Shane Koyczan and Hannah Epperson - Remember How We Forgot

 I love poetry aloud. A beautiful reminder that we are alive.Shane is a Canadian poet.

Remember How We Forgot 

by Shane Koyczan

Art Marketing Blog: Serial Copyright Thief Serves Major Retailers

 Just finished reading this article Chris Tyrell Loranger shared on his blog. It might be of interest to those of you who are selling online. It demonstrates how social media can serve artists as a defense for wholesale theft.

Art Marketing Blog: Serial Copyright Thief Serves Major Retailers: You've probably never heard of  Cody Foster & Co .  That doesn't matter, though, because if you're an indepe...

Learning How to Use Social Media

I started blogging as a student who wanted to reach past the halls of learning (for me it was Kwantlen University Polytechnic). I needed to know beyond my small personal circle about art making and I found wonderful people who are generous in giving me feedback and encouragement and sharing their experiences through their art, writing and life. 

Having graduated I still need that greater circle but I also want to develop my art practice including looking for opportunities to share my art through exhibits and hopefully sell my art. So to that end I've been researching social media. I came across this resource about Best Times to Post on Social Media  from http://www.fannit.com/ via Lori McNee at her site Fine Art Tips

Hope this is useful to some of you trying to make sense of how to use social media. 

Please include attribution to http://www.fannit.com/ with this graphic.

New to Me Studio

The most difficult challenge for me is to separate time out from other daily responsibilities. This is because I work from home. It wasn't as difficult when I was a student because I'd hop in the car and go to the studio. I could stay a few hours or all day with little interruptions.  
Now that I work from home I am accessible. I can see the tasks that need to be done like laundry, vacuuming, dishes etc. My husband is retired so he innocently asks for assistance with his computer or finding something or sharing an interesting article he's found. I didn't have a dedicated space for my art making. It was difficult to set up a routine. Instead it was fitting in the art which wasn't consistent.

Our front room was being used as office space for my contract work and the nonprofits where we volunteered. I no longer am doing that kind of contract work so the room was sitting there as a big storage space for information no longer relevant. As I stood in the room one day with the sun pouring in the windows I realized it was the perfect space for my art making. The big challenge was to go through nearly fifteen years of stored paper and what ever else I found. It took weeks and I'm still not finished but the studio is set up and I have worked in it. My supplies are all in one place and easily accessed. No longer and I working from the kitchen table or laundry room. My art books titles are easily seen and I can either paint or read in my space. They had been tucked into various book cases around the house. 

I haven't got a regular schedule yet but I have worked in 1 1/2 hours blocks and found it workable. The silence and no interruptions was energizing. I think I'm going to like this.