“Stop thinking like the “little guys” for a start.” Hazel Dooney tweeted in response to my tweet.

Brilliant in its simplicity it goes back to something I’ve heard before, “Herger, think bigger.” Jim used to say this to me in rotation along with “Herger, get some bigger canvas for next class.” Perhaps for me working small goes along with thinking small. Sometimes it’s hard to think BIG when you have small amounts of time to work.

No offense to my DayJob but I’m really looking forward to my sabbatical during which I hope to focus primarily on art, the classes, an online sales solution and live sales solutions. I have no interest in being represented in a gallery. I don’t want to see 50% of the price of my paintings go to a gallery. I’m doing the work, why should they get 50% of that? Don’t give me the tired BS that they push sales and connect my work with buyers. Yawn. Perhaps I’m a control freak and want to know where my hard work ends up.

One of the few regrets that I have in life is that in 2001 when my art was starting to sell that I didn’t keep on making more of it. I should have stayed the course and continued to create and sell. Now I’m left picking up the pieces and recreating what was a hell of a lot easier when I was younger, jobless and without a mortgage.

The great thing about waiting to be where I am now is that technology has caught up with my ideas. I had the idea of doing online classes back in 2001 and 2002 but the technology wasn’t there. At the time you could create a private blog but UStream and the webcams available just weren’t good enough. Now they are and I’m able to do what I dreamed of back in the day.

During my sabbatical I’m looking at renting a space (perhaps with a few friends) and seeing if we can do a few shows in it. One to 3 months. It’s a simple idea. It’s a small step towards thinking bigger.

Wheels..
Originally uploaded by wil_freeborn

Again another fantastic series of watercolors (i think anyhow) from wil freeborn on flickr. This is great stuff on many levels but the great use of line and the terrific coloring makes me think of book illustrations. Don't take that as an insult, there are a lot of great illustrators.

"I'm old fashioned, but i don't mind it. ..As long you agree to stay old fashioned with me.
Originally uploaded by Cecília Murgel

Bright colors, lots of writing some sketches. love it

DSCI0032
Originally uploaded by align

Another stunner by align. Who hasn't been here?

21 Secrets is all kinds of awesome. 21 Amazing artists all doing classes together. I love to be a part of a community like this. It’s simply amazing to me. I’ve been cruising through the classes checking out what other people are doing and I’m loving it. Connie has created something brilliant. For 6 months you have access to some of the most creative minds in art journal, all for about $3 a class. Think about it 6 months $3 for one of my classes and then 20 other classes for about the same. It’s pretty friggin’ brilliant.

It’s the best value out there.

Period.

So let’s talk about how artist’s are getting paid. I get paid both if you click my link and if you click someone else’s. Granted I get more if you click my link and I’ll love you forever if you do but I won’t hold it against you if you click someone else’s link. In fact I won’t even know, when the artists get paid we don’t see names- just dollar amounts. Connie is the only one who sees names. that’s okay with me.

You see, it doesn’t matter to me if you pay me or you pay another artist the larger amount of money. I’m excited to have you onboard, I’m excited to have people learning more about art and this awesome artform I’ve been doing for the last 10 years. I want to get to know you, have you join artjournaling.ning.com and learn more about art journaling.

When I signed up for this I told my partner I didn’t care if I didn’t make a penny off my class, I was so excited to meet other artists and get to know all the people in the workshop. that remains true. So I ask you to follow this link to my complete information page about 21 Secrets and either click my payment link or follow a link to one of the other very deserving and awesome artists and show them some love. We’re all in this together and I want all the artists to know I support them 100%. And I want you to know just how damn awesome this series of classes will be

Community.

 I’ve been thinking about this simple term a lot lately. When I found the art journaling community 7 years or so ago I was in awe at the great sense of community I’d found, online in a yahoo group. (Aisling founded the online yahoo group.)  It spoke to all the great stuff I was doing in  my journal and inspired me to do more. You can thank Aisling D’Art for me doing what I’m doing now. I was doing some of it already but really she inspired me to do more with my art journal.

To me art journaling online is about that sense of community. I was never into the competitive art school twaddle.  So I’m always surprised when others are into it.

For me, my classes are not a competition. I do them first and foremost because I LOVE them. Seriously if there is one thing I want you to get out of my classes it is a love of and for art. The skills will come with time but that love of art, I want you to see that in me as I teach and I want you to feel it as you create. If you leave my class loving art, you will continue to work on your skills.

So yes, I do the classes as a business. There is money involved, I wouldn’t put money into the equation if I didn’t have to, a girls gotta eat.* But I don’t and won’t put money before the grand community of art journaling and art. I promote my friends because I believe in them. I suggest that my students do their own classes, because I believe in them. I believe in offering a hand up and holding on, because the stronger we build this community the stronger we all become.

Don’t get me wrong, if art journaling gets huge like scrapbooking, I totally want a piece of that pie, but I suspect I’ll take a route more independent of the big companies than others might. On that note, I’ll tell you I have big plans and it’s called: Art Habit.  Ohhh secrets.

Also go check out 21 Secrets, simply the best value in art journaling instruction on the net. It’s friggin’ awesome!!!

Continue reading →

uncle joe
Originally uploaded by pierrey

I love the use of line in this simple little drawing by Pierrey on flickr.

Typically I am a solitary artist. I work in a room with Christie in the other corner or in my studio with music but little else of the outside world. Today I broke that habit and traveled to Salem Common for an art date with my friend Jane McDonnell.

It was good to stretch my artistic wings and work in proximity to another artist, even if we did spend a good amount of time chatting. Though in our defense a good part of the time was spent talking about art, not just griping about work!

I painted some quick watercolors, we got some great coffee and did a lot of chatting about art. One of the main topics that came up was how to get into an art habit. I think this is an especially difficult thing for those of us who work a 40 hour a week job (in some cases more hours) and need to do that to make ends meet. When art goes from your full time job to your part time job I think it’s harder to stay in the art habit. That is making art on a regular basis becomes harder and easier to give up. I think that when you take art as a process and remove it from the ability to finish a given work in a regular amount of time to suddenly doubling your process time, it’s easy to get discouraged.

When you get discouraged it’s easy to give up.

How do you fight off discouragement? How do you keep the art habit living?

For me it’s always been about the visual journal- my sketchbook, idea book aka my art journal. It’s a simple thing but I look at my art journal daily, even if I’m not making art that day I look at the journal, flip through the pages and look at the art. Sometimes it’s as simple as looking right before bed and sometimes it’s more elaborate and I grab a couple of older books and flip through them in the afternoon with a good cup of tea. The art journal/visual sketchbook etc is a repository of information. It’s a goldmine of my thoughts.

After years of inactivity I gave myself the task to loosen up. I made a 3×5 inch journal with pages from a national geographic. I gesso’d every page and worked fast and loose, filling a page every night for a couple of month. Whatever came to mind, I journaled.  That was last summer. It set me off onto an art habit that has lasted until now. I had always art journaled previously but never to the extent that I started that summer.

I guess the real question is this: How do you go about making yourself get into your art habit? What do you need to make art everyday? For me I needed to loosen up and make art that didn’t matter to me, I need a journal that was pretty worthless and to work fast. Look at what is holding you back, identify it and eradicate it.

This AM I have a art date with my friend Jane Mcdonald. She’s a fab lady and one I don’t get to see nearly enough. We’re going to sit in the Salem Common surrounded by the long history of the place and sketch. Perhaps we’ll walk about historic Salem and sketch some more. Who knows where the day will lead.

We’re planning on lunch someplace and some discussion on art, the internet, how to keep the art habit alive and self promotion. It should be an altogether fabulous day.

I decided to go with my watercolors for today. I have my little sets and a couple of sketchbooks. I'm also bringing an assortment of drawing supplies.

I'll be sure to tell you ALL about it when I get back home.

roseburg from the mountains
Originally uploaded by petescully

Ipost a lot of stuff from petescully via flickr on here. there's a reason for it. I love his easy use of link and control of color. Thisis a fantastic example of his work, head on over to flickr and check out his ENTIRe stream, great stuff.