update from the trenches

I've been in Serious Thinking mode when I should be painting. As you know, the whole Etsy phenonenon takes up way too much of my thinking time. Lately, shop sales have flattened, and it's keeping me awake at night! But it's also helping me figure out the right direction to take as I observe the successful sellers vs. the not-so. As a result, I'm switching direction a bit and need to clear out some of my more traditional original art (SALE! Was that subliminal enough?). Etsy really is the place for prints. It's pretty amazing to me to see an artist who sells small original paintings for, say, $100, sell the same thing in a print for $28 and sell dozens per day! I still don't get that way of thinking, but I need to start getting with the program if I want sales to pick up. So please check out the ol' shopfront and if you don't like the sale price on any of the older stuff, contact me.

Meantime, Etsy is having a bumper sticker contest. Here's my entry (Fimo fellow conceptualized, designed and constructed by #2 son):

painting #12 part 2

As you can see, I haven't gotten very far with #12. Yesterday I did some of the preliminary work to painting: lightly sketching the images that will be handpainted, in white conte, on the coloured ground. I started using conte for this purpose quite by accident and it was one of those brilliant discoveries that I continue to use consistently.

I also cut the stencils (acetate and x-acto knife) and laid down the painted stencil areas (stylized masks, arrowheads and a scarab) which are fewer in this painting than in most of the others in this series. I just attach the stencil to the canvas with a piece of masking tape and use a flat-ended brush (I prefer brights for most of my work) to brush in the image. Easy as dirt ~ and the inconsistencies add character (or so I tell myself).

Next: Painting the sketched-in images.

QUESTION: Are any of you familiar with PRINT GOCCO? If so, how do you like it: costs, flexibility, quality, etc?

taxes, marketing, creativity

I believe creativity happens everywhere, not just in the arts. Marketing is definitely a prominent hook on which to hang the Creative Thinking hat (thanks for the metaphor, Brian), so to creatively market a creative product like, say, a painting results in a veritable explosion of creative juices (euw). Case in point: paintings by numbers. There's even a blog. If that's not brilliant, then I'll eat my bank card. Never mind, there's nothing there to eat anyway because I wasn't clever enough to think of this! And to prove it, I have my first ever appointment with a tax accountant on Friday. As if to make me feel better about this (not), I got the latest Washington Post's Mensa Invitational in my inbox a couple of days ago. To wit:

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

And, with any luck, the number-cruncher guy won't be an:

2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

My fondest wish is that he's as creative at his job as the marketers of the number paintings are at theirs.

afca

First things first: THANK YOU to those who responded to my request for feedback. It was enlightening and valuable and even a little surprising. It gave me a really good idea of what direction to go in so I'm indebted to you. The clear winner in the little contest was Here Is The Ancient Floor, a painting that has actually won an award. I was just about to start the ball rolling by ordering some prints when I realized that my only image is a crappy one, and the painting itself is hanging in a downtown gallery (as of today). I will be heading into town Wednesday so will beg Rosalind to let me take it outside and re-photograph it.

Now -- the exhibition. There are three of my paintings hanging at the Federation Gallery on Granville Island (1241 Cartwright Street) for the next two weeks for the Success! exhibition. You may now kiss my feet. I decided to bite the bullet this year and apply for signature status with the Federation of Canadian Artists (I never had the nerve before now to apply) and found out yesterday that I had been accepted. You may now call me Didrooglie AFCA. Besides Ancient Floor, the paintings Tide (below) and Rootbound are also up. Oh yeah -- and the work of the other successful applicants.

I finally started the last painting in the never-ending series. It's been a struggle because I'm already thinking (and even starting) other projects, but I'm just so close that I thought I'd post its progress here as an additional kick-in-the-butt to get me over this last hurdle. I present to you, um ... something: