should sell them as well. I’m all envy. Oh, and she has some really beautiful vintage merchandise, too. And no, she didn’t pay me to say that.

I did it!

I finished the collage for the Lynnwood Library show and got it submitted. Whew! Now we’ll see if it’s accepted.

Fronds paper collage

"Fronds" - Tissue paper on cradled birch panel

You can see a larger version here and on my Portfolio page (click on the pic twice from that page). For reference, I used a beautiful photo by Heather Thompson of Belle Etoile Designs, with her generous permission.

This collage is made entirely of bleeding tissue paper. What that means is that I had to take excruciating care that the colors didn’t bleed into each other while I was gluing, and that I used the tissue itself to lay down color on the substrate just by dampening the paper, then lifting the paper off after the color transferred.  I think it’s going to be tricky varnishing it, but I will just have to be incredibly careful. I always varnish my pieces using a UVLS (UV protective) varnish.

Man, it is so nice having a studio to work in. This is the first piece I’ve produced in my new studio (converted garage in our new house), and I have so much room to work now. It’s very exciting. Cleanup wasn’t too bad, either. No carpet, so the broom took care of all the flyaways pretty well.

I made some art! Finally!

Deadline

Discovery: It is extremely difficult to cut and control long strips of tissue paper while there is an oscillating fan in the room.

I am racing to get a piece finished in time to make the July 31 submission deadline to the Lynnwood Library Gallery Themed Exhibit and the weather is hot. So I’m in my studio (I love saying that!) from about 10:30pm to 11:45pm cutting and pasting (in the analog sense, of course) and paper is drifting all over the room.

On the plus side, I’m liking how it’s going and the acrylic medium I use for glue (thanks, Daniel Smith!) is drying really fast.

http://www.ci.lynnwood.wa.us/Content/Community.aspx?id=764

Coolest thing I’ve seen this week

ArtTrader Magazine- Free PDF of a quarterly magazine full of articles, how-tos, art, reviews, workshop notices, and more (because I haven’t yet had time to go all the way through it). Also, the site offers online fee-based art workshops. ArtTrader seems predominantly focused on ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) and mail art, but a cursory glance indicated to me that it is far more inclusive. I can’t wait to dive in.

I wish it would rain

I am having an olfactory hallucination of how the desert smells on a hot day when it starts to rain. I don’t love being in the desert, but I love that smell.

One degree of Facebook, and the subjectivity of art

There are so many, many interesting people in the world; it’s too bad we won’t have time to meet most of them. Just track back a few “likes” on your Facebook page and you’ll find fascinating profiles of people who are intelligent and/or clever and/or downright brilliant. I wish they were my friends.

It also amazes me how nowadays you can actually communicate with people you’ve seen on television just like they were anybody else. I left a comment on a wall recently commending some people on a TV show I’m currently following, and two of them actually responded– not directly to me, but still they responded to something I posted. How weird is that?

Someday, will someone do that to me? Think, Wow! Paper Man just responded to my “like”! . . . Funny.

My visit to SAM on Sunday was very pleasant. I got lost in front of the Bierstadt, as I thought I would; I honestly don’t know how long I spent in front of it. I stood back to take it all in, I moved close to examine all the tiny details, and every so often when my eyes found another perfect spot on the canvas, my brain cried Look at the light! How did he capture it so beautifully? I am amazed and humbled. I have a visceral response to that painting that I really can’t explain. I am engaged emotionally in a way I haven’t been with many other works. For me, there is something magical about it. I might even be having a relationship with it.

Funny aside: I took advantage of the Member Appreciation Days 20% discount and bought a couple of books. Turns out I bought a Taschen book on Turner that I already own– and had bought from SAM two years before. What a dope!

I’m really enjoying watching Work of Art on Bravo on Wednesday nights. It’s amazing to watch how these creative people work. I also like having the bird’s-eye view; the artists comment on each other and their works behind each other’s backs, and sometimes they’ve misread the person and sometimes they’re just being bitchy. I wonder sometimes what they thought of themselves and the things they said when the watched the video back. Were they embarrassed?

Art is so weird. It’s completely subjective. In most of the arts, such as fashion, dance, haute cuisine, architecture, there are standards and usually a set of rules most people have agreed on to determine whether one’s creation is, in fact, fashionable, enjoyable, edible, etc. In visual art, SO much is entirely subjective that it really depends on who’s doing the judging. I’ve seen a lot of art I don’t like, or understand. I’ve seen a lot of art that takes my breath away. Who decides whether it’s art? And then, who decides whether it’s good art?

Art is what happens between my work and your brain (don’t quote me on this; I’m quoting someone else and I can’t remember who). If there’s a reaction, it’s art. If there’s not, it isn’t. But only to you. Someone else might respond to something that left you cold or (worse!) indifferent.

I could go on, but it’s late and I have to get up early. Note to self for next entry: wunderkammer.

Love that long weekend!

I will be heading for the studio this weekend and will, hopefully, have something to show for it by Tuesday!

I’m going to be working on my submission for the Lynnwood Library Gallery show using a photo by Heather Thompson of Belle Etoile Designs as inspiration– with her kind permission, of course. I hope it turns out as I envision it. Collage is such an organic process; it sometimes has a life of its own (like a party) and it’s hard to predict how or where it will wind up. I’m usually pretty good at guiding it, though.

I’m planning a solo excursion to SAM on Sunday; the museum will be open for Member Appreciation Days and members get 20% off everything in the museum store! I have to go every so often just to be alone with the art and visit my favorite Bierstadt. You can look at the piece online or in a book all day but you won’t feel it until you’re standing in front of it. It’s really breathtaking.

Thought for the day

I used to have a lot of time on my hands; now I have too many hands on my time.

I don’t art, therefore I am not . . . am I?

Can I call myself an artist when I haven’t created anything artistic in over a year? Does a website count? What about marketing materials I made at my day job? Does that count? I think of myself as an artist. I always have new ideas. I don’t carry a sketch book. I bought new materials I haven’t used. I read art. I think art. I wish art. But am I art if I do not art?