The Holiday Zone

There is a signpost ahead....your next stop....The Holiday Zone! It's that crazy time between Christmas and New years again. It is the Twilight Zone for self-employed artists like me. No one wants to buy art right now, no one wants to take art lessons, and my part-time cleaning job doesn't start until January 4th. I am in search of a "normal schedule." So I have been concentrating on two things: Marketing and advertising my art for 2008, and getting rid of paper clutter and reorganizing. I reorganized and cleaned out two drawers worth of stuff in my art files drawers. This was a much needed task because the last time I did anything like this was in 1996! You should have seen all the junk that I tossed out! There is something about getting organized and cleaning out files that gives me the hope (or illustion?) that I may have a successful year in 2008!

It is always a challenge to financially plan for this dead zone/twilight zone time, but I think I have done pretty good this year. I managed to save up enough money to take advantage of some really great after Christmas sales on the 26th. However, next year I am going to be even better prepared because I'm going to set up a Christmas Club account in January. I recently read something that describes how I sometimes feel as a self-employed artist. "This job is only a test. Had it been an actual job you would have received bonuses, raises and promotions..."

I got a really cool gift from my husband for Christmas! It is a book called "How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist" by Caroll Michels. I started reading it and it is much better than other books I've read on this subject. The author use to be a self-employed artist herself. It is exactly what I need right now. I am going through it chapter by chapter and implimenting everything the author recommends. Let's hope this brings some positive results in 2008!

Now that Christmas-related projects are over and done with (except putting away the Christmas decorations) I have resumed work on art projects. My latest project is an illustration for the last poem in my family poetry book, "Measure of Man." This illustration has a bit of a "castles and knights" theme to it because it illustrates a poem I wrote called "My Forever Knight." It is about a very exciting incident that occurred in my life. It is almost done and when it is, I will post it here along with the poem in a future blog.

Merry Christmas To All!

On this Christmas Eve I want to share a Christmas poem that my mother, Lee Overmyer, wrote. This poem is part of my family poetry book that I am self-publishing next year that will also include illustrations I created for each poem.

Joy & Peace

On Christmas day, oh blessed morn,

Glory from heaven on earth was born.

Humble stable and lowly bed,

"Joy and Peace on earth," the Angels said.

"A king is born this day to all,

To free you from the bonds that gall."

A King and peace? In times of stress?

So few could see the manger blessed.

Where is the king? Where is the peace?

Where is the promise of release?

Oh people here on earth below,

By prayer and seeking you must learn and know.

The heart within must bear His name

For blessed joy and peace to claim.

You "Otter" Have a Merry Christmas

It has been awhile since I wrote anything on my blog. Sorry! I have been busy with Christmas shopping, Christmas parties, etc. I have finally finished all Christmas shopping and wrapping so I am free to get back to art projects.

The only time I have devoted to art lately is filling an order I had for 5 otter rock animals. A man found my website and loved my otter rocks. He has a house in Otter Rock, Oregon and was looking for otter art and crafts. So he ordered 4 small otters and one bigger otter. I mailed that order off last week so it would arrive by Christmas. By the way, Otter Rock, Oregon does NOT have otters living there anymore. They use to, but over time, they have disappeared.

I call my rock animals "Stone Critters." I use real Idaho stones and paint them with acrylic craft paint. The otter rocks come with little sea shells glued onto their tummys to look like they are eating their lunch. They also come with a furry tail attachment. See my website for more examples of my Stone Critters. http://www.chickartisticcreations.com/.

Christmas Shopping is Like Football

It is that time of year again and teaching art lessons have ended until after the holidays. I am late in posting a blog because of holiday duties. I've been working on mailing out Christmas cards and doing Christmas shopping. I have about 80% of my Christmas shopping done. Yay! Most of my friends have been naughty so I'm just giving them a lump of coal. (Only kidding.) It is more fun to shop early and avoid the Christmas panic/irritability that comes with late shopping. As it gets closer and closer to Christmas, the shopping experience starts to look more like a football game with shoppers charging down the aisle like they are carrying a football while mowing down other shoppers.

I haven't had a whole lot of time for art projects that are not Christmas-related, but I have been working on one piece that is about half-way done. It is another humorous animal art piece. This one depicts a horse sticking it's head inside a car to surprise a boy. The boy has a look of shock on his face. What is funny is that the horse has his mouth open like he is saying, "Hello." I will post it on my blog when it is done.

Making My Own Christmas Cards Again

Well here it is, my Christmas card for 2007. The inside of the card says, " May your hearts be filled with joy & your gatherings with laughter; May your home be warmed with love at Christmas and long after."

The only art projects I am working on right now are Christmas-related. As I do every year, I am making my own Christmas cards this year. I really enjoy this because it adds a more personal touch and I like the idea of giving my family and friends something I created myself. This year's card is a piece I drew a few months ago called, "Snow Patterns." It is actually one of the illustrations I did for my mothers poem, "Winter of My Soul" from the family book of poetry that I'm working on and have mentioned before in this blog. My challenge is always how to make these cards without going over budget but still make them look nice. I think I did pretty good this year. I went to a new new printing company that got a pretty good reproduction of the original and at a very low price. And they are actually willing to work with artists (we can be so picky sometimes.) I had to switch printers because of various problems. One printer went out of business, the other one decided they no longer wished to work with artists to get the best possible match to the original and their attitude was lousy. Sometimes good service is hard to find.

The Street of Dreams

I recently completed an illustration for one of my poems from the family poetry book I'm working on, "Measure of Man." Here is the poem and the illustration:

The Street of Dreams by Beverly Chick

Walking down the street of dreams,

I saw you standing there.

We walked together down city blocks,

past cafes, streets and shops.

We spoke of many things

without a thought of time

And for a short but memorable day,

I could pretend that you were mine.

You filled my mind with creative thoughts,

Just like a special muse.

My heart would soar with endless joy,

No longer in recluse.

Walking down the street of dreams,

I see you standing there.

Then I awake---you're gone again

And sadness fills the air.

Mr. Bow Jungle & Other Christmas Decorating Ideas

As an artist, I love to decorate, so I got a head-start on Christmas decorating this weekend starting with the upstairs. The Christmas tree will probably go up next weekend. That is a huge project that takes at least a day to complete. It is kind of like an art project in itself. I use to decorate the tree with red bows but my husband thought it looked like a jungle of bows so we eventually put an end to that decorating trend. I guess you could call that bow tree Mr. Bow Jungle! My husband came up with that one. Then I went through my Star Trek Christmas Tree phase. We did that for a few years, then my husband said, "No more Star Trek tree, please." I was getting kind of tired of it too. I still sneek a few of the really cool "Trek" ornaments on the tree, like a few of the Hallmark Star Trek ornaments.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is my day to stuff myself with turkey and ignore my diet. Maybe I will get a chance this evening to do some artwork, but today will be mostly visiting with the family. I started on another illustration for my Measure of Man family poetry book. It is a little different than what I've done before so I'm excited about doing it. FYI--I recently added another gallery to my website. It is Gallery 4 and it is my Illustration Gallery. I have posted the poetry and illos from Measure of Man and other illustration assignments that come up. Check it out on www.chickartisticcreations.com.

Following Your Dream or Just Surviving?

If you are an artist like me who is trying to make a part-time living at it, you may occasionally be subjected to well-meaning friends who tell you things like, "Why don't you get a real job (not art-related) that acutally comes with benefits?" When you are a struggling artist, you sometimes do have to take part-time non art-related jobs that just help make ends met, which is what I do. But where do you draw the line? What if you need to take a second part-time job, temporarily, due to some extra financial needs that come up. Eventually, your ability to make a living as an artist becomes severely compromised and you are left with little to no time for it. So much of who I am revolves around art that to be without it for any length of time is torture for me. So far, I have not had to get a second part-time job, but there have been times I've been close to going that route.

One of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes is "Passage For Trumpet." It's about a poor man by the name of Joey, who is following his dream to make a living as a musician playing the trumpet, but he has had some set backs and is struggling. One day he accidentially steps off a curb and gets hit by a car. He ends up in a kind of limbo between life and death. Joey notices that no one around him can see or hear him. Then he meets the Angel Gabriel, who is an expert trumpet musician. Joey askes Gabriel, "Am I dead?" and Gabriel answers, "No, you're not dead. The people around you--they are the ones that are dead because they are not following their dream like you are." (Not an exact quote but that's the main idea.) The people around Joey had given up on their dreams and were just making a living, just surviving, just existing.

I am willing to make occasional compromises but I don't want to go back to just surviving, just existing. I have been reading the story of Leavenworth, Washington which is called the Miracle Town because it almost never happened and was on the edge of bankruptcy before it became a Bavarian Town. The author of the book, Ted Price, who also helped build Bavarian Leavenworth, says, "Artist's and visionaries are celebrated, but rarely are they understood when they first appear in a community. No one with a creative mind is ever received openly and gladly by the world because original ideas mean that people's attitudes must change and their lives will never be the same as before. A radical change means we have to be willing to let go, to risk losing some control over our lives, to embrace the unknown in life."

Abraham Maslow, a psychologist, said, "One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again. Fear must be overcome again and again."

"Pika" is Getting Complicated

I have been mostly working on my portrait of "Pika" the chocolate lab dog. It is 90% done, but it is turning out to be a bit complicated. So I am going to get together with the client first before I continue with this piece, just to make sure she likes what she sees so far. Instead of just a regular one-image portrait, my client has requested 3 different poses of the dog, plus a background of rocks, water and foothills/mountains in the background, plus a little drawing of a pika mouse at the bottom. (The dog was named after a pika mouse.) The challenge of this piece has been to include all these elements without taking away from the focal point, which is the dog's portrait. The easy part was doing the actual 3 poses of the dog. The harder part was to make everything (including the rocks and the water, etc.) blend together to look like it flows as one piece. There is also going to be a special mat for this piece to incorporate the pika mouse at the bottom, and that is complicating things a big more than I had anticipated. However, this has also helped me to grow as an artist and I feel I have learned a lot from doing this piece. I am glad that my client did not have an exact deadline for completion or I would be in trouble! This experience has shown me that I need to change how I price my portraits and define things a little better. So I am working on a brochure on portraits of pets & people that does this. From now on I will have a basic price for a one or two image portrait, then there will be an extra charge for special backgrounds or including a pet toy in the portrait, etc. In cases like this one it may be wiser to give the client some kind of form that lists all the elements of the portrait and the cost for each then the total at the bottom. I don't know why I didn't think of this before!

Art Of The Vine Design Meeting

Today was the monthly Vineyard Church "Art of the Vine Design" meeting, as it is officially called. This group of artists formed so that we could work with the church to help them with any art projects that they might want. We design logos, T-Shirts, murals, flyers, or whatever is needed. It is a purely volunteer thing, but it is great fun. So far I have designed a brochure and painted a mural for the Vineyard. Currently we are working on signs, logos and T-shirt designs for a church food program called, "Garden O Feedin." Art of the Vine Design plans some very interesting activities for the future. Sometime in the Summer of 2008 there will be a circus type event that will be a fundraiser to help raise money for the Art of the Vine Design and the Vine Arts Gallery. Several artists in our little group have been fortunate enough to be able to illustrate children's books, so we are trying to expand on this to be able to network and include more artists (like me) who would love to also do illustration work. It has been a dream of mine for a long time to illustrate a story book of some kind, so I am hoping this will lead to something.

I'm in the Boise Weekly

The Boise Weekly, a free paper that comes out every week here in Boise, Idaho, just published a short paragraph about my portrait of Princess Diana being published in the Diana in Art coffee table book. This article, which I have posted, is in the November 7-13 issue and is on page 29.

Earlier this week I went to the Boise Weekly website and posted a press release that I wrote. And they actually used it! I have been so use to rejections lately that I was actually suprised this was accepted! I am learning a valuable lesson about how to be my own public relations agent and that press releases actually do work. Since I'm on a roll, I think I will send a press release to the Idaho Statesman.

"Pika" Almost Done Plus More Photos of Leavenworth Trip

Today I registered myself on the Idaho Commission of the Arts website so I could get a free art listing. This is something I should have done a long time ago. I don't know why it took me so long. Then in the evening I worked more on the commissioned portrait of Pika, the chocolate lab dog. My client called me today to ask how it was coming and thankfully I could say that it is almost done without having to lie! One more week and it should be completed. I always get a bit nervous when I present the finished piece to the client until I know that they love it, and usually they do! I am posting a few photos of my trip to Leavenworth, Washington. These photos are of me and my husband, Jon, sitting next to some of the beautiful murals painted on the Bavarian stores.

MYARTPROFILE.COM

I have been working on my new online art gallery, "myartprofile.com/beverly_chick". It is a great way to connect with other artists online and to get more exposure for your artwork. The best thing about this site is it is FREE! ("Free" is the magic word!) There is even a page on this site where they list freelance art job opportunities. This is a real friendly website. I have only had my site up a few days and I have already made about 25 friends. I am still learning the rules of the road and am not entirely sure how it works, but apparently, the more friends you have in your "approved list" of friends and the more people that list you as their "approved friends" the more your site gets promoted. The goal seems to be to make the "Top 100" list. Then your site gets promoted on their home page. Anyway, I am really having fun meeting and emailing other artists. There is some amazing artwork on this site.

I have been working hard on finishing the commissioned portrait of "Pika" the chocolate lab. I am going to try and finish it this weekend. I worked on it Halloween night. I would draw a little, then answer the doorbell, hand out candy, work on the portrait again, etc.

Artistic Inspiration Found in Leavenworthhttp://www.leavenworth.org

www.leavenworth.org

I have just returned from my trip to Leavenworth, Washington. I had a blast! How fun it was to get out of Idaho and go beyond my borders. I felt a little like a bird let out of a cage, free at last to fly! It was a shopper's paradise & the weather was perfect. I had a lot of fun buying clothes and souvenirs. As an artist, I found many creative, unusual & artistic things being sold at the shops that sparked my imagination. Many of the shops specialized in just one thing. There was the Wood Carving Shop, the Hat Shop, the Music Box Shop, plus some very unsusual shops like "Gifts From Russia" and an Australian theme shop. (What Australia is doing in a Bavarian theme I don't know.) The German/Swiss Alps/Bavarian theme that is in Leavenworth was very interesting to me since much of my ancestry is German. I fell in love with the architecture & design of the buildings. Many of the buildings had murals and decorative motifs painted on them. I found myself wondering if I could do something like that on the walls of my own house, but my husband didn't think that would be a good idea! I have included in today's blog photos of two of my favorite Bavarian theme buildings--the Obertal Mall and Tannenbaum Shoppe. Both have beautiful murals and decorative motifs painting on the outside walls.

There was one art gallery in Leavenworth I liked a lot. The gallery had mostly landscapes of the Leavenworth area painted by artist, Doug Miller. It gave me some great ideas for doing some paintings of my own.

I took lots of pictures and I think I may start a new art project next year that will be an artist's perspective of my trip to Leavenworth, Washington.

I was able to get a lot of artwork done on this vacation. I worked mostly on the portrait commission I have of a chocolate lab dog named Pika. It is about 60% done. I need to get it done before the Christmas Season gets into full swing!

Artwork and a Road Trip to Leavenworth, Washington

Since my last entry, I have been working on my family poetry book and on a commissioned portrait of a chocolate lab dog that I got about a month ago.

I have now finished the illustrations for my grandfather's poetry and my mother's. I only have my own poetry illustrations to work on. Five more illustrations and I'm done with this book!

It has again been a challenge to try and squeeze in enough time for my artwork. I have been preparing for a road trip to Leavenworth, Washington that my husband and I are taking this weekend. Leavenworth is a really cool Bavarian town that is sort of like Solvang only the theme is more German/Bavarian. My husband has a sister and a brother who live there and we will be visiting with them. Preparations for this trip have had many obstactles this past week. We had to change our schedule because of bad weather, then we had car problems, then last Sunday I got a 24 hour virus. But if I don't get out of "Dodge" for a while (before the winter weather comes) I think I shall scream! I love to travel but hardly ever get to anymore. I think there is something about being an artist that requires the need for travel every now and then to help spark & inspire the creative side. I am hoping to do some artwork while I'm on this vacation.

Change of Direction

Today was absolutely crazy! It reminded me of that song by Enya that goes, "The turn that I was making, the turn that I was taking, it could be one direction, it could be one reflection, we might be at the beginning, we might be near the end." Plans get made then plans get cancelled. My husband and I were suppose to be taking a road trip to Leavenworth, Washington to visit some relatives. We were all packed and ready. Then we rechecked the weather report for Leavenworth and it was rain, rain, rain for the entire weekend. So we decided at the last minute to postpone our vacation until next weekend when the weather would be good. So now I have to call my art students and re-arrange art lessons again. I also have to rearrange my work schedule at my part-time job. Sometimes Mother Nature sucks!

Tonight I went to an Art Reception at the Nampa Civic Center. It was for the Nampa Centennial Juried Show. Two of my pieces were accepted into the show, "Still Waters" and "Otter Odyssey." But I thought some of the judging for the awards was awful. Some very amateur looking pieces got awards. It made NO sense to me at all!

The "Hands Holding Food" Mural Completed

This past Monday, October 15, Angie and I worked all day to complete the mural for the Vineyard Garden Shed. This mural is for the Vineyard Church's vegetable & fruit garden that helps to feed low income & needy families in the community. (See previous blogs.) Even though I say that it is finished, there are still some little things that I may go back and touch up. We were forced to complete this project today because of weather issues and because we were simply having a hard time fitting this mural into our already tight schedules. We sealed it with varnish to protect it from the elements so now I don't have to worry if Mother Nature decides to rain on it. I think we put a total of about 20 hours into this project. I am happy with the results, but like a typical perfectionistic artist, there are still things that I might want to "tweek" just a bit more.

Gallery Night at Rediscovered Bookstore

Thursday night was "Gallery Night" at the Rediscovered Bookstore. It was a sort of artist's reception for the local artists displaying their work at the book store, and I was one of those artists. I have on display about seven of my colored pencil/mixed media animal & landscape pieces and a few of my "Stone Critters" rock animals. I am hoping I will get some sales during the Christmas season. I will also have my original portrait of Princess Diana on display there when the book they ordered, "Diana in Art," finally arrives. (See previous blogs for more on "Diana in Art.")

The owner of the store, Laura, took a picture of the artists and is going to put in on the bookstore's website, which is still under construction. There was not much traffic coming into the store that night, but hopefully that will change. This book store has only been open for a year and the Gallery Night event is fairly new.

The people who work at this bookstore seem to have a pretty good sense of humor and I really like them. This bookstore also sells hand-crafted art and novelty items. One of the things they sell there that I got a big laugh out of was a stuffed toy made to look like the famous psychiatrist, Freud, and it was called "Tickle Me Freud."

Mural Painting Time

Today I worked on the mural for my church, the Boise Vineyard. The mural is a painting of hands holding produce and it is on the side of the garden shed that is in their produce garden. (See my Blog dated September 26th for a picture.) It is about 3' X 3' in size and it is about 90% done. Another artist from church is helping me with it. I was not able to work on it last week because it rained so much. One more session with this mural and it should be done. These things always take more time than you think they will. It looks really great so far. I am in a race with the weather and hopefully, it won't rain on the day I plan to finish it.

"Diana In Art" in Another Bookstore and "Snow Patterns" Is Finally Done

This has been a very good day! Another bookstore has decided to carry "Diana in Art"! Rediscover Bookstore in Boise (on Overland near Cole) not only will carry "Diana in Art" but I will have an art exhibit there too. I will be showing several of my animal and wildlife pieces. In addition, the original pastel portrait of Diana that is in "Diana in Art"will also part of the exhibit! Cool! And the timing is perfect because my gallery show at Hyde Park is ending and I needed another place to exhibit.

I also finally finished a piece today that I call, "Snow Patterns." (See photo above.) It is a small 9X12 piece that I did using colored pencil and turpenoid. I am thinking of making it this year's Christmas card.

New Art Students , Promotional Mailings & a Portrait Commission

I had two new art students (both under 12 years old) start lessons Saturday (9/29). The class went well with no problems. Things are going well with my other new student who is just five years old. I was afraid there might be an attention deficit issue, but so far it hasn't been much of a problem. This five year old boy has an amazing ability to draw a straight line without a ruler! I find teaching art very rewarding.

I finished a mailing to friends and family promoting the book with my portrait of Diana in it, "Diana in Art." I also called a few more bookstores in the area to see if they would be willing to sell this book in their store, but so far I have only found the one, Boise Book and Gift Shop. I wrote a press release about this book and I think I will see if some of the local newspapers might be interested in doing a story on it. It's worth a try. I think I'm getting use to rejection.

This weekend I finally started a portrait commission that I got a month ago. It will be a 16X20 color portrait of a dog (a labrador I think) by the name of "Pika". It will be a composite portrait that will have three different poses of Pika.

Mural Painting For the Vineyard's Veggie Garden

Today I worked on a mural for the Vineyard Church's vegetable Garden. This garden is used to help feed needy and low income families. The church wanted a design of hands holding fruit and veggies painted on the shed in their garden to dress it up a bit. So at around 11:00 a.m. today my friend, Angie, and I started on this project. The weather was perfect and the garden was beautiful. It was kind of like plein air painting only we were painting on a building instead of paper or canvas.

I remember when I was five years old I would draw on the walls of my house, much to my mother's dismay. Funny how some things don't change. Today I am doing the same thing only this time I have permission and it is not considered vandalism! I wonder if Michelangelo started this way?

Fall Art Lessons Begin

I have my own art school in my home and I have been preparing for another short semester of art lessons this fall. They go from the end of September through the second week of November and I teach lessons. I had at least 8 to 10 people who said they were interested but I have only a few who have actually committed to starting or have already started. How disappointing! I am finding it frustrating when people seem so enthusiastic about starting art lessons, then when you are ready to start and you call them, they cancel. Some won't even return my calls to tell me they can't take lessons this semester. Starting in 2008, I think I may change some of my general rules and require a refundable deposit that students get back after they have completed a series of lessons. I need to think of ways to motivate people to be more responsible and to protect myself from people who "flake out" on me.

This weekend I rearranged my art studio to make it more efficient. I have limited space in my studio and I am always thinking of new ways to make the most of it.

Today, I worked on a winter themed piece of art that will be used in my book, "The Measure of Man." It will be an illustration for my mother's poem, "The Winter of My Soul." It is about 3/4 of the way finished. Here is just a few lines from that poem:

".....Then the winter of my soul set in, life became cold and joyless and bleak. I wandered around in the desert, alone ,weary, afraid and weak.

My beloved was no more so near, though I knew he still watched over me. So remote and blurred was the vision, his dear face I no longer could see..."

Victory at the Boise Book & Gift Shop!

Today I went downtown and did some marketing for the coffee table book, "Diana in Art" (with my artwork on page 97) and to try and book some future art exhibits. I am happy to say that the Boise Book & Gift Shop on Main Street in downtown Boise is going to have this book in their shop! They actually ordered it today while I was their visiting their shop! Perserverance actually paid off. I approached four other places and they all said, "No, not interested." If there is anything I've learned as a struggling artist it is not to settle for "no" & give up. There is a "yes" out there somewhere!

There is a reason why I rarely go to downtown Boise. It is a nightmarish maze of construction zones, pedestrians who cross on a green light, and one-way streets that take you where you don't want to go. But today, it was worth fighting my way through the amazing maze of a badly planned road system to find that one book store that said "Yes, we will promote your book for you."

Diana In Art Promo and New Mural Project

I think I found a couple of places that might be willing to display/promote the Diana in Art book with my portrait of Diana inside. I feel encouraged! After hearing "no, no, no, no....." it is good to hear a "yes" for a change! I am going to visit these places and talk more to the managers and see what I can work out with them.

Another art project has come my way this week. This week I will be starting work on a mural for the Vineyard Church. It will be for their Garden 'O Feedin outreach program that helps provide food to needy families. I will be working with another artist to paint a mural of hands holding produce onto a shed. I have never done anything quite like this before and I'm looking forward to it.

Life Interferes With Artwork

With my part-time job and doctor appointments and various emergencies, I have had hardly any time at all for doing artwork but I am going to get back on track soon...I hope. There has been no time at all to try and promote the book, "Diana in Art" with my Diana portrait on page 97, so I will try and do that next week. Some friends of mine have given me some excellent leads for small local book stores and galleries that might be willing to display this book.

With what little time I had today, I worked a new illustration for an ongoing art project of mine--a book of illustrated poetry. This book will be about 20 pages of poems written by my grandfather, my mother and myself, representing three generations. Apparently the talent for writing poetry started with my grandfather, and mom and I inherited it as well. The book is called, "The Measure of Man" and is based on my grandfather's poem of the same name. So far it is turning out great. I am about halfway done with the book and the illustrations. It's going to be fantastic when it's done! Here is a sample of one of the poems my grandfather wrote and an illustration I did for it.

The Love of God

How wonderful the love of God, so bountiful & free.

He spreads His love over all the earth, He gives His love to me.
And of this love on me bestowed within my heart be found,

A great desire from this time forth to pass His love around.
And now dear Lord from this day and ever while I live,

That of the love that's given me, To give, and give, and give!

--H.J. Gardner

Visiting The Book Stores--Where is my Book?

Today I checked again with Barnes & Noble and Borders about my book, cover picture to the left. They said that the books can be ordered but they have decided not to carry any in the stores. Anyone can go into the stores and order this book, but they will not be stocked and displayed on the shelves because it was decided by the powers that be that is would not sell that well. This sucks! So I gave my card to the managers of the stores just in case they might be persuaded to order a few and display them.

I won't hold my breath for an invitation to set up a table at the book stores and sign autographs, although I admit it has crossed my mind. I wonder what B & N would do if I just set up my own table in their store?

Since the book stores won't market it for me, I guess I have to come up with some ideas. Anyone have any suggestions? (Damn it, I am an artist, not a promotor!)

COFFEE TABLE BOOK "DIANA IN ART"

After a long wait, I finally received my contributor's copy of the coffee table book, "Diana in Art" and it is beautiful! This the first time my artwork has been published in a book that will be distributed worldwide. The portrait you see on the left is on pages 96-97 of the book. The many different artist's interpretations of Diana are fascinating.

This book is compiled by Mem Mehmet and published by Caxton Publishing/Pop Art Books. It should be showing up at book stores soon. I checked with Barnes & Noble a week ago and they said it is in their warehouse and then will be shipped to the various stores throughout the U.S.