Bad day, good music, and old photo shoots

So I had a horrible day at work today.  Kind of a downer day.  Except for talking to my sister in England and having Five Guys with my wonderful fiance, the day was pretty bad.  If you've ever seen It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and seen an episode where Charlie freaks out and is yelling that is how I felt inside today.  I don't always show that on the outside, but when I do it is really hard for my fiance to not laugh at me.  He knows I'm wicked angry, but it must be pretty funny to see.

I posted the last picture I put up in my last post on my etsy store.  If anyone ever wants to buy a print but doesn't want it matted or wants it bigger or smaller or WHATEVER... PLEASE feel free to email me or message me on ETSY to make a custom order.  We can make it happen!  So I put up a lot of my past commissions on my Facebook Page.  But incase you don't want to click on my links to find them yourself I'll post you some eye candy.  Also I just have to say that the Foo Fighters are amazing, and I think Fucked Up's album David Comes to Life is amazing also.  Just sayin...

Promo shots for a group called 1.8.7 in 2006

Promo shot for a group called 1.8.7 in 2006

Promo shot for a singer named Symona in 2006

Promo shot for a singer named Symona in 2006

Engagement photo shoot 2006

Engagement photo shoot 2006

Disappointments...

Well today on my to-do list was to register for the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival.  Well come to find out you have to have a CT tax ID number to sell there.  Well it's another $100 to register your business and get that tax ID number.  So let's do some math here: $260 (for registering before March 31st) + $25 (Jury fee) + $100 (CT business registration fee) = $385.  That's a week pay for me...  That's just way too much money right now.  Therefore, I will not be doing the Mystic Art Festival this year.  I'm wicked disappointed about this.  People keep telling me how much they bank doing that fair.  Well if you don't have the "bank" to pay to even be there, how the HELL are you supposed to make that bank. I guess there's always next year or the year after because of our wedding.  I should just sigh and say someday like I always do.  God, I'm such a disappointment.

Even though I'm really mad at myself for not doing this fair, I will be doing the Mekliem Kiln Works Arts and Wellness Fair in Bozrah, CT.  The website isn't updated yet for this year, but hopefully soon it will be.

In other news I will be doing Take Steps for Crohn's and Colitis this year with my Kevin and some other friends and family.  Our team name is Team Walken and our goal is pretty high this year due to my 4 year old niece that got diagnosed this month with Crohn's Disease.  Not to mention I have it and some of our other friends work with someone that has Crohn's too.  So we have plenty of reasons this year to raise the funds for research and help to those with the diseases.  So if you feel inclined to do so please donate to our cause to find a cure for these diseases.  We walk May 11th so there's only about two months to raise the money.

Here's a new picture to please your peepers:

Taken on Lonesome Lake or the Ridge trail on Cannon Mt. 2012

I can't remember which it was...

New year... New stuff... New opportunities!

Yet again I haven't written in a very long time.  I swore I would be better at this.  I have failed miserably already!  So here I am again in a slump.  I still haven't finished a commission that was due for Christmas as a family Christmas gift for my friend.  I don't like what I've painted.  I have a new idea for it, but am too chicken to make the first mark to cover up my old idea.  I have huge issues!  I'm worried it's going to turn out how the old idea did... a stand still mess!  I just need to make the first mark and I'll be fine.

I got engaged on Christmas day so I've been busy doing wedding stuff.  BUT we have a ton of money to raise to pay for the wedding.  So I'm going to try to sell my wares this summer in two art fairs.  One I did last year and was kind of a bust.  I am hoping this year will be better weather and therefore better sales.  Plus I have come away with a lot of good ideas from other vendors' set ups.  I hope my presentation will help with my sales as well.  It costs money to make my booth presentable, but hopefully it will be worth it.  I bought a mannequin head form and a wig to sell my barrettes.  I'm hopefully going to get some peg board panels from my dad to make a whole wall for display instead of a 4 x 4 makeshift stand display.

So the first art fair is the Arts and Wellness Fair at the Meiklem Kiln Works in Bozrah, CT 7/27/13.  The second fair I'm going to do is the Mystic Art Festival.  This one is a two day event: August 10, 2013 and August 11, 2013.

In my spare time I've been trying to make more barrettes.  The past two days I've been going through my recent binder of negatives to see if there are any shots worth selling.  So far I've found a couple.  We'll see how that turns out.  I have a lot of matting to do before July!

I hope people reading this know about our local art festivals and will be supporting them this year.  Even if you just go to look, you're seeing artists work and just that means something to the artist.  I am so grateful to businesses in our area that show local artists on their walls.  Places like the Green Marble in Mystic, Sweetie's in New London,  Mrs. B's in Norwichtown just to name a few that plaster their walls with artists work for sale.  So to end this little rant, support your local art scene.  Send the artist a message if you like their work and why, it would make their day!

Engagement photo shoot 2007

Watch Hill Beach, Westerly RI

Taken on the Pemi Trail at the base of Cannon Mt. in Franconia, NH

Senior portrait photo shoot in Jewett City, CT 2006

"Joe and Abby"

35mm color film 2012

I hopefully finished the shoot for my family friends last night.  I hope they like it.  Might have to do some adjustments, but I'm pleased with it for the most part.  I enjoy how warm the room looks.  I like the fire going in the background too.  There's still another portion to this commission, hopefully I can get it just right so they'll be happy with the end result.  It's for a Christmas present, so I hope we can get it right before then.

I just added a new listing to my Etsy store too today.  It's one of my favorite photos that I've taken this year.  I took it in Mystic, CT.  There are more pictures from that day I need to put up to try and sell.  I need to bring my camera downtown if I ever go down for Christmas shopping.  Mystic at Christmas time is pretty.  I should get some pictures of Norwich Town Hall too.  It's so pretty all lit up for Christmas.  

"Mystic River"

2012

I think I'm one of the few out of my friends that still loves Christmas.  I can't wait to put up all our Christmas decorations.  My boyfriend and I usually wait until December first or that first weekend of December to put up our decorations.  I want to make a paper chain link this year to count down to Christmas.  I'm hoping I'll be well prepared and ahead of schedule this year so I won't be scrambling the week before Christmas.  

It snowed yesterday.  I get so disappointed when I wake up from a night of snow here in Southern Connecticut.  It doesn't snow like it used to when we were kids.  There's barely a dusting on the ground at our house.  You can still see the grass.  *Sad Face...  Hopefully we'll get more snow this year than last.  Last year was so mild.  Not that I like driving in the snow or anything, but winter should have snow in New England.  I thought that was kind a rule of thumb.  Fingers crossed =0)

I haven't written in a really long time.  I guess I've been in kind of a slump you could say.  I was pretty reserved at the start of this blog, but now I'm just going to be me and say what I want.  It's my blog, right?  Artist or not, I'll be myself.  My latest painting was for some friends that got married in June.  I just gave them the painting in October I think.  I think I am one of the worst procrastinators I've ever known.  This painting was supposed to be their house warming gift two years ago.  Now it was their wedding gift and it was still late!!!  Need to get better at setting deadlines and sticking to them.  

"Hen's Nest" 2010-2012 

Oils

This was completely different when I started.  That's just my process as an artist though.  I have a vision at first, when it doesn't turn out the way I envisioned it... I just change my idea and therefore the painting is completely different.  It turned out okay in the end.  I could have kept going, but I wanted my friends to have their gift at some point in their married life.  If I was to do more on it, it would've been to change the color of the sky a bit, but I'm okay with it.  They love it so I guess that's all that should matter in the long run.  People tell me I'm too critical of myself, someone's got to be though.  Now that I'm no longer in Art School or in an artistic community, it's rare to get honest criticism.  My boyfriend is best I have right now.  He's honest about things, which is good.  I need that.

I am currently working on a photo shoot for some family friends.  The mother wanted to recreate an old picture of her son and his dog infront of their fireplace for his Christmas present.  Hopefully we finally got a good shot on the second shoot.  Need to work on that today as well as another commission I have.  That one is a 2' x 3.5' painting for friends for over their kitchen table.  I won't say too much about it just incase it changes as much as the one shown above.   It'll be in acrylics and having to do with one of my favorite things they do with their kids.  It'll be an imaginative painting I hope.

As far as my mindset as an artist trying to sell her wares, I am incredibly frustrated.  Etsy is a great site in theory, but holy crap are there a lot of vendors on that site!  To be a needle in a haystack kind of sucks!  I need to get more business cards printed so that when people comment on my barrettes or my paintings I can wip one out and do a little sales pitch about myself.  One thing I pride myself on, eventhough it is what makes me so incredibly angry, is that I don't sell out.  I don't usually create things I know people will buy.  I still make things that I like and that I think are really cool.  Although on that note I have been trying to keep in mind while I'm out taking pictures of what most people would probably want in their homes.  So I have sold out quite a bit this year, but I hate every second of it.  I hope that eventhough I'm taking pictures of tall ships or a bright beautiful flower that consumers will still be able to see my style in my work.  I just wish people would buy my artwork/crafts.

A couple that my boyfriend and I recently befriended have been huge inspirations to me in my own work.  They do performance art.  One sings and plays piano of his own music and his wife paints an oil painting during the set.  They tour all year long all over the country.  In their down time they book shows and she does commissions for her artwork.  So inspirational that they are making their living doing this.  I want to get to the place where my income is from my work.  I'm not there yet, but I feel like slowly I'm getting closer.  I never wanted to be a painter, but I'm finding that I do well at it.  In art school I hated my painting class.  My professor was my second favorite professor, but I hated the medium so much.  Because I was a procrastinator, I would finish my paintings the night before class.  And of course it was oils so the painting was completely wet the next day.  I ruined so many clothes and my backpack still has oil paint on it from that class.  By the end I was grateful for what I learned and appreciated the medium.  My grandfather was a painter: most of his work was in gouache or watercolors.  But I like to think I got my skill from him.  I hope that if he was still alive today he would've been proud of me.

Enough of my pitty party here, I need to work on my recent commissions today on my day off.  Stay positive emerging artists.  We'll get there.  Keep doing your work and never forget who you are.  Even if you die before you get noticed, you were noticed you just didn't know it.

These are what I've been working on today.  I'm going to be at the Arts and Wellness Fair at Meiklem Kiln Works this summer.  I'm sharing a booth with my friend Paul Tardif.  He does chainmail and chainmail jewelry.  I want to have a variety of things to sell at my table so I started to make barrettes.  I like wearing them a lot so I figure other people must too!  The ones that don't turn out so well I'll just wear myself.

Today has been a very productive day.  I went down to New London to pick up the two prints I entered into the "F-stops Here" photography show at the Hygienic.  I didn't get picked by the jury to be in the show, but I was so proud of myself for entering anyway.  When I got my prints back, the manager of the Hygienic told me he really wished my "Miss Piggy Legs" got in the show.  That was really flattering.  I really like that picture too.  

After I picked up the prints I looked around the Hygienic at the F-stops Here show.  I have to admit I was pretty angry at some of the photographs that got picked by the jury.  I thought my prints were way more creative than a lot of the ones in the show.  It seemed like they were interested in nudes, people in general, landscapes, seasonal shots, and local shots.  Guess I know what they look for for next year.  Oh well...  

I left New London and headed back towards Norwich.  I grabbed a salad at Stop 'N Shop and went to the Norwich Art Center.  I got a little lost, but I got some help and found the gallery.  It's pretty sweet.  I mean it sucks in a way because the walls in the rental space look pretty beat up.  They don't use the ceiling rail for hanging stuff.  People just bring their own hanging supplies and bang up the wall I guess.  Makes me want to be an annual contributor so they can get more money to put into the place.  So glad I went because they had a print out of the rental space and updated prices for the space.  They also had a pamphlet on artist membership too.  I'm kind of excited about it.  I talked to the person that was in the gallery, her name was Rita.  She was so nice and explained to me what I should do in order to get accepted for the rental space.  I have to call her when I'm ready to show her my work that I'd like to show.  I told her around May... Just so I have extra time to shoot more for my mailboxes and/or Blankeyville series.  

So that was my afternoon.  Pretty good, right?  

P.S.  Anyone want to be my First Friday buddy at the Norwich Art Center?  It's an opening for their monthly show, I figured it be good to start showing my face if I decide to be an "Associate Artist Member" of the place.  I really don't want to go by myself.  Let me know if anyone wants to join me.