Slammed!

Over the weekend I got slammed by a bad cold. How does this happen? Going along just fine, nice little critical path of things to do before the Open House and WHAM … a scratchy throat, then that little bugger takes a dive straight for my lungs. Within 24 hours I knew that bronchitis was on its way.

I knew I was pushing too hard but I loved what I was creating and couldn't stop. But getting sick 6 days before the big show was decidedly not on any of the checklists.

Fortunately, I already had an appointment scheduled on Monday morning with an acupuncturist who is also an RN and he had a plan. He set some needles, put me on the most amazing homeopathic remedies and nipped it. In the normal course of things I would have been flat on my back by now, but thanks to Tom Hammett I'm still functioning and still pretty much on track with that checklist.

The art went up yesterday and the studio looks fantastic! I really believe in the work I’m creating right now and I’m excited about having thousands of people see it. We anticipate 8-10,000 visitors in the building for the Open House this coming Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. It’s one of the big art events of the year in Indianapolis and one of many reasons why I chose to locate my studio in the building.

The building is an old Stutz Bearcat automobile factory, recycled into alternative studio/office space in the early 90s by a visionary developer who is also a painter. The Open House started out with a couple of artists and a plastic swimming pool filled with ice and beer, inviting their friends over to see their art. This weekend there will be more than 60 artists opening our studios to the public.

Exciting times. I’ll post some pictures soon.

Behind the Scenes: 10 days before the spring studio tour at the Stutz

Ten days to go before our big spring studio tour at the Stutz and I thought it might be interesting to post a few before and after pictures of the studio.

The past few days I've been working ridiculous hours and my studio looks like it. This is a shot of the part of my studio were I exhibit my work during the open house. I also love working in this space. Tonight I'm sorting through the sumi drawings, choosing the best to frame and hang for the studio tour.

When I create these drawings I create literally hundreds of images and most end up in the recycling bin. Less than 10% make the cut and only a few of those will be framed for the studio tour, although others will be available for sale unframed.

These drawings are magical to create. And people tell me they are magical to experience. In between the magic there's a whole lot of tedious work, as you can see from this picture of my workroom.

Here I'm sorting, selecting the best images, and cataloging them by linking the drawing and it's photographic counterpart on the computer.

So I'm taking a break to post this, but now it's time to get back to work!

More later.

Preparing artwork for the web

Ay yi yi!

Well, this website stuff is entertaining. I know just enough to be dangerous.

Actually, FolioLink (the web hosting site where my website is based) is terrific. The templates look great and are easy to use. It just takes time! Lots of time. But everyone at FolioLink is extremely helpful and I'm very happy with the results.

I'm still photographing and working with photoshop to get the images right so bear with me. There is a great article on FolioLink about preparing photos of your artwork for the web. There's a steep learning curve but once it's right, it's easy.

I've also been learning about how to protect my artwork on the web. Evidently con-artists are snatching images from artists online portfolios, duplicating them, transfering them to canvas, painting over them and selling the art as originals on Ebay. Who knew?

There are several options, such as watermarking your images with photoshop before you post them. However, it seems that protecting your art by managing file size and format is the first line of defense.

OK, back to work. I hope you find this information as useful as I did.