Art Blog - Mary Lawler

Independent Coffee Network News

The Good News:

Seven more coffee shops have been added to the network feed. The coffee shops are located in Pasadena, Burbank, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Redondo Beach, San Dimas, Hollywood and Ventura (2) and the network is growing rapidly. ICN has also struck a deal with Aardvark Records, check it out: “Aardvark Records and World Wide Arts’ Independent Coffee Network have announced a licensing deal. which sees the British record label supplying the US-based music video entertainment provider with its promotional music videos. The video licensing deal will see popular videos broadcast in independent American coffee houses from coast to coast.”

Photographing Your Artwork and Resizing Images

It’s a challenge to give artists step-by-step instructions for photographing, downloading and sizing their artwork, because everyone is working with different combinations of Mac, PC, Camera model, mega pixels and photo editing software.

I have been grabbing a few hours now and then to practice my oil painting. Ta Da! I'm Watching You is finished. The subject is my cat, Shadow who often pretends to be sleeping but still has one eye open. He used to have one white whisker that looked pretty funny but now he has a few on each side, making his portrait more balanced. The painting is 3 × 4 so I had to cut and fit my own frame

I thought everyone should get a little good news. Sandy DiCristofaro received a commission last week from someone who saw her work on her ArtId site. A few days later, I got a calligraphy job from someone who found my ArtId site in a Google search for calligraphers. Leaving links, blogging, and social media really does pay off

I have been reading a lot lately about what artists need to do, should do, must do, but right now I’m more interested in what artists want to do; the skills or accomplishments you want to attempt or master before you” kick the bucket”. If you ask someone about their bucket list and they tell you that they have done everything they ever wanted and they are perfectly content, they are either James Bond or very boring. If you don’t have a bucket list, now is a good time to start, think, there must be something.

Here at ArtId we have made a commitment to accept advertising, from eco friendly art suppliers, only. Companies that are making a difference in their everyday business practices deserve our support. When members log in there is a link to Rex Art Supplies one of our environmentally responsible partners. So what is Rex Art all about?

Katrina Morris, Director of Internet Marketing, states, "Here at Rex Art we do our best to be green. Our offices and warehouse are painted with low VOC paint, we use non-toxic cleaning products and we recycle shipping boxes and packing material. We've installed efficient lighting fixtures throughout our facility and programmed our thermostats so that we use less energy

If there is any one thing that can bring your creativity to a halt, it’s a negative attitude. If you think everything is bad, then it will be. The news media has the power of negative thinking and will only report the worst. It’s catchy, all that doom and gloom and it’s easy to get stuck in their quicksand.

Are you tired of being asked to donate a piece of your art to a fundraiser? I know it’s a tax deduction, I know it’s good exposure. Well, I’m so over exposed now, it’s almost illegal and it has done absolutely nothing for my sales or notoriety.

You may have noticed that there isn't any advertising on ArtId. Since it's beginnings in 2000, ArtId has never accepted advertising. We felt very strongly that the site should keep a clean look and not get cluttered with ads. Your membership fees have been our only source of revenue.

The value of art lies in its ability to generate income. An entire industry is built on that accepted truth, dividing art and artists into strata of profitability and determining success and failure.

By that definition, my art is worthless and I am a failure. If money were arts only measure of value I would stop today, I would throw away my tools and supplies and watch a movie. While my art may be of no value to anyone else, the simple act of creating it is priceless. I produce what I call art, because I have to, it’s like breathing or sleeping. If I don’t participate in the act of creation I suffer from creative deprivation. I am uneasy, off balance, something is wrong; I have to find a tool and a surface on which to make marks.

Somebody better call the Geneva Convention, there is a painting being tortured. Obviously overworked, but what a blast! Joyce's book has been christened, with paint, but not so badly I can't still read it. The second is a painting in progress of my cat on the windowsill. I'm making observations as I go because I have never worked with oils before. I'm not really frustrated because I'm having so much fun and I can always paint over them

This piece, A Long Way To Go and Curve Of The Earth are part of a series that is my attempt to break away from so many right angles. All my work is very squared up and orderly, not consciously, I'm just really comfortable with the format. Maybe it's a by-product of graphic design. As you can see I really broke the format with these tentative curves. "Hold on Mary, don't go crazy all at once." It may not be earth shattering but is is a start at working with movement through space

Are you an artist trapped in between?

I have nothing against galleries; I owned one. They serve a portion of the population that is looking to invest in and collect art. Clients rely on a good relationship with a gallery, for advice, recommendations and information. It’s kind of like the stock market of the art world. What’s hot, what’s not, what’s new, what is a long shot, what is a good investment? They use words like “important”, “ground breaking” and “explosive”. High End, is that near the north end? The percentage of working artists today who are adequately represented by a gallery is very small. I have nothing against Art and Craft Shows; I’ve exhibited in them. They serve another purpose for another portion of the population. They range from high end to low end

2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the invention of tracing paper by Canson. A bit of trivia you might not ponder on a daily basis but it is interesting non-the less. Used since its invention, by artists, architects, engineers and draftsman. Tracing paper and tracing vellum has become a staple in every design, architectural and fine art studio. Canson developed tracing paper in 1809. No one is sure exactly how the concept came about or how much trial and error was involved in the development. One medieval recipe involved marble dust, fish glue and garlic. So glad we improved on that! To this day Canson’s technique for making tracing paper is kept secret. All that is divulged is that the transparency is achieved in the pulping stage of the process.

…and you House Beautiful, Real Simple and Martha Stewart Living and all you other home decorating and lifestyle magazines. I dare you to do a feature or series on buying art for the home on the Internet. Readers are ready for some new ideas. They are sick of you featuring what is the newest cool thing at Target. Design tips like wrapping fabric around a stretcher frame ala Merimekko has been done and done and done. So has finding some object in the junkyard, spray painting it and hanging it on the wall as art. Readers regularly buy everyday home goods from the Internet, why not art? Because you don’t tell them to.

What if Oprah bought a painting on line, or Martha Stewart or Ty Pennington? All it would take, for online art sales to become less intimidating is for one celebrity, one television show, one main stream media giving their endorsement of buying art online and it would change the tide dramatically. If Oprah showed a piece of art on her show that she bought online, people wouldn’t be able to get to art sites fast enough. If one HGTV decorating show included buying original art online for a project, it would break the barrier wide open.

In the spirit of this loving season, we decided to make a little video for Eugene to let him know how much we appreciate all his work. Eugene is our programmer, he’s the guy that makes all the features and functions of ArtId work. He’s the one who understands all the code that’s gibberish to us. Eugene lives outside Moscow, Russia and English is not his first language. Despite time differences and language issues we are able to make ArtId happen. That’s how cool the internet is, our programmer is in Russia! We don't even know if they celebrate Valentines Day in Russia, he might think we are all crazy, but at the least he'll know we appreciate his work

Big Art, Small Canvas

I have always wanted to be a painter. I come from a family of painters, but sadly painting was never my forte. I struggled with it in art school but I didn’t care, I was a graphic design major, just about to set the advertising world on fire.

Thirty years later, I still do some graphic design but I have this persistent dream of painting. I saw a book on the artid site by artist Joyce Washor titled, Big Art, Small Canvas. Joyce works on 3 × 4 panels and creates paintings that are indeed big art. I had always been attracted to her style of painting and the format seemed like it would be good for a beginner. There is no sense in wasting 16 × 20 canvases on bad paintings, of which I was sure I would make many.

Art Licensing is one venue for art sales that artists often over look. We often think of licensing as art for stickers or calendars but in truth the opportunities are vast. It’s not just cute geese and ribbons on coffee cups and tee shirts. Many artists become well known through their designs applied to everyday consumer goods.

Expert, Tara Reed explains "Licensing" is another way of generating income from your art. Instead of selling originals or selling your designs outright, many artists will grant the right (license) to use their art on a specific product, for a set time period in exchange for a percentage of sales. This percentage is called a royalty. By licensing your art, you have the potential to earn income on the same art piece or collection several times.”

I sat down to write this article about how important it is to keep your site fresh and current when I remembered that my own site hadn't been touched in ages. Shame on me. It's under complete re-construction right now. Here's why:

Your site is your brochure and your business card. You wouldn't keep handing out brochures that were outdated would you? It costs money to print new brochures and business cards but to update your site is FREE.