High Hand Gallery

I think I'm done with making prints and matting them for the Auburn Arts Studios Tour.  I started making cards, but I'm not going to make a whole lot of those either.  I worked at High Hand Gallery yesterday and when we had some 'quiet' time in the morning, I finished the cards up.  I work again tomorrow, so hopefully I can get some of the event cards addressed and ready for mail out.

Yesterday at High Hand Gallery, one of our artists, Kermit McCourt, came in to mark down some of his work!  He makes furniture from reclaimed wood and other items, that include:  tables, mirrors, wine racks.  He is taking his own show on the road next year and does not want to have to store his works that are currently in the gallery.  So if you're looking for a good deal on artsy small tables which make great conversation pieces, you should stop by the gallery and check it out for yourself!  Here's a photo of the wine rack which is also a bench, and you can see a sample of his mirrors in the next photo (upper left hand side, and lower right hand side).  These are just a couple of examples.

I'm running out of ink for the Epson printer, so will need to go buy more today.  And if I could just buy some large Clear Bags for the larger prints I won't have to frame them!  Just one more errand for me!

Auburn Art Studios Tour

Another busy day today.  Having a hard time which task to tackle first though! ; )  In regards to the Auburn Art Studios Tour, I did mail out the tickets with the programs to all those who indicated they were interested.  I haven't mailed out the postcards yet.  I'm thinking I need to add maybe a half sheet showing where I will be located...gotta figure that one out first before the mailing.  I did receive my order of photo cards that I ordered from Dick Blick.  Haven't printed out the images yet though.  For the cards, I will need mostly images from Venice, Greece and Spain.  I could probably put more 8x10's together for this show too.

I had a photo shoot this afternoon for an acquaintance.  She has a new granddaughter - 3 months old.  Cute too!  So I headed out to the country - farther out than my house believe it or not.  I'm glad it was in the day time as there is no way I would have found it in the dark.  They have more deer than we have, so one has to be careful driving!  It's these little side jobs that help pay the expenses, that's for sure.

Another item to possibly take of is upgrading my phone.  And then getting Intuit or one of those other apps that plug into the phone and takes your sales!  As you can tell, I need to study up on that.  Don't know if I'll be savvy enough to do it for this show. The Placer Arts will run charges thru their credit card system and only take 5%.  That's a good deal.  If I decide to go that route, I need to call a couple artist friends who use those types of apps.

Tomorrow is a free day and I plan on printing out card images and the 8x10's.  Possibly cutting more mats.  I'll get it done one way or the other!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TACY!!

I couldn't let this day go by without wishing a wonderful niece a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  May this year be the best ever!  I have so many wonderful memories of you as a little girl - your yakky doodle little voice and always that great smile!  Then of course in your later years, there was the red lips thing - but, I digress!! ; )  Love you so much!

Black and White Double Exposure

Ever since we got back from vacation, it's been like 'hit the ground running'!  Attended a meeting last night for High Hand Gallery on 'marketing'.  This seems to be the biggie right now for a lot of people in the art industry.  I recently joined LinkedIn at the urging of one of the gallery owners.  Just revisited my LinkedIn page to update the summary - deleting the first person text and making it more professional.  Setting goals is key in any business.  Writing a business plan is also a major task that we tend to procrastinate on!  That's for sure.

I worked in my studio all day yesterday staying focused on getting ready for the upcoming Auburn Art Studios Tour.  I was able to borrow some lighting, so that issue is resolved.  Then I just sat and wrote out a looong list of what I needed to prepare prior to the tour, and what I needed to bring the day of.  It's going to consist of major work since I will be moving an abbreviated version of my studio down to the Arts Building.  They will be providing some panels for me to set up, but I may also need to bring my personal pro panels.  Then there's the print racks, cards, matted prints, framed prints, gelatin silver prints.  I will also bring my two major cameras and I'll need to update my laptop so that I can display my website on it.  I might even do a slide show.  I also thought of taking photos of my studio and have them on display too.  I could add that to the slide show.

I was looking thru my recent Bodie images this morning and one of my favorites looks like a double exposure, but in reality it was the signage inside the Bodie Hotel, with the glass reflecting the mountain and sky which had great clouds that day!

 

Auburn Art Studios Tour 2012

We're back from a week trip to Connecticut to visit the family!  Nice trip, great weather, and we won 2nd Place in the Soto Family's 4th Annual Chili Cookoff!! ; )  Got a trophy to prove it too!

Getting back to business, went to the informational Potluck Dinner last night for the Auburn Art Studios Tour that is slated for the weekend of November 9 - 11th, 2012.  I was scheduled to have a specific room at the Arts Building when I signed up, but they let me know things had changed.  I will now be located down a hallway, which wasn't what I signed up and paid for, however, I will make the best of it.  Now I need to think about lighting, because the lighting in there is overhead fluorescent!  Grrr!  I don't have any lighting which now leads me to another expense, unless I can borrow some.  So today I have my work cut out for me, as I will be driving down to Sacramento to pick up more supplies:  ClearBags, mat board from Delta Mat & Moulding, pick up my large format prints from High Hand's Large Format Show which is now over.  I'll be able to place these two large gallery wraps in the Auburn Art Studios Tour.  I also am going to place an order with Dick Blick online for more Strathmore cards.

Will get back to the blog manana!

Freestyle Photographic Supplies

I received my Freestyle Photographic Supplies email with the 'latest' photography news the other day.  A lot is going on in the photography supply business!  Freestyle reps just got back from Cologne, Germany to attend the world's premiere photographic imaging fair - Photokina 2012!  One of the news items that caught my eye was that Canson and Hahnemuhle are making available their digital inkjet papers with four deckle edges.  I'm excited about that one, as you know I like trying out new papers! ; )  

Another 'paper' item is coming from Awagami, a Japanese company that produces 21 different and unique paper formulations.  Some of the papers are handmade and are produced from a Japanese Kozo mulberry root - which is a green product, as it reproduces/replenishes very rapidly.  This one really excites me as it gives the feel of handmade papers!  Nice!

Ilford also has announced two new fine art 330 gsm matte inkjet papers  - Galerie Prestige Gold Cotton Smooth and Galerie Prestige Gold Cotton Textured.  These will be available January 2013.  In addition, another new paper that gives the look and feel of a fine art black and white print - Galerie Prestige Gold Mono Silk (270 gsm).  These are all inkjet papers, of course.  (Note:  gsm definition:  Grammes per Square Metre, or thickness of the paper.)   If you'd like to read the whole article follow this link:  http://www.freestylephoto.biz/industry-updates/october-2012/snapshot.html

Another Bodie shot from this last trip last month.  This one is digital.  I did increase the brightness on this one about 10 increments.  I think I have a film version - I couldn't find it right now, but will look for it and see what the differences are.  Because there ARE differences!

Studio 49, Auburn, California

Today was delivery day!  Delivered three framed San Francisco pieces to Studio 49 in Auburn.  Also, made the art signage for the rest of the pieces in her studio.  It looks fabulous in there.  Next I delivered the canvas gallery wrap to High Hand Gallery to replace the one I took over to the Arts Building in Auburn!

I am completely done with all projects for other people! ; )  Now I plan on cutting mats for the next hour until a TV show comes on that we like - Elementary.  A recreation of Sherlock Holmes.

I was going through the Bodie images from a few weeks back and am still marveling at the clouds that day.  I am posting one that doesn't really have any clouds in it.  It's just the transom over a doorway and the colors were pretty awesome.  Again, it was just a great day to take pictures.  The transom looks like it has curtains, but if you look closely, it's basically a curtain of years of spiderwebs!

I received an email the other day from a gallery in New York City:  Agora Gallery, located in the heart of New York's famous art district - Chelsea!  The Assistant Director of the gallery had come across my website while doing research and was apparently looking for new artists.  She told me she really liked my Venice images.  The gallery would represent me and I would of course pay them representation fees...  It sounds exciting, but I'm not exactly rolling in the dough.  As I said, it's a lot to think about.  So I think I will go cut mats for now! ; )

Bodie Ghost Town

I've been working feverishly on projects for other individuals.  I believe I am done with all that for now, as continue to cut mats so I can mat individual images for the upcoming Auburn Arts Studio Tour.  I dropped off my framed image of "Venice at Sunset" to The Arts Building Gallery.  They will hang one piece from each individual artist who are on the tour, in the main Arts Building Gallery on Lincoln.  That is also where 'my studio' will be located.  I will give you more details later as it gets closer to that November date.

Tonight I worked on our vacation pictures, which included another visit to Bodie Ghost Town.  This time it was ALL ABOUT THE CLOUDS!!  Awesome day!  I only used my Canon T2i digital camera - didn't even attempt to bring out the film camera.  C'est la vie!  Still came out quite good.  I programmed it for monochrome with an orange filter, at 100 ISO.  As you can see it was quite a sunny day.  I didn't think I could capture any "new" images from Bodie - Boy! was I wrong!

We also went back to Yosemite and were at June Lake (where we camped).  This is a shot I took on the first morning we were there.  There were numerous fishing boats with Honda motors all lined up ready to be rented.  I couldn't resist the symmetry, the green colors on the lake, and the orange-red color on the side of the building reflecting in the water.  Very cool!