You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2009.
Hopefully for the last time, at least for a while, this blog is moving on over to my sparkly new website, www.lauriecoyledesigns.com! Come on over and say hi! And then be sure to update your feed reader (or go ahead and subscribe!) {And be sure to give me props since I designed it myself using wordpress!}
I’ll be bringing these to the Sowa Open Market this weeked — yippee!
The first two are on mahogany, both about 3 or 4 inches, and the last two are on amazingly lovely maple Plywerk panels, both 5 inches square, 1/2″ deep with a little keyhold in the back for hanging flush to the wall. They are both in acrylic and gouache (oh, I love gouache, too!) with collaged fabric accents. The Oriole’s black feathers are fabric and the yellow mommy bird’s tree branches are plaid flannel. She’s actually quite a bit more yellow than the photo, but I thought this one showed you a good glimpse of the surface variations and the fabric.
I’ve been a-painting, but nothing’s done yet! This is odd for me, since I usually DO finish “a painting in a day” (that was the title of Marisa’s painting class at Squam — but I don’t paint a painting a day, I just finish them in a day if I start them), but since working with acrylics, or maybe it’s the wood surface, I have felt the need for multiple layers, and they just have to dry in between. So then I walk away and forget to come back! This is a huge plus to having an art studio in my house — I can go back to it whenever I feel the urge, and I can leave it out for days on end, untouched, until the painting calls me again! Well, that’s how it’s been going this week, anyway. {Have I mentioned how lucky and blessed I feel to have a studio in my house? I do indeed.}
So that photo above is just for your very own enjoyment. It was one of the first I took with my new 50mm fixed focal-length lens (re: no zoom). It’s a short, open lens so it lets in lots of light. The lens’ auto focus doesn’t work with my camera (Nikon D40 dslr) tho, which is actually pretty annoying. I didn’t remember how hard it was to focus manually! It’s also double hard on this one because the depth of field is sooo short, you have to be really precise. Good for non-moving objects, though! (or arty photos of moving things)
I realized today that I haven’t mentioned the e-courses I’m taking right now! Yes, why stop at one — I’m doing two! I think I was missing being in school or something (which I currently have no plans to go back to, btw).
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These are both 6 week classes; one started on Monday and the other on (Creative) Thursday. They’re both super fantastic and run by amazing, inspiring women. The first one is “In The Fish Bowl:: LIFE AS AN ARTIST. ONline :: AN E-COURSE” with Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday. Learning “how to make a living, market yourself, and maneuver as an artist online, while staying true to who you are.”
The other is “The Declutter Goddess; Making Space for your Goddess to Shine e-Course” run by Leonie Allen of GoddesGuidebook.com. “Making space for our goddess to shine isn’t a one-time binge-drinking session of throwing away, moving furniture and vacuuming. That can feel scary, boring and harsh. And pretty soon, things just get back to feeling the same instead. What we’ve instead created is a six-week journey where we’ll be guiding you through divine decluttering & magical space clearing to create an amazing, spirit, light, joyful space.”
Don’t those sound fantastic? Um, they are.
yippee!
Today, two items (and those paintings are coming, promise!):
#1. To get blueberry stains out of clothing, pour white vinegar on and blot it off with a paper towel and rinse with hot water. Or soak in white vinegar and pour boiling water over and let sit for a bit. Just, you know, in case you needed to know.
#2. After the success of my half-price print sale, I have decided to make it an official price-lowering for the summer in my Etsy shop and at shows/sales in-person! See it as my version of the economic stimulus, perhaps. Affordable Art for the masses! 8×10’s are now $10 and 4×6’s are $6, plus shipping. These are all printed by me on a lovely gloss photo paper, guaranteed to last a real long time. Probably longer than all of us (not to be morbid or anything).
I have come to this decision in part through my various price experiments. Didn’t you know you were all part of my experiment? I’m a mad scientist! ok, no, but I have spent the past few months travelling around to different shows, and chaning my prices here and there to see how things sell at different price points. And doing the same on Etsy. I think this is an invaluable way of determining prices, but of course in a time when many people don’t have a lot of disposable income, the experiment goes a little haywire. I’ve tried different methods and equations for pricing, and my favorite by far is the secret formula I used to come up with this “affordable art” price. I’m sorry that I cannot share that equation (e-mail me if you reallywanttoknow), but I’m sharing this whole story as a way of possibly helping someone who is in the same place I have been, trying to figure out how to not undersell yourself (or your fellow artists!) but also make a living and sell your butt off. I hope it helps to see that you have to try different things, and your business and business practices must continue to grow and evolve as your product and you grow and evolve. There’s no perfect way of doing it, if there was we’d all be millionaires. I plan on being one soon enough, but right now I’ll make do with selling my butt off. Buy prints here.
Yes, I am capable of putting my ideas in writing, but I am not a writer, nor do I particularly yearn to be. That said, this post by the eminently eloquent Christine Mason Miller (AKA Swirly) on her pursuit of a writing career (and she’s well on her way!) really helped me sum up and express, at least to myself, my feelings surrounding pursuing a career as an Artist (Please note, that is with a capital “A”). I would really like making art to be my living, my career.
Right now I need to just keep making, painting, sewing, drawing. I see a style emerging a little bit at a time, but I still don’t know what my signature style is. And that’s ok. That’s where all the making comes in. All the advice I’ve heard from other successful artists boils down to “Just Show Up” and I really have to agree that this seems the most viable, doable and real way to attempt to make a living doing what I love. And taking it one step at a time really makes it seem a bit less daunting. Putting “paint today” on my to-do list is a whole lot easier than “have a retrospective show at MoMA” or some such wow dream. Not that that wouldn’t be nice, but I’m guessing most museums want you to have made some work before they will show it. hehe.
My next challenge is attempting to sell my original paintings, which I rarely ever do. I have sold a handful here and there, mostly those that are too big to scan and sell as prints, though, and a few small birdie paintings. I’m not a careful maker, and it is a new goal to create with the idea of actually sending the original out into the world as-is. I am experimenting with different surfaces and papers and mediums for just this purpose. I think I’m really liking the durability of acrylic on wood because it seems so substantial. Watercolor on paper is much more ephemeral. Not that that’s a bad thing, just completely different quality, and it really seems to need to be framed, and at this point I only have the means for lovely IKEA frames, not custom framing. I LOVE the framed watercolors that I own, and I will probably do a few here and there, but I think I need to change it up a bit for now.
I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, but I just thought it would be worth sharing some of these thoughts with you. I have a few more paintings started today, but nothing to show yet. Maybe tomorrow.
Oh and in case you were wondering, yes, my ankle really does still hurt. A lot. But I can walk like normal, so that’s a plus.
I was so inspired by the painting we did in Marisa’s class at Squam on wood panels that I had to go ahead and order up some blank ones for myself. While I wait for my archival wood panels to arrive from Plywerk, I am working on painting on un-treated wood that I happened to have around. These are both mahogany, salvaged from one of my dad’s construction jobs, I believe.
These are both in acrylic, which I also pulled out as inspired by Marisa. I have been painting in watercolor mostly since my classes with the lovely and talented Pat Hogan a few years ago. I have really loved watercolor, but getting out the acrylics reminded me why I used to paint with them all the time! They can really go on any surface and they dry so quickly! This is a blessing and a curse, of course, but so far I’m really enjoying the change of pace. These little friends (about 3 and 4 inches tall) will be for sale at this Thursday’s “Third Thursday” street fair in Pittsfield, and if they don’t sell there I’ll be sure to pop them in my Etsy shop this weekend. I’m going to be sharing a booth with Stephanie of Atoms At Work at Third Thursday — and we are crossing our fingers that these thunderstorms are all done by then!
Three little birdie sculptures, made mostly from scrap fabric from Marcia’s bags, are up in my Etsy shop now. These made their debut, with a few friends who found new homes, at the Squam Art Fair.
I can’t resist. While processing pics for my upcoming stuffed birdie listings (up soon in my Etsy shop!) I came across a few more shots from around the farm lately that I need to share.
Our pretty HappyDog likes to help me garden. At least she wasn’t lying directly on top of anything I was growing on purpose. I don’t mind if she lies on the weeds, though. (check out the sweet railroad-spike sugar snap pea trellis my darling Johnnie made for me!)
And JaneCat just looks on, pretending not to know there’s work to be done. She’s really slacking on her mouse-terrifying duties lately. 
And this is a for real scene, nothing staged here. Turns out the goats actually like us (when we bring them food, that is)! This is from before we moved the chickens in with the goats. Apparently they have now taken to laying their eggs all over the place and in the goat barn. Oops. We’re going to have to work on the chicken-training, I guess. 
Things are growing! Tomato blossoms and even a few tiny green tomatoes, these plants were grown from seed by my green-thumb Mom!
Last week John moved the chicken coop in with the goats, so they can graze together safely within the fence. The only real predator we’ve seen around here lately (knock on wood!) happens to be our HappyDog. She looks innocent enough, but after a little, erm, “incident” we are keeping her a safe distance from the Chickens. Well, at least on this side of the fence. She loves watching them, though. And the goats are trying their best to get to the chicken food, which we seem to have managed to barricade from them, at least for the time being.
And look at this photo below! Seem familiar? Quite uncannily like my radish painting, I GREW this one from seed, along with a whole slew of others. And they are delicious! Amazing how those tiny tiny seeds can grow something that can nourish our bodies so well, eh?
I am so loving reading everyone’s impressions of Squam. That’s one great thing about getting a bunch of bloggers together — the event will be well documented, for sure! Some of my favorite accounts so far are Betz’s and Maya’s.
One of the new things I sold at the Squam Art Fair was my littler version of stuffed birdies. They were a hit, and I’ll be listing a few in my Etsy shop later this week (maybe even today?).
Maybe I’m biased, but I think they are such cuties. I really loved making them and you can be sure there will be many more to come. I got some fab. hand-dyed fabric from my cabin-mate Tracie Lyn Huskamp, who taught Painted Prayer Flags. The students in these classes made some really amazing work, and many of them hadn’t ever painted before. I’m sure she was a very nurturing and fun teacher to have, and I just looove her style. Can you guess why? hehe, bird nerds unite!
