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!

Ivo1914

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….

Wavelength 8×10 Oils on Canvas

I 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

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…

Arched – 7×5 oils on canvas by Jennie Rosenbaum

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.

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

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

Stretch – 12×10 Oils on Canvas by Jennie Rosenbaum

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!

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.

Freedom – 36 x 36 Oils on Canvas by Jennie Rosenbaum

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!