Photo phobia

Beach Series #49

5X5 acrylic textures

Hi All,

I know I seem to have it all together to everyone else, but shocking as it may be, there are some things I am not good at, and some things I am downright afraid of. (I am pausing here to give you a chance to absorb this stunning news.)

You know how artists hate to market their work, well that is not a fear to me as much as it is an annoyance. and a dislike. My greatest fear, well, maybe not my greatest, I mean there is the fear of having the next painting turn out to be crap and then the fear of putting your work out there, and then the fear of sounding stupid in an interview and don't get me started on the pictures they take of you and publish in magazines, books and newspapers. OK, sure, there are a lot of things I am afraid of in this career I have chosen, but I digress. The one I am talking about today is my PHOTO PHOBIA. Technically I think that means fear of the sun or light or something, but for me it is fear of taking photos of my artwork. This is really hard!!!!

All my life I have had a problem understanding the whole f-stop thing, even when I was young and my memory was good and I could still learn new things. You know, the aperture gets smaller as the number gets bigger and the light must be compensated by the yada-yada-yada-yada.... Whatever. I have tried, I really have. I've taken classes, I've practised, I even have a very supportive husband, Greg, who once drew a really good diagram to explain it to me and help me remember it (I am a visual learner). It really helped, but I didn't retain it.

Anyway, fast forward to today. My creative partner (in books, teaching, blog, Etsy, blah, blah, blah) Carlynne Hershberger had to learn to photograph our artwork for our first book(Creative Colored Pencil Workshop). I say "she had to" because if we had depended on me to do it, our publisher would still be waiting and I would be under my bed in the fetal position sobbing and mumbling to myself. You remember how in the old days, artists used slides to enter competitions and also to publish work in magazines and books. Well, ours was chosen for publication just about the time that digital photography was getting really big. Our publisher, F & W Media, gave us the opportunity to be their first authors to do all of our photos digitally. Carlynne was magnificent (we do tell each other periodically that we are brilliant or genius, but magnificent is a new word that we have not used before.) She acquired a new camera (Canon 20D) and learned to use it with very little help from me, although I did read the manual aloud to her, but the translation from Chinese was not very helpful.

Carlynne became wonderful at it and we both benefited from her expertise. Well, eventually I had to learn to do my own. So when we started our Etsy shop, she did the beginning photography to get us started and then she gave me a lesson in doing my own. I had nightmares before we got together to do this. I thought about checking myself into a hospital and having a triple by-pass instead. I needed a root canal, but didn't have the money to pay for it. My other alternative was to change my name and leave town with no forwarding address. But, being the responsible person that I am, I did show up. She was so kind to me (I get teary just thinking about it now) and she gently lead me through the steps and then I realized it wasn't nearly as bad or as hard as I had thought. In fact, I knew right then, that I had nothing to fear but fear itself! (At this point, there are angels singing and a ray of strong sunlight beating down on my head.) I would like to take a moment here to thank, not only Carlynne, but the person who invented digital photography.

So, what have I learned from this experience? That I am not stupid, or old or have a bad memory? No, that is not what I learned, in fact I may be all those things. But I did learn that fear is of the unknown, once it becomes known, the fear can disappear quickly. It was my mind telling me I could not do this, in short I was not good enough. We are all good enough, we just have to tackle our fears head on. And if you are an artist, you need to learn this fast, because unfortunately, our art lives are filled with possible phobias (this post, paragraph 2, lines 3-7). I wish I could give the author credit, but cannot remember where I read one of my favorite quotes: If you are not frightened and depressed, you are not growing as an artist.

Love and peace to all,
Kelli

The midnight hour

It's almost midnight and I'm still up. My dear hubby is not feeling well and he's on a deadline. He has a photo shoot to finish and has to have it done by tomorrow. I've done all I can to help so now I'm just staying up out of sympathy I guess. Not sure what that'll accomplish other than being tired at work tomorrow but here I am - posting. So, since I'm here I thought I'd show you a few of the pics I took of my daughter's puppy Maddie. Maddie spent the day with us on Sunday and between the Frisbee and the hose we wore her right out.

Love her smile!

No, that's not a cast on her leg, she just has really cool markings.

Isn't she cute? I went a little nuts with the camera, this is only 4 shots out of about 230. No, I'm not going to post them all. There are some really fun ones of her trying to bite the water from the hose though so I'll post those later. These were the easiest to do right now - after all it's now AFTER midnight! Not sure how much more sympathy I can muster.

I hope you all had a good Independence day weekend.

Peace and love,
Carlynne

Man (and Woman) Does Not Live by Art Alone

Hi All,

Here is a favorite recipe of mine and I think it is particularly great for summer with home made ice cream. I love microwave recipes because you can have something with a home cooked taste fast and easy!! This is really good hot fudge and so simple because you have everything on hand and can make it at a moments notice.

I have used this recipe for years but now it is on the Internet submitted by several different people, so I can't really give anyone credit. Enjoy.

Easy Microwave Hot Fudge Sauce

serves 4-6 (or one)

1/2 C sugar
3 T cocoa
1 1/2 T cornstarch
1 dash salt
1/2 C water about room temperature
2 T butter
1 t vanilla

1. Mix dry ingredients (I use a 2-cup glass Pyrex measuring cup).
2. Stir in room temperature water.
3. Microwave on high for 90 seconds, stirring a few times.
4. Blend in butter and microwave 15 seconds more, then stir.
5. Continue to cook alternate with stirring until it reaches desired consistency. (Gets thicker as you cook it longer.)
6. Stir in vanilla and serve warm over ice cream (or be creative, chocolate is good over anything!)

My helpful hints:
I make it pretty thick by cooking a little longer (don't over cook it) and then put in a splash of milk to make a really nice milk chocolate flavor.
You can refrigerate right in the glass container and then microwave again when you use it.

I wish you peace, love and good ice cream days.
Kelli

Our Fantastic Students!

One of our "new kids," Levi working on
a colored pencil piece while Samantha
learns to mix colors in acrylic.




Jean working on an acrylic landscape.

Diane who has been with us for many years,

working on a colored pencil piece with Jane

in the background, also working in colored

pencil.

Bob and Chuck (our token males) and

Diane in the background, with Jane in the

foreground, all working in colored pencil.

Hi All,

Thought you'd like to see what some of our students look like. This is the Wednesday class. All of our classes now are Open Studio, people can work in any media on their own projects at their own pace, with our guidance.

Carlynne and I are both, mixed media artists and between the two of us we have worked with or are still working with almost all media. We like having our students work on many different projects. It's fun for us and inspirational for them. They see something that someone else is doing and they want to try it themselves. Our students work in graphite, watercolor, acrylic, colored pencil, sometimes oil and pastels, and even gourds!! Yes, we have one student using acrylic texture mediums on gourds, look for more photos in upcoming posts.

We are thinking about starting some online lessons and critiques to reach more students. During my childhood and young adult years, I lived in a remote part of Michigan and the internet, had it been available then, would have been my lifeline to the art world. Instead I had to depend on what few books were available to me and draw and paint on my own, making the same mistakes over and over. It wasn't until I got to college that I had instructors to help me over my bad habits and mistakes.

Let us know what you think!

Peace, love and creativity to all,

Kelli

Gold Skies

Avocado Grove

5x5

Ah, it's Thursday and that means studio day! I love Thursdays. I'm getting ready to start on some more of the these little landscapes. I thought I'd add some different pieces to the Etsy shop. I have a number of texture pieces on there so landscapes are in order. This particular one is from a photo I took in my cousin's grove in south Florida. It was a beautiful summer day as we walked between rows of lush green trees. The late afternoon heat of the day inspired me to use gold leaf for the sky and I love the effect. There's also some gold under the tree where the light is peaking through and warming the fallen leaves.

Peace,

Carlynne

New work and new beginnings

Passage 72

I just put a couple of new pieces on Etsy so take a peak when you have a chance. I added a few extra things to this one....painted silk, glass, tumbled quartz and metallic thread. Anything is fair game anymore, I wonder hmmmmm....can that be glued to a canvas?

Happy Sunday, happy painting and Happy Birthday to Kelli. Tomorrow is Kelli's birthday so CHEERS and may there be many more.

Peace,

Carlynne

Esty Again!

Hi All,

When I waxed enthusiastically about Etsy yesterday, I didn't mean to imply that my first two sales on Etsy was the first time I had ever sold artwork. On the contrary, my first sale was a portrait commission for the Kellogg Foundation in 1984, over 20 years ago. I remember it well as it was a difficult assignment for various reasons, not the least of which was that the person who's portrait I was doing was deceased and I had no good reference photos. Most of my artist colleagues can identify with this. That started my love/hate relationship with commissions which has now turned to just hate.

What thrilled me about Etsy was several things:

1. It was easy!!! (Especially for me, due to the fact that Carlynne is our geek.)

2. We have only been on Etsy for about 2 weeks and have had 6 sales!

3. My stuff had only been up for a little more than 2 days and I sold 2 pieces!

4. Everything I read on the Etsy help info says that you must be patient waiting for your first sale, it takes time.

5. I had never sold anything online before!

So, why were we so special? Was it just good luck or really good work or something else? Well, of course I like to think that it was just really good work. And maybe it was. I also think that the prices were right for the economy. We have two price points right now in our Etsy store, $25 and $200. In good economic times, $200 is a great price for original art on canvas. In this current economy, it is the $25 pieces that are selling.

Our plan is to post good quality, original artwork at affordable prices. We want our work to be obtainable by people of modest means. Does that mean we will not sell larger, more expensive pieces? Are you out of your mind? But I believe that we will always have smaller more affordable ones even after the economy improves. And we do enjoy making the smaller pieces.

Above I have shown one of our 5X5 pieces on canvas board which sells for $25. It is displayed on a miniature easel (not included in price.)

So, visit our shop at hershbergerhuff.etsy.com when you can and be sure to let us know what you think.

Have a peaceful, loving and creative day.

Kelli