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.