After I joined flickr.com in 2011 and uploaded a bunch of old family photos as part of a personal genealogy project, I was curious to find out what else that site had to offer. Photos of course, because it's a photo sharing site, but what else besides landscapes and sunsets and travel shots? Well, as I found out, EVERYTHING. And there are groups for just about every subject you can imagine. I searched for and found photos and groups on all sorts of historical and vintage-y topics like maps (I love maps!), postcards, books, magazines, sewing patterns (I have some of all of those!); also quilting (I quilt!), and doodles - people actually share their doodles? Cool, I have a ton of those! Then I found zentangles - what the hell are zentangles? They sort of look like my doodles .... wait, what? Someone had the idea to name, methodize, and trademark a style of doodling and market it? And make a bunch of money off of it? Very clever. Wish I had thought of that. Oh well. I shared my doodles in zentangle groups anyway, and even tried some of their "methods", and even made a few friendships that have carried over to facebook and beyond. In time I found other art-sharing groups, and eventually the one that would have the biggest impact on me, Julia Kay's Portrait Party - JKPP for short. I like to draw faces and had been using random pictures from magazines and the internet for subject matter. As I looked around in flickr drawing groups, I kept seeing drawings tagged "for JKPP" so I checked it out. The premise behind JKPP is that in exchange for posting some photos of yourself for other artists to use as subject matter, you can choose from among any of the other group members' photos to draw or paint, and share your completed work with the group. I didn't know at first that there even was such as a thing as a real-life portrait party, where artists meet in person and draw each other, but this virtual version of it sounded interesting, albeit a bit intimidating at first. I quickly learned there was no reason to feel intimidated. This was a wonderfully friendly, supportive, fun group of people. Literally within minutes of posting my discussion thread, the first portrait of me was drawn, and others soon followed. So I started looking through all the photos, and started drawing ..... 3-1/2 years later, I have completed 155 JKPP portraits in a variety of mediums: pencil, colored pencils, ink, markers, neocolors, cretacolors, acrylic, watercolor, and various combinations. And I learned that "meet-ups" were occurring around the world of group members that live near each other (examples: Oxford UK, Barcelona), and also a "postcard exhibit in a box" had been growing and mailed around to various meetup locations and put on display. So a couple years ago I had an idea to take those ideas and step further and create a JKPP exhibit of original works at Gallery 194 in Lapeer. The idea was well received by both gallery staff and JKPP members, so we got to work, and in late June/early July 2014 it happened. And it exceeded my wildest expectations. The walls of the gallery were filled with original portrait art by 44 artists from 11 countries. An exhibit catalog was created (by me, Julia Kay and Jenny Sperry.) An opening reception was attended by the 6 Michigan JKPP members. A table was set up with supplies where the public could sit and try their hand at portrait drawing throughout the exhibit, and the results hung up in their own section of the gallery. The best part though was the closing weekend of the exhibit. 13 JKPP members from around the country and as far away as England came to Lapeer and participated in an ipad workshop led by Julia Kay, a closing reception at the gallery, plein aire painting around town, and much fun, fellowship and networking all weekend long. Not only did I have a blast, and I think everyone else did, but I ended up with some cool swag too.
In celebration of JKPP's 5th anniversary in 2015, Julia and friends organized an exhibit and associated activities in San Francisco CA. Since I was sadly not able to attend and quite jealous of those who could, I wanted to be involved in some way, so I volunteered to create an exhibit catalog again. This time we decided to use blurb.com so that members could order the booklets directly from the site; copies are still available. A few weeks ago JKPP celebrated its 6th anniversary (which was when I first started typing this post but got distracted repeatedly), and now a book is in the works - a real book, not just an exhibit catalog. I still can't believe my good fortune in finding and becoming part of this wonderful group.
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I've been hearing for a while from those more knowledgeable than myself that having an art website isn't enough, I should also create a separate artist facebook page. I had been hesitant because it just seemed like one more thing to keep up with, but it really does make sense to keep my personal facebook page personal and give the artistic pursuits a separate focus. Just another step in treating it as more of a business than a hobby. Today I finally did it. How I'm going to integrate the fb page with the website - what to post where, avoiding duplication, and linking back and forth - remains to be seen. I will figure it out as a go along, just like everything else in life!
https://www.facebook.com/LindaJackmanArt/ Mike Monville has a long history of involvement with the art community in the Lapeer area. I could probably write a book about this very talented, completely unassuming man ... er, someone else could write a book, I'm sure I only know a fraction of what there is to know. For this post I am only going to write about his influence on my artistic growth. But I have to include at least a quick mention of him being involved in the early discussions of bringing an art gallery to downtown Lapeer, and moving the Lapeer Art Association from their home in a single building at a rural intersection a few minutes outside of town into said downtown gallery. I was not part of those particular discussions, my role at the time was focused on other parts of the implementation plan. But Mike and I became part of the same team once the gallery opened and an advisory committee was being formed to help guide its growth, which we both have served on since its inception. Over the years I have gotten to know Mike and have fallen in love with his artistic style - a very loose & light, almost ethereal depiction of mostly nature themes. His wife Donna is also an artist (and just a generally awesome lady) who specializes in woven baskets and beeswax candles. I have taken two art classes taught by Mike. The first, Pen and Ink Drawing was held a few years ago at Three Waters Studio at his home which is at the dead-end of a country road providing plenty of artistic inspiration in the surrounding landscape. (In fact, one of the Plein Aire oil painting sites taught by Jason Cornish was at the edge of a pond on Mike & Donna's property - this was the result.) Since I like drawing with ink anyway, this class was a good fit for me, I learned a lot and feel my technique greatly improved. One of the pieces I completed during that class (the one with the cardinal) recently sold at the annual LAA Winter Show.
The mandalas are done! I managed to get five done. Matted and framed and sent to Pontiac for the LOV Gala, which I understand was a great time. But I did not attend. I hope someone got photos. The art will be up through the end of the month so I should be able to get there sometime and see the display.
I haven't posted since January 18th, but that doesn't mean I've been idle. My husband had back surgery 2 weeks ago so that has shaken up our household routine quite a bit, but I'm still managing to create art. I got 6 JKPP portraits done last month, 3 paintings for facebook art group challenges (got 2nd place in one of them again), finalized my first online art sale (the money cleared, yay!), am currently working on some Valentine-themed mandalas for the LOV event in Pontiac this weekend, and started attending a Watercolor on Aquaboard class. I still have the annual Women exhibit in mind but I don't think I'm going to be able to get a piece done by the February 11th deadline. But the most fun thing lately - and most time-consuming - has been working on an upcoming exhibit for Gallery 194. Not my own work, but an exhibit on "Literary Art." Now, that term can mean many things, and an exhibit with this theme can go in many different directions. The first task of our Gallery Programming Committee was to narrow down our focus. Since Lapeer is the home of children's book author and illustrator Marguerite deAngeli, and our local library (appropriately called the Marguerite deAngeli Library) has a collection of her original works, we definitely want to include them in the display. While we could easily fill the whole gallery with her work, that didn't seem quite enough to constitute a "Literary Art" exhibit. So we decided to include some other book illustrations. I started to do some research for the committee and got sucked into a magnificent, mesmerizing, endless rabbit hole of information and images. Book illustration (specifically, the "Golden Age") is such a vast topic that I honestly don't know how to describe it briefly for a simple blog post. So I will simply leave you with some links. Peruse at your leisure, but be forewarned, you may not get anything else done for a while. http://book-graphics.blogspot.com/ http://thegoldenagesite.blogspot.com/ http://www.bpib.com/illustra.htm http://www.artsycraftsy.com/ http://www.cavetocanvas.com/info https://bookillustrations.quora.com/ http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/illustration.htm http://www.rafoxsociety.com/what-was-the-golden-age-of-illustration/ http://www.illustration-art-solutions.com/illustrators.html http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/golden-age.html Today I am learning all about what goes into selling artwork to someone over on the other side of the country. Someone in California wants to buy one of my paintings - yay! This will be my first sale not through in-person contact or through a gallery. So much to learn! But all very welcome and needed. I know I need to know this stuff. As of yet I have not included prices on any of my artwork on this site quite simply because I haven't been prepared to process any long-distance sales myself. After I get through this sale I hope that will change.
Fortunately, I belong to a few online groups that are helping me sort through the options and answer my questions, informing me of potential pitfalls, things to be aware of, etc. I quickly decided to use my personal PayPal account - no need for a business account at this time - and use the invoicing feature. This allows me to send an invoice to the customer with shipping costs included and makes it easy for them to send payment. To arrive at shipping cost ... that's taking a bit more time. The painting, which is similar in size to many of my pieces, will not fit in any USPS standard flat-rate boxes. That would have been too easy. So I went on a box shopping tangent and ended up finding what I need at uline.com. A set of 25 boxes (the smallest quantity available), sized 24" x 18" 5", plus postage cost comes to $2.27 per box which is less expensive than that what I can buy locally. But I will buy bubble wrap locally even though the unit cost is slightly higher since the smallest roll at uline is way more than i need and I don't really have room to store it. So the next thing will be figuring out the postage cost. Since I couldn't go with a USPS flat-rate box I will have to take the package to the post office and have it weighed and priced. Which means I can't complete the shipping cost calculation until the boxes arrive from uline, hopefully tomorrow. And I can't send the customer an invoice yet. But I feel so much more informed and prepared to handle sales than when I woke up this morning! I will count today as a WIN. A while back my daughter told me about an art event being planned by one of her friends at the Crofoot in Pontiac, called Abstract Attractions. She asked if I would like to display a couple of my pieces. Although details were vague at first (was it a one-day thing or will the art be up for a while? A concert with art, or an art show with music? etc) and slow to come together, I said yes. Once the facebook page was created about two weeks before the event it became clear that it was more geared toward a younger concert-going crowd than middle-aged moms. So I decided not to attend, but asked Angela if my art ends up being displayed somewhere would she please take a picture or two? She did, and here they are. Her art is on the easel, my 3 pieces on the ledge behind it.
The new exhibit at Gallery 194 commemorates the 10 year anniversary of the gallery. Wow, 10 years! The doors first opened in October 2005 with the Lapeer Art Association's wonderful Holiday exhibit, then in January 2006 we began the varied exhibit offerings that have continued through the years.
To celebrate this important milestone, we invited back the featured artists from over the years that we were able to track down and contact. Twenty came through and submitted artwork for the exhibit. The Lapeer Area View newspaper ran a nice article last week about the exhibit and upcoming reception. I was a late addition to the show (never really a "featured artist" but was part of a couple group shows, most notably the JKPP show in June 2014 which I also coordinated), so my name is not in the article, but I am very happy to have three of my JKPP portraits included in the exhibit. I'd like to write more about on-line art groups but I need to get this post done first.
There are so many ideas and plans and goals rolling around in my mind for the year ahead ... time to put them in writing and start setting a course of action. Daily Habits
Art Goals
Sewing
I may add to this list in time but that's all for now. |
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