Commission art

I am beginning a new commission art project of a 30" x 60" painting of my roses. I am very delighted to start this project. Although my hand still hurts from losing my balance off the bike, I am able to lightly hold the pen or pencil to do my sketches. This will be a horizontal piece, I am feeling more drawn to a vertical format right now so I am starting my sketches in a vertical format to get warmed up. I know that it will lead me to the required format in time.

Integrity

I recently saw an artist, I met in the past, preparing for a meet and greet at a local cafe. I have had odd feelings about this artist's work. She seems to have been successful in selling her work but I question her integrity. Does her work sellout? Why does that bother me? There are quite a few pieces of her work I really like, but I find that they seem to be strongly "influenced " by other artwork I have seen before. Her style also vary greatly from series to series; they seem very trendy. On the business side, it makes sense to produce work that will sell, but I question why her style seems so different? I like to try different things too, am I jealous that she is doing what I would like to do, paint whatever style she feels like doing and not concerned about developing a consist style? While I am bothered by her art practice, I know that if I can figure why it affects me, I will learn and grow from it.

And the doodle grew

New friend

I met a new friend who is a surface pattern designer for a fair size retail clothing store. She reminded me that I should state what I would like to do in my websites like my skills and my interest. I have since edited my online presence to include commission opportunities. I guess I just thought that it was clear by displaying my art in my online portfolio of what I do and like to do.

Here is a quick doodle of the day as a pick me up. It works!

What makes me tick

In my last blog, I asked myself what art is to me. In relations to the statement of " art is patience", I have come to acknowledge that creating art is patience. I also started dissecting my work habits and it feels like I've opened up a door into my creativity.

Walks - going for walks makes me look and see. They help me think.

Sleep - besides the obvious rejuvanation affects it has on my body, I create and process in my dreams.

Go or Stop - creativity, like life is constantly flowing, even when an artist feels that they are stuck in an artist block. I think blocks are a combination of stress and burn out. Also processing in between times of physically creativing counts too.

Art is...

An illustrator
I really admire recently posted "art is patience". That got me thinking what art is to me. I always thought of art as being exciting and have an impact. I never thought of it as being patience. Perhaps I should give it more thought and think about what art is to me.

Sometimes, I am not a patient person but I understand that patience is necessary with all things. When I am impatient, I distract myself with other tasks, mainly research. As a good multi-tasker, I am also aware of the danger of unfinished tasks or projects. The older I get, the more I realize how important it is to find out how I work instead of just labeling myself for having problems. It is crucial to identify my short comings and turn them into positive asset. Sometimes, I like to trick myself into doing something I don't like to. Luckily, I am on a bit of a productive high right now. I am reviewing online presence and deciding whether I need to have several portfolio site to display my work.

Buy Me

As I play around with my online presence, I am looking at different portfolio websites out there. I am now set up to sale prints here http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/astrid-fox.html It's a pretty neat print on demand set up where I don't necessary have to part with my original piece of work if I am selling the prints. I am excited to upload more of my work for sale as prints and some originals.