Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Artists Raising Funds for Raising Awareness

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Artists Raising Funds for Raising Awareness

As many of you know, I am part of a group called The indiExhibit which is a group of artisans from all around the world who have come together to support and promote each other through celebrity gifting. We have decided to use our combined efforts to help charities as well as build our brands and businesses.

Starting with this year's Prime Time Emmy Awards, we are auctioning our members spectacular creations on eBay through their GivingWorks program to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Each item we auction will be signed by one or more celebrities. The winning bidder of each item will receive a Certificate of Authenticity with their item as well as one or more photos of the item being held and/or signed by celebrities at the Emmy Gift Lounge event held on September 22, 2012. The indiExhibit will be donating 100% of the proceeds to Komen for each auction. To see the items up for auction on eBay click HERE. A new item will be placed up for auction throughout the month of October. Please check back daily to see what we have to offer. You can also keep abreast of the auctions on our FaceBook page - www.facebook.com/theindiExhibit and on Twitter - twitter.com/indiexhibit.

Supporters may choose to make a flat donation via http://www.info-komen.org/goto/indiexhibit. We also have t-shirts for sale where $3 from each shirt sale will go to Komen.You may choose from a variety of shirt styles and colors when purchasing your shirt from our shop. Click the image below to see options and prices.

 

**I will have 2 auctions this month of celeb signed canvas prints - I will post those once they are up!!!

Breast Cancer Awareness Tee Shirt by indiExhibit




Our first auction is:

Horse and Rider Collectible Plate signed by Helen Slater (The Lying Game), Tony Dovolani (Dancing with the Stars), Tess Hunt and The Greg Wilson
Visit this auction

Art Takes Times Square and the lowly artist

I participated in a fun project called  'Art Takes Times Square'!  Artists were called upon to create a profile and try to get collected (similiar to friending on Facebook).  If you got 'collected' 77+ times your art was to be shown on giant screens in Times Square and during an after party projected on the wall.  It sounded like fun.  This was all via a group called Artists Wanted  - I see that they are promoting another art show of some type called 'SELF' right now.

photo courtesy of Linnea Tober- Murphy

This is what the photots looked like on the screens.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to find my image in all the sea of videos and photos out there.  Most artists who attended concentrated on finding their own piece and didn't make it to the R's.  I know many on-line friends that found their artwork so I am confident that my piece was shown.  I just haven't found any video/photos of the RE's.  You can still see my profile on Artists wanted here: http://lynnereichhart.artistswanted.org/atts2012.  One of the paintings in my profile was projected in Times Square sometime between 8:45-9:15 estimated on June 18th!

Sometimes you just need to act like a kid!

DID I GET YOUR ATTENTION? :)

Rick Springfield comes to our local casino every year. I just loved Rick as a teen. This was not the 80's Dr Noah Drake Rick, but the 70's 'Speak to the Sky' Rick. He was such a cutie and had an australian accent that I also love!  He has since begun speaking with an American accent - Boo!

I have to admit that I have met Rick and had my pic taken with him and have several autographs. He really takes care of his fans!    He puts on such a great show too. He comes into the audience when he performs 'Human Touch' - remember that one from the 80's!   He climbs on tables and signs autographs. He shakes hands and many women take this opportunity to grab his leg, butt whatever. He is such a great sport!  I think that is why he likes the Turning Stone Casino - there are tables for him to stand on rather than the back of chairs.

I am not alone in this way of being a kid again!  The concert venue is always full of  ladies my age.  It is such fun to let loose and just have a great time where noone willl judge you! 
I was curious what you all do to feel like a kid again.  Do you crank some of your fav tunes from growing up or play a rousing game of hide and seek?  Feel free to comment on your favorite way to turn back the clock!

Everything gets in the way of painting!

The title says it all!  Life, social media, money, online shops - these things get in the way of making art!  Let's Start with social media.  I am sure you have heard of  Facewook, Twitter, Google+,  Pinterest, Blogger and that is just the core group, I am sure.  How in the heck am I suppposed to keep up with all of this?    My Google+ account has been ignored since March and my blog (that I am going to revive starting now) has been  too long as well.  I tweet a couple times a week and Pin when I finish something new.  I do visit Facebook daily though.  I am so in awe of the artists that tweet daily all day long and still manage to get someting accomplished!    Facebook sucks too much of my time as it is :)!  If anyone has any suggestions to this dilema, I would love to hear it!  How do you balance social media and doing art??

My latest completed painting~  titled Gilli's.  Yummy window I photographed in Florence.  Prints available on Fine Art America.
               
Money is another thing that gets in the way of creating art.  Canvas, classes, memberships, entry fees, paint and other supplies all cost mucho dinero!!   What is a girl to do?  When I retired to pursue my art I really wanted to be able to fund myself.  I started garage and estate sale shopping, scouring for collectibles to sell on Ebay.  This has worked quite well, but I lost all control of the clutter in my house and can no longer take it!  One bedroom was completely dedicated to all my finds and packing material.  This quickly spilled out into other rooms to the point that if we had any guests, I had to find a place to stash so much stuff so they had a place to sleep.  I finally had to stop the madness and cut way back on my Ebay selling and be so much more selective.  This hopefullly will allow me some more time for art and my on-line shops!

 

That brings up the on-line shops!  I have a shop on Etsy, Cafepress, Zazzle, Fine Art America and other places I can no longer keep track of.   My plan was to cut back on Ebay and spend more time on my shops.  This is supposed to replace the Ebay income if I can get my shops making more money.  I know this will take a lot of work and I need to start focusing on this goal!


But none of this matters if I don't have new paintings to show, put on new products, sell.  I would love to hear how other artists, atisans, crafters balance all this with creating! 


Thanks for reading!

Indie Artisans, Farm Animal art, Spring and more!

I wanted to share a really great site and group that can help with your occassion shopping or just put a smile on your face!

'The Indie Artisans  is an ever-changing collection of the best handmade has to offer, presented on one timely page that makes shopping for gifts or yourself easy and fun.

The collection changes with the seasons or on a whim, so check back often for the finest artisan goods hand selected from the most creative, experienced group of online artisans ever assembled.'

You purchase directly from the artist when you visit their latest collection!

This month my little lamb is featured in the Spring, Sweet Collection!

You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter as @indieartisans!

I created these four farm animals (including the lamb) for a friend.  She wanted them for her little girl's room.  I did them all in colored pencil to add a more childlike quality.  The pig has turned out to be very popular!

You can find them as prints on Etsy.

 Mary did have a little lamb and it was very colorful and whimsical!

Buy the print here!

What is cuter than a baby duckling?

Buy the print here!

This pig has turned out to be the most popular of the set - people tell me it just makes them giggle!

Buy the print here!

This guy is my favorite.  It makes me think of the Saturday Night Live sketch about needing 'more cowbell'  In fact, I have a whole line of merchandise on Cafepress featuring this adorable bonine and the tagline "More Cowbell'!

You can buy the print here!

All the prints are 5x7 and can be framed with off the shelf mats and frames.  They look great as a grouping of 4!

Zazzle is killing me!

How is Zazzle killing me you might ask.  Well,  they are working my fingers to the bone with new products being added all the time.  Just when I get finished updating one batch of products, they have already added more!  I haven't been able to add any new designs because I am always playing catch-up with more products.

Here is one that is fun to make.  Zazzle has added teapots, pitchers and candy jars.  This is a holiday designed candy jar that I added.

  Remember the Saturday Night Live sketch with Christopher Walken - More Cowbell.  Zazzle has added new gel mousepads.  They are really comfortable and stylish!

I have always loved the tiles and tile boxes on Cafepress.   Now Zazzle has added some beauties!  This is my Purple Iris tile box.

Zazzle has also been adding new canvas prints and other prints - but this is pretty cool.  This is free standing plaque - no framing required!  This one features my Spanish Courtyard painting. 

I have also added necklaces, plates, laptop covers and so much more, but there is so much more to do!  Zazzle now has pillow cases, towels, messenger bags......  Now you can see why Zazzle is killing me~

How did I do in 2011 - Revisiting my goals!

Pont Vecchio Landscape

Oh My - It is that time again.  I found my 2011 goals the other day and like a train wreck - I had to look.  I excelled in some goals and fell flat on my face with others.  I thought I would share the results with you and maybe it will help you with your goals.

1.  Participate in at least 3 group shows and one solo show in 2011
This one I hit out of the ball part.  I did 7  group shows and most of them juried shows so I was thrilled.  I even won 4 ribbons this year for my paintings!  I did squeak out a solo show in December so I nailed this one!

2.  Work on my Zazzle shop to add more designs and create the newly added products by March.
I did add more designs, but never did catch up on the new products - They just keep adding more.  I have been adding some templates for the new products I want to add and this one will be carried over to 2012.  I suspect that there is a better way to do all this, because it just seems to take me so much time.

3.  Create items for cratft shows on a weekly basis.
Well, I did create picture mirrors, glass tile pendants and hand painted glass candle holders, but not on a weekely basis.  I ended up doing this when the need arose so I had to hurry up and get her done!  I think weekly was too much to ask - I may need to rethink the time frame.

4. Find a local printer to print my cards in the 1st quarter.
I did look into a couple places and will stick with on-line for this. It seems to be mor cost effective.

5. Learn how to engage people better on Twitter - ongoing.
I believe that I have better balanced conversing with people, retweeting and promoting.  I also try to find interesting items to tweet.

6. Create a Daily schedule to segment my time so I get more painting done - ASAP!
I tried this approach and life kept getting in the way.  I found that if I just carved out time each week for at least a couple painting sessions, I made progress.  I find that I do  my compter work in the AM which works well except that it is easy to procrasitnate because there is always more I can find to do on-line!

7.  Close sites that are not profitable and time wasters.
I must admit that I dropped the ball on this one.   I did close one site which I pretty much ignored anyway.

8.  Become more active in the Rome Art Association by volunteering at events.
I did attend more meetings than previous years and volunteer for my solo art show at the Rome Community Theater (probably shouldn't count since it saved by butt on goal #1)  I really must make more of an effort to attend meetings so I know what is going on.  I am a pretty shy person, but I need to man up!