Santa came early today. Four boxes on the porch when I came home. FOUR. Like we hit the gift box lottery or something.
Two were for Mr. Spouse. Just who is sending my husband gifts? Not I. Certainly not I. I’m making the man beef jerkey. Enough jerkey to keep him chewing for quite some time. And the promise of a steady supply of tough ‘n tasty dead cow for a whole year. I’ll even make a fancy coupon so he knows it’s for real.
And I’m going to clean our closet. What man wouldn’t swoon over that??? I’m telling you, he’ll be thrilled–THRILLED–that he will finally be able to walk into the walk-in. I’ll make a coupon for that, too. Which will buy me some time for actually doing the deed. Because really, if I had the time in the first place, the closet would never have reached the board-of-health-red-alert-stage.
I’m big on coupons.
But back to the packages on the porch. We’ve established now that two were for Mr. Spouse.
The third was for the horses. Ten pounds of pony supplements. Omega 3s for shiny coats and strong hooves. Works like magic. Maybe I should sprinkle some on my oatmeal.
The fourth package was for ME! YAY!!! I LOVE you Santa, especially when you stay up late on the computer ordering art supplies.
Like these. Pan Pastels. According to the manufacturer “These smooth, rich pastel colors are loaded with pure artists’ pigments and are made with a unique manufacturing process requiring minimal binder and fillers, resulting in rich, ultra soft and low dust formulation.” They’re professional quality, lightfast and all sorts of amazingly wonderful artsy stuff.
And they mix with everything. Can’t wait to fuse them into some wax. But I’ll have to wait. Don’t see any studio time before New Years. Just the way it is, kids coming and all. Trust me, when I’m building sofa forts with Missy B I won’t miss the studio at all.
Well, maybe just a little…
All these colors came in the four stacks in the box. This particular combination is the 20 Color Set Shades. Don’t you just love ’em?
Okay, now that you’ve checked off your list of teachers, people you went to school with or know from the local co-op gallery…how many female artists of note can you name?
Of note meaning right up there with the big boys.
Hmmm…not too many, eh? Two pop into my head fairly readily–Georgia O’Keefe. Frida Kahlo. Throw in Grandma Moses and make that three.
This is embarrassing. Especially since I’ve got a degree in art. It’s been a long time since I took any art history classes but yet if you asked how many MALE artists I could name, the big boys, I’d tell you to grab a cup of coffee and sit down ’cause this is gonna take awhile. I could tell you their names, Their most famous works. Who they hung out with. Where and when they lived and died. Along the way I’d throw in tidbits of juicy historical gossip.
Do you see what’s wrong with this picture?
I didn’t…but only because I never even thought about it. Been too busy raising a family, taking care of an elderly parent, tending critters, teaching art, making art…. I’ve been too busy squeezing everything in to look outside myself at the BIG picture. The picture that says the glass ceiling extends into the art world too.
Until my friend Tracy Verdugo (an artist as well as a woman–imagine that!) posted a link to a video on facebook. Check it out down below.
Late at night. Everyone else is in bed. Just me and my laptop…and the wireless connection.
Uh-oh…
I’ve done e-mail. Facebook. The news. I’ve skipped from art link to art link. Reading. Looking at pictures. Getting inspired. And then, somehow, I end up on Amazon.
Do you see where this is going?
Uh-huh…ART BOOKS!!!
Books! Book! Books! I loves me my books. Loves them so much a couple years ago I asked Santa for a Kindle. Because the books were taking over the house. Stacks of books by the bedside. On the floor. On every available surface. Towering over our heads as we wound our way through a literary forest, following the breadcrumbs from room to room.
Like something out of a bad reality TV show.
Well, okay. I’m embellishing. To make a point. Set the scene. Explain why I wanted needed a Kindle. I needed a Kindle for my inner infant instant gratification. For getting the book I want RIGHT NOW. Doesn’t matter if it’s 2AM. I just go on-line, click the buy now button and I’m reading the book within a minute.
Sweet.
Except don’t buy ART books on Kindle. Or any other e-reader for that matter. Art books need full size pages with big glossy photographs. Ones you can stare at and drool over.
So there I was, deep in Amazon’s Mixed Media section. It was late. I was tired. Defenses were down. And the buy now with one click button fit my finger just right.
I bought two. Flavor for Mixed Media: A Feast of Techniques for Texture, Color and Layers by Mary Beth Shaw. You can check it out here. And Unfurling, A Mixed-Media Workshop with Misty Mawn: Inspiration and Techniques for Self-Expression through Art by Misty Mawn. Here’s the link for that one.
They’ll be here in a couple of days but I really won’t have time to look at either one until after after the holidays. I’ll keep you posted. Look for the reviews in January.
And now I’d better go to bed before I buy something else.
In the office…frowned upon. Verboten. Disrupts the workplace. Makes everyone else want some.
Like these two. I caught them at it the other day. On the printing press, no less. Just look at ’em. This is a monsterous–MONSTEROUS, violation of the employee handbook. Look it up. It’s in there under ‘Conduct’: Thou shalt not grope or take physical pleasure from fellow employees on company time.
Because it makes everyone STOP WHAT THEY’RE DOING to take pictures. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.
This is what they’ll be reduced to if they get caught by admin.
They could end up like Michael and Holly. Oh nooooooooooo….
Inspiration strikes everywhere. Anytime. That’s why I always try to carry my camera around. Because you KNOW the one time I leave it home I miss the PERFECT shot.
Unfortunately that happens more often than I care to admit. But I’m getting better.
I live in a picturesque old gold mining town. Lots of interesting textures and buildings to photograph. But as I said up above, inspiration can come any time, anywhere. Including the sidewalk in front of a strip mall.
I look at this stuff and get so excited. Makes me want to run down to the studio and paint. The paintings will likely look nothing like the photos because that’s not what this is about. They’re for inspiration…. Color. Texture. Design. Proportion. Or all of the above. Layers and layers of oils and wax building up to the final piece.
Mystery. Depth.
That’s what makes it so exciting. That’s what makes it worth stopping traffic on the sidewalk while I whip out my camera and take pictures of the cracks.
The inventory of finished work in an art studio can be overwhelming, especially if you’re a prolific artist. If it’s less than my best work I’ll often recycle it, paint or collage over old canvases. Give them new life. Or I’ll throw on some gesso and donate the used canvases to an art program like the one where I teach. Trust me, we appreciate donations of canvases, used or not. As long as they’re in decent condition they’re fine for student work. And you don’t even need to gesso it, we’ll do that for you.
If it’s something I don’t want my name on and the materials can’t be recycled, then I’ll simply chuck it.
But there are times you don’t want to do that. Maybe you have a series of images that, for one reason or another, just haven’t sold. Or a stack of prints that have been sitting there. There’s nothing wrong with them but they’re taking up valuable real estate, space you could use for something else. Something new.
Because it’s time to move on.
You could hold a studio clearance sale but there’s a valid argument against that. A drastic reduction of prices reduces the perceived value of your work within the community. If someone bought a painting for full price, whatever your price may be, and saw you selling similar work for less, maybe considerably less, later on, do you think they’ll be so quick to pay your full price again?
I don’t think so.
Unless… you turn it into a good thing. Puts a different spin on it entirely. My friend LeeAnn Brook did that last weekend. She opened her studio for a special sale, “From the Heart” Small Works Charity Studio Sale. She reduced prices on selected work by 30-50%. And then she donated 100% of the sale of those works to Women of Worth, a local charity that helps women escape domestic violence. I’ll say it again, 100%.
It was a win-win situation. In a few hours she raised over $1,200 dollars. Money that will stay in the community helping women and children who desperately need it. People who purchased art got a great deal and a sense that they were contributing to a good cause, especially as checks were written directly to Women of Worth.
LeeAnn reduced her inventory without damaging the value of her work. Even better, she got the satisfaction of knowing what she did would have a positive impact on the lives of others.
