I
can finally reveal part 3 of the “big thing.” Part 3 of the big thing
is that I’m leaving my job the second week of May. I’m going to spend
the summer making art, working on my online art classes as well as
retooling my class site, art journaling ning. It’s not an optimal time
for me to leave my job but I figured if I don’t make the leap now I’d
never take a summer off, and well, I wanted to try and see if I can make
books, paint and write classes. I’ve got plans for a funky thing that
I’m going to call an artist’s zine/book. Super limited edition type of
thing, hand made, thick with my writing and lots of art journaling
goodies packed in. I’ve got a couple of class planned out. I’m at the
fleshing them out stage and outlining for videos stage. Lots of good
things going on.
I’m
sure many of you have heard rumors about ning’s decision to restructure
and increase prices. Ning has moved from ning 2 to Ning 3.0 status. I
have a year and a half to change to Ning 3.0. The problem is that Ning
3.0 does not have all the features that we currently use on
ArtJournaling ning. Though they may add them at some point. The second
problem is that it’s increasing the price from a moderate $250/yr to
about $600/yr. This is pretty drastic. A big part of what I’ve been
doing these last few weeks (when I haven’t been blogging) is exploring
other options for AJ ning. I’ve made no secret that I’ve been less than
pleased with ning’s formats and options for classes. It’s a pain for
the presenters to set up classes, and when I have guest teachers most
cannot figure out how to update the class. This makes a lot of work for
me on the back end of things, and while I’ve been working it’s been a
total pita.
the
replacement is designed for education and I’ve had a few people check
out the site and they’ve told me it’s easy to navigate, easy to
interact, and easy to look at. It’s not ready for new people yet, as I’m
still tweaking the formating and working on the site. Not to worry, AJ
ning is staying online.
Oh
yeah, the new site is going to have an art journaling wiki. Super easy
to search, loads of info, the ability to ask questions, and loads of
links to videos and blogs.
Holy crapola, I’m excited!