Art musings, art tip, and a "painting a day"

5 little canvases prepared for week 1 of  PAD
 (note black painted sides) 

Since coming back to the States (from Ireland) in August, I've been in landing mode: getting the house back into shape, sitting in on a painting course, and (of course) starting this blog.  However, the Fall was dominated by my painting in class, and on my own in the class studio when classes weren't on.  It was great.  I got lots of "brush mileage", but not doing much from the professional development arena. For instance, I hadn't arranged to have a show of the work I produced in Ireland.

Thus, when Franklin and Marshall College's Fall Semester ended, I decided to forgo sitting in on a Spring class as an act of commitment to once again doing more to get myself  better known as an artist.  For instance, we didn't do our normal traveling on my husband's break from college.  Instead, we stayed in town so  I could work with my graphic artist sister, Danni, to created this blog.  She also helped me get over some of my fear and loathing about updating my website.  She was great, and I feel more grounded, but as we all know that feeling only lasts as long as we keep doing what helped us feel better.

 If you didn't notice, that's an art tip:  if you are like me, techno classes you take (or help you get) will only move you to a better place in the long run if you choose to use the use the things you learned.  Otherwise, in my experience the term use it or lose it will be the rule of the day.  I know this is true for me because I've taken great business of art workshops that our local art college, PA College of Art and Design, make available to folk in the arts community as part of their Lancaster Artist Initiative program.  I left each class stoked to do what I learned about, but fear led to my putting things off long enough that I never got comfortable with doing the new things I learned.


Tomorrow, I'm going to start talking about something else I'm doing to keep my focus on the work -- while working on the business part of art.  I'm exploring the "painting a day" movement.  It will push me to do work each week day.  It also will push me to explore using e-bay or other marketing tools. Wish me luck.

I'd love to hear your input (thoughts/advice) on the painting a day program, eBay or whatever.