3SIXTY5 #9 "A Bride for Max Ernst"

This was last night's collage (4/15/10)

"The River in April"--Always a rough ride

Tonight's installment in 3SIXTY5 is dedicated to the IRS, and its thorny cohorts in our State and municipal governments. I hope to have so considerably increased my income by this time next year, via my Etsy store, that I will need to hire a tax professional. Let someone else ride that annual tossing, stormy river of anxiety!

A Swan Lake for Joseph Cornell

My Facebook friends wanted to see a photo of the assemblage box I made for this weekend's Pittsburgh Ballet Theater fund raiser, but for some reason it wouldn't upload on FB. Here it is:

This photo was taken before the piece was put behind glass, thus there is no top on it yet. It measures approx. 13 x 16 x 5 inches. PBT provided each artist with a pair toe-shoes from which to creat their art, preferably with a Swan Lake theme. It was cool just to see real pointe shoes up close! The shoe in the lower portion of the box represents the Odile, the Black Swan. I wish I had taken detail shots of that area because you can't see anything in this photo. There are black feathers sprouting out of the shoe. The walls are lined with gold music on black paper.On one side is a tiny photo of an x-ray of a ballerina's foot on pointe, and on the opposite side is a picture of a swan skeleton (you can just see a bit of it, by the heel of the shoe.)

The upper part of the box is lined with music from the score of Swan Lake, and represents Odette, the White Swan as pictured by Tamara Toumanova. The "wings" are wire, gauze and white feathers. The small blue bit is a tiny photo of Joseph Cornell's box, "A Swan Lake for Tamara Toumanova: Homage to the Romantic Ballet," which he made in 1946. Thus I entitled my box to be a homage to Cornell himself.

3SIXTY5 #7, TEMPUS FUGIT

Today's work in my collage-a-day project is aptly named. Still reeling from an all-nighter on Sunday/Monday, here I am up late again. But tonight's work was well-seeded with ideas and insights (unlike my garden, which is packing its bags and getting ready to hitchhike to more attentive grounds. Art takes its toll.) I will briefly share one of those discoveries:  I can adjust the color balance of scans in my digital camera software. Eventually I'll do this sort of task  in Photoshop, but for now, simpler is better. Good night.

Holy smoke, I almost forgot! My ballet piece was juried into the exhibit for Pittsburgh Ballet's Swan Lake performances. Ah, sweet return on efforts! Since I was asked to submit a short bio (2-3 sentences--no kidding), I took the opportunity for some blatant self promotion, including the url for this blog, and for my Etsy store. Yes! Just like a premature baby, I am shocked and delighted to find that my Etsy store has opened in spite of me! Lots of work to get it up and running before the exhibit opens on Friday night. The question now is--how will those taxes get done? Will the IRS accept a collage in lieu of money owed? In my dreams...

Two Immortals: Cornell and Toumanova

I cheated a bit for today's 3SIXTY5 piece. My latest work was an assemblage box, and I offer this detail photo of the central motif in lieu of a collage. Because I stayed up, literally, all night to finish it. Arriving home today after delivering the piece to Pittsburgh Ballet Theater's studios for their 40th Anniversary fund-raising competition, I am no fit state to make a collage (or much of anything else.) The piece is a homage to that ineffably alluring constructor of imaginary worlds, Joseph Cornell.

There is a tiny image of one of his a ballet-inspired works, "Swan Lake for Tamara Toumanova," on the back wall of the box. The ballerina is, of course, Toumanova herself, her photo magically made into an instant souvenir via a download from the internet and sepia monochrome inkjet print. What next??

Ballet is an acquired taste, like so many ritualistic manifestations of a particular culture--masonic rites, opera, Noh theater, even (ugh!) bull fighting. I admit to being enthralled by the ballet, as was Cornell, and another of my heroes, Edward Gorey. So it was delightful to create a ballet-themed box, and I will be thrilled if it is selected for the exhibition. If not--hey, this is the first assemblage piece I've made in like 8 years!! So I am happy to have done it--assemblage boxes are very physical--and I will do more. But first, some SLEEEEP!!

3SIXTY5 #5: St. Theresa in Excelsis

Here is today's collage, #5 in the 3SIXTY5 project, entitled St. Theresa in Excelsis. My take on Bernini's famous Ecstasy of St. Theresa. She may be marble, but she ain't frigid.

The Bad with the Good, and vagaries of scanners & digital cameras

KC Willis once asked why several of us who had signed up for her Marketing Mindset online workshop, were so into Artists Trading Cards, since they couldn't be sold. I've discovered another reason why I like them, along with the online camaraderie of ATC swaps:  they are great practice for working quickly on larger projects, as I realized when I embarked on 3SIXTY5, my collage a day project.

Here is collage #4, entitled "Aboriginal Apollo" (which I was too tired to post last night.) I was playing around with an image printed on translucent vellum. Laid atop a primitive sun motif, the rays and dots on the face made me think of aborigine tattoos. However, on the whole I think the final result is NOT a success! But I ain't gonna do it over, so here it is, garish, blobby mess that it is. Gotta take the bad with the good!

The image above is a digital camera shot, and now that the weather is improving, I will take digipix of my collages instead of scanning them. I have a Canon MP560 printer/scanner/copier, and unfortunately I'm not thrilled with it. I don't expect it to produce the same results as the color laser printers at Kinko's, but I do expect the scanner to work at least as well as others I've had, which it doesn't. One of it's drawbacks, is that you cannot make color adjustments while scanning, you can only lighten, darken, sharpen or blur. Here is how Apollo came out on the scanner (with apologies for having to look at him twice)

The background is brighter than the digipic, but what happened to the orange sun?? I would love to hook up my HP scanner again, but I was told there would be a driver conflict. I wanted an inkjet printer (well, I really want a color laser, but we're talking serious money there!) and it seems you can't get anything nowadays but a multi-tasking machine. So there it is.

3SIXTY5 #3

 This is entitled Snakes in Venice. Original size is 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches. The little image of Venice is a vintage postcard of an unusual size, 1-3/4 x 5-1/2 inches. Here is the back of another:

The background is the marbled endpaper from an old book. The snake was scanned from Seba's Snakes and Lizards by Albertus Seba, published by Dover (the original work was published in 1731 in Amsterdam.) I find that the confluence of all these details are part of the charm of collage. Although I guess snakes aren't intrinsically charming! Be that as it may, I hope you like the work, thanks for looking.

3SIXTY5 #2

The second day into this collage-a-day project, I've realized a couple of things:  1) I will finally acquire some self-discipline; and 2) I've created a monster that will eat this year of my life for dinner (or rather, the bedtime snack that's left after my day-job--only 7.5 hours of which I am actually paid for. Oh yeah, then there are those benefits...)

So, I am 1) grateful to have a job in these lean times and 2) hoping to sh(f)uck it as soon as I can and make art all day long!

Today's collage is entitled "Wings for the Journey."

3SIXTY5 Off and Running, and Confessions of a Polyvore Addict

Today begins my “3SIXTY5” collage-a-day project, in observance of my 60th year. There’s nothing like a new beginning, a new challenge to keep the juices flowing! As an artist who’s always been a slow producer, I know this is going to be interesting. At the end of it, I expect to have kicked a hole right through my procrastination, indecisiveness, hesitations, unidentified quirks, whatever it is that has held me back. I intend to concentrate on paper and glue collage, but a drawing or other art manifestation may appear, if time and inspiration converge. Another goal for 3SIXTY5 is to start on an inventory of work to offer for sale in my Collagitation store—which is not yet opened (did I mention my problem with procrastination, indecisiveness, hesitation?)

Given that my Photoshop knowledge is still rudimentary, I do not expect to produce much digital work for 3SIXTY5, unless it is truly the result of increasing my skills (or an absolute, life constricting, rock-and-a-hard-place convergence of circumstances.)  I confess that all of the digital art I’ve posted here has been made on Polyvore.com, the digital collage site. While I’ve never claimed otherwise, I’ve come to feel that it’s almost “cheating” to post it, due to comments I've gotten that give me credit where none is due. The design of the PV pieces is certainly my own, but the Polyvore Editor makes it sooo easy to produce beautiful effects, that these works do not accurately reflect my digital art abilities. Thus, I offer my apologies if I’ve caused confusion, or even inadvertently deceived anyone, regarding my digital art skills (and calligraphy skills; there is none of my own calligraphy in the “M” collage, for instance. But within the next few days I’ll upload some of my calligraphic work to Flickr, so you can see what I can do in that area.) I got hooked on PV as a way to quickly create work for Theme Thursday, my favorite of the many fun weekly art challenge sites on the web. I adore Polyvore, but I feel it’s become too much of a crutch--maybe I should start a Polyvore Anonymous group?

And let this mile-stone day not pass, without my expressing how touched and grateful I am for all of the kind wishes, FaceBook greetings from extended family and friends, and work-place observances of my 60th birthday--not to mention the company of those I hold dearest:  my Mother, as well as my wonderful daughter and son, and my awesome son-in-law, who journeyed to the 'burgh to be with me for this occasion. Who needs riches when I am so blessed with loving friends and family?  I am truly touched and grateful to you all!!

My maiden work for the 3SIXTY5 voyage is called "60 Is Nothing," which kind of expresses my take on my BIG 6-0 Birthday! It incorporates both authentic vintage bits and recreated bits (ie, downloaded/printed out.)  I hope you like it, feel free to comment, and thanks for visiting during my momentous evening!!

Wishing you a happy Easter!

Easter is the only holiday in the christian calendar, where they forgot to change the pagan reference when they booted out the old gods and took it over. It's name still bears homage to the goddess, Oestre. She was, of course, a fertility goddess, hence all the rabbits and eggs. Be that as it may, I wish a happy Easter to all my friends of every persuasion!

Theme Thursday Challenge: Mmmmm....

This week's Theme Thursday challenge is to do a piece about a specific letter(s) of the alphabet. (Yes, this week I read all the directions.) As a calligrapher, I love all letters! Though some are very tempermental, S, for instance. Y can be a terror sometimes too. But one of my favorites is M, and one of my favorite calligraphy exercises is making italic M necklaces. This consists of writing the lower case alphabet with an m between each letter, to develop rhythm and flow and beautiful, consistent arches. So here is my artwork dedicated to the always friendly letter M.

Theme Thursday Challenge: Beauty

Timeless Beauty by diakea on Polyvore.com

How could you go wrong with such a theme? Here's my digital collage, "Timeless Beauty."  The lovely lady is from Paperwhimsy.  I made this tonight in lieu of redding up my basement workspace (still quite chilly down there in late March), because I was just too tired! Tomorrow is another day...where have I heard that before?

Pour epater les bourgoisie

Since Collagitation includes agitation, here is a little something to stir things up, made on Polyvore for Theme Thursday's "Masculine" challenge. Rated "P" for "Play." Sports, science, guns, booze...what more could a guy ask for?

Science and Soccer by diakea

Having invented the word “Collagitation” as the name for my current artistic endeavor, this Saturday morning I gave some thought to what meanings that word holds for me, and what guides to my artistic direction I could find in it.

This came out of working on my real Collagitation Blog header (under construction.) The woman’s face, above, is my own version of an image widely used in contemporary altered art. In fact, she has a collagitation pedigree! The original face (said to be based Edwardian-era opera singer Lina Cavalieri) inspired the great designer Piero Fornasetti to create his “Tema e Variazioni” collection of hundreds of ceramic plates, each adorned with a variation of the original face. I’m using my variation of her partly in homage to Fornasetti, whose work I love. Just for fun, I added that little thought balloon in response to the somewhat puzzled expression I gave her. I don’t know if it will appear in the final product, but it got me thinking about—what is Collagitation, anyway?

Semantically, Collagitation is a portmanteau of “collage” and “cogitation” (with some “agitation” occasionally thrown in.) All of which reflects my love of words, if nothing else! When I try to write I often have to avoid sounding pompous or like a 19th c treatise, because I so love using “big words” and elongated phrases, the results of a life time of continuous broad reading. I also like the idea of an invented word, an absurd word, in the surrealist sense (an oxymoron, yippee!), because of course surrealism is integral to collagitation. Therein lies its simple essence: playing with images, to alter their meanings and associations, as in all classic collage and, currently, altered art. It is fantasy art, but unlike the formal genre of that name, it does not use realistic methods to render imaginary worlds, but rather interjects the fantastic into the “real” world, to amuse, or alarm, and always (hopefully) to offer witty visual food for thought.

There were/are many masters of collagitation from whom to draw inspiration, as well as sheer pleasure from viewing their work. One of my favorites is surrealist Max Ernst, who created the incredible collage novel, Une Semaine de Bonté. Anyone interested in 20th c art is familiar with Ernst, but I am always surprised that Fornasetti is much less well known. I assume this is because he was primarily a designer and so his work is not given the same weight as that of “pure” artists. Go figure. If you are unfamiliar with the work of this modern master, do yourself a favor and visit the official website, http://www.fornasetti.com. You will need to play with the bee on the woman’s face to enter the site, have fun!

Pondering my current work in light of my aspirations for Collagitation, it is clear I need to step things up a bit. Not only in terms of amount of work produced, but especially in the quality. As I continue to refine my signature style and to create work worth offering for sale, I realize that I must go way beyond ATCs and match-box shrines. Also, in working so much recently with these very egalitarian, accessible forms, am I “dumbing down” my work? Or, am I merely following in a style that others have been putting forth for years? Hopefully, if I am being inspired and/or influenced, it is by the best of this type of work (because God knows there’s plenty of abysmal “art” to be seen on the internet), and also creating work that is distinctly “mine,” like the Burning Heart ATC. As for the format, what is the size limit of a piece of real art? That’s a no-brainer!

I think part of this interior discussion (which I am attempting to externalize here) comes out of running into an old acquaintance last night at a Squonk Opera performance. Patricia has been doing cutting-edge and conceptual work for decades, and next Fall she has a show at Pittsbugh Center for the Arts, one of the region’s premier art exhibition spaces. Envious? You bet. But also inspired, and happy for her that her career is going so well and she continues to be so productive. And, chatting with her got me thinking more about the direction I want to take my own work. Which is, for now, a store on Etsy. Beyond that…we’ll see.

Obviously, Collagitation is going to require much thought and hard work. Here I am!

Recommended Reading:
Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams by Patrick Mauriés (1991, Little Brown & Co)
Une Semaine de Bonté by Max Ernst (1934; currently available through Dover Publications)

Sing For Spring!

Spring is a week from this coming Sunday! In my yard, the birds are already singing up a storm, and the deer are no doubt eagerly watching for the first tulips to show their heads (annual spring snack.) Here is my visual song for Spring! This was done for Theme Thursday's Spring challenge.

The Mysteries of HTML

Today I decided it was time I spiffed up the blog a bit. I found some nice backgrounds on hotbliggityblog.com, which I figure will do until I can create my own (time to dust off copy of  HTML For Beginners.) Well, I think it looks better than it did, but it certainly doesn't look like the sample on hotbliggityblog. Of course I'm not sure why.

I've read that one way to keep your mind sharp as you age is to be continuously learning new things. So I should be in pretty good shape by the time I'm in my 80s!

ART Forever #2

I thought maybe the text in the first "Art forever" piece needed a bit more punch. Here's another version...

ART Forever by diakea on Polyvore.com

Ars Longa, Vita Brevis

ART Forever by diakea on Polyvore.com

A Weekend in Photoshop Hell

For many weeks now, I have been attempting to execute a banner for my soon-to-be-opened Collagitation shop on Etsy. This weekend would’ve gone a lot better had I spent those weeks intensively learning Photoshop! In fact, I’ve been puttering around with PS for a several years, and shame on me for admitting that in all that time, I’ve never worked with it systematically or gotten beyond 1% of the basics. Then just last week, Community College of Allegheny County’s adult ed dept. informed me that the PS class I’d signed up for was again cancelled—for the 3rd year in a row! (Do they keep offering it just to taunt me???)


In light of this, I finally realized last night that if I can’t get the banner to look the way I want due to my digital art limitations, for crying out loud, simplify the blasted design for now and get on with it! But no, I spent the better part of 2 precious days trying this, trying that, furiously googling every PS tutorial on the web (or so it seemed) vainly attempting yet again to make sense of Adobe’s own manual… I even blush to say it, but I started fiddling around in MS Paint, for crying out loud, until I realized it would take me months to get anywhere. *SIGH* I remember someone saying once that all artists have at least a little OCD in their personalities. This weekend proved it for me.


So I am taking my own belated advice and doing a simpler banner the old fashioned, scissors and glue method, and scanning it in. Unless…maybe…maybe if I find a simpler digital solution, right?? Where’s my mouse---! Noooooooooo!!!

Oh what fun!!

Here is my Theme Thursday piece for this week's challenge, "Flourishes." It is a tribute to the one and only Maria Callas, the greatest diva of the 20th C. (And that's saying something!)

I had intended to do a flourish piece that I would also be used for an ATC swap about birds. However, I discovered an amazing site that allows you to play, online, with a veritably limitless sea of images! It's called Polyvore, and it is designed for fashionistas, but I've seen that many people use if for artistic image making. So...today during lunch hour, I produced this work.

Check out Polyvore, but beware--it's addictive!!

Sick cat = day off

(Above:  Rainbow lounging on the patio)

I wanted to do this blog as a way to record my journey of becoming a full-time, working artist, rather than to write about my life in general (not a topic of great interest to anyone but me and my near and dear.) Of course, the two are inseparable--if I have a fight with my mother, or have a bad day at work, or something happens with my adult son (who has the roommate from hell), I get knocked off kilter. But my art is always there for me, no matter what—and that is a fantastic feeling!! Even if I can’t work, organizing my collage files or putting together images for future pieces can take the edge off anxiety or anger.

On Monday morning of this week, I brought my mother home from an early dental appointment to find my cat seriously ill. (He’s all right now, thank goodness, but he really had us scared for awhile!) I ran him to the vet’s, where he had to stay while they figured out what was wrong and began treatment. I decided to take the rest of the day off my job (they are wonderful people, so I can always deal with emergencies) and while anxiously awaiting news of Rainbow, I went to my work table and indulged in serious art therapy.

I try to combine projects whenever possible, so I plan to use my piece from Theme Thursday’s “Girls” art challenge to offer for sale on Etsy and/or use for a printable image on Café Press. Naturally I wanted the piece to be really, really nice! It was a great way to distract myself, but I realized I was working with a sort of desperation, trying not to think the worst for my poor kitty.

Awhile later I was told that Rainbow, who has been on insulin since about last spring, was in hypoglycemic shock with a blood glucose level of 30, devastating for a small animal. It seems that cats can “get over” diabetes, unlike dogs and humans, and start producing their own insulin again, so that day his morning insulin shot nearly killed him! He was coming around with a glucose IV, but they wanted to keep him overnight for observation and would phone if there was anything to report.

So I worked and waited for possible phone calls from the vet's (none came--which was a relief, although the fearful anticipation was relentless) and I ended up working until around 12:30 AM because there was no way I could sleep. I was in a truly strange state regarding my artwork; it was as if my usual days' or weeks' worth of putzing, trying alternatives, tweaking, fiddling, etc, that I usually go through, became compressed, sped up, tossed into a time warp of frantic productivity, and I found that I produced a creditable piece of work in way less time than I would've thought possible even a week ago.

So I posted the “Best Friends Forever” piece here on my blog (SEE previous post) and went to bed.

Rainbow came home the next morning (more time off work, I used up all my vacation time) and has been getting back to his old self quite nicely. But I was disappointed later in the week because my piece wasn’t acknowledged in any way on Theme Thursday’s site, and the new challenge was already posted. I read the instructions again, and soon found I’d not followed them correctly. If I ain't dyslexic, I should be--! I needed to leave a message in their comments box with a link to my blog and artwork. I had merely put a link to TT here on my blog. Doh!! So I posted the link to my work on their site, and today I got a nice comment from one of the TT regulars. (I am such a slut for outside verification of my talent *sigh*)

In the aftermath of all this, I came across a couple of insights. 1) Guilt can hammer you like a pile-driver as you try to outrun it--because I thought I had inadvertently poisoned my cat; and 2) I'll bet I can find that state again that will allow me to tap into this type of energy (without the "frantic" adjective) to move me forward in my self-reinvention from office subservient to "real artist."

*******************************************

Yesterday I started an ATC which I will use for a swap on Art42, as well as post on TT for this week’s challenge (“Flourishes”) There is a wide, wonderful network of artists doing all kinds of art and putting it on the worldwide web--a dozen times over via linking to each others' websites/blogs--and I feel the urge to continue dipping my toes in this stream. I’ve visited many of the links, links from those links, etc., and it is amazing how many talented artists are online, selling their art and also sharing it with a wider community.**  I really feel the need to nurture this kind of contact and develop relationships with fellow online artists, so that this synergy can contribute to my efforts of becoming a full time artist, of which selling on the internet is a huge part. Maybe opportunities to promote/market my work will arise out of this inter-activity, but it is basking in those good vibes circulating so freely and happily that attracts me the most.

**and it also made me realize how much I have to learn about pimping my blog, my site is sooooo BORING. My apologies.

New Art and a Quick Post

I have a lot to write about, but it's been a long, long day (12:36 AM and I have to go to my JOB tomorrow--how aptly named that is *sigh*) But, I'm taking a moment before I crash because I spent most of yesterday and today working on a piece for Theme Thursday. Yes, another site where altered-art groupies can "preach to the choir" instead of marketing their work to potential buyers/collectors. Anyway, I've always greatly admired the talent I see there (see link) and so now--ta-daa!!--I offer my first piece of work inspired by Theme Thursday. This week's theme is "Girls" and I took liberties with a several Old Masters and morphed their august work into some girlie fun and games. This piece was done the old fashioned way--scissors and glue--I hope you like it!

Back to the Future!

Last weekend, I took a look at an ongoing project I haven’t worked on in ages, an altered book that I started in 2007. Well, it came as a revelation, because I realized the book was done in a sort of “proto-signature style.” All the elements mentioned in my previous post are there, mystery, graphic punch, vintage imagery. Plus this work is monochromatic, black, greys and whites, which is a way I love to work and had already decided to resume in the future. You can see the images from the book in the Flickr widget there on the right, click on it to go to the photostream.

In fact, I am thinking I will design a series of images based on the ones in the altered book for Etsy/Café Press, since I already have a visual vocabulary in place, as it were. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish the altered book itself, however! Structurally, it’s a shambles, I truly didn’t know what I was doing. It is built on a real printed book, from which I attempted to remove signatures to allow for the thickness of added materials but didn’t do it very well. Thus, the pages scanned poorly. My favorite spread of women partying on the roof (above) came out badly due to the difference in levels between the facing pages. One side is out of focus, it sits so much lower than the other. The scans also do not show the “mechanics” of pages that are altered with windows and die-cuts, so the fun of actually paging through the book is lost. But regardless of what is “lost,” I have “found” inspiration in my altered book, and there’s plenty of fun than that!!

A Momentous Revelation in a Small Package

Today I posted the “Hearts Afire” ATC as a valentines greeting on my MySpace page. I suddenly realized that that image encapsulates the look and feel of what I want my “signature style” to convey. A little bit mysterious, strongly graphic, and with a vintage look. The matchbox shrines have this look too, I think. So that’s IT! I have found my signature style!!

Let me start off by saying a great big “Thank you!” to the Collagitation Blog followers. I wanted to send a personal note to each of you (which I will still try to do) but being a novice blogger, what I ended up doing was signing on to follow my own blog—surely that’s a no-no in the blogosphere—because apparently I have more than one Google profile (?) Now I have to figure out how to remove me.

I also found out that the name of my blog as it appears to followers is simply “blog.” How creative is that?? It seems the typography I uploaded in the banner that spells “Collagitation” is an image, as far as the blog engine in concerned, and not a word. Thus, not part of my blog title as I intended. So I’ve had to add the word Collagitation in front of the word blog to get the name to appear as Collagitation blog. Even though it messes up my banner lettering design!

I don’t know who coined the term “Snowmageddon” to describe the winter storms In PA (and NY and DC) but it’s quite accurate, as well as witty. I burned through 2 vacation days because of it. Not that I’m really complaining; any day off my job is a good day! Plus, I must’ve lost a few pounds from all the shoveling. But the best thing about it, of course, was that I got to spend extra time at my drawing table. I wish I could say have a new piece of art to post as a result, but this is not the case. I did finish one ATC, which no one will ever see, and thereby hangs a lesson.

The piece was done for an Artists’ Trading Card exhibit & swap to be held in Vancouver and the theme, of course, is the Winter Olympics. I have to say that although Olympics are intrinsically exciting, they do not bring forth an onslaught of artistic inspiration from me. I struggled to complete the first card, then found I was very unhappy with it. For one thing, visually it was a total departure from my usual vintage-driven style, which I guess was a reflection of my inability to find inspiration in the topic. So why did I even sign on for this project? Well, I was attracted by the idea of exhibiting the ATCs in a gallery in Vancouver, in addition to the usual swap. In the end, I contacted the swap host and withdrew from the project. I decided I don't have time to waste prying artwork out of myself based on a theme that doesn't inspire me.

KC Willis, whose excellent Marketing Mindset online workshop I’m taking, questions the minimal marketing payback of ATC swaps and I see her point. Still, they are another way to get the word out once I open my Collagitation shops. Speaking of which, after dropping the Olympics project, I spent yesterday (Wednesday) designing some small collages that I can offer for sale on Etsy and as printable designs on Café Press. Once I have a bit of inventory, I can finally open my long-planned Collagitation shop.!!! I also started working on a logo banner for the shop, which will definitely be in my “signature style”. I feel much better now! Full steam ahead!

Make a List...

Recently KC Willis challenged us in her "Marketing Mindset" workshop to "make a list of the top 5-10 things you want to accomplish in your art business this year."

This was difficult, even after putting thought into it, I kept wanting to add/delete, change, wait, procrastinate, etc. Which certainly gives me a clue as to why I haven’t had as much success thus far as I could wish. Nevertheless, here is what I came up with:

1. Continue to develop and refine a signature style. Thoughts on this: I love doing collages; I love a vintage look, with antique imagery and texts, classical elements like architectural details, flourishes, floral and bird motifs. I also love this imagery in a “dark”, surrealist mode as in Max Ernst’s book “Une Semaine de Bonte.” I also love incorporating my calligraphy into pieces, either as the main work or as a decorative element. I love working dimensionally, as in shrines and assemblage boxes. Want to incorporate more of these into my signature style.

2. Open a shop on Café Press, called Collagitation, to sell print-on-demand art, ie, greeting/note cards, prints, etc, in the style of my “Noel” Christmas card. (I hope to open in time for Easter with appropriate holiday designs.)

3. Open an Etsy shop, also called Collagitation, to sell original collages and assemblages, including the originals of some of the print-on-demand designs on Café Press. These shops are where I really need the marketing skills, especially online marketing/self-promotion.

4. in honor of my 60th year, I want to embark on a project I call “3SIXTY5”, starting in April, and make a collage a day for a year and post them to a website (or maybe I’ll just post them on my blog)

5. Continue participating in online art swaps as much as possible—which may not be much, the way this list is going.

6. I will actually produce work for all these projects!

7. I will keep my Collagitation Blog going to record my artistic adventures

8. I will jury into Pittsburgh Society of Artists and start exhibiting locally again (or not)

9. I will finish setting up a basement studio space to expand my work area

10. I will continue to work on improving my health so I have the energy for all these goals! And I seem to get lots of ideas when i'm exercising : )

My rationale is that if I can get a nice little business going with online greeting cards and other printables, I should eventually be in a position to switch to a part time job (or-dare I say it?-quit a day job altogether!) which will allow me to make more art. Of course, I might be retired by then, and have all the time I need, LOL!

Well I’m a great list maker, always have been, but in my day book there are list items that carry over from page to page with ever-increasing amounts of underlining and trailing ever more exclamation points. In other words, I can talk the talk but too often fail to walk the walk. Ugh! I have literally stacks of sketchbooks filled with viable ideas for work, but only maybe 1% of it ever sees the light of day, if that. I may not accomplish all my goals above during 2010, but I know I well certainly grow as an artist and a person through applying myself to them. Art is a journey, not a destination, as someone said. Anytime I complete a piece, it is a gift to myself along the way (and hopefully to others as well.)

MEANWHILE...
I'll be taking another workshopsoon, this one totally hands-on, through the wonderful Calligraphy Guild of Pittsburgh. the activity is collage, or, as the teacher, Suzanne Moore, calls it, “ko lazh.” I think this will be very interesting.

Slings and Arrows, Scissors and Glue

It is amazing how much insensitive, ignorant and negative people can impact an artist’s creativity. Unfortunately, when the person is also a family member sharing your home, it can be difficult to ignore and leads to a lot of energy expended on recovery of motivation and concentration, as well as anger management. However, this too shall pass. In the meantime, I’m grateful for doors.

Currently I am working small: Artist’s Trading Cards, to be specific. I’ve only lately started doing these, they are fun and challenging and a great way to network with other artists. In keeping with the ATC philosophy, they won’t ever become inventory to sell on my future Collagitation sites, but in spite of that I believe they are well worth the time and energy invested. They're also good practice for my collage-a-day project, 3SIXTY5, which will commence in April. Working small really forces the issue of making choices—this image or that one? This color or the other? These are the same decisions that are part and parcel of all art-making, but on a scale where, if it ain’t just right, well, there’s nowhere to hide! On the other hand, it’s less of an investment if the ATC turns out not to be a miniature masterpiece. So I’ve become a fan of ATCs, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what gems come my way in a couple of upcoming ATC swaps I’ve signed on for.

I will be posting my latest ATCs soon!

Yes, but how will I DO it?

I spent the weekend taking down Christmas decorations and planning my mother’s birthday dinner next Saturday. I made no art, which is rather alarming even though I can claim legitimate reasons this time. But it is scary because I’ve set very high goals for 2010, and I know from experience that transforming my visual ideas (which come so readily) into pieces of art that others can appreciate (which usually happens so slowly) is a process for which I never seem to find enough time. But boy does it feel good when I get it right!

I’ve always had a very dodgy relationship with time. I'm always underestimating the amount of time something will require—after years of which you’d think I’d have figured out how to manage better. But I simply seem to have no innate frame of reference for judging time. So…I have been giving a good bit of thought lately to how I’m going to bring off starting and sustaining an online business marketing my art. I’ve tried to do my homework, heaven knows the information is out there. But living the moment to moment life of someone who successfully operates on that plane—well, that’s another story. That will require a major shift in my habits, as well as my psyche. Still, others have done it, why not me? I see it largely as a question of self-discipline.

Then there is my 3SIXTY5 project, wherein I will make a piece of art a day for a year. Ever since conceiving this idea, I’ve asked myself: if the project were up and running now, how would I make the time, given that my days and evenings will continue to be filled with the same duties and distractions? What will change, to enable me to meet the challenge? I’ve decided preparation is the most obvious key. I’ve been making sketches for the project, assembling materials, looking for inspiration. I want to set up a specific work area just for the project, so that whenever I approach that area, my psyche will hop to attention. I will also need to develop a kind of on-going “art state of mind” that can operate without special props such as that, which looks around it and at all times sees interesting juxtapositions of images and exciting combinations of materials. This is a process that needs to be nurtured and sustained. The more art you do, the more you are capable of doing. It is built up in the eyes and hands as much as in the mind, but always it starts with the mind.

This blog is meant to be another tool to keep me on track. It has no justification for taking up anyone’s time (especially my own) unless it effectively urges me forward and keeps me on track. And if this works, my life will never be the same!

And What Are Yours?

One of the tenets of the Law of Attraction teachers is the importance of writing down what you want. With that in mind, here are my New Year’s resolutions. During 2010 I will:


1. Lose at least 15 lbs.

2. Open my Collagitation shop on Etsy to sell original art

3. Open my Collagitation shop on Café Press (or maybe Zazzle?) to sell print-on-demand designs

4. In April, I will put up a site, 3SIXTY5, on which I will post a piece of artwork (be it ever so humble) a day for the next year, in honor of my 60th year. (Some of which will likely find their way into 2 and 3 above.)


I think this will keep me busy enough.

Another goal for 2010 is taking full advantage of KC Willis’s Marketing Mindset online workshop. So far, this has been really interesting. I’ve interacted with KC and other workshop members in the discussion forums, looked at some marvelous art by members (and got some nice responses to my own work) and I can’t wait for KC’s marketing videos to start! I love being able to ask questions and get responses and comments, not just something to read each week. (If this sounds like something you could use, the intro price is $144 and the workshop runs all year. See the link in my Cool Links area.)

As for my gardens, I plan to put in lots of bulbs, ground covers and flowering shrubs! My knees and shoulders are telling me it’s time to ease up on the farming activities, which coincides perfectly with my artly goals for 2010.

Happy New Year!!