Who's here?

Hello dear reader, as I promised I have returned to normal activity (or as normal as it gets around here) and will be updating again on a more regular basis.
So what's been happening? Well, I have another outdoor art fair this week-end and, right on cue, hurricane season is in full swing with Ernesto heading this way for, you guessed it, the week-end. Sometimes I genuinely believe that Mother Nature hates me, this is one of those times.
Hopefully the inclement weather will be relegated to a few showers here and there as well as windy conditions but knowing my luck it'll be a torrential downpour and gale force winds. I'll be sure to report back on how the week-end unfolds.

On tuesday I had an interview with a local tv station for a new arts program they're starting which was odd/ exciting. I'm unaccustomed to talking to cameras and bright lights but I was told I did well so we'll just have to wait and see what their definition of "well" is. All I know is that I said "um" a lot which is a bad habit of mine should you ever get the chance to converse with me.

I've also been busy creating more art. Why haven't I posted any here today? Well, I figured that I'd save the fun for next week when maybe I can share something that sells this week-end (being too optimistic maybe??) or just in the spirit of the new school year just plain ole' "starting fresh" next week. It seems the prudent thing to do.

On another note some folks may have heard that one Mr.Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light, is being investigated by the FBI. I find this amusing on so many levels but the most entertaining part after reading the article online in the LA Times was the bottom of the ad where the 'Ads by Google' are located. The first ad? Why you too can invest in a Thomas Kinkade franchise as a "great opportunity". People probably felt the same way about Enron.

Until next week...

Taking a break

Hello dear reader.
I'm just writing this to let you know that for the next week or so I will be taking a break from updating my blog.
The relative I spoke of that was quite ill passed away over the week-end and in the interest of keeping things in perspective for myself as well as staying focused on things that need to be taken care of over the next two weeks I'm going to refrain from any "extra" sort of activity related to art. Streamlining is the name of the game for the next little while until things get a bit less chaotic.

On that note I will be back next week, probably wednesday or so, in full babbling mode. Adieu!

Road crew ahead

Hello dear reader. Just another little update since I've been mind-bogglingly busy this week and I have a camping trip again this week-end (YAAAAAAAAY!!!) so I've been trying to get organized for that. I've included a work today that isn't on my website and may never make it to the web for sale. I felt I should post it because even though it hasn't held a lot of appeal for other people I really like it and enjoyed doing it. So, if this is the only chance it gets to make it's way to a larger audience then so be it.

I've been working on little things here and there. Mostly though I've just been trying to figure out more marketing stuff. I seem to go through these periods where I get a whole slew of art done and then hit a roadblock for about a week or two. I'm in roadblock phase right now and while it's not as frustrating as it has been in the past I'm having a really hard time doing simple things...like forming a sentence or a complete thought.

On that note I should probably stop now. Depending on how consumed I get with preparing for this camping trip (which I am desperately looking forward to) I may not be able to update again until next week. Hopefully, by then, the construction crew will have moved out of my head.

Sorry, I'm not interested

So, I just hung up on a telemarketer. Don't they realize I have writing to do? Apparently not.
Telemarketers can be fun to play with sometimes. Hearing someone squirm over the phone is actually kinda funny, or at least it is to me.

For example, telemarketers are usually given a "response sheet" which has various response's that their unsuspecting victim may give in protest to the life insurance, credit card protection, security system, etc that they are trying to sell. Gotta keep the potential buyer on the phone. Just the other day someone called wanting to sell me home security and I discovered that there's no pre-prepared response to someone saying "So what?" Insert awkward silence here. Usually I don't let telemarketers make it past that silence that you initially get when they call and you have to say "Hello?" twice. There's your first clue right there that there's someone on the other end that wants to waste 10 minutes of your precious life. However, every once and awhile I get feeling kind of belligerent (who, me? never!) and just feel like making that person earn their money since I'm assuming quite a few people hang up on them.

Now, at the risk of coming across as a complete bee with an itch I must admit that I do have a soft spot for the telemarketer. After all, they were looking for a job and some company out there was looking for someone they could hire to piss off the general public. Hence the job of telemarketer is born. Sometimes I'll be polite and listen to their entire speil before I say "Sorry, I'm not interested." The thing with this fellow that was trying to sell me the security system, which is completely pointless since when I leave the house there's always someone here anyway, was that after I said I wasn't interested 3 times that was when he started getting pushy with me. A side effect, I'm learning, of suffering from door-mat syndrome which I'll explain another day. Y'know, I try to be polite and it gets me nowhere. So, dear reader, if you happen to have the pleasure of a telemarketer call your home do them a favour and entertain them by asking them silly questions and giving them unusual answers. Perhaps you'll bring a ray of sunshine to their dreary day.

It's coming...

The second "big show" is merely weeks away. I've posted a piece I just finished for that show and I've yet to decide wheter I should even post it on my website or not.
Preparing works for these shows is an odd thing. I do all this work and some of the pieces I really, really want to post on my website for all the world to see! Okay, maybe just the people that happen to stumble across the website. Point being I wonder how many artists go through the same thing. They know that they've got this work they just finished and it's great, they love it (which doesn't often happen with artists, there's always room for more improvement) and they just want to show everyone. Yet they know that it's probably a moot thing to do since the work will ultimately be shipped off somewhere, to a gallery or a show, and there will only be those specific people that will see it. Unless, of course, it doesn't sell but we don't like to think about those sorts of things, do we?

Was this one of those pieces for me? Um, yes and no. I love the eyes on this owl. In fact, I'm quite sure that I nailed them (did I mention I'm modest, too?) That said, this was the first "larger" bird piece I've done (only completed bird ACEO's up to this point) and the ref pic I had was none to good. Much like the turtle I got about half way through this piece and thought to myself 'Wow Rita. You are a glutton for punishment, aren't you?' Then I reminded myself of the turtle. There's always ugly stages in art and when they're ugly, they're really, really ugly. After some more work, in most cases anyway, the ugliness passes and you're left with something like Mr. Owl here.

By the way, I titled it "Hoo You Lookin' At?" because half the time I wasn't sure what I was lookin' at.

Looky here!

Gotcha to look, didn't I?
Okay, so it wasn't really that hard because if you weren't interested in reading what I had to say, dear reader, I would assume that you'd just shake you head, think to yourself "She's a cracker" and go somewhere else.
There isn't any art to post today, I've got about 7 works on the go right now and absolutely no time to complete them...at least not this week anyway. I'm in a mood of shameless self-promotion so I've been busy on the interweb looking for more ways to get my name out and preparing a bunch of advertising things since, yes, Christmas will be upon us.

Don't make that face. It's true. I know, I know, it's only August but those who are prepared live to make it through the Holiday season with out having a nervous breakdown.

If you're going through withdrawl and need to see some of my art and you haven't already made it over to my website, you can go here to my store at Etsy and see some of my art. Heck, you can even buy it there too! Doesn't get much better than that, does it?

So I felt I should do a post today. No particular reason, it just seemed the appropriate thing to do on a holiday Monday. Well, it's a holiday for some but for most it's just another Monday with irregular radio programming.
What have I been up to art-wise? Well, I've finshed off a whack of projects and I'm planning to update my art website with some new info and some re-worked info. I'm also wracking my brain for marketing ideas. Much like 'Back To School' season, the Christmas season will soon be upon us (hard to think of when it's 33 degrees celsius outside) and a good plan is a well prepared plan...at least in my books anyway. I've already got a local show lined up for mid-November and I'm the guest artist again at Serendipity Gifts in Belleville but I'd like to go farther. I need to peddle myself. It sounds vulgur, I know, but alas that is the life of an artist.

At any rate I may have some art to post on Wednesday barring any unforseen natural disasters, globally sweeping plagues or just plain old implosion. Although the break would be nice...

The reject is a winner!

Hello dear reader. Awhile back you may recall a little piece I posted called "Taking In The Sun". For those that are new to my inane babbling I've re-posted the work in question here. The poor little thing (it's only a 5x7) got rejected, along with another work, for a juried show back in May. The other work I wasn't entirely pleased with but this poor little flower had potential, I could just feel it. In another effort to redeem it's value I submitted it into the local art association I belong to for a show that ran from the beginning of June to the end of July. Wouldn't you know it, when I went to go pick up my pieces from the show the other day the little reject flower, I was told, had found a new home! Oh happy day!

It's always gratifying when an instinct you have is satisfied. More specifically for an artist I think it's especially satisfying when you see something in your work that others, artists and non-artists alike, can see as well.
It's an eternal artist lament that the "general public" just "doesn't understand" or they "don't get it". This is, of course, just generalized comments that I'm making but ones I've heard over and over again from artists. Sometimes though there isn't anything in the work. I've seen many works that are just technical exercises for the artist...and it shows. There's no feeling and no chutzpah to the work so is it any wonder that they "don't get it"? There's nothing to get, nothing for the viewer to feel and walk away with.
This little flower does it for me, it has since I completed it. Clearly it's done something for someone else as well and I couldn't be happier.