Jody Noelle Coughlin

I just want you all to know that I also have been contacted by a fellow calling himself Stanley Jackson. His e-mail is stanley.jackson326@gmail.com. He told me he wanted to buy art from me. I believed him… Continue reading… 8 comments

I know. It's been quiet around my blog in the last while. I'll tell you why. It's because I've spent all summer crunching numbers, feelings, thoughts, hopes and dreams about my future. I've been a stay-at-home mom for almost ten years now and I've decided it's time to move on. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids. I love that I've had the opportunity to be home with them to watch them grow, change, learn, poop, pee, puke and all that stuff. It's been mostly great. I've been mostly broke. I knew it was time to move on but I didn't want to rush into anything. Anyone who knows me knows that I've had one heck of a time dealing with the issue (or non-issue) of never having stepped foot into an art program. I felt so out of the loop for so long in the art world… Continue reading… 5 comments

I've had a lot of good fortune selling prints of one of my paintings titled Expecting. Expecting is a watercolor painting of a pregnant woman who seems to be very serenely and patiently expecting the arrival of her baby. It is a very pleasant image that seems to send a quiet and hopeful energy to the viewer. Much to my delight it seems to strike a chord with people in general and women within the healthcare industry in particular. It has been published on-line, it hangs in the offices of massage therapists, obstetricians, physiotherapists and so on. So, in the interest of exploring the theme of an image that seems to resonate so strongly with people I decided I would explore the theme of birth and pregnancy. Maybe there is more I want to say. Maybe… Continue reading… 3 comments

Don't be afraid of a little rejection. It'll do you good to know you're not wanted. Trust me! I tried a little experiment this month. I decided it was time to throw down the gauntlet (or whatever) and approach a few galleries in hopes that I might gain representation. I had been wanting to do this for a while now. Well, to be honest, I've been wanting to do this since I started painting, but I've known all along the timing wasn't right. In fact, it wasn't even in the ball-park of being right. Obviously. That was about six years ago when I first started painting. I wanted it all at first! I wanted shows and popularity and fame and fortune. As naive as I was, I was ravenously competitive in the beginning. My first show occurred six months after I first picked up a paint brush… Continue reading… 5 comments

It is a small world. It really is. I woke up this morning and opened my laptop to see what I could see. I found a bit of writing. I liked it. I shared it with friends. What I saw within this piece of writing was (seemingly) a heartfelt out-pouring of sheer frustration over an art show the writer (who is also an artist) witnessed recently. Alright. I like that. In fact, I loved that. As an artist himself he had something to say about the current art scene in New York City. Impressive. I go about my day. I run errands and I do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I come home. I re-open my laptop. I see what has happened since I left. Another fellow artist I've met recently has a completely different perspective on the writing of the first artist… Continue reading… 1 comment

Sometimes you've just got to be the editor you need. It's true and in my mind's eye, I can see my editor. He is a bit older than me (just by about 40 years or so) with silver hair and a huge attitude (problem) but he is the kind of guy that couldn't begin to rattle me if he tried. I am too amused by his cranky nature to be put off by it. In fact, at my age (32) I can somehow relate to it and I'm not too sure what that says about me and I suppose I don't really care. Also, in my mind's eye, I land a story on his desk (well, I actually e-mail it but for dramatic purposes, let's say I put it on his desk) well before deadline. He accepts it willingly and off I go to cover an event or interview a politician who is in town for a few hours. See, I am a reporter and writing is my job… Continue reading… 2 comments

How do you know you are an artist? I'm not exactly the running authority in the world of art, per se. I am painfully aware of this. Sometimes, because I paint and draw (and most recently decided to try my hand at clay sculptures) I feel I am expected to know things I simply don't yet. I think it is a self-inflicted form of expectancy. It's true that I am harder on myself than I am on others for reasons I have yet to understand. I pick up tidbits of information here and there about art, but I am not a formally trained artist. I don't know a lot about art history. I don't know a lot about any one thing, in fact. I've gone it alone, mostly, since I started painting but someday, I plan to go to art school. In fact, next fall might be my year. I've got my fingers crossed… Continue reading… 8 comments

I've heard there was something to having a little luxury in your life to boost your inspiration. I've read about this theory but I've never really tested it before. This past Valentine's Day though, I decided to give the notion a little test drive. My husband bought me a nice bouquet of yellow sweetheart roses and, like most women, I adore flowers so I was (of course) very happy to receive this little gift. Usually, when my husband gives me flowers, I keep them on my dresser in my bedroom. Doing so meant that I only enjoyed them here and there throughout the day. Most of the time, though, they went largely unnoticed. I don't know why I did this. I am guessing it is because I saw it in a magazine or something years ago and never really questioned the idea... I just followed suit… Continue reading… 0 comments

One thing I have learned is that still life's and ten year olds don't mix. Lately, I've been teaching art classes to fifth grade students from my hometown of Hartland, New Brunswick. These classes are not formal or anything extraordinarily complicated. In fact, they are put in place within the community as a bit of an escape from the everyday and are meant to be fun, plain and simple. Funded by the proceeds raised by the annual Paint The Heartland Fine Art Show and Sale in Hartland, New Brunswick, these classes provide the students with an opportunity to enjoy a little exposure to art in various forms. Sometimes we draw and sometimes we paint or goof around with modeling clay… Continue reading… 0 comments

I cannot recall just how many times I felt like I was being somewhat irresponsible, especially as a mother, during the times when I took the last twenty dollars I had in my wallet and used it to buy a canvas and a few tubes of paint. However, despite the guilt or concern, I did just that all the time over the years. I still do it. I make it a priority to nurture myself as a painter even though, if you looked at the whole enterprise of being an artist in terms of investment and return, it might seem utterly crazy to put money into it. Sometimes I spend much more than I earn and sometimes I earn much more than I spend. In other words, sometimes I experience an upshift in sales of my work and sometimes I simply don't. I remember one time when I was so broke I couldn't even afford a canvas… Continue reading… 2 comments

When I first joined artId.com, I was almost immediately challenged by another artist who seemed, by and large, much more experienced and knowledgeable about this whole thing called art than I will likely ever claim to be... He didn't seem to like my work and I really didn't like what he seemed to be trying to say to me about it. I evaded his remarks as best I could and I got rather defensive in return, to say the least. I didn't like what he was insinuating about my "art" because, at the time, it seemed like he was trying to tell me that all the elements of an innate ability are found within my work, but it seemed to me that he (more than anything else) thought my work lacked something… Continue reading… 9 comments