Will Make Art For Kudos

Yes, it’s all about the process, but I’ll take a side order of Kudos anytime. I’ve read Blogs where artists who sell their work on ETSY have been selected as a Featured Seller or their work was highlighted on the opening ETSY page. What a wonderful feeling to get your work recognized, selected out of hundreds of others. Those little affirmations can be uplifting and be just the thing that keeps us working artists creating and moving forward. I’m not an ETSY artist but I am an Artful Home & Guild Artist and one of my new Leaf sculptures was selected to appear on their opening Blog page, The Artful Life! “Autumn Pond Leaves II” is in the upper right hand corner under the heading “Great New Piece!” At first when I linked to the Artful Home Blog page I thought maybe it was just my browser that popped my work in the upper right hand corner –weird thinking, I know.  But I sincerely wondered if they had really picked one of MY sculptures for the page! It caught me by surprise

that my work would get selected from the hundreds of very talented artists, and I admit being selected MADE MY WEEK –Yippee! That confirmation, affirmation,positive reinforcement, along with those grateful customers, appreciative Galleries, or being selected into a juried show or better yet, selling a big fat piece, I admit can go a long way for me to continue working as a full time artist.  Kudos can offset those times of waiting for a check in the mail, dry spells of inspiration, fussy critical customers, lagging Gallery sales, late night or early morning show set-ups, pricing, tagging, accounting, packaging and shipping, long days in the Studio or just plain lack of artistic confidence. Sales are the ultimate sustainer but recognition also works for me. The timing of the Artful Home recognition was good because I have a full weekend of production scheduled and needed a little morale boost!I’m going to be doing repetitive task production of hand beading and tagging my Good Fortune Pea Pods and Happy Halibut Ornaments for the upcoming Bad Girls Show.  I don’t do very well with repetitive tasks but I have had multiple requests for the Pea Pods and Halibut (Orna‘Butts) to be at Bad Girls so I’m getting after it. 

I love both items when their finished, it’s just making so many multiples of anything is hard for me. I’ve created a cool story tag that goes with the Pea Pods and bought some lovely sheer ribbon to use as ties. I’m looking forward to having a box filled with the ornaments because I’ll feel rich with all of the inventory being ready for the Show. I like it when my coffers are full! The good news is my hands are properly callused to do all the hand work as the last of the huge Birch trees dropped their leaves I finally raked the entire Anchorage yard yesterday. Daddy-O was impressed when he got home, gave me a squeeze and poured me my favorite cold beverage, again just enough recognition to sustain me.

Our Very Own Belle

In the spirit of Fall, I created some new, approx. 30" x 30" “Pond Leaves” wall sculptures for The Artful Home for consideration in their upcoming catalogs. One of the benefits of being a Guild/Artful Home Artist is their  Artist Services support, National representation and ability to upload original works for sale to their web site. I'm still getting the hang of doing business this way, but am appreciative of all the support I've received from them. I especially like the results of the muted leaves (the sculpture with no burgundy leaves) on the rusted patina round stock. I welded some 

additional embellishments 

on the surface of the round stock, creating some twig/bark like texture and set it out in the rain to weather and patina naturally. Next, I hand rubbed some yellow, amber and orange enamel paint to the leaves to give the leaves a more muted look. I wanted the patina surface to not be lost under the paint. I really like the effect. The brighter leaves were also hand painted enamel with layering various fall colors. Because I use One Shot Professional Sign 

Painter’s Enamel paints for the finish, these pigments have proven to work indoors as well as outdoors. We have had such a mild Fall that I used the leaves in my garden as my inspiration for the color palette to work from.

The 12^th annual UAF Farthest North Forest Sports Festival is an annual fall event that celebrates the centuries-old traditions of lum

ber-jacking and provides students, staff, faculty, and the general public an opportunity to test their woods

men skills, learn about the boreal forest and the discipline of forestry, and simply enjoy a fall day as a spectator. The festival is sponsored by the UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences and the Resource Management Society.  Events include the Pulp toss, Axe throw (Kristen smoked last year's competition in the Axe throw), 1-person crosscut, 2-person cross-cut, Jack & Jill crosscut, Fire building, Birling and Log rolling, –which this year was a balmy 40 degrees and no lake ice had to be broken to hold the event! After winning 3 Medals, Kristen, our oldest offspring, and ironically is doing her Graduate work in Chemical Oceanography, was named the 2009 Belle of the Woods! Now that's an Alaskan Grown, Alaska Woman!

Kristen’s Team PAXSON -Overall team winners of the 2009 Forest Sports Festival! From Left, John Hogue, Patrick Pritchett, Amy Rath, Josh Good, Kyle Schuman, Kristen Shake, Amy Tippery, Paxson the Wonder Dog, and Jaiden Rath

Lumberman Jaime & Kristen win the Gold with 14 seconds in the “Jack & Jill!”

Artful Home Summer Catalog Page 27

I just received the Artful Home Summer Preview Catalog in the mail and I'm in it! Even though I received an earlier courtesy shipment of catalogs from The Artful Home/Guild Sourcebooks, there is something satisfyingly magical about seeing yourself and your work in National PRINT! The company had asked me to submit hi-res images and detailed information on my "Leaf" series of outdoor sculptures a couple of years ago. Last year was the first time my work had been sold through Artful Home. I was asked to offer the "Summer" sculpture again this year. My experience working with them has been extremely positive. They have a professional, electronically automated internet site called the "Artist's Extranet" site that handles virtually every aspect of the order, inventory, sales and shipping information for their artists. The Artist Extranet also offers Artist Resources, Business Resources links and other helpful information such as packaging how-to's, shipping tips and even law resources for artists. Their monthly Guild Artist News the "Insider" has up to date industry trends, trade show reviews and other professional insights that help keep the business side of my creative brain fresh. Here is a link the their Artful Life Blog. (which I just learned they have.)

If your an artist and would like to learn about selling your work through the Artful Home -here is the link. This is their blurb: "For 25 years, we have successfully connected artists with customers who buy and commission artwork. Artful Home puts the work of our artists in the hands and homes of art lovers across North America, through our website, email marketing and print catalogs."

Here are a couple of pictures from Spring Carnival yesterday. This is the crowd of people hoping to get one of the 50 lucky slots to participate in the Slush Cup -competition is steep because the winner takes home a season's pass worth over a $1,000! The crazier the costume, (or the more skin showing for the 37 degree water) the better your chance was to be picked. The judges this year included Governor Sara Palin and other local notables. Well, the skis are waxed, 

goggles cleaned, Potato plumped, Hawaiian Lei's and bells donned must only mean today is RACE DAY. We're heading up to the Mountain to launch Gus' entry "Potato Head Racer" in the Dummy Race. When D was at the registration table, it seems we have been issued a challenge by the Mountain Learning Center's Race entry... uh oh, they said something about wanting a side of french fries!