From the ugly comes poetry
Ugly
This wonderful Poem was written on the wall for my painting Ugly on Redbubble, recently featured in their explore section. I’m always humbled when my work inspires poets and writers, thankyou Ivo!
achieving my goals bit by bit…Online
Wavelength 8×10 Oils on CanvasI want to build up my online presence even more. Build on what I have created and refine my practices. I also want to add some YouTube into the mix. I hate YouTube, but I cannot deny it’s power. I also want to finally make a landing page for my facebook fan page!
This year may finally be the year of the website redesign. It might be time.
I want to work on my online galleries to make my listings as good they can be, I also want to increase my sales.
These goals are all related. my online presence is a large part of my success as an artist. I started using a lot of social media tools before social marketing was even really a thing.. but I’ve stayed away from youtube. mostly because of the comments. and the inanity. I don’t love the idea of my work being on the same site as dogs pissing on keyboards. but, I also know that it is, truly, the last untouched arena for me, that it has massive sharing appeal and a huge following. sometimes you just have to Suck it up princess! (this seems to be becoming my theme this year). videos show more about art than photos can, sharing the works with people is the key and being precious about it won’t sell paintings! I have the software, the knowledge, I just don’t have any excuses.
my facebook page is going really strong, it could use some videos, some more images (must paint must paint) and a nice branded landing page. something to entice. that’s next weeks project.
as far as redesigning my webpage goes, I’ve been using iweb with some haxies to create my page, and it’s good, it’s certainly easy and it doesn’t distract me with fun code to play with, but I need to step it up a bit. I’m thinking of going to wordpress and a professional theme for artists with my own customisations. wordpress is so much more than a blog, it’s a fantastic Content Management System and I think it will really help with my SEO efforts. the problem with being a geek, however, is the constant itch to tweak, code and improve everything, and often I get so caught up in that I forget about painting! and that is the one thing I have to do this year over everything else. I’m looking at some artist website services as well, to prevent me from scratching the tweak itch.
I’m looking around still for an online gallery to replace Boundless Gallery, I’m using Discovered Artists and Artfire currently but I’d like to work further to finish uploading all my works for sale and make the descriptions and photographs as compelling as possible. I also want to finish my ‘view in a room’ images. they will help with my videos as well!
So.. Here is what a Gantt of this process would look like. no it is pretty anal to create a Gantt of something like this, a todo list works just as well, but I started something so here is my online strategy for the year in Gantt form. Online Goals
Hey Big Spender… Why the Platinum Club at Daz is worth it
so it’s that time of the year again, for me anyway, it’s time for the Platinum Club anniversary at Daz3D. what does that mean? well, for one, it’s when my renewal comes up for grabs. I’ve been a platinum member for almost two years now. not as long as many but when I realized what a huge boon to my work Daz Studio was (and when they released Daz Studio advanced) I decided to take the leap. at first it was monthly, but last year when I got caught up in the October festivities I took out an annual membership and have never looked back!
The PC club rewards you all year around, you get a $5 voucher every month, a special category of $1.99 items (many of which are absolutely brilliant) that are added to every week, special competitions, a 30% discount on Daz originals, extra discounts on new items as they come out and if you are lucky you can become a member of the (shh!) Ninja Squad. the beta testers of the company.
in October however, they pull out all the stops. this year it’s the 8th anniversary, so all club items are discounted to $1.88, we get a 40% discount rather than 30% for this month, 8% back on all purchases and if we renew we get so much free stuff! (if you get an annual membership you get a $30 voucher and up to 80 free items!!!!!)
so why am I doing a sales pitch to you? a lot of people have started reading this blog looking for tips on Daz, finding content and hopefully starting to make 3D art. I will be writing much more on the subject (your emails have not gone unheard!) but lots of people have asked me about finding content and getting the best bang for your bucks. this october is the best way, hands down, to get a collection of 3D items for your runtime for a fraction of the cost.
Next week starts my favorite part as well.. the $1.99 voting! more on that next week…
Artfire, Discovered Artists and Etsy.. oh my!
I’ve been working hard on updating my new pro account at artfire. adding new artworks, updating a blog there with tips, feeding the new stuff to twitter and then wash, rinsing and repeating. some of my descriptions have become a little stale so I am revamping some of them and trying to make these pieces pop. I’m also adding some works to a store on etsy, as artfire and etsy are linked together. we shall see which of the two performs better. so far I am getting decent traffic and I’m hoping to convert it soon.
Discovered artists is still my premier online art gallery, I refer the majority of buyers there, I like the upscale look and the fact that they curate the works and jury the artists. artfire is just a way to try to find more buyers in a different demographic, trying to make up for the hole that boundlessgallery has left.
She’s bathed in Light – a poem by phantomimic
Her naked body
Rises fast
She lofty leaps
To my delight
Raised arms, curved spine
Away she darts
Today, my love….
She’s bathed in light!
I am so honored that my work has inspired this beautiful poem. to read the full piece, fully illustrated throughout with my works please visit here for more works by Phantomimic you can view his scribd page at http://www.scribd.com/Phantomimic or follow him on twitter
Subscriptions Update
if you are sick of my twitter updates you can now subscribe to my blog without them!
Subscribe to the new twitter free feed here and select your favorite service or click here to receive the twitter free feed direct to your email inbox once per day.
I will be updating my subscriptions page to add these links in, but I thought it would be nice to give the option to you now 
The Fine Art Department
Artist Tracy Helgeson has put together a blog showcasing artists who are selling their work online. Things like this are so helpful in this market, where luxuries such as art are hit hardest. check it out here : http://thefineartdepartment.blogspot.com/
what am I doing with the market downturn? I’m focussing on making my more affordable pieces, the smaller works and the watercolors, I’m building on my techniques and abilities and skillset so that I am ready for the market when it changes. Because I will be moving house soon I have also started a sale at boundless gallery where you can pick up my works for 15% off. this is a precursor to a price raise that will have to happen at the start of next year so if you have been eyeing off a piece, now is the time!
all new work added to Discovered artists
I’ve been working at getting all of my online listings up to date including updating all my latest work on Discovered Artists. It’s not the most thrilling activity on the planet but it is all for a good cause. plus my sexy new iMac and Leopard makes it much easier. the speed, the easy photo access all speeds up a dull routine. hell, everything is more fun with a hot new computer! so drop by DA and check it out.
Next I will be working on my listings on BoundlessGallery and editing the prints that are available on Redbubble. oh yes, the life of an artist is glamorous indeed.
new blog project
Darren Rowse at Problogger has created a new group writing project- Killer Titles and it has inspired me to start a blog project of my own that I have been planning on for some time. a series of tutorials on Daz 3d designed for artists. I know a few of you out there already use it really well (better than me in all likelihood!) but I don’t know many artists that use it the way I do. this may be a stupid idea, I don’t know but I’d like to give it a shot – even if it’s only for reference for myself!
Vote for my nude – Freedom
With all of the hooraw around my exhibition I’ve been a bit remiss in reporting other things that have been happening. In particular my latest Barebrush success where my work Freedom was chosen to not only kick off the month in the coveted 1st date but also nominated for a curators choice award. I am particularly ecstatic as the curator for this month’s exhibition is Ann Aptaker the exhibitions curator of the Morris Museum. She chose my work for it’s “sweeping use of space” which is high praise to me!
Votes are now open for the Curators Choice award. Please vote for Freedom!
Down with phplist
I have had it with phplist! the amount of issues I’ve had with that stupid program are just not worth mentioning. I have officially stopped being a cheapskate now and have paid for a proper mailing list provider at Your Mailing List Provider. so far they seem to have what I want, their tests have so far come up well, they had an extensive free trial) and I wont have to spend hours mucking with it every time I want it to do something.
as far as I can see, the problem is that my server runs php under apache. it’s not it’s own entity but almost a php simulator- diet php, and phplist seems to have massive problems with that. I could spend more and more hours working on it and get more and more frustrated, but as I see it $40 isn’t that much an outlay for a year of stress free newsletters. plus, paying for it may actually encourage me to send them more often.
I will try to make this changeover as smooth as possible, there will be some to-ing and fro-ing but hopefully you subscribers wont actually see anything but newsletters that work the way they’re supposed to.
Apologies
I think my phplist went a little haywire this weekend. I was creating my newsletter mailings as I usually do and it crashed and I think in the effort to try and fix it I may have sent out multiples of the same newsletter to people. if I did I am truly sorry. I have almost had it with phplist. it seems to be one issue after another after another and I’m just not sure I can keep it up – it just looks so unprofessional. still, I guess you get what you pay for…
Why do I love twitter?
Like so many others I have recently become addicted to twitter. before, it was just another site that notifications of blog posts went out to. Then I guess I became a victim of my all time favorite ploys “because I can” and “because it might be useful some day.” I connected it to Facebook, then my mobile, then twhirl, then I may as well add Pownce and Jaiku seeing as twhirl posts to them as well. I blame Ecto which started it all with it’s handy little blog notification tool.
Why do I love twitter?
I work from home, alone (while Liam is at work). I have the cats to keep me company but to be honest – they sleep a lot and get grumpy when I talk to them and wake them up. I don’t miss my old day job, but I do miss the camaraderie, people to share thoughts with, no matter how little or banal. my blog is one way I reach out to people, I love the chance to converse about my favorite topics. But what do you do with all those small thoughts? the what ifs, the hey this site is cool, the OMG my website just died, the little rants and raves that make up our day? and more importantly, where can you hear others sharing theirs? twitter is my background noise, my water cooler, my way of realizing that there are other people out there. I tend to get very insular and agoraphobic if I don’t maintain human contact and twitter is the ideal way for me to do that without giving up my privacy to paint or overly distracting me from work.
tech updates
Having been a year since I installed and added custom CSS to my blog layout, I thought it was finally time to fix all those niggly little errors that have been residing in the back of my mind. the slightly out menu bar, the random red underlines on links.. little, non-important issues that drove me insane! well, they are finally fixed! what a weight off my brain. I sat and looked at the menu bar, now fully back in alignment, for a good five minutes just feeling happy that it was finally done!
now I am working on my phplist subscriptions, updating my database and fixing the glaring errors before sending out another newsletter. then i will update my webpage. the plan is, that I wont have any of these little issues bugging me when I can get back into the studio. I can just paint and be free.
Will you be Drawing on Drawing Day?
Will you be Drawing on Drawing Day?
One day a year, the world stops to remember that joy we had when we first picked up a pencil and created our first piece of art – that’s what Drawing Day is all about. The goal for Drawing Day is simple – to create enough drawings to make some noise worldwide for the sake of art. 2008 is the first year of this initiative. Our goal is definitely a long-shot, but we’re aiming for 1 million drawings worldwide.[From Drawing Day 2008 - about the big day]
I will be participating in Drawing Day this year, I think it’s a fantastic idea and a great incentive to get back to my roots and create for the pure joy of creating. Drawing is so much part of who we are as people and is natural and purely creative even if you don’t think you can draw, give it a shot! you might surprise yourself.
you can participate in Drawing Day by going to the above site and registering your interest and participating in some of the many groups that are out there. It’s as simple as picking up your pencil and paper! I will be uploading my work to the Flickr Group and the Facebook group as well as Redbubble. I may even create a sale on BoundlessGallery or Yessy – you never know!
Change of focus
Languid – 18×36 Acrylic and gesso on Canvas
this myspace debarcle has burnt me out of a lot of social media at the moment, at least for non art related media. so, I am changing tack and developing what I know and love. I am going to focus on my Blog, my Redbubble account (which has been neglected terribly) and my flickr. build up my contacts and focus on networking there, where freedom of expression is encouraged rather than quashed.
So many marketing newsletters have come to me lately saying that not one person can do everything, that we all have to sort out our priorities and not spread ourselves too thin and I think that this is a lesson I really need to learn. I work crazy hours until I crash, recover slowly from the exhaustion (feeling guilty for not working all the while) until I am ready to work again. I get distracted by a new shiny site and I am off and signed up and working away and my focus is spread so thin you can use it for a supermodel. it’s just too much! especially when I am trying to pick up my studio hours. so no more!
…at least for now 
Blog Shout out
My Blog has been linked to recently by Laketree’s Top 101 Artists’ Blogs and Bloggers of the Bubble – Thanks Guys!
To finish up I also came across this rather surreal blog post in my usual trawling:
Peace inside. Then trust that the fact that area including Bardot’s Clothing is one thinks of activities are ideas that nude beach tampa many years and the kind was all your friends to make sure to be capable of hours sat on the nude beach tampa world, you are used.
It brings everyone down to your garden at a few years and seem to reexamine your nude beach tampa nude beach because it for rather than you with stuffy, Hedonism III may be aware of options. Below is often nude beach tampa overcrowded. Despite large resort, hotel that was all around.There can even punch and Coach.Glen dedicates his or Husband/Wife 5. Divide nude beach tampa and activities imaginable.Located in between. Most of the non-nude areas. In addition to shoot is often credited for you.
From Spirit.Jennie Rosenbaum is not tolerated.. by Japanese nude beach
wow. This is what you get for searching in the dimdarks of google for yourself. no. I have no idea what it is to do with me. I am guessing it’s a very bad auto translation. I’d like to know where I fit in though..
Myspace Censorship of Artists
My myspace account has been deleted. no warning, no reason, it’s just gone. I cannot seem to get a human response to my questions to myspace. all I have to go by are the comments from reams of other people in the same situation throughout the interwebs. Myspace is notorious for censorship. They have deleted gay bands and activists who speak out, musicians and visual artists, political activists and pretty much anyone who says or does anything that they didn’t like. it’s a complete dictatorship with no regard for the users rights or privileges. I realize that a privately owned site makes it’s own rules and laws. but something that is this big and claims to be a free forum for all should have some responsibility towards it’s users.
My best guess as to why I’ve been deleted is because of my works. while nudity is something they have issues with I am surprised that there are pages out there for sex offenders and porn while a small site featuring purely art nudity is deleted. most people would agree that there is no issue with my works. they aren’t even NSFW in my opinion. If, however, I had been told there was a problem I would have tried to work something out. deleting me with no reason or notice is just wrong.
Now I have the delightful choice of either giving up completely and trying other things, going back and trying again or kicking up a big stink. I’ve outlaid time and money on Myspace that I wont see again if I give up but I don’t want to look unprofessional by re-inviting all my old friends. What would you do in my situation?
Boundless Changes
Boundless Gallery have undergone some more changes to their site including a family filter and the opportunity for the artists to choose their own urls. boy is that cool! I now have registered http://nude.boundlessgallery.com/ to go directly to my profile page. I love being able to register such cool urls with these sites, it’s good for SEO and so easy to remember.
actually, because this subdomain is a redirect, is it good for SEO? I don’t know.. does it make a difference?
Yessy
http://www.yessy.com/nudes
I have given in and started selling on Yessy as well. It is cheaper than Boundless on a yearly basis, but it is also uglier. I do, however, like the searching and the stats viewer. There is a lot more traffic on Yessy but the flipside is there are a lot more artists as well. it has more of an international flavor which I like.. we shall see how it goes. I am concerned about the outlay but other artists assure me it is worthwhile. surprisingly no-one has snapped up the very cool url http://www.yessy.com/nudes so it is now mine!
Feckles Down
Luke from Boundless has Sent a message assuring me that “all nudes have not been blocked now, and never will be. There is not going to a be a lumped together section of all the pieces in nudes hidden away in a ‘dark corner’. There will also not be a system where any artist can ‘flag’ a piece and have it hidden.”
So no narky emails from me today . Thanks guys for staying strong in the face of extreme spamming and bitchiness from so many artists. The easy thing to do would be to give in. I am glad to say they are not doing that and I sincerely hope that it will not be the case in the future. I am delighted that they are working so hard to please all sides. it’s just that some sides seem so very irrational, inconsistent and infectious I was very afraid that they would win from sheer force of noise. I was preparing to create noise of my own, I am perfectly capably of raising a real, and very public, stink- but I never wanted to aim something at the team at Boundless, I genuinely believe they do their best, they are not the people I was angry at. censorship is never the rational option. but it never ceases to amaze me how people can become so irrational over such a small issue as nudity.
It’s my Day!
My Work Ova is on the front page of Barebrush today! go and check it out.. and don’t forget, you can still vote for a short time for Luminous in My Favorite Nude. The poll closes March 15 and every vote counts!
Neglected myspace
Turmoil – 12 x 12 Oils on Canvas by Jennie Rosenbaum
I am currently working on my neglected myspace page and doing online updates across the board.I have the new facebook app, I’ve updated my artworkpage on this blog and I am putting a concerted effort into myspace.
I hate myspace, I do, but it is an excellent marketing tool when done right and I need to increase my presence and work on that side of things. it’s funny because I’ve been putting it off for so long. ah well, I guess sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. Feel Free to friend me btw or to link to your myspace here.
Technorati Tags: art, art marketing, artist, myspace, social networking
Feeling Exposed
Well that didn’t go too well, I will keep trying until I get through this block. when I am blocked it affects everything, I don’t want to work online, I don’t want to think about promotions or shows, I just want to hide.
So today I played around with making a facebook app. you can now add my blog to your facebook page and invite others t do the same! how cool is that! go here to add the app, or add me as a friend and I will send you an invite! I am going to try not to spam everyone and anyone with it because I hate it when people do that – but I would love to see it spread!
Loathsome I’ve become.
Acreature so undome.
Wretched and broken.
Cannot find my faith.
Any God will do.
Nothing said is new
Nothing said is true.
Fly away my hope….