Throwback Thursday

It's Thanksgiving here in the US today and I wondered what I might post for today's Throwback Thursday that could be somewhat festive, and I thought: gourds. Yep, gourds might actually tie in nicely and I have a bunch of gourds in still lifes from October 2011's 30 Day Sketch Challenge. And then I remembered acorn squash, and thought that was even better. I'll be having some acorn squash today, and probably a lot of you will, too.

acorn squash, watercolor pencil

There  are a couple of other acorn squash sketches in this series. This was before my #art365 series and the idea of sketching everyday for a whole month seemed pretty intimidating. Also, I'm not really a sketcher, so I went back to basics and set up fruit still lifes, which evolved into gourds and then squash. If you want to see the whole series, there's an album on facebook here. I did show some of these pieces in the Tryptophan Trance show at Hoosier Highlander. 

As a former retail employee, I hope you are not out shopping today, and as an artist (aka a very small business) I hope you will shop local / small businesses. Your purchases do make a very big impact there. Buy art! Buy my art! And if you want to buy art that isn't mine and can't find it, I know lots of other artists who would also appreciate your support. 

Finally, a small piece of holiday advice: gourds look like they will last forever, but they don't. Trust me on this.

So thank you interweb viewers, for checking in and having a look at whatever random things I post, and for the pluses and likes and shares and retweets. They are all very appreciated. Happy Thanksgiving.

goals

I've read a couple of other artists' blog posts in the last couple of days listing all the things they accomplished in the past year. This is not one of those posts.  While I think it's good to reflect on what's happened, I think having a goal (or goals) is really important. My goals for last year were have a solo show and apply for the IAC grant. And I did those things.

So what's next?

I still have to finish completing the grantwork for the show in the spring. As March gets closer and closer, I am starting to feel the pressure of this task. There's a lot of work to get done.

I really want a big studio. This is a long term goal, not one that I expect to accomplish in 2013. Part of this is needing more room to move around in. An 8ft canvas is big. Part of this means more room to store artwork, but I will only accomplish this dream if I sell more artwork (which sort of takes care of the storage issue!) so I can pay for a studio rental. I sold more work last year than ever before, but not enough for a new studio. So sales, sales, sales is the short term part of this goal.

I am thinking over the idea of #art365: drawing or completing some artwork everyday. Seriously this will be a challenge. I've done 2 daily challenges for a month each and that was tricky. I will be tweeting these with a #art365. And here's day 1, a quick sketch of a lamp top while I was waiting for the coffee to brew. Hoping to get some painting in today, but now I'm covered just in case.

good karma

A few days ago, I decided it was time for another good karma giveaway. To convince me this was the right thing to do, I got two pieces of potentially good art related news later that day. So, if I had any doubt about it, the Universe was clearly telling me I was on the right track.

I did a good karma giveaway earlier this year, with a yet-to-be-created giveaway. (Although it's been created now and is happily in its new owner's home.) This time around, I have an actual piece completed especially for this. It's a 4"x4" canvas with a little bitty america painting on it. And it could be yours. Or yours. Or yours. Any one of the three of you reading this post could have this little piece of america all for yourself!

Last time I asked that you like my facebook page, because it was related to the giveaway celebration, but this time you don't have to. (but, really, you should.) no pressure. (but do it. now. and tell all your friends to do it, too.) This time I asked for suggestions, and you might be happy to learn that I chose not to go with the entry idea of who had the longest walk to my house.

Here's how you enter: sign up for my mailing list. There's a handy form right there on the right side of this blog post. You don't even need to leave this page ->->->

You've got one week to get around to signing up. But seriously, you're right here, just do it now before you forget. I will not sell your email info and I do not send out a lot of emails, usually less thanIf you are already on the mailing list, just leave me a comment to include you in the drawing. So sign up for the mailing list by 9.21.12 and I will announce the winner on Saturday the 22nd.  

Illiana Artists demo

Last night I gave a painting demonstration for Illiana Artists. I am still unconvinced that this went well because I felt like I was boring. That said, I would really enjoy watching another artist work and get some insight into how and why they work the way they do.

Among the tricky things I had to do: talk and paint. Usually, I am painting alone and do not have to carry on a conversation. This was not easy. It really was harder to concentrate on what I was doing, plus I was trying to speed up the whole process. Trying to explain my choices was also hard. So much of what I do is because it feels right.

Here is where I ended up at the end of the demo. It is still really all underpainting. At the moment I'm not really loving the blue sky area and I think this is probably more of a safety piece than an america painting. Time will tell when I get back to it. Many thanks to Illiana Artists for inviting me to do the demo and extra thanks to them for not sneaking out while my back was turned.

One of the very cool things about the evening was I had several friends come to the demo to be supportive.

Supportive friends rock.

And the ATC challenge: Day 11

The links .... I am still posting on pinterest. You can also follow Kim Clanton and Teri Partridge on their blogs. Lynette K. Waters-Whitesell and Leslie Lambert are both posting albums on facebook.

the thank you post

Sometime in the last week, I hit 150 "likes" on my facebook page. That is all kinds of awesome and I am grateful for the support. Art related things are going really well for me right now and there are good things in store all summer. Seems like a good time to put some good karma out into the world.

I wanted to have a giveaway to commemorate this cool facebook milestone, but I'd have to hire a lawyer to be sure I met all of the terms of agreement red tape and thaought that sounded like to much trouble/money/work. Seriously, this is why all the contests and giveaways on fb are links to blogs where you have to leave a comment or join an email list.

So here's the rules:

1. You must "like" my page. If you are reading this, you probably already have.
2. Leave a comment on this post. I don't really care what you comment, but, keep it semi-clean, please. You aren't getting bonus points for creativity or sucking up. However, sucking up is always appreciated.
3. The deadline to comment is 5/21/12. Randomly, one comment will be chosen and that person will get a small, unframed work on paper. If, at the drawing date, I have 200 "likes", there will be a second winner. That gives you two weeks to come up with a witty comment and, if you choose, get all your friends, family members, old schoolmates, and co-workers-who-you-really-don't-like-but-felt-obligated-to-accept-their-friend-request on board. The winner(s) will be announce the next day.

What are your odds? Well, technically, right now, they are 1:149 (because I'm not counting myself), although I'm pretty sure they are better than that, based on the regular interaction I get on the page. And if I hit 200, then it will be 1:99.5, and again in reality better than that. So if you invite your friends to the party, your chances of winning actually go up. Good karma for you, too!

Will it be a drawing or a painting? I don't know, I haven't made it yet. Does it matter? It will be awesome!