posters and posting

The Arts Downtown and All Around posters have been printed and they look fabulous! I am very happy to report that my painting, "Sole Mate," made the poster! It's one of ten images, and they all look really good together. It's a nice way of capturing the diversity of work you'll see on display during this event. I've hung several around town already (with a few more to go), and people seem to be responding well to them. I'm also pleased to say that I've filled all of the slots that were assigned to me with bands/musicians for the weekend, and I'm really looking forward to all the great energy that live music can bring to an art event. For more information (including times, locations, and a list of participating artists), please click the link: http://5raa.org/arts-downtown-all-around-2/

                                                   

Speaking of art events I'm excited about, I dropped off work yesterday for the 7th Annual Creative Economy Sale and Show! The show takes place at Cat Schwenk's Studio on the Hill (21 Pleasant Hill Rd., Freeport) on Thanksgiving weekend (Friday, November 29th, Saturday, November 30th, and Sunday, December 1st; 10 am to 6:30 pm each day). Saturday was my first time meeting Cat in person (we've communicated via email and Facebook previously), and I liked her instantly! She was lovely and made me feel very relaxed. In fact, I left feeling even better about the show than I did when I arrived, and I was already feeling very positive. I decided to focus on small paintings and mixed media pieces (11" x 14" was the biggest painting I brought with me) since there are roughly 40 artists participating. I figured it would be a lot easier to fit more pieces that way, and since smaller pieces have smaller price tags, that might help to encourage potential buyers. I also brought my magnet display, which Cat said she would probably put near the cash register. Hooray for impulse buys! I've been hanging some posters around town for this show, too, but I picked up some more yesterday and I plan to do more...time to get the word out!
http://www.maineartscene.com/Maine-Art-Headlines/Freeport-s-7th-Annual-Creative-Economy-Studio-Show-and-Sale.html

Speaking of magnets, I finally got an Etsy shop up and running this week! I only have six different magnets on there right now, but I will be adding more before too long. I am thrilled to say that within an hour or so of opening my Etsy shop, I got my first sale! Woo hoo! I don't know or completely understand all of the ins and outs of Etsy yet, but there are people following my page, and people have "favorited" some of my magnets, and that sounds good to me! Here is the link to my page: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BrushstrokesByMaria?ref=pr_shop_more

working inside the box

Quite a while ago, one of the women in the Brunswick Art Collaborative brought a bunch of cardboard boxes to a meeting. These boxes were all the same size and shape (7" tall, 4.25" wide, 2" deep), and they had been used for Christmas ornaments. Her plan was to give a box to every Brunswick Art Collaborative member to see what each person would come up with...this is mine.

I am so happy that I finally finished this project! I had the idea for a shrine-type of piece as soon as I saw the box, and I certainly had more than enough medals to get it done (for those who don't know: I was raised in a VERY Catholic household- my great uncle was a priest, and my parents volunteered for the church- and, a while back, I found a box filled with Mary medals in the basement...no one knows where they came from). I knew I wanted to use an Our Lady of Guadalupe image for the center, but I didn't have a good one on hand...until a client asked me if I was interested in helping him dispose of some old refrigerator magnets! I found a discarded mini-string of Christmas lights on a walk around my neighborhood a while back (sometimes it pays to go for a walk on trash day!) and I knew they would be the perfect way to tie the whole piece together. I like they playful feel they give, and it reminds me of the decor at El Camino! Mmm...that makes me want guacamole! 

The only time I specifically devote to working on mixed media pieces is when the Brunswick Art Collaborative meets, which is why this took me so long to finish. It really was a lot of fun to work on, and I liked seeing the different choices other members made with their projects. We're a diverse group! 

good questions

It occurred to me the other day that this month, November 2013, marks one year since my boss decided to close the Closet Factory showroom on Congress Street (this was the annex location of the business; the shop on Presumpscot Street is still open and moving right along), thereby ending a nearly two-year run of First Friday solo shows in that location for yours truly. If you knew me at all a year ago, I was kind of freaking out. My thoughts were ranging from panicked ("Where am I going to show my work? What will happen next?") to hopeful ("Well, maybe this is a way of opening me up to new opportunities"). Obviously, the latter approach was nicer than the former, so that's what I focused on and tried to cultivate. By the time March 2013 rolled around, I had shows booked for every month of the year.

I'm happy to say that as the year has progressed, more and more opportunities have made themselves known to me, and yet another one has just materialized: I've been invited to participate in the 7th annual Creative Economy Studio Show and Sale in Freeport on Thanksgiving weekend! I am SO psyched. I've been hearing about this show for a couple of years now, but I never knew how to get in. Turns out it's an invitation-only show, organized and run by an artist named Cat Schwenk. I've never met Cat, but since Brunswick is a small area, many artists know each other, and I know people who know her...so, I would like to send Christine DeTroy a very big THANK YOU for getting me into this show! My friend Patricia Boissevain introduced me to Christine in February, when Trish and Christine were sharing a booth at the Flea For All in Portland and Terry and I stopped in for a visit. Fast forward to the October Second Friday Art Walk in Brunswick: Christine came into my room and recognized Terry right away from his Bohemian Coffee House days, and then she recognized me from the Flea For All. We started chatting and she asked if I ever did Cat's show; I said I would love to but I had no idea how to go about getting in. Christine took my card before she left and kindly passed my info along to Cat, who then sent me an email invitation three weeks later!

Who knew that the questions "Where am I going to show my work? What will happen next?" could have positive, exciting, and hopeful answers right behind them? Lesson learned...

promotional considerations

My friend Kathleen is a writer, and she just launched a blog called Suburban Scrawl (http://kathleenpowersvermaelen.blogspot.com/). I bring this up because although she created this blog in March 2012, her first post was yesterday. Did I mention she's a writer? I am not a writer, and yet I've been blogging for a few years now. Yes, I haven't been doing it as regularly as I probably ought to, but I am doing it. Why am I doing it? What business do I have even having a blog? I'm an artist. I'm a painter. I love my acrylics and I love the feeling of dipping my brush into a freshly-squeezed dollop of paint. I play around with mixed media and sometimes even oil pastels. I like to use magnetic poetry and Scrabble tiles in my mixed media pieces, and I occasionally use words in my paintings, but that's it. Words are not my medium of choice. Frequently, when I have to write about my work, the words "if I were a writer, I wouldn't be a painter" pop out of my mouth. So, when I hear about a writer friend feeling weird about blogging, a small part of me is confused...but a bigger part of me gets it.

Putting yourself out there is hard, no matter how you're doing it: painting, drawing, sculpture, music, acting, writing, whatever. If you're doing it right, you're exposing a part of your soul to the world. That's scary. Another friend of mine gave me some advice a few months ago. She said, "You need to shout from the mountaintops if you're going to go to the next level." Since then, I've tried to blog more regularly, I post more and more on Facebook, and I joined Twitter about a month ago (www.twitter.com: @ArtByMariaCU, if you're interested). "Promote, promote, promote," everyone says. Am I annoying people? Is anyone even reading what I'm writing? Who knows? I suppose what it comes down to is the simple fact that you have to get yourself "out there," and you kind of have to do it through any and all means necessary. The more you do it, and the more ways you do it, the more you increase your chances of someone seeing your work and being moved by it. Promoting doesn't exactly feel natural to me, but it has to be done, and no one is going to do it for me.

There is a blog I follow called Danger Diary (http://dangerdame.com/). I really like the way Veronica Varlow writes and I find her messages uplifting. She makes me smile, even though she is a complete stranger. Here is a perfect example of someone who knows how to promote herself and who is making her dreams come true through a combination of hard work and connecting with others. She has a Kickstarter campaign going to finance her film, "Revolver"(http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/veronicavarlow/revolver-a-road-trip-romance-in-exile-feature-film?ref=home_location), and she is halfway to her goal. How amazing! This is the kind of thing I need to keep in mind whenever I'm blogging or posting or tweeting or whatever: put it out there, or else no one will know what you're up to. It's as simple as that.

So, be kind to the artists you encounter in your life. Don't just delete their emails or scroll absently over their posts. Know that the promotional side of things might feel weird, foreign, or even downright scary to them. Smile and know that they're just trying to make the world a little nicer by sharing their work.

24

WOW! Twenty-four of my magnets are going to new homes, thanks to your support of Team Brooklyn Boobays! That's right: 24! How cool is that? If you donated $50 or more (or if you donated on 10/9 and 10/16) to my dear friend Julia Villacara's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, THANK YOU! Not only did Julia reach her fundraising goal, she exceeded it! 

I am really looking forward to finding out who chose which magnet, how many people are getting more than one magnet, and where my art is going to be living! If you are reading this blog post and you are someone who donated the designated amount (or on the designated dates), please contact Julia with your magnet choice and your shipping info so you can start enjoying your new little piece of my art sooner rather than later!

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=55915&pg=personal&px=14781865

art and life and art

Whew! The final Second Friday Art Walk of the season is in the books! I am happy to say that the season ended on a high note for me. There were several artists who didn't make it to 98 Maine once again, but that didn't seem to slow the rest of us down. The traffic was good, and people were in a positive mood. The evening began with a Prosecco toast of all the participating artists by Connie Lundquist, which I thought was a really nice touch. We were treated to some very fun live music and the food table was filled with lots of delicious goodies, which I really appreciated since I hadn't had a chance to eat anything besides a spoonful of peanut butter all day. Many friendly faces made their way into my little room, and I sold several magnets to both people I know and people I don't! Terry's mom, Pat, and her husband, Ken, even made an appearance, which was a really nice treat since 1. they live in Massachusetts and 2. they've never been to one of my shows before! The art walk flew by and before I knew it, the clock said 8:02 and it was time to pack up...which brings me to the next part of my story.

If you know me at all (or if you've been reading my blog for the past few years), you know that my brother, Frank, is a real-life Navy hero. Frank was the Captain of the USS Bainbridge, the ship that saved Captain Richard Phillips when he was captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia. "Captain Phillips," the Tom Hanks/Paul Greengrass film, opened on Friday night, and since it's not every day when there's a character based on your brother in a major motion picture, I think you can guess how Terry and I spent the rest of the night! We packed up my work as quickly as possible, loaded the car, drove home, unloaded the car, put everything away, scarfed down some dinner, and headed right out to the theater. To say it was a surreal experience is the understatement of the year...and I'm glad I had been told to bring tissues with me, because I used every one of them.

booby prize

Do you love art? Do you hate cancer? What a coincidence...me too! I am excited to be teaming up with Julia Villacara, one of my oldest and dearest friends, as she raises money for the American Cancer Society by participating in the 2013 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. Julia's team is called Brooklyn Boo!bays (did I mention she's a big fan of Halloween?) and their walk takes place on Sunday, October 20th. With every $50 donation, you will get one of my magnets! As Julia put it, "Make your home smile with magnets of her original paintings while fighting cancer." Sounds like a win-win to me. To support Brooklyn Boo!bays, please click the link below. You'll be glad you did. 

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=55915&pg=personal&px=14781865