Category: the business of art

Odd Job, Chapter One

Is sign painting an odd job for an artist?

It depends. If you live in a city where there are sign painters, they would be a logical choice for a sign.

If you live in Three Rivers, have a limited budget, would rather not drive 35 miles and want to have input, then choosing an artist might be a good decision. Blue Moon Nursery, AKA Sierra Garden Center, is one of my top 5 places to spend money in Three Rivers. (grocery store, post office, hardware store and Sierra Subs)

My sign painting odd job began with a conversation: “How comfortable are you with lettering?”

I’ve learned to just listen and ask questions, so we moved along until I decided that perhaps I could figure this thing out.

First, I messed around with type – the styles and the arrangements seemed endless.

moon 7 moon 8

It was a progression as I experimented with different styles, different weights and different curves. The final one here was my first choice.

Stay tuned to see what the next decision was!

odd job odd jobs

Redbud Festival Weekend

The Redbud Arts and Crafts Festival is a long time Three Rivers tradition. It has been around since I was a little girl, and it is always long after the redbud have finished blooming.

north fork

This is how redbud looks in bloom, up the North Fork of the Kaweah River. This is a commissioned oil painting I did last year as a result of a conversation I had with someone at the Redbud Festival. Wow, was it ever fun to mix these colors and paint this scene!

Anyway, here it is again, Redbud Festival time.

Redbud

WHERE: Three Rivers Veterans Memorial Building, 43490 Sierra Drive, Three Rivers, California. This is about a mile upstream from Reimers, AKA “the candy store”, on the uphill side, not the river side of the road.

WHEN: Saturday, May 2, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday, May 3, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

ADMISSION: free!

WHAT: Lots of artists and craftsmen showing and selling their wares, music? (maybe), food (more will be revealed in the fullness of time.) There are vendors both indoors and out, and no one is allowed to bring items that they have not made themselves.

WHY: It is spring in Three Rivers, people like to come here, people like to shop, it is fun to see what people are making, it is fun to meet people who make their own products, and Mother’s Day is coming so maybe you would like to buy a present for a mother in your life.

Random Thoughts from a Chaotic Mind

We are having an extreme family emergency, and it is causing me great distress and lack of focus. If I don’t go into detail, perhaps I can live in denial. If you are interested, you may read about it here. (my brother-in-law) Meanwhile, random thoughts from a chaotic mind. . . If I dabble in this and that, it has to add up to productivity eventually, dontcha think?

This is what it looks like to drive in the countryside of Tulare County in Central California. Doesn’t it just make you wonder why anyone lives here? Or how an artist can persevere to find things to draw and paint?

This is the place where the Orange Cove Lions meet weekly. Their scheduled speaker cancelled, so they called me. Sure, I’ll speak to your group! What a great group of guys – I felt right at home. Citrus farmers, rural Central California folks – my kind of peeps.

And this is what my drawing table looks like right now. 2 drawings in progress, working from many photos, adding a little colored pencil, all because it was too overcast to see to paint. The sun came out, so I took this photo, moved into the workshop to paint, and then, bye-bye sunshine. What’s a Central California artist to do?

In other news, I messed with this painting a little more. A bit more light on the water and brighter colors in the flowers.

Is it finished yet? Will I finish anything – a drawing? a thought? a task? Can’t think, can draw.

Fake Painting on a Garden Tour

“Fake painting”? What means this?

It means that I was supposed to be painting plein air, and although I was painting plein air (which means on location), I have no intention of considering those paintings completed. I am a studio painter, and painting on location is a special skill for someone else.

It is sort of like handing a ukele to a violin player and saying, “Here! You’re a musician! Play this and have fun!”

It might have been more fun if it wasn’t 90º. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t productive either.

I set up on the porch in hopes of seeing and completing this view.

I’m in the shade, squinting out into the light, wondering what colors I’m really mixing.

Okay, never mind. I’ll finish this in the studio. Let’s try another location. If I’m out in the sun, maybe I’ll be able to see my colors better. So what if it is hot? I’m a Central California artist, and we can take the heat. Otherwise, we’d move to a more sensible location in the state.

Never mind. Let’s take a break and listen to some music in the shade where there is a breeze. I can finish this in my studio later.

There were some beautiful flowers. Maybe I should become a plein air photographer.

Guess I need to spend some time in the studio cleaning up those messy paintings. Someone else can play the ukele and stand in the heat and do plein air messy stuff because I have a studio and am not afraid to use it.

11 Items in My Portfolio Life

“Portfolio life” is a term I found in Jeff Goins’ The Art of Work.

Sequoia 4 seasons

Collage of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in 4 Seasons, pencil and colored pencil, private collection

Portfolio life doesn’t mean being a jack of all trades, or being the master of one, or being ADHD. It means your work life is full of variety that all relates to and supports your chosen line.

Indeed! Forsooth! (an archaic word for “indeed”)

Check out this list:

Blogger – writer, photographer, a tiny bit computerish
Oil painter
Pencil artist
Drawing teacher
Muralist
Sign painter
Bookkeeper/office manager/marketing director
Web site upkeeper
Author (So what if it is a picture book – it has words!!)
Publisher
Public speaker

“Sign painter”? Only under duress. I’ll let you know more when there is more to let you know.

Item #6 may be more accurately titled “Odd Jobber”. . . I’ve painted a sign for a houseboat, Christmas ornaments, old windows, umbrellas, quilt patches, and saltillo tiles. Those are just the odd jobs I can remember on the spur of the moment.

A Central California artist has got to do what she’s got to do.

It is an honor to be thought of when someone needs an artist.

Anyone else out there living a “portfolio life”?

Maybe I should go vacuum the studio or pull a few weeds. (Should I add janitor and groundskeeper to the list?)

What’s A Central California Artist to Do? part 2

beach birds

Beach Birds, pencil, size forgotten, sold

If you are a Central California artist, you may occasionally have times when: taking inventory is boring; ordering packaging supplies for notecards that aren’t moving very quickly feels like a waste of money, planning for paintings when one’s current body of work is collecting dust feels futile, writing blog posts is difficult when technology fails and photos won’t load; calling on stores and galleries feels futile when they don’t keep their posted hours or end up closing altogether.

So what?

One of my drawing students and friends often the line blurs) gave me a sign that hangs in the painting studio. It reads “Put on your big girl pants and get busy”.

Getting busy looks like this:

order envelopes and clear bags for notecards
order some of the card designs that have sold out
edit newer photos and order prints
call or email the names on the waiting list for drawing lessons (One lady said “I’m waiting for you to give a watercolor class”. She’ll be waiting a very long time, because I don’t know how to watercolor paint.)
blog ahead
update the inventory, where-to-buy and events pages on the website
put more sticker decals on the covers of The Cabins of Wilsonia
package notecards
take care of the hassles and realities of tax season

AHA! Tax season. Could that be the reason for the current state of mind? Thanks, IRS. Way to wreck the most beautiful time of year.

Guess I’ll just pretend as if someone has forbidden me to work on the business of art. That should light a fire under me!

How do you remain productive during your slow seasons?

What’s a Central California Artist to Do?

reading rabbit

Sometimes I feel like quitting.

Have you ever noticed that what one must do just holds no interest?

For example, if my job was yardwork, I’d be dying to paint. My job is painting, so I’m dying to do some yardening.

What causes this?? A lingering rebellion from adolescence? A streak of stubbornness? The thing called “resistance” by Steven Pressfield in The War of Art?

When sales are slow or studio tour visitation is low or attendance in drawing lessons declines, I wonder why I push onward. The work has no sense of importance and certainly no urgency. I don’t feel the press of any deadlines, so I dink around home, avoiding the studio.

It takes discipline, thought about what is ahead, planning, optimism, leaning into past experience and sheer determination to use my “down” time wisely.

What’s a Central California artist to do??

Come back tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have an answer or two.

What do you do when you feel unmotivated?

Studio Tour Preview Exhibit

The Arts Consortium in Visalia is sponsoring the South Valley Artists’ Studio Tour. For the first time, Three Rivers artists have been invited to participate. (Long story, probably not worthy of a blog post.)

There will be a preview exhibit of works from participating artists (ME! I’m one of them!!).

ARTS VISALIA GALLERY

214 East Oak Street, Visalia, California

RECEPTION: FRIDAY, MARCH 6

5:30 – 8:30 PM

SHOW RUNNING MARCH 4 – MARCH 27

GALLERY HOURS: Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 5:30

Each artist is allowed to exhibit one piece. Guess you’ll have to go there to see which one I chose!

P.S. Tickets, called “passports” will be for sale at the gallery during the reception and their regular hours. $15 gets you access to about 40 artists’ studios all over Tulare County over the course of 2-3 days, March 20-22. (My studio will NOT be open on Friday, March 20, but many others will be.)

for more info: South Valley Artists’ Studio Tour

Does Art Have A Purpose?

This is a reprint of an article that I wrote for LinkedIn.

1441 MK Trail

Mineral King Trail, 11 x 14″, oil on wrapped canvas, $175

In the art world, one can always find a discussion about the purpose of art. Is it to decorate? To enhance? To inspire? Or, is its purpose to disrupt, to cause one to examine one’s life, or simply to disturb?

The latest news flash disrupts. The top of the hour news causes one to examine one’s life. The all-news-all-the-time reiteration of gross events in the world is disturbing.

Be honest now: is this what you want on the walls in your life? In my humble opinion, disruption, self-examination and disturbances are more the purview of news than art.

I live in a poor rural county in the center of California. Art is a strange way to earn a living here, and it is a hard haul at times. No matter how difficult it is, I am motivated, nay, DRIVEN to find and show the beauty of this place I’ve always called home. Sure, I could make art about stolen vehicles, meth, teen pregnancy, poverty, diabetes, obesity or bad air, but who wants to look at that??

Artists are told by professors, publications, websites, seminars, workshops and other artists that we must convey a message, tell a story, incite people to think.

As an artist, my response to this “must” is two-fold: first, an automatic internal reaction that I may not have anything worth saying other than “Ooh, how beautiful”, and second, perhaps that message of beauty is irrelevant.

Recently, I became aware of a transcript of a talk given by philosopher and writer Roger Scruton, called “Why Beauty Matters”. (http://www.facetofaceintercultural.com.au/a-fading-beauty/) He points out that beauty is a value, one that is as important as truth or goodness.

Scruton quotes Oscar Wilde, who said, “All art is absolutely useless”, and he opines that Wilde intended this as praise. How can uselessness be viewed as a compliment? He actually viewed beauty as having a higher value than usefulness.

What a contrary concept in this age of edgy brashness, outrageous trendiness, and ever-increasing audaciousness, all for shock value.

Once again, I admonish you to be honest: do you want to be shocked as you pass down your hallway? Disturbed while waiting for your coffee? Upset as you settle in for the evening?

Beautiful art can bring grace to your home and peace to your life. We all know that life can be hard. Have you ever considered that beauty soothes the troubled soul and takes the edge off the difficult times? It can momentarily transport us away from our daily harsh realities, and it is an immeasurably great quality that we cannot overdose on.

I’ll take soothing over shocking every day. Art serves in that capacity for me, both in its creation and in its display. Like goodness and truth, I need beauty in my life. Art helps to fulfill that need.

Mineral King oil paintings

Stocking Stuffer Recap

“Recap”? What does that really mean? Just another piece of slang that we all accept, like “wrap up”. Sometimes I think I am losing my ability to speak real words, hence “do-over” “yucky” and “funner” in a recent post.

But, I digress.

The Stocking Stuffer Boutique went well. Six of us shared a vacant business space in “downtown” Three Rivers. It was a beautiful day, and after the first 1/2 hour of fidgeting, the people began arriving and didn’t stop until the end of the day.

This means that all my photos happened at the beginning of the day. We did a decent job of drawing attention to what has been a FOR RENT space for a year or two.

The added bonus is that I have 2 poinsettia plants now decorating my walkway at home.

Here is a peek inside the building. (Notice I chose the correct “peek” – I’ve read too many “peaks” lately when there was only something to see and nothing to climb.)

My things are to the left, mostly out the picture because you’ve seen them but you haven’t seen the space we were filling and I think it is interesting! (just be polite, ‘kay?)

It was so hard to stay indoors. I purposely wore shoes that weren’t good for outdoor walking because I knew the siren call of the river would pull me away from the day’s duties. There are limited opportunities for interacting with people with the place and way I’ve chosen to do business, so there is no excuse for trotting off to catch a view in the middle of it all.

It was a great space, a nice day, and now there are only 32 calendars remaining!

Beautiful Tulare County

Oil paintings of our county’s beautiful places by Jana Botkin

$15, including tax and mailing