Business is Picking Up!

I am starting to have more art-related projects and tasks now. I just booked myself for at least one, possibly two shows downtown at "Emerging Artists" Capital City Public Market. These shows start in April and go until the end of the year. I will be having a show on June 21, then maybe one show in either April or May. I would book more Emerging Artist shows there if I could but they have it set up so that you are only guaranteed one show a year. They do that so that every artist in the area has a chance to participate. I also applied (a month ago) to be in the Capital City Public Market but I haven't heard from them yet. Seems strange to me because the market opens in a couple of weeks. I'm not holding my breath waiting for them to contact me. If I get in--great; if I don't, that's okay too.

This weekend I finished a rock animal that I was commissioned to do. It turned out real cute. I am doing a mural for a lady who owns her own hair salon and she also wanted a rock animal portrait of her dog, Barbie, who is a blonde cocker spaniel. This dog has beautiful long ears and reminds me of a canine version of Veronica Lake. What makes this portrait unusual is that the dog is wearing a pink T-shirt. This is the first animal portrait I have done where the animal is actually wearing clothing.

I am in the process of getting photos from people who have indicated to me that they want pet portraits. I received two photos this weekend from a lady by the name of Karen, whom I met at the Cat Show. She has two cats, both Cornish Rex cats, whose names are Sienna and Vevay. Sienna is the gray and white cat, Vevay is the orange and white cat. I have posted their photos above.

I have two more people who are in the process of getting photos of their pets and will contact me and probably email them to me. I have a list of about 8 people that I have emailed but haven't heard from yet about their pet portraits. So this week I think I will start calling them on the phone. I have learned the hard way that if you don't get the photos for portraits in a somewhat timely manner, you may not get them at all. So I think I may have to be somewhat persistant. I have never felt comfortable being pushy about stuff like this, but I have learned that there is a fine line between persistence and coming across like a pushy salesman.

Photos From the Cat Show

I thought I would share some of my photos from the cat show a few weeks ago. This first photo (top) are some colorful awards won by a couple of kittens. There are 14 awards between these two cats. Not bad for a day's work.

The second photo is me at my Chick Artistic Creations booth surrounded by the art I have for sale. The one below that was taken during the actual cat judging process.

I had a "meow-varlous" time at this show!

Hidden Lake, Washington

Although I am still putting in some final touches and deciding if I want to change anything, my first piece of art depicting my trip to Leavenworth, Washington is 95% completed. This piece is called "Hidden Lake." It was taken during a beautiful hike I took with my husband and his sister, Chris. She lives 20 miles outside of Leavenworth in a little country town called Plains. The name of the lake is actually "Hidden Lake." I didn't just make it up. This piece was done with colored pencil & turpenoid, with a little spattering of acrylic paint here and there.

I plan to do about three more pieces that are also from places I visited during my Leavenworth trip last October.

A New Cat Portrait Order is Underway!

Today I had a visit from a lady who stopped by my booth at the Cat Show last weekend. She bought a print of mine of a lioness with her cub ("Still Waters") and she put a down payment on a colored pencil portrait order that I will be doing of her cats. (Yay! I am a happy camper!) I will be doing a portrait of two cats--a multi-colored cat with patches of gray, black & white (Sienna), and an orange and white Cornish Rex cat (Vevay). She has been taking photos of her cats with her digital camera. So I went over them with her to choose which ones would be used in the portrait. We found a good one for the multi-colored cat, but didn't find a usable one for the Cornish Rex cat. So she will be taking more photos this week and we will get together again next weekend.

An interesting thing I learned is this lady is also an artist and she has a part-time business doing murals for people. I am doing a mural right now (every Monday) for a hair salon (Bequa's in Boise. I just started getting into murals about a year ago when I did my first mural project for the Vineyard's Garden O'Feedin' Program. I have been sort of apprenticing with some other mural artists at church, who have been showing me some of the tricks of the trade. I find it very interesting. I may even consider including it as part of my "Chick Artistic Creations" business. What I have been learning about painting murals is that you can't spend as much time on it as I spend creating my super-realistic animals and landscape paintings. Murals need to be created in a more impressionistic and semi-realistic way. If you did an entire wall in the same intense realistic style that I do my animal and landscape paintings, I would be spending about 100 hours on it. It's not practical. So what I am trying to learn is how to do things well, but do them quicker and not to get lost in the details.

The Case of the Disappearing Art Students

This has been a very strange season for art students. I started out with four. One when mental on me and I think took a trip to the "funny farm", another cancelled because they decided they really didn't have time for lessons after all, one returned after Christmas, took one lesson, then vanished on vacation and I haven't seen them since. Now I have only one student. I don't know if it is a reflection of the weak economy or what, but lately I have had a lot of difficulty trying to maintain any level of consistency with art students. The $20.00 refundable registration fee is helping a lot and I'm glad I included it. But this student drop out rate is frustrating and maddening. I have decided not to make art lessons a major emphasis. I make very little money doing it anyway. Also, I am finding that I would rather do art shows and work on commissioned portraits than spend my time teaching.

I think that if I do go back to teaching, I am going to approach it entirely different. What I really love to teach is colored pencil & turpenoid. This is an entirely new method of art technique to most people and I am finding a lot of people are interested in learning it. So what I am going to do is have a preset date for one workshop or a series of four, advertise it months in advance, then hopefully I can get at least 4 people to actually commit to the lesson(s). I haven't decided if I want to end or totally change my ad for art lessons in the Treasure Valley Family Magazine.

The Cat Show--Musical Meows

This weekend was the big Idaho Cat Fanciers Show and I had a great time! After the HELLISH week I just had, this show was a breath of fresh air! There was a constant chorus of "meows" in the building that was like music to my ears! It was good to be able to talk to so many other cat and animal lovers and to share pet stories with each other. There were cats of all kinds including Persians, Siamese, Amerian Shorthairs, tabby cats, and some rare breeds like the Ocicat which is part bobcat and part domestic cat. There were four other vendors besides me and I was the only artist. Sales were slow at first, but really started picking up after the lunch hour. I made about $150.00 in sales and got about 10 orders for pet portraits! I tend to not get TOO excited about the portrait orders until I actually get the photos to work from. The problem I usually run into is people don't get around to giving me the photo(s) to work from and then the portrait order dies. So I decided to give customers an incentive to try and avoid this problem. I have a special deal going right now. If a potential customer gives me the actual photo to work from by the end of June 2008, I will give them a free print of one of my animal or landscape art prints. I took lots of names and phone numbers down so I could contact people about the portraits they said they wanted. Hopefully, in the next week or two, I may be starting another portrait order.

A lady from Bend, Oregon, who was there showing her cat, came to my booth and asked if she could sell some of my Stone Critter rock animals in a store she was planning to open this fall! So that may be a new opportunity opening up for me. I also got some valuable information on other cat & dog shows (in Idaho and in Utah) that might be a good fit for me and aren't too expensive to enter. It is a goal of mine to start marketing and selling my art out of state but with this real estate/mortgage recession going on, now is not a good time to incur extra expenses. I need to keep my overhead as low as possible and "think cheap"! Possibly next year would be a good time to start this.

I took some photos of the cat show and of me and my booth. I will post some of them on the blogsite probably next week.

The Cat Show and My Trip to Mordor!

I have been working all week getting ready for my big art show at the Cat Fancier's Cat Show at the Idaho Fairgrounds this weekend. I am really looking forward to it. I think this is my favorite art show to do because of the cats, which is my favorite animal. It has been a tough week for me and this show will help rejuvenate me a bit.

It has been a tough week because the mortgage broker business, which is what my husband is in, is under siege right now and is in a type of recession. Banks are trying to put mortgage brokers out of business because they are taking away business from them. There are laws in Congress that would put mortgage brokers out of business. There is definitely a battle of "dirty politics" going on against the real estate and mortgage business. I have found myself caught up in this battle, even though I don't really want to be! It affects me as an artist too. This situation limits me--it limits my budget and what I can spend (if any) on advertising and marketing myself as an artist. It affects my ability to relax, concentrate and be creative, so I can continue as an artist. I find myself thinking more about what I can do to bring in more money instead of being inspired to creat new art.

I am in a group that meets every Wednesday night that is a combination Care Group and Study Group. Several of the members of this group are also artists, like me, so it is perfect for me. We support each other in our triumphs and trials, we pray for each other. We have been doing a week by week study of John Edredge's book, "Waking the Dead." This book has been extremely helpful to me. John Edredge says that, "Your heart is worth fighting for!" and that is what I am doing right now. My heart is in creating art and I am fighting for that. The world is trying to destroy my heart and discourage me with recession and other attacks against the mortgage business and real estate market. Each of us has a calling. Mine is artwork. And whether I become rich and famous or end up a "starving artist," art is what I was put on this earth to do! Sometimes you find yourself in a war, whether you want to be or not. John Eldredge talks about that too. There is a scene in "Lord of the Rings" where Aragon tells another king who is in denial about the coming war, "War is upon you whether you would risk it or not." I am glad I have this little group of friends that I meet with. They are like the "Fellowship of the Ring" friends that helped Frodo on his journey to Mordor. Sometimes I feel like Frodo and I have been given a ring that I have to get rid of and an all expense paid vacation to Mordor!

Welcome Center Illustration & The Fuzzy Grey Cat Portrait

I got an email request a few days ago to do a pet portrait. A man wants me to paint a portrait in acrylics of his cat. He found my portrait of Maynard, "Maynard in Pink Basket" (above) on my website and said his cat happens to look a lot like Maynard. What makes this an interesting portrait request is that he wants me to paint this portrait on a fiberglass instrument case. I have never painted anything on this type of surface so I had to ask some of my other professional artist friends what they know about painting on fiberglass. I didn't want to run into the problem of doing a painting on an unstable surface only to have the paint come off. Apparently I need to sand the surface down before doing the painting. Another option would be to do this portrait on a regular paper surface then get it silk screened and turned into a decal that could be put on the client's instrument case. I have yet to contact this potential client yet, so I will be doing that this week.

Today was the monthly meeting of the Vine Arts Leaque at my church, the Vineyard. I volunteered to do a new project. I am going to do a larger color illustration that will be a banner that will be placed in the Welcome Center of the church. The basic design has already been worked out, I just need to "tweek" it a bit and do the final version in colored pencil & turpenoid. It will have a watercolor look to it. I have posted above a thumbnail rough version of this illustration which I will use to make the final 4 X 11 version.

Cat Show & Capital City Public Market Shows

There has been no time for my colored pencil & turpenoid art projects because I am preparing for my art show at the Idaho Cat Fanciers Show March 15-16. I have been making rock animals like crazy and I have some more prints I need to mat. Then I have to plan what supplies and equipment I will be taking. I have one and a half weeks to get everything done but I think I am on track and won't have a problem.

I applied to do some art shows this summer at the Capital City Public Market in downtown Boise. They have a section called the "Visiting Artist" where an artist can show their work once a month throughout the summer and that is what I want to do. This is a public market with local food and art & crafts that is every Saturday morning until 1:30 p.m. It goes from Mid-April to around October. This event usually gets a lot of traffic so I thought it would be worth a try. I am waiting to see if I have been accepted. They usually have more vendors than they have space available.

Fragile Egos and Neurotic Students

Okay, today it is "venting" time. Three new art students have started taking lessons this week and one art student went "mental" on me. It turned into an extremely difficult and painful event that ended up in termination of lessons. After one of my new students had their first lesson, I got an email a week later. This email was full of wildly exageratted accusations, verbally attacking me in a way that was very, very hurtful to me. Quite frankly this person came off sounding like some sort of mental case in need of psycho-therapy. I think this person needs a padded cell more than they need art lessons. At first I thought it was just a personality conflict, but now I think there is something more going on here than that. In my five years of teaching art students in my home, I have never had anything like this happen before. Most of the reason for this student's reaction is because I was familiar with some of their artwork and I actually had the nerve to suggest where this person might be able to improve their work. Well, the thing that makes no sense to me at all is this person came to me last year asking if they could take lessons and learn how to do animals like I did because they weren't really satisfied with how their animal art looked. This person did not seem to have much confidence in their art, so I figured they had a realistic idea of where they were at as an artist and was willing to take constructive critiques. But then when lessons start and I actually go and make suggestions of how this person can improve their work, they go ballistic on me. I actually complimented this student on one of the pieces they entered into the juried show because I liked the composition. I just didn't like the technique and the lack of color. I tried very hard to be tactful and I never actually said, "I don't like your art" even though I really didn't like it that much.

Okay, here comes the venting. I am TIRED of dealing with artists and their overly fragile egos. If you don't come to my lessons to improve your artwork and you aren't willing to check your ego at the door, then you can just go home! I am sick and tired of dealing with this issue and I am running out of patience! I will never tell a person I hate their artwork, but if I don't love it, I am not going to tell them that either. A student needs to be able to take honest constructive critiques without letting their ego get in the way. If you can't do that, then you are wasting my time and yours.

Maybe I am odd or something, but I actually like to seek out other artists, whose work I respect and love, to critique my work. I say, "bring on the criticism" because I will learn and grow as an artist. Last year I went to a well known Boise art gallery to see if I could get the owner to show my work. Well, the owner thought my landscapes were too much like other landscapes he had seen before. Like a snapshot of a famous landmark that he had seen a hundred times before. Although this was a blow to me, I actually found it very helpful. I look at my landscapes with a different perspective now and it has helped me grow. I think I am a better artist because of this advise. I am not insecure in my art. I am secure enough in my artwork to enter dozens of art contests, not win an award or get rejected and still believe I am an excellent artist and still continue to enter contests. I am not afraid of rejection or criticism. I believe in my work and I know it is good and I don't need an art contest juror or a gallery owner to validate that. If that makes me conceited and proud then that's tough. I don't care!

Anyway, I have come to a conclusion. Unless it is someone I already know, I am not going to teach one-on-one private adult art classes anymore. I will only do groups of two or more. There is safety in numbers! And until I at least get to know the student a little better, I will keep the topic of my conversation focused only on art instruction. What have I learned from this painful event? I have learned it is not always good to treat everyone like they are your close friend. Not everyone can take openness and honesty. You have to edit what you say. Not everyone has a sense of humor and unfortunately, some people just can't be trusted and you have to set boundaries. I have also learned that some people are so insecure about themselves and their art that they are unteachable. I have bigger fish to fry than to walk on eggshells because I fear I will "offend" someone by making a suggestion, however tactful it may be.

Okay, venting is done and you can breath a sigh of relief! The next blog will probably be more "normal."