Preparing for Third Friday in Downtown Medford

Tonight's big project was preparing Immy for this Third Friday in Downtown Medford.  Immy is going to be passing out Irish Creme candy in celebration of St. Paddy's Day.  Preparations entailed Mom sewing pockets into Immy's leprechaun outfit to hold the candy, me putting Where's Immy tags onto the candy and most importantly, G tasting the candy to check on taste and quality.  ;)  Check out my old Husqvarna sewing machine.  Doesn't get much better than that.  Ooh, I just realized, it's the same color as Vespa Baby.  Aww..   :)

Coffee Rio Irish Creme candies tied with green ribbon.  Next step, tying on the Immy tags.

Checking the pockets to make sure the candy will stay put.  Seems to work.  Of course, Immy soon noticed the smell of chocolate.  I wonder if she will beg for the candies she is handing out.  I'll have to watch that since they are chocolate!

Promotional material for Third Friday.  Yep, that's Immy in her leprechaun outfit.  Too cute!

Day after Day...

Today I went to Ashland to check in with some of my retailers.  Stopped at Thomas Lee Gallery and snapped a pic of my necklaces.  Love that gallery, fabulous art.  Then went to Love Revolution and traded out the Valentine's necklaces for custom ones that have hearts on the front and their logo on the back.  They will make great gifts, I hope their clients respond well.  That is a really cool store too.  Yes, a sex type of store, but it so focused on sensuality and romance...with all the fun stuff in the back room.  ;)  Also stopped at Crown Jewel to drop off some more pet jewelry, they had done a really good job of placing my display.  I appreciate it when retailers do that, it makes such a difference in sales.  And last, stopped at Ashland Pets to change out their display for one with a personalized pet tag.  All in all a good, productive morning, followed by hummus and chips from the co-op.  Yum.

And then I spent the afternoon at Art du Jour.  Immy is starting to think it's her second home.  We walk in and she runs around and wags hello to everyone, helps herself to Prince's food and water and then lays down and sleeps.  Nice.  Talked with Margo about the Third Friday map, upcoming Jacksonville Celebrates the Arts and got some helpful critique on my paintings.  I told her I NEEDED a critique group.  I guess it's something she's thought of putting together before, so I am really hoping it gets off the ground.  I hate rejection but really do respond to helpful, constructive criticism.  With this creative block...i really need it!!

And spent the night working on ideas for the new paintings.  I keep looking at the circles and lines I started with.  Visually I am so drawn to charts and graphs.  That is where my retail design started, the one from the Int'l competition.  I feel like I want to do something along those lines, but in a more personal way.  I'm thinking about writing down my thoughts throughout the day and looking for patterns.  Part of my draw to the order of graphs is that my mind goes in so many directions, scattered, creative, crazy (?).  I like order contrasted with reality.  Not sure where this will go, but at least I'm moving forward in my art.  I want to do something that continues with the style I am drawn to, but becomes more personal, has meaning in my life.  I also keep thinking about Alzheimers, doing something that relates to G's blog and working through the disease artistically.  It might help.

Found out a close friend has breast cancer.  I know that has nothing to do with my art, but it does.  Stuff like that makes you fear the fragility of life.  I know she will come through it, she's a strong woman.  I will be pray daily and appreciate every moment of life where I have the joy of painting and creating.

Delivering the Immys

Immy came with me to deliver the first round of Immys.  We had a great response, which makes me so happy.  It's hard to design something and then wait to see the response.  We went to Medford and Ashland today.  Dropped off Immys at two retailers and got orders for 2 more.  Yay!  That means two new retailers!  I'm up to 16 now and my goal for 2012 is to have 25.  Hopefully I will exceed that goal.

Immy needs a fluff cut.  She cracks me up though, so funny.  She was posing, like she knew she was supposed to, but the sun was in her eyes, so most of the shots looked like this.  It cracks me up that she just kept posing but closed her eyes.

Working on the Immys

I have six of them done.  Finally!!  I just need the pet tags, which might be here tomorrow.  Then I will package them, hang a few on the collar and take them to my retailers.  Happy, happy!

Trying to think of everything needed, I made a little box for the back of the display to hold the order forms for personalized tags.  I also put a little bit of information about "Where's Immy?"

Surrounded by Immys

Production has started.  I'm surrounded by Immys!

Immy and Immys.

I think this will be her logo.  I'm making a webpage for her, but it's going to be on mine, rather than a separate website.  There's only so much I can handle.  I wanted it to have a similar look to mine, so I used a petal from the flower of my logo and distorted it for the background.  I may play a bit with the size of the pawprint and maybe the outline.  I tried so many fonts!  I think I like this one though.

Wig Head as Necklace Display

I also need to come up with a display for my necklaces.  I want to do something similar to the concrete wig head I have in my room.  The one I use to photograph my necklaces.  I am considering getting wig heads, texturizing them and painting them, probably silver knowing me.  But then, I need something to hold the necklace and card sets.  This is my first attempt.

I don't want to make it so big that it will deter retailers from putting it on their countertops.  Originally I wanted to put two rows of the card sets, but I think that would just be too wide.  So, I went with one.  But I only made it 4" deep.  I'm going to try it at 6 inches and see how that looks.

The actual wig head will be smaller at the base than my concrete one (the concrete kept dripping down the wig head so it became wider at the bottom.)

And most of the day I've spent trying to make friends with the scroll saw and  making another attempt at the pet tag display.  I'll get there someday!  I enjoy the creative process, the part that scares me is having to make the same thing over and over after I finally get the design finished.  Ugh, I hate doing something more than once.

New Logo Almost Done

Well, I think this is it for the new logo, although I'm still not sure.  Ugh.  I do want to paint the text portion so once I do that I guess I'll know.

Now that Immy has her "I heart art" tag, it makes me laugh even more when she poses by my art.  I did sit her down for this shot, but often when she sees me with camera in hand she'll come running and turn towards the camera and be still.  It's so funny.  What would I do without Immy to make me laugh?

And this is the painting I'm working on now.  Part of my 2012 goal was to enter 5 contests so I keep browsing through the calls to artists.  The subject for this contest is completely unlike me, but the graphic ideas that came to mind interested me.  I love simple, linear shapes, geometrical shapes and bright, contrasting colors.  I'm going to leave this painting really simple, enter it and see how it does.  I'm not sure if I'll ever post the entire piece.

Immy Hearts Art

Immy posing in her new pet tag.  I will be taking her around town tomorrow to model the new art pet tags, with samples and order forms.  Wish me luck!  I will also need to pose Immy and get some good shots for the etsy site.  This picture cracks me up because I plucked her off of G's bed and made her model for me.  Although she still posed when she saw the camera, you can tell she's sleepy and even modeling is not worth waking up for.  What is that model quote from back in the 90's?  Something like, "I don't get out of bed for less than $10.000".  Maybe Immy will start coming up with demands.  ;)