GETTING READY FOR A SHOW AND AN APOLOGY TO MY FRIENDS

I feel like I have been the absent friend of late, and I owe my friends an apology.  Committing to a show of this size in The Forum at the Defoor Centre has taken up ALOT of my time, and I have not been keeping in touch with people as I should.   That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about my friends, I just haven't been communicating.  I promise, when this show is up, I am going to be back!!!!   I might even socialize again!!!

Jill Kettles, of Scribbles Studios contacted me last year and asked if I wanted to do a show in the Forum. I readily agreed.  The Forum is a fairly large space and I knew I had alot of work to do.  I wanted to paint larger for awhile and had been collecting canvases.   This was the opportunity to do this and work on larger works in a couple of series.   Because the room has dividers, I feel I can hang 2-3 series and still make it look cohesive.

Because of Jill's expertise with PR, she has managed to get the show listed on the following:
Pressitt
Atlanta Skirt Magazine
Atlanta Planet 
eventful
11 ALIVE
as well as the Northside Neighbor (which didn't have a link).

I'm excited to be showing with several of my friends (we all have separate rooms), Laura Parker and Tina Ciranni, as well as Lisa Stevens and Ruth Gogel.

Jill was able to get Ike Stubblefield  as the musical guest.   He has played with people such as Eric Clapton, B.B.King, Boz Scaggs, The Pointer Sisters among others.

So - what do I have ready to show at this?

Here are 24 pieces that are finished, except some of them still need wires and the edges finished.  The largest piece here is 36x48 - my largest piece yet.

Shown here are 14 pieces that are finished, but will be photographed prior to hanging.

Here are the framed pieces - 14 in all.  I have 2 additional pieces to be framed - 16 in all.

Three pieces in progress, and yes - I am using hula oops and baking pans!!!!

And - I have a few more I have begun that have been drying by the gardenia bush - which as you can see is in full bloom.

The reception is on June 19th - 2-4p, and is open to the public at the Defoor Art Center, located at 1710 Defoor Avenue, Atlanta, Ga.  I really believe this opening will be fun!!!!   Not only will the entertainment be great, I think the refreshments will be worth the trip - and - - - The Defoor Art Center is haunted!

SPRING CLEANING - or - SHOWING OFF YOUR SOUVENIRS

It is that time of year again - time for Spring Cleaning.  Time to clean out the drawers, organize, and clean,

Below see the collage I did for my niece Mallory using souvenirs she collected after spending a year in Europe.  She didn't want to put them into an album - she wanted to be able to look at them and share them with her friends.  She recently moved into her first apartment, so I put this together as a housewarming gift for her.

This is an inexpensive way to create a piece of art that is uniquely your own using your memories.   I have done several of these for friends using souvenirs from trips or special events.   I use the original material selectively and copy others, changing the scale and dying the paper.   I then add embelishments that might include rice paper, thread, or anything that is appropriate.

This is another example of what I call a "memory collage".  My father rebuilt pianos, and also knew how to tune them.  This was something he loved doing and I inherited his book on piano tuning - which included notations my dad had made in his handwriting.  I copied some of this and did a collage entitled "Showing of the Piano" - which is a term piano tuners use when the piano is ready to be played.  This collage keeps my father's memory alive with something he really loved!

Do you have materials stuck back somewhere that you would like to organize and "show off" in a piece of original art?   I'd be happy to put something together and work closely with what is important to include for a reasonable fee.   If interested, contact me at vickiemartinarts@comcast.net

Also, if you have done collage along these lines, share them with me!

playing with fire

I think of painting as an adventure, as long as you continue to learn and experiment.   I have always experimented, but lately I find myself doing destructive things to canvases and  building on top of that.   I have a new series percolating in my little brain, something along the line of "out of destruction comes beauty."

I have long been interested in organic shapes and I continue to explore the circle.   The piece above was painted and then layered with Okawara paper , a Japanese rice paper I applied with Benjamin Moore Stays Clear Polyurethane (nothing else seems to work) that creates a layered effect.  I then painted back on top of the paper, building my circles and letting the paint drip.   However, the destructive part came from running a blow torch over the canvas several times and watching the effect it had on the paint - changing the colors and bubbling up.   I never burned through the canvas.  

This has me thinking about trying different things, like working with soot, treated paper - I'm open to suggestions.   I have been reading about Yves Klein's fire paintings and would like to learn more.

This piece is multi-layered with gesso, modeling paste.   Because there are so many layers, I used the blow torch quite a bit here and liked the results.   

Tonight I again experimented burning paper with gunpowder.   I'm starting to get the hang of it!

  

This piece isn't finished, but I am having fun with it.  Again, it is layered with gesso, as well as collage.  When I used the blow torch, it burned the collage off (and didn't burn the canvas).  I have applied  paper that was burned with gunpowder as collage.   

I plan on finishing this piece this weekend, along with these other two I worked on tonight.

No telling what I'll experiment with next.  I've tried alcohol, leaving paintings outside, putting small paintings on the grill, mixing in salt, coffee and tea.  Hmmmm - where to next?

THE POWER OF "LIKE"

Chances are, if you are reading this, you are using Facebook and have probably clicked the "like" button.   After taking a workshop yesterday on Social Marketing for Artists, the power of "like" was referred to.   It got me thinking....   what does it mean when it comes to promoting yourself or your business.  After all, it has been integrated into millions of sites.

When you click on the button, it ensures your entire network knows you "like" this.  This is the only button that allows you to gain access to groups and fan pages.

I believe marketing can be very valuable when word of mouth is utilitzed.   This button allows this to happen and in some cases, it will create viral opportunities (maybe one day, maybe!).

Now - liking something on Facebook doesn't mean the same thing as liking something in real life.  It let's your network of friends know you appreciate what you have seen.  Personally, I think it makes the post more credible when people have "liked" it, because most of us care what our friends like.

Some statistics I found that I thought interesting:   On the average, a Facebook user that hits "like" has more than double the average friends and tends to be more active in social media.  These users also tend to stay on the sites a little longer.

Think about it and do the math.   If an artist posts a painting and has 150 friends, and just 10 of them hit like, then the painting is seen by their friends.  If they have an average of 150 friends, that is 1500 extra people!

Do the search engines pick up on the "likes"?   Hard to tell.   From my reading, Google, Bing and Yahoo are very secretive about their practices.   It is possible they are using the like buttons, but I think you would have to have a blog or a website to get their attention.   If anybody know more about this, I'd love to know.

I'd love to know your thoughts.   Many of you know I love the reciprocity of promoting on facebook, more on that and sharing later.

I think liking something is supporting your friends, it isn't reviewing them.  

Your thoughts?

Oh - I can't write a blog without putting an image of my work up -