Goings-on

I am working toward photographing the multi-media paintings I have been creating over the past month so that I can have more than just copy up on this blog. In addition, I'm wrapping my mind around selling these pieces on etsy, and a local art house that does consignment. They hang the paintings, and you pay them if they are sold. Seems like a great way to sell some things.

I also want to do more commissions for friends/family, etc. I'd really like to get things going word-of-mouth like. And it doesn't take me that long to do a painting and I usually have more than one going at a time, which keeps things interesting.


I have about 7-9 paintings I've done that are 12x12, which makes them very portable and easy to store. I also like the square canvas. Most of these are on stretched canvas, but I've also ventured into canvas board.

The issue I had with canvas board art was how to hang it. On Friday, I bought a frame to experiment. The only way I could get it to work, because the canvas board is thick, is to not use the glass that came with the frame. I want to keep looking for bigger frames that will hold the glass and the painting.

The other thing I thought of was to use a plate holder as the display for the canvas board. This is a conundrum that I will have to think about a little more. But I know I'll figure it out.

Over the course of a week, I started and finished a 24x36" canvas for my mother-in-law's spare bedroom. This was the biggest canvas I've ever worked with, in my current creative state or previous projects in years past. It was scary and exciting. And I was scared she wouldn't like what I did with what we talked about.

She showed me the room — so that gave me the colors to work within: rust and gold — gave me a theme — travel — and we picked out a travel quote. And I ran with it. It's almost completed, and after a once-over from her yesterday, I'm excited and no longer afraid she wouldn't like it.

I've taken crappy iphone progress photos of the travel canvas to eventually figure out how to post here (gotta make the time!). I like seeing the progress from beginning to end of paintings and art in general. It is encouraging to see that sometimes the paintings look horrible, and you can't stop there, you have to keep going.

I'm having a LOT of fun and once I start something, I come up with other ideas. So I'm always making notes in my phone, on scrap paper, on my hands with ink pens, for other paintings or groups of paintings.

One thing I've noticed is that when I have a phrase or quote first, the painting flows from that. I have started a few paintings without a quote or phrase in mind (something inspirational and soul-filling) and I usually end up altering them to the point that they don't look anything like what I started out with. It's very interesting and organic.

I also go fast, zone out (actually tv helps occupy my brain so I can get very intuitive with what I do) on something else and the results are more authentic than if I start trying to create something gorgeous.

Other things —
· I want to do a how-to in staining porch furniture. I went to Home Depot without knowing what I was even looking for, and now I want to share that info.
· I have an article brewing about job searching from my perspective — I got two jobs in the last year. I think I know what works now. I want to figure out how to pitch this idea to different publications.
· I've decided to leave my work portfolio separate from this blog and my future etsy store because I like the name for this blog, and the work portfolio is professional and sarcastic. I may still put my paintings up there with a link to etsy, but I don't want to brand the work portfolio the same as this blog.