Quick! Don’t forget these important resolutions either!
It has been brought to my attention that I missed some key goals on my list. Not painting, painting is #1 and always will be (more on that next week) but my offline goals. I plead distraction. I wrote my to do lists a couple of times in different ways, and reasoned that I had already written them down somewhere, but I forgot to share them with you! It’s ok, I’m still in time, it’s not february yet!
I have galleries now, but I know that isn’t the end of it. Not by a long way. My best motivator is exhibiting. So I will be committing to finally writing up all the proposals in my head and sending them off. I have so many concepts and I want to see them realized, so now is the perfect time to get my work out there. I want another solo this year. And one next year. At the minimum. I also want to do more group exhibitions with local artists. I have a couple in the works but I’d love to be a part of more if you have any concepts.
Mostly, this year I want to ditch the excuses. Ditch the fear and ditch that nagging bitch in my head that keep telling me that I’m not good enough. We need doubt to keep us on our toes, but I have a surfeit of it currently and that’s something that needs to be fixed. I want to stop making excuses why I can’t go to that opening or meet up, I want to stop pushing myself away from the arts community and start getting more involved!
I will probably publish the abstracts of my proposals here as well, just to keep you all in the loop!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Achieving my goals bit by bit…blogging
dream- 3D reference image
I want to build up my blogging, and my affiliate earnings, I want to add on some extra revenue streams as a fun funds funnel (yes that is what I’m calling it!).
This one is easy… In principle anyway, all I need to do is blog more!
I have to use the tools at my disposal to write posts. Instead of focussing on creating the long rambles you all know and love (hehe) I need to remember that I can create short posts too! I can quickly write one on my iPad or my phone or computer. I want to keep the post quality good, but I want to increase their frequency and my output. I also want to blog more about my story and processes.
To that end, i’m joining the post a week movement at WordPress. They email suggestions for posts, we send them back, and tag them. I’d join post a day, but I know myself and don’t want to start too fast out of the gate, let’s see how we go here first. I also want to reply to comments more, and ask questions, create polls, fun things!
As far as affiliate earnings go, currently I am making enough to support my online costs and my growing daz3d habit. They enabled me to go slightly nuts at the sales last year! It’s fun, almost like free money. I make this promise to you though, it will be unobtrusive, and only about products and stores that I personally use and like. I prefer to work more on the lines of content rather than sales. I will be creating another blog or two to work more directly with affiliate sales later, again with products I believe in. The extra revenue streams involve some digital art and book ideas for kids that have been inspired by Erica. I may or may not link to them here, but rest assured, this blog will stay the same! Just, I hope, better and more reliable than before.
Interesting would be good too 
So, over to you, what are your tips for blogging in the new year?
being and artist and a mother need not be impossible
This is a followup from my post last week. This is what I commented on the original post, tidied up a bit and expanded for this.
Being the obsessive sort that I am I started considering these issues when I decided that I wanted a family. Liam and I discussed them from the beginning and we planned out how to ensure that I had enough time in the studio and how to make it a safe environment.
The thing to bear in mind is that this is your career and if you are serious about it, then it needs to be treated with all the seriousness of any other career. I work from my home studio and fit my work, both studio time and the business side, around her naps and feeds- I actually use them to structure my day! I find that since having a baby my career has become more structured and disciplined. I have to set aside time to achieve my tasks, so I don’t waste it as much as I used to. my goals have coalesced more as well, I’m more inspired to create and more inspired to succeed because I want the best for my little girl!
a few notes.
- I don’t know what paint you are using, but I find that the water miscible oils are wonderful and fume free, I took to using them before I started trying to get pregnant and find them a great way to keep a safe environment at home- they work just as well. they also clean up very fast- great when time is an issue! I don’t use heavy metal pigments either, I don’t want to risk transferring anything through my breastmilk.
- pick techniques that you can fit around his schedule – small, bite sized chunks of work you can easily digest. that goes for your to-do list too! if you keep tasks to 15 minute blocks you can get so much done in very little time! (this works for cleaning too
- have a list of goals for your art, your marketing and keep them in mind. make sure they are achievable and excite you. set particular goals for each year. this year I am focussing on creating works and marketing online, I have stepped back on exhibiting, but I am getting my gallery list together and starting to plan my calendar for next year.
- keep a sketchbook with you for quick ideas and sketches. no matter what you are doing there is always time for thinking about art!
- I find it’s sometimes hard to get myself into the studio, I talk myself out of it, there is so much more I feel I should be doing. the 15 minute rule works well here too.
- getting up one hour earlier can work wonders.
- expressed breastmilk can help for long studio jags or when you are out at openings. knowing you don’t *have* to stop painting to go feed really helps.
- My husband is very supportive of my career, he knows it is my passion and makes sure I have time. enlist help to ensure you get the time you need!
Nude of the week – Peace
Peace - A4 Watercolors and Pencil on Paper
The title of this piece is at odds with how I feel at the moment, I wanted to create an image of serenity to try and help myself feel more at peace. it worked while I was painting anyway!
I’ve been so busy. we’ve moved house so many times it’s not funny but this time it’s with a baby. once you have a baby everything seems to take three times as long. this time we are ‘doing it easy’ too. we’re getting all new furniture and having it delivered to the new home, only the most precious bits are coming with, and of course all our books, dvds, clothes, books, baby things, art, art supplies, oh everything! but not our old crappy furniture.
easy right?
except that of course there have been months of furniture shopping, planning our aesthetic, purchasing the furniture and arranging delivery, sorting out painting and colors, realizing the quoted delivery dates are going to be longer than expected. the usual packing, planning my studio, trying to get everything organized in time for a family celebration just before christmas – aarrrghh!
I thought everything was organized, then the closing arrived early and it all went to hell in a handbasket. but the first of the furniture has been delivered, and utilities are organized, netspace are trying to do our reconnection with a minimum of disruption and if only our old place would stop looking quite so much like a bomb hit it I would be much happier!
I don’t know how much I will be able to keep things updated over the next couple of weeks, bear with me and hopefully I won’t have to go to the looney bin!
now go buy some art so I don’t have to move it!
revisionist historian
Ennui
I get ideas all the time.
ideas for paintings, blog posts, tweets, thankyou letters, exhibitions, concepts, installations, companies, the future.. my backbrain is always churning, always creating, always coming up with new ideas.
the problem is my forebrain. my forebrain gets involved and starts editing all these ideas. it puts the t in can. and the more I think about them the more I think people don’t want to read this, see this, think about that.. what if they don’t like it, what if they don’t like me, what if, what if whatif?
and I talk myself out of all these great ideas that I should be all fired up about. sometimes it’s just a small thing but sometimes it’s a lifechanger.
and sometimes, like right now, I have so many ideas that I can’t actually process them. I want to write blog posts – I really do! but I have so many ideas, so many things going on that I just can’t seem to get going. I start, then get waylaid by other things. and the revisionist historian kicks in and edits the writing before it even starts. I’m standing in front of a metaphorical, full to bursting, wardrobe thinking ‘but I have nothing to wear!’
I’m currently working on some new paintings, a commission, planning my first art fair exhibit, and the Daz platinum club members sale is on. I also have to finish our taxes, plan our next house move, plan my new studio, take care of Erica and try not to collapse. that’s the gist of things at the moment.
Psych this!
So I have to start going to therapy soon. as part of my pain management I need to see the pain psych to treat my anxiety and depression issues. this is not something I want to do. apart from the fact that I can think of nothing worse than griping for an hour and then being told to go on mind numbing drugs, I really don’t want to dredge up all my old issues. They’ve suggested that I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that with counseling I could do really well. I think I’m probably fine as is (as long as I avoid certain triggers!)
I’m a burier. I like to suppress my problems and eventually paint about them. over the years I’ve come to terms with a lot of drama and I’ve reached a kind of understanding with myself. it may not be the healthy way or the right way but it works for me. most people are amazed that as a chronic pain sufferer I have few depression issues. the ones who know about all the other things that happened in my life to make me me are often really amazed that I am as sane as I am. but every time I have to rehash old ground, terrors and issues it gets harder and harder to reign in the crazy.
sometimes I wonder if I hold onto my issues because they give me fuel for my art. that if I were well adjusted and normal that my work would lose that emotive spark that everyone seems to like. I’ve seen some psychs in my day- some were good and others contributed to my traumas. but the picking at old wounds just causes them to fester it seems, rather than letting them close over and heal.
Unscheduled nudity and vomiting- visitors react to Abramovic at MoMA
He just ran up to the outer ropes stuck his fingers down his throat and threw up. He then stumbled back and tried to throw up again, but not much came out. The guards grabbed him and kicked him out. Marina didn’t move the whole time
[From Vomit! Nudity! Litter! Marina Abramovic's Marathon Performance Ends In Chaos]
The Artist is Present has now finished it’s run at MoMA. this piece has been laced with controversy from the beginning and has fascinated the public and the web. what is particularly interesting is the implied permission for audience participation that has led to behavior both interesting, sad and strange. it is extremely sad that some visitors felt the need to grope the nude figures on display, it’s strange that someone voiced his lack of appreciation by vomiting and it’s very interesting that a woman was so moved by the exhibition that she chose to do her pace to face participation in the nude.
…I thought hard about how to thank her—write a letter, make a film and hand it to her when I sat with her? When I landed on the idea of sitting naked across from her, I knew that was it. I could be, for a moment, as vulnerable to her as she constantly makes herself to us.
Alas, when her moment came, and she disrobed, seven security guards quickly made their way over to escort her out of the museum. Decker tells us:
I thought nudity would bring joy, spontaneity! Not TEARS, CHAOS. I honestly thought that the worst that would happen was that I would be asked to put my clothes back on. I still can’t believe I was escorted out of the building by a group of guards and told that if I returned, I would be arrested. In “The Artist is Present,” the audience is a huge part of the work, and by entering that space and following the rules (sit silently, do not bring anything into the space, maintain eye contact, and the unstated one: don’t touch Marina), I expected any audience member could stay as long as he or she was willing to be present.
I actually understand her thinking here, it’s the kind of statement I would have been tempted to make as well. sometimes things can only be expressed with nudity. it’s a shame that MoMA didn’t see it that way, perhaps if she had pre-arranged it, it would have been fine. I wonder if it was the act of getting undressed that was the problem rather than the nudity itself. it seems to me nudity is often not remarkable, but the process of moving from clothed to nude creates a sexual context, and the inappropriateness. I do wish that Decker had been allowed to express herself the way she wanted.
This piece keeps reminding me of the buckingham palace guards. and reminds me of how seeing that stoic determination and discipline makes people irrationally want to break it. it’s a need we seem to have. why is that?
10 Ways to beat post exhibition blues
Something that I never knew when I started exhibiting was that it’s very common to have the post exhibition blues. in fact, almost every artist I have spoken to has had this issue. there is a let down after the huge event. you spend so much time focussing on it all, creating artworks, hanging, publicizing, it becomes a massive high capped off by the opening. then, suddenly, it’s over. and your life can seem.. empty, it can be crippling- my first exhibition had me lost for over a month in a deep depression.
after that first experience I decided that this should be something that can be avoided and I’ve been actively working on it ever since. these are my tips for beating that post-exhibition depression.
- Have a new series or body of work you are really excited about and ready to get started on. the sooner you get back into the studio the better. that’s why you became an artist!
- On the night of the opening go out to dinner with collectors, friends, family. a nice group of people you can enjoy who are going to give you support, distraction and a great come down after a perfect night.
- Don’t drink during the opening. nurse a glass of wine all night or have something else. alcohol is a depressant and you want to be sharp on the night.
- Keep a file of “warm fuzzies” – emails, comments, tweets of nice things that people have said about your work. refer to it at need!
- Spend 15 minutes in your studio each day, even if it is just looking out the window, sketching, looking at books, old sketchbooks, going over ideas, surround yourself in your art.
- Give your studio a spring clean. if you are like me, after an exhibition everything is in chaos. tidying it all up gives you a sense of closure, and a clean studio always beckons for new work!
- Try a new medium you’ve been meaning to try. experiment and have some fun!
- Tally up all your achievements at the exhibition, no matter how small. the people you gave your cards out to, the new mailing list signups, the good things that were said and done.
- Buy yourself a new sketchbook or brush or something, a nice treat to pat yourself on the back. it needn’t be expensive or large, just a celebration.
- Don’t focus on all the things you should have done or wish you had done. remember them for next time and move on. start planning the next big thing!
Loss
WIP – Loss
Last week I was in kind of a numb shell. one that I’ve tried to appease with retail therapy and mindless facebook games. why do bad things happen to good people?
This is a painting I have been working on for almost a year. I am not sure if it will ever be finished. it’s a highly emotional work created at a very emotional time. I bring it out, work on it for a while and put it away again. I feel that now is a good time to bring it to the light of day. I need to stop hiding it and hiding from it. I created it to try to explore some difficult feelings and to try to communicate them somehow. in my mind it was dedicated to a very special and very strong couple. it is now dedicated to two.
I am very sorry for your loss.
Bio Drive
So I’ve been thinking that my biography is a bit boring, a bit old and a lot dated – in short, I am over it. so I’ve been working today on writing up a new formal biography and a less formal “about” for my websites and stuff. I’d love your input, I’m really terrible at writing about myself (which is why my personal blog is crammed full of stuff about art censorship really). these are still works in progress obviously
The Formal Bio- These have a format and need to be a narrative of your CV in a few paragraphs, you need to talk about your accomplishments, education and introduce your artwork. it’s 3rd person and a bit of a yawn fest to write. and probably to read.
The human body has held constant fascination for Jennie Rosenbaum, partially due to her studies in art history and anatomy, and partially due to her own relationship with her body, both in image and after a car accident that left her with a chronic pain disability.
Jennie has exhibited her artworks worldwide. Her art has been shown at Miami Art Basel, at numerous Melbourne galleries, in New York and Boston. Jennie has donated works to support bushfire victims and VisualAIDs. Jennie’s artwork has gained rapid popularity online winning awards at barebrush.com a site dedicated to nude art.
Jennie works to maintain the image of the nude in art and writes a blog about censorship in art. She also leads nude advocacy groups and a group online for people with disabilities.
Jennie Rosenbaum excelled in art and art history at school and studied archaeology, painting, drawing and photography at the University of Monash, Curtin and RMIT. She has also worked closely with artist Donald Cameron in his studio and had the opportunity to be part of a specialized life class at the National Gallery of Victoria. Jennie is an American working from her home in Melbourne, Australia.
The informal Bio, about page type thing. this is when I started to run out of steam..
It shouldn’t take being hit by a car to discover your passion in life, but that is precisely what happened with me. In order to quench the pain of my new disability I returned to my first love, painting. Always technically proficient, my works lacked a certain something. But now my new focus allowed me to expand my interest into a new career with a new sense of abandon imbuing my artworks and a new emotional quality that has propelled my vision ahead.
I started studying again, taking classes online from universities like Curtin and RMIT to fill out my prior art education at Monash university. I painted and evolved my signature styles, almost by accident every time. I have worked to get my artwork out online, offline, and into the hands of collectors worldwide. I have exhibited internationally and locally, received awards for my artwork and excellent reviews.
My studio is in my home where I can paint at any time of the day or night. I live with my husband and two cats and rely on my iPod for those late night painting sessions. I also maintain a blog where I write about censorship issues and nude art and maintain nude advocacy groups. It is one of my missions to help change attitudes about the nude in art.
strangely I found it quite a depressing experience, I’m supposed to list my achievements and really I thought by now I would have more. perhaps it’s just me and my changing goalposts, my unrealistic expectations of my career and where I want it to be, but I want more dammit!
“I am Bi, Female and Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this”
The open Bible is a central part of Made in God’s Image, an exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art (Goma) in Glasgow. By the book is a container of pens and a notice saying: “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.” …
…Third, the comment I quote in the title for this piece falls into that category of topics that really begin to open up possibilities for any religious thinker not hellbent on regurgitating the same old line and truly interested in seeing Christianity reach a new generation:
One writer has altered the first line of the Old Testament from “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth” to “In the beginning, God (me) I created religion.” Another has written “The Gospel According to Luke Skywalker”.
Whether the Church likes it or not, these sentiments (that man created religion and that morality lessons come to us via Pop culture more these days than via the Bible, and perhaps that’s OK) are the context in which the Church must today demonstrate its relevance. Those genies are out of the bottle, and only through the most draconian of measures could the Church get them back in again without addressing and discussing them openly.Fourth, the sponsors of the exhibition are indicating they plan a highly disturbing response to the criticism:
Last night the producers of the exhibition indicated that the most offensive pages would be removed….
Really? Who decides what’s offensive? Some would say the entire concept is offensive, others would say censorship is even more offensive. This is a very bad idea in my opinion. If you can’t take the heat, close the show. Don’t edit it on the fly. You’re never going to find that happy middle ground in this.[From Edward_ Winkleman]
This post by Edward Winkleman is a delight to read like many of his posts. between discussing the literary content of the Times article and listing it’s deficiencies one by one he has outlined more about the exhibition and it’s intent than the original article.
I find the concept rather interesting frankly, I would like to read the changes, funny and not, that people have written and see what others have to say. I hope that if it is censored the creators will consider making it an online project that people worldwide can contribute to. I hope that some priests and reverends take the time to read the comments to add relevance to their sermons and to draw in people.
The indication to me of this project, is not one of “lawlessness” (what laws have been broken?) but one of people crying out for help. obviously some of the messages are inflammatory or not intended to be serious- and that, too, is part of free speech and should not be ingored. I think that those in the pulpits would to well to heed the cries and try to tend their flocks.
I am not religious, but I find religion deeply fascinating. frankly in these times I think more and more people probably need the comfort and solace that religion often brings to those who believe. but without relevance they will be losing people, I remember listening to sermons bored because I couldn’t see how any of it applied to me. without answers I went looking for something else, I actually studied religions and different texts and ended up taking a bit of a hodgepodge of different faiths and forming my own basis of belief around my life experiences and bits and pieces of everything. it works for me. it’s relevant.
anyway,
I think if the gallery had been concerned as to the backlash they could have shown a similar project on the same topic, asking artists and writers to re-write sections of the bible (I see pretty illuminations too but I’m that kind of person) to make them personally relevant. that too, would have been interesting and more controlled, probably less offensive – but probably would be less raw and real.
Edit: I completely forgot to mention that the title of this post was one of the additions made during the exhibition.
Posting schedules be damned!
Kneeling by Jennie Rosenbaum
do you know what? my brain doesn’t work to a schedule. I want it to.. but it doesn’t. so I get so many ideas for posts and I never write them down, why? because somewhere I came under the belief that I needed to adhere to a posting schedule of some sort. I am not the sort to can a post for later, so it never gets written, and then I forget about it when it comes time – so I don’t even adhere to my schedule anyway! it’s enough to make you crazy- or at least it’s enough to make me crazy as the two constantly battling hemispheres of my brain go at it once more, warring over the need for structure and schedules and the need to be spontaneous and creative.
This is affecting my artwork too, I think and I plan and I schedule and I get in my own way and trip over my own need for organization. some planning is good, my artwork is definitely showing that, but I need to stop planning so much and getting everything perfect and just Go For It I need to recapture spontaneity.
this posting schedule is driving me crazy, it’s adding to my stress levels and it’s actually preventing me from posting. so it’s gone! I will still post Friday Nude Quotes but apart from that I think I am going to just let the posts fall where they may, there may be none in a week and then 10, there may be 2 one night and none for the rest of the week. I don’t know, but I need to give myself a break and write when I want to, not when I feel that I should.
Pigeon Holed
I have felt pigeon holed lately by my writing. I am building a reputation for myself as a nude activist. Someone who stands up time and again to state that the nude is not porn and is not always about sex. I don’t believe the nude is necessarily sexual but i also think that there is a place for sexual expression in art without it being porn.
i have felt as though i am bound by this stance. it has stopped me from writing about certain topics, even from painting more explicit works. I feel like cannot write about my own sexuality or artists that I admire who do create sexualized nudes for fear of diluting my message or scaring off readers. but, do you know, there also comes a time when I have said almost everything there needs to be said on a particular subject, I don’t wish to repeat myself, I want to keep my blog fresh and new, rather than rehashing the same old tired arguments every time a nude is censored.
and what if a week or two go by without any censorship of nudes? what do I write about then? this blog was started initially to be a journal of my evolution as an artist and my developing career. but it started to get away from me, as writing often does, and take on it’s own life. I think there is room for both, I think there is room for a whole gamut of topics.
I have been thinking for a while now on the direction of this blog. I really enjoy writing, but lately I have suffered from the bane of all writers, writers block. so, in an effort to kick start my ideas and hopefully re-energize my blog, I am going to turn the question over to you, my readers – what would you like to see me write more about?
phew! help is at hand!
I have been running from pillar to post yet again, getting applications ready, sending off purchases and hunting the wild gallery. things have gotten so hectic that my wonderful husband has stepped in to give me a hand with all my unanswered emails, helping with my hunt and most importantly poking the snarling artist back into her cage (studio).
you see, the actual business of being an artist frequently takes up more time than the creative aspect. unfortunately we also have a built in self destruct sequence if we don’t get to create on a regular basis. these two things are often at odds with each other. so there comes a period of implosion as the outside business matters act on the lack of studio time to create a vacuum of uselessness. and a slump.
Liam is helping me by taking away all the things that I should do (but am stressed out by thus leading to procrastination and more stress) and making me do the single most important thing for the betterment of my career – namely, creating. thanks hon!
this long ramble is purely to explain why I’ve been hiding and why, hopefully, things will be back to normal soonish. we are instituting a schedule, and all sorts of things to make me work better, faster, stronger… we have the technology.
Who’s side are you on? body painting nude art debate
Painted Models by Grace Tam
In my usual news feeds about nude art I came across these two articles. or rather this article and a rather negative response to it.
Rather than do my usual discussions and debates on the matters at hand I would like to turn them over to you, who do you side with in this issue? the artists or the council? Personally I find the language involved fascinating.. I will wait to voice my own opinion for now.
Both Baggio and Grace Tam said they were approached during the painting process by a member of the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Arts Council who voiced concern that the nudity could become an issue.
“I was a bit confused,” said Baggio. “Normally with body painting, it’s done completely nude, but we’re covering the bottom already.” Baggio was wearing black bikini bottoms and was topless, but Tam had already finished painting over the entire chest. She and Tam agreed to put flesh-coloured Band-Aids over her nipples, and those were painted over. They both say they thought it became less of a taboo issue now after Baggio’s nipples weren’t exposed.
Baggio was covered in paint by the time the show began, and Tam painted on a second human canvas later in the evening. The second model also covered her nipples and she was wearing tights on her lower half.
There were children both in attendance and performing in the show, but the artists said they received a mature reaction from the young attendees.
“The children couldn’t care less; not one child was making a deal out of it,” recalled fellow performer C.J. Jackman Zigante. “It was one of those things where if the adults didn’t make an issue of it, they didn’t either.”
“They thought it was neat, and their parents were fine with it too, from what I could see,” said Baggio. “They were there for an art show.”
The discussion over the boundaries of art and nudity are worthwhile and timely. The arts council presents undraped models in painting classes and we are pleased to do so.
But, just like it is appropriate for all people to be able to judge whether they wish to attend an “R” rated movie with their children, it is appropriate that we inform people in advance whether there will be nude art at what was advertised as a family event. This is allowing families to use their judgment; an important freedom we respect.
Freedom of art is not advanced by trampling on parents rights, but by artists and the public having mutual trust and respect
…
The members of the board of the arts council are hardworking volunteers. Many of them are artists and they are certainly not prudes. We were happy to have body art tastefully displayed in the lobby, and apologize to those families who have shared their upset that the models then appearing on stage beside their children (without the director of the show’s permission), and to anyone in the audience that also took exception to this.
I look forward to reading your comments. it’s an interesting situation!
Hibernation
Yet again I have been swamped in the preparations for submissions, writing essays, trying to find inspiration and all the usual day to day activities of an artist. I also had the good luck to fall recently so I have been undergoing a lot of recovery and work to try and claw my way back to where I should be.
Fall seems to be a period of hibernation for me. the changing seasons and fickle weather give me more problems with pain than usual and I find that I seem to slow down. Inspiration is less frequent, I’m more susceptible to colds and to my occasional whybotheritis. I am trying to push through as best I can, I’m still working on some pretty cool submissions and I am trying to not let my whybotheritis make me miss any opportunities. I tend to let myself down at times like this and I am determined not to. unfortunately my blog has yet again been thrown to the wolves of apathy. sometimes something has to go and this time it’s my blog. if it helps I’m not twittering or doing much socially with anything. this period of hibernation always seems to apply most to my social activities, online and off.
I am still planning on completing my assignments for 31DBBB and I will probably post some of my submission responses because they are kinda cool.
apologies
my apologies once again everyone, I’ve been coordinating my first international show and it’s been a series of headaches to say the least. most people would use this sort of thing as fuel to write about in their blog, but for some reason every time I’ve sat down to write lately I’ve been withdrawn, lost, afraid to write, unsure what to write. it isn’t flowing easily for me at the moment and writing should be fun.
one of the problems is my blog has been getting away from me. it’s been less and less my blog and more and more about nude art issues. now, I love writing my opinion pieces and editorials on these issues, but more often than not it’s the same story over and over. it’s wearing to cover the same thing. depressing even. but when I feel like I can’t write about myself on my own blog.. then we have a problem. so, inbetween working on this show I have been thinking about the direction of this blog. I still want to cover the stories and write the opinions but I also want to write about my work, my influences and even (gasp!) my self.
Admittedly I’ve also lacked the drive to work on my blog lately, and on my online marketing, I’ve been in the studio more and it’s been blissful! ideas are coming thick and fast and I’ve been reveling in the pure joy of painting.
so, I am going to make some changes around here, make my posting schedule a little easier to cope with, and I will see about condensing the twitter – because – yikes! sorry about that!
Blog updates
I have updated my prices online and have made changes to my blog artwork page to match. don’t you love it when you have an efficient day? my old pay per click advertising program has dumped me for not earning enough. I was earning small amounts here and there, enough to pay for my blog which is all I was after but apparently that wasn’t enough. so I have added some amazon affiliate links on the side for books that I think are relevant and interesting. sorry to be a bit commercial but multiple streams of income and all that!
I’m still unpacking and setting up my studio and the world of nude art is somewhat quiet right now so just a quick question – are the twitter updates interesting or really annoying? I’ll get rid of them if they suck, I really only had them up for the move as content for when I had no web access. right now they are an experiment.
christmas Break
As many of you know our house has been sold by our landlords and we have to move very soon, which means we are house hunting all through christmas. Christmas is normally one of my favorite times of the year, I’m usually a Rockwell painting of good cheer around the holidays, but at the moment I am more like a Munch painting of anxiety. so, in an attempt to maintain my sanity I am going to be taking a 2 week break. I may drop a line in occasionally if the inspiration strikes to blog but I won’t be posting to my usual schedule.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, full of good cheer, good company and good fun. I hope that I will have a home to go to when I get back to blogging!
I am having a moving sale to try and raise funds and minimize the amount I have to move. go to http://nude.boundlessgallery.com for 15% off everything or make me an offer. I am raising my prices after January so now is the time to make a deal!
thankyou
It’s thanksgiving in the US and, as an American, I still celebrate it with some friends and food. it’s a good time to think back, just before the madcap holidays begin and appreciate all that we have that we are thankful for. Recently, I’ve been struggling more and more with depression. it’s a problem that many chronic pain sufferers face and most of the time I beat it and stay focussed on my dream but sometimes it gets the better of me. the simple act of gratitude has really helped with this lately and now that we are on the verge of thanksgiving I want to take a moment to share all the things I am thankful for.
I’m thankful for my wonderful supportive husband who understands me and my moods, from artistic temperament to the chronic pain dumps, and loves me anyway. I couldn’t ask for a better partner to go through life laughing, singing and crying with.
I have two of the best cats ever. period. I’m so thankful for the laughs and love they give me every day.
I’m thankful that I have passion and talent and drive. I know what I want in my life and I’m working towards getting it.
I’m thankful for my brilliant friends and family, both close and distant, who are always there for gossip, laughs, advice and hugs.
I’m thankful for hugs! hugs are a wonderful thing. The world needs more hugs.
I’m grateful for my iMac. seriously this is a sexy sexy machine.
I’m grateful for the interwebs without which I would never have met so many of you wonderful people, nor would I have progressed my career to the point it’s at or have had so many delightful, daily distractions.
and I’m thankful for all of you, for reading this blog, buying my artwork, sending in your comments and coming to my shows. thankyou all!
motivation
List -Watercolors and pencil on paper by Jennie Rosenbaum
I’m finding it hard to get motivated at the moment. after something like a big exhibition a kind of malaise sets in that is pretty hard to push through. luckily this time I wasn’t actually depressed afterwards which was a pleasant change, but I am finding it hard to get back up and into the studio. there are projects around the house that need to be done and I am focussing on those instead of work. I do have another new exhibition coming up soon in Boston, and new paints to try, I have some ideas for pieces and some blog posts to write, online listings to update and exhibitions to apply for but I have to shake myself out of this funk first!
Back to it!
Well, I’ve had a lovely week off, very relaxing indeed. just what the doctor ordered (actually, literally..). and now I am ready to start resuming work again. I’m going to start off slow, kick it off with uploading new works to boundless gallery and Discovered artists, working on some websites I administer and start to blog more again. thankyou for your patience in my rather pathetic blogging schedule lately! I also need to clean. the house looks mostly like a bomb hit it and that is not far off when you consider my emotional state beforehand.
Trials and Tribulations
sorry for my lack of posting. I’ve been meaning to update you all on the new paintings I’ve been doing, the news from this show and other shows and all the little bits that go into making an exhibition work. the problem is, that I fear that a lot of that stuff is only exciting to me and possibly a couple of other artists. I’ve been working like crazy on this, trying to get it all done and ready on time. I’ve been working so hard in fact that my husband is threatening to take away my computer. which only means that I will probably work more in the studio until i drop from exhaustion. which is happening a lot at the moment. I’m stressed, panicky, asocial, cranky and regularly mutter under my breath. I can’t sleep, eat or relax. and so, of course I hide away from things like blogging which is a form of communicating with the outside world.
I reassure myself that it will be better when it’s over, then I have the depression to contend with and finally the rest before ramping up to the next one. the good news is, that I am not alone. almost every artist I’ve ever heard on the subject is the same. I think it comes from a fear of putting ourselves out there. our works are so intensely personal that it is ourselves hanging on the wall, ready to be judged. and yet we crave the attention, we want our works seen, we want the collection to be viewed together. so we panic and stress and worry, then the absence of that stress and panic and this thing that we’ve thrown ourselves into is over all too fast and we crash. and the fact is, we thrive on it! it’s one of those stupid artist things that make no sense. it’s exhilarating, it gets the blood pumping and the brain churning faster than ever. creativity spikes and ideas come fast and furious. better one crowded hour of life…
Pressure Mounting
it use to be that I needed pressure, it fueled me and spurred me on. I would rise under it the more I had to cope with. I am sure I will be like that again very soon but I admit I’ve been panicking quietly about this show, once I get into the studio and do some painting I am sure I will relax and start working in my usual pre show manner (in a massive flurry of creativity) but I have to get over this case of nerves first!
to help with that I’ve reverted to my old Project management practices to make sure I know when everything needs to get done, and how, and what I have to do, what relates to everything else and how long everything will take to do. it’s a massive help to see it all laid out there in a chart, just writing it all down and seeing how long it will take is soothing to my frazzled nerves. It’s also nice to know I haven’t lost my touch!
Recent Comments