Printing

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my Etsy shop, and about my art this past week. This summer has been a bit of a struggle as far as sales go.

I look back on past years and I'm amazed that I made so many sales. I truly wasn't greateful for all the business I was doing. I took it for granted. This has been my worst year on Etsy since I started. I've thought about just not doing it anymore. I've thought about giving up. I've thought that it's my work. That it's just not a good fit for Etsy. It's been discouraging to say the least.

In all that thinking I've thought that it is impossible for me to give up. This is what I want to do forever. I decided that a shop update is much needed. a total over haul. I need to change my thinking and I need to completely revamp things over here.

Working on a new plate.

Last week I was reunited with my etching press. I had it in a community studio that I used rent from. I left it for other artists in the building to use if they wished. Well, the artists were recently asked to vacate this studio space in order for the building owners to renovate and create better studio spaces for double the amount of money. It's a sad situation for many, and I'm afraid more of this is going to happen to artists in our lovely city...

It's hard to see now, but this is a little bird sitting on a branch. 

anyway, this also meant I needed to fetch my press before it was sold in a studio move out sale. So, now it's sitting my garage waiting for me to create art. I ordered ink, paper and copper plates today! I'm excited about this. I feel like it's all pat of the big picture of my revamping.

I feel like this is going to be a wonderful change for me artistically, financially and mentally. It's time for new. It's time for letting go. I'm excited.


also, I signed up for my first ever half marathon today. It's in San Diego and I'll be running with my good friend of 17 years. I've been afraid to do this forever, but it's too late now. I've paid and now I'm doing it and it feels good :)

Oh Hello!

It's been awhile, huh?

I've been out enjoying Summer as much as I can this month.
My Birthday was last week and we went hiking, played Bingo, had dinner with friends, drank great wine, ate good food, and generally had an amazing time.

I've also been back to my studio for some printmaking time. I have also been getting back to screen printing! It's so much more physically demanding than painting, or drawing, but I'm really loving it. It's helping me with this block that I've been having lately and it's been forcing me to re-learn some things.

all in all I've been trying to stay away from the computer as much as I can and redirecting myself to making things and enjoying the sunshine as much as I can.

Hope everyone else is having a wonderful summer!
I may, or may not, be posting more this week ;)

Happy Weekend!

Yesterday was soooo busy, but I did manage to get a new painting finished and listed! I really like this little red typewriter. It has a very sweet personality.

also, Nate, some friends, and I went down to Last Thursday last night and got to see Portland at it's best. If you don't live in Portland, Last Thursday is basically a huge street party with artists selling their wares, musicians playing in the street, and people dancing.

I ran into an old friend, Garrett Price, at Flight 64, where he was part of a group show. His lovely work is etched onto steel plates. He prints the images onto paper, but also shows, and sells the steel etchings from time to time. Most of the images are based on iconic, industrial, Portland architecture, and bridges. They're truly inspiring, and beautiful, and I hope you check out his website.

Okay, time to get ready for work! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Friday!

It's Friday!

Yup!

Ok, I don't have a lot to talk about today.
The self portraits are slow going. It's really hard to do them.
Well, I have one drawn out and ready to paint...but the other one I am working on is tough.
I've drawn and erased all day, and in the end all I am left with is a gessoed panel.

Maybe today is not my day for drawing. Honestly, all I have wanted to do all day is drink Diet Coke and read People Magazine...maybe some US Weekly. Oh well....

So! Who's going to watch the debate tonight??
I heard John McCain already has an ad campaign that praises his winning the debate :)

Well, I think I'm done for today.
tomorrow is the farmer's market and steam cleaning the rugs!
Hope everyone has a terrific weekend!

Feeling Awesome

Yes!

I am feeling a little stressed out today, and would probably be totally freaking out today, but Marichelle of Heart Handmade recently put together this lovely blog feature of me. It's really awesome. You can see it here. She did such a great job. Thank you thank you thank you Marichelle :)

Anyway, I had a good weekend. There was a big "party" on Friday night at Cranbrook, so I did a lot of dancing, and my body was not happy the next day. I feel like I am really starting to feel a bit older. That, or I just danced a little too much...I don't know but I was really really sore Saturday AND Sunday...

I got some work done, but mostly I really tried to relax. It poured down rain all weekend, and I loved it. I made dinner both nights with food from the Farmers Market, and we watched this very sad movie called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It was a very beautiful movie, and I highly recommend it.


So today I spent most of my morning printing. I love my press. I am so happy I bought it...
Still getting ready for the DIY Street Fair on Saturday and Sunday. I hope I am ready by then. Anyway, hope everyone is having a good Monday. I gotta get back to work :)

New Found Talent

Yes!
Guess who's treasury made the front page again! Yup!
I think I might have a new found talent for picking things to go on the front page :)

I am also at my 199th sale!!
Wow! I have had almost 100 items sell since April. That's almost 100 items to sell in three months...which is not a lot for some people...but that is A LOT for me...

My 200th sale will get something awesome with their order! Yay! Presents.

Alright. I have been printing almost all day...mostly doing a special order. It seems as though some of my plates are really well behaved and some want to cause nothing but agony for me. But, I got a few really good ones and I am overall very happy with them. I love my press. I love love love it.

I am hungry and I think Chloe needs a W A L K.

Yeah.

So I haven't really left the house other than to walk Chloe and to go to the Dairy Queen by our house in about a week...weird...I am not really sure how I feel about that.

Isn't Dairy Queen a really weird name when you think about it? Dairy. Queen. Like the Queen of all Dairies? Hhhmmm...weird.

Anyway, I am leaving the house today! Michael has been teaching this painting class to some high school students the last few weeks. It's like this summer program that Cranbrook offers, which os pretty cool. So tonight they are having a little gallery opening for the students and their paintings. I think that's pretty cute. So I am going to go check it out! yay! I love that kinda thing.

Not a lot going on this weekend. I got my wheat paste and paper yesterday so I will be spending most of my weekend with my press! I might do some screen printing too. We shall see.

Dude! What is up with Etsy sales this month? It's actually really depressing...I am trying to stay positive but it's kinda hard...

I am using this time to get my shop all stocked up and ready for the holidays, and I also have applied to a couple of really big art/craft fairs in the area, so I am trying to get ready for those too. If I am accepted that is...but even though I am really busy, it's hard not to get bummed out about sales...oh well. I am sure things will pick up soon. I KNOW they will!!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Printing printing printing

It came!

My press came! yay!
It came on Tuesday actually...but I wanted to post pictures of it when it was all set up and ready.

So we got it all set up and ready and I printed all weekend :)

I am so happy that I got it. Even if I can't really afford it...it makes me so happy.
So happy.

So yeah. I will be adding a lot of prints to my shop over the next few weeks.
I am also working on a group show that I will be part of in New Hampshire in September.

Printing and painting...I am happy.

Now...if my Etsy sales would just speed up a little bit faster...it's been pretty slow this last week. I am thinking positive thought thought. Positive thoughts positive thoughts.

Also! Something else really really exciting came in the mail on Friday!
Trish Grantham, one of my very favorite Portland artists sent me something :) A little portrait of my Chloe Bologna!! Yes, it's true!! How very cool of her!! I L O V E it! So much.
It looks just like her, and yes, she even painted her little tongue hanging out a little bit.

Prints!

OK!

I have been contemplating opening up another shop on Etsy.
Mike has been advising against it, mainly because I spend a lot of time promoting my current shop, and he isn't sure if I could really keep up with 2 shops.

I just think that I kinda have two styles that I work with, and I would like to have a more cohesive shop. I am also afraid that the second shop will be really slow, at least in the beginning, and well, with my recent purchase (see previous post) I kinda need some cash monies.

So......does anyone have any advice on opening a second shop?
Do you think it's a good idea? Is my shop getting a little cluttered? (I think so.)
Any opinions would be appreciated!

Also!! Post here today and you, yes you, could win one of my new screen prints!!
Yay!! Free art!! :)

Etching!

I want an etching press.

Yes!!

I am researching table top presses...and so far most are really expensive.
There are ones that are 700-800 dollars, but I know what you get when you buy one...

I want a Takach...but they are $4,000 :(

I have always used a Griffon, but those are $3,500.... :(

I did find a Conrad...for $1400, but it has a resin laminate bed plate, and I really hate those....

*sigh*

Maybe, just maybe, there will be a million dollar check in my mail box tomorrow :)

Printmaking = Happiness

I love printmaking.

It's true.

Michele + Printmaking = forever.

So I printed my block print finally. It looks cool. I want to do more. I realized, after someone pointed it out to me, that the word I wrote should be backwards...oh well :) I didn't really like the words anyway.
I want to do some dry point etchings, but that requires a press unfortunately. Although I did find an article online about how this guy used his car to run over his plates, thus making prints. Hmmm....

I found another picture of me in the printmaking room at PSU. This was my second home my last year of college.

Anyway. I got a lot of work done today.
Yay!

I found this really cool website. Well, I didn't really. Michelle Moode did. I found the link one her blog. It called Art House Co-Op. I signed up for the collecting things project. They send you an accordion file folder and it's your job to fill it with a collection of things that apply to your life. I love to collect things. Anything. Ticket stubs, raffle tickets, stickers, material, yeah. So after you collect your things and put it in the file folder thingy, you send it back to them, and they have a gallery show of all of them. People can look through all the stuff you collected! I almost want to fly to Atlanta just to go through people's file folders. I am slightly obsessed with peeking into other people's lives. When I lived on 23rd in Portland, one of my favorite things to do was go on walks at night hoping for a good peek into someones apartment :)

So Michelle Moode, who is a w e s o m e...signed up, and so did I . And there are more spot available! You can sign up too! Do it! Now! :) Sorry, I am a bit demanding today.

That's it!

Valentines Day

Ok. I love Valentines day.

Well, I did until this year. I dunno. It seems like all the holidays since we moved here are just kinda blah. Not exciting. Christmas and New Years was fun, but that's because we were at my mom's house...

Michael and I always got to McMenimens and have a burger and a couple of beers. The Ruby is by far the best beer on the menu. Mmmm...Ruby....

Anyway, this year will be different. Michael is going to be working until late, and I will probably continue watching the L Word on Netflix. Oh well.

He did get me this really awesome book for Valentine's day. It's called Fingerprint, and it's a graphic design book. It's all about putting a hand made quality to the graphic arts. There is a lot of printmaking, letterpress, and book arts involved. Ultimately, as a graphic designer, that is the direction I want to go. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is also inspired by these things. It's pretty damn cool.

Cloudy Grey Skies

Ouch.
My body hates me after my work out yesterday. Most notably my arms. I am in pain. It hurts to buckle my safety belt. It hurts to turn the wheel of my truck. Ouch. Other than that I am good. I think I'm getting a cold. It doesn't help that the heat in the apartment building is not working. It is either 90 degrees in here, or what feels like 45 degrees right now. It's not freezing, but it's not warm and toasty either. Hopefully someone will be here tomorrow to fix it.

I am trying to get up the motivation and inspiration to work right now. I have several panels that I am priming right now, but no ideas to get me started. This is the hardest part of being an artist. Finding inspiration and motivation to get working.

A fellow artist, Megan Chapman, has a great blog that I just read this morning on this very topic. Her blog deals with living and working as an artist. The ups and downs and she has a lot of good advice for artists starting out and ways to promote yourself. I love reading her blog. It reminds me that there are artists out there that have the same issues that I do. As painter/printmaker almost all of my work is done solo, as with most artists. You tend to spend most of your time by yourself and if you're an artist like me you tend to shut yourself in. Yeah, I don't get out much...

Anyway, Megan's blog is awesome, especially if you are looking for some inspiration. She is an amazing painter and I would love to her work in person one day :) I don't know how to paste pictures from other websites right now. Hopefully I can figure it out so that I can post some of her images here. But you can see some of her work on her blog.

http://meganchapman.blogspot.com/

On a side note. For those of you interested in my wedding plans...mostly Kim and Angie.....
I have decided to start a wedding blog. I haven't started it yet, but that is one of my goals for today. I have a lot of really good ideas, but I would love to hear any ideas from you two. I'll keep you posted! Don't you just love the internet?

Alright. Mikey is done in the studio and I need to go pick him up.