DATE: 03/29/2008 20:13:29 / MOOD: happy

I plunked a rather crude dry point into a local arts auction with a minimum bid of $80 and it sold!  It went late in the auction, only about half the people were still there and the auctioneer misplaced it and in the mad scramble to find it and put it up for bid, she failed to describe the medium or read the artist statement.  It still sold.  It sold when those around it didn't.  Granted, the proceeds won't buy a week's worth of groceries.  It barely covers the cost of the promotional material I put out there but by God, it sold.  Yay.

Things I learned: Poignant and funny artist statements sold better than listings of the artists accolades.  This was not a group of folks interested in investing.  They were interested in decorating their houses with art that held a story.  I also learned that slapping a minimum bid on the piece tends to get you the minimum bid.  The highest selling pieces were those that started at $20 and went up into the hundreds.  I guess there is a risk to that.  Some of them ended up sold for $20.  Not many, though.

 Any observations from the savvy community out there?

 -Marcia

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DATE: 02/15/2008 23:19:59 / MOOD: happy

OK.  In my efforts to go from paintbrush for hire (pimpin' paintbrush, if you will, in the vernacular of the hip-hop generation) to fine artist not-for-hire-but-wouldn't-mind-pulling-in-a-few-bucks, I am going to enter a local show where the selected material is displayed prominently (I hope) for a month and then auctioned off.  I get a 70% piece of that, so it's a pretty good deal.  My question is this:  Which one of the works in my gallery should I sell off?  (NOT the turtle.  That stays in the family.)

 What do you guys think, and why?  (Backhanded attempt at getting a critique, here.

 -Marcia

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DATE: 02/15/2008 10:56:18 / MOOD: full of life

Has anyone bought a messotint rocker from Utrecht?  I was cruising their catalog last night (like toy catalogs at Christmas, you know? and noticed that their messotint rocker is significantly cheaper than Dick Blick or Dan Smith. It's so cheap, it's almost affordable  It makes me wonder if it's any good.  Dos anybody know?

 

-Marcia 

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DATE: 02/06/2008 20:42:31 / MOOD: full of life

OK, I don't know if this is much good but I got 'er done. We had a snow day and I pulled out the piece of wood and carved away a relief print, inked it up and colored it with wc pencils. Even though I don't have any control or skill level with wood-cut tools yet and all my other stuff defines control and detail, and even though this is a completely different ball of wax and has all sorts of beginner screw ups in it and probably isn't much good technically or artistically....I really like it. I don't know why. It's like somebody gave me a present, right there in my kitchen.

I just love snow days.

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DATE: 01/29/2008 17:34:42 / MOOD: happy

Hi Folks!

 Again, seeking advice from you experienced fne artists out there.  (As an illustrator, all I had to do was complete the project and send it off.  Framing and displaying were very rare.) Now I've got a studio and a big wall in which I'd like to create a gallery.  I'm looking at inexpensive hanging systems for pieces of work that are rarely bigger than 18" X 24" and not terribly heavy.
Any advice from you folks out there who can do this from the local hardware store? Could I put up moulding as a kind of rail and find some clips and wire?

Thanks, folks!  I really appreciate the guidance and ideas!

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DATE: 01/27/2008 21:37:06 / MOOD: don't know

This isn't a blog.  I just want to ask if anyone here has a website on Artwanted.com.  I've had a website over there for a while a few years ago, but kind of lost track because it seemed to be predominately high school kids with great desire and potential, but nothing in that community was getting me anywhere.  (Not like this one, that's for sure!)

 Anyway, I left my stuff up there because you can't beat the price (free) and went back today because, after 3 years,  I suddenly remembered I was still on the site.  (Hey, I'm 48 and in hormonal flux.  Gimme a break. )  They have a lot more bells and whistles on there, including Pay Pal accounts and little marketing gizmos that might be useful.  Can't beat the fee at $5 per month. Do any of you fine folks have a site on there, and if you do, what do you think of it?  

 I guess this was more of a blog than I thought.

 -Marcia

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DATE: 12/18/2007 11:43:56 / MOOD: disappointed

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog about my optimistic attempts at waterless lithography. I posted a couple of versions of a plate I was working on (which hopefully posted above.  If not, it's the last two posts in my gallery) and rambled on about all the steps it would take to print the sucker.

Well, I didn't sufficiently prep the plate and it declared revenge by not binding sufficiently with the silicone caulking. The whole drawing fell apart. 6 hours down the tubes. Back to the drawing board.

However, the up-side is this: I figured out where I went wrong and have since created new plates. Of course, once I cured the plates and ordered the ink, I realized that I ordered etching ink, not litho ink, and it's way too gooey to use for this technique. Back to Daniel Smith. I'll keep you all posted.

-M

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DATE: 12/17/2007 15:01:19 / MOOD: other


I'd love to see a little more info on the work that is uploaded into the gallery.  Knowing the media would be excellent.  Anyway we can do this? I've done it on mine by mentioning the media in the title but I don't think that occurs to a lot of folks.

That's all.  Off to dig my car out of the snow.



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DATE: 12/03/2007 00:23:16 / MOOD: full of life

I think I ran out of room in that last diatribe.  This one is just to show the two stages of the plate that I just finished.

Hmmm, it's not working. Well, they are in my gallery.  My next step will be to put on the ground, but that will have to wait.  It's almost 1:30am and I do have to commute to work tomorrow.  We're do for a foot of snow, so I think it will be a long day.

Goodnight!

-M

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