Christina Kester-Tallman
My ACEO Tricksters are on sale. Open edition 2.5 by 3.5 inch prints for $4 available at http://www.artfire.com/users/FireOakStudio
I’ll be doing more ACEOs and selling some of the originals soon. But right now I am working on a bowl commission.
Cheers all.
Here are some drawings and finished ACEOs. The Fairy Tale Glyphs will be painted soon. The Tricksters are finished and will be added for sale (as open edition prints) on my ArtFire shop sometime in the next few days.
Fairy Tale Glyphs
The Tricksters
Starting in late September to early October, I will be decorating wood bowls using pyrography (wood burning) and offering them for sale. Here’s a sample of some of the designs I will be offering.
By the time I start production, I will have many more designs to choose from. I have already received a lot of interest, including some pre-orders. I will be posting final designs and prices when I start production. If you are interested in purchasing a bowl with one of my designs and would like more information (including prices), please e-mail me at fireoakstudio@gmail.com.
I’m going to be taking a break from the business side of art for a few months and just do art for me. My schedule at my full-time job, which I must have to pay the bills, leaves little time for the necessities of life… like sleep, time with my family, and art. The stress of it all is making it so I am getting sick frequently. So, I’m dropping a few things in order to recuperate. I will still post new art on occasion and I will pop in to my favorite sites every now and again. My plan is to get back into my quest towards becoming a professional artist no later than the start of the new year. For now, I’ll be focusing on staying healthy and stress-free (or at least stress-reduced).
Cheers
Just a quick note today. I stumbled across a really good resource for artists aspiring to make a living doing what they love – http://arts-careers.com/success/
If turning art into a career is something you want to do, please check this out.
Cheers!
I’m going camping this weekend for the first time in years. I’m really excited about it because I’ll be bringing my son. He’s 20 months old. I can’t wait to watch him explore his new surroundings. I’m bringing my camera, so I will be posting some inspiration pictures some time next week.
I have sketches for two more fish paintings. With packing and our trip it will be next week before I post those too.
Have a great weekend all!
The Longmont Art Link is tonight from 6-9pm. I will be showing at Maternal Instincts at 519 Main Street. I will also be doing a demonstration. I’ll be working on Letter F of my alphabet. So if you are interested in my painting methods and are in the Longmont, Colorado area, I’d love to meet you.
In other news, I had a portfolio review at Art Mart on Pearl Street in Boulder. I will find out within a week or so whether they want to have my work in their space. The review went pretty well and I felt I was prepared, sporting my portfolio, resume, price list, and business card.
In addition to my ongoing alphabet project, I am working on a series of fish paintings. So far I have gotten a really positive response. I plan on doing more Koi paintings, but I am also working on some fantasy fish, including a sturgeon/lion fish hybrid.
New Work:
The past two weeks have been busy. I have a couple of new ink drawings, which I will post by the weekend; I celebrated my anniversary with my husband; I caught a nasty little stomach bug and recovered, mostly; and I continued working on my goal of becoming a full-time artist.
The Boulder Creek Festival was last weekend. It was fun and sunny, but too busy to really get a chance to speak with artists. I did get some ideas on how to present my art at an art fair like this and what types of equipment I will need.
I am still taking inventory of my art and supplies. It surprises me how much I actually have. I even found a rather large, at least large for me, blank canvas that I didn’t know I had. When I get the time and space where I can paint again I am totally going to do something fabulous with it.
After doing some more research on local art festivals, I think I have found a few that I might be able to do this year on my limited budget. I’m looking into the Celebrate Lafayette festival on September 25th, the Louisville Labor Day Festival on September 6th, and the Longmont Farmer’s Market Holiday show in December. All of them have entry/jury fees of under $150. I will keep you all posted on which ones I end up going for. I was planning on doing the Longmont Art Walk again this year, but unfortunately, I missed the deadline by a day.
I have an even bigger list of events to look into for next year. Now I need to see what the cost difference is between renting a tent versus buying a tent is.
For those of you interested in art festivals, here are some useful resources:
A list of what you need, plus some tips – http://www.lifetime.com/tipssolutions/organization/article.aspx?postid=174
Overall Advice – http://www.squidoo.com/art_festival
An older thread at wetcanvas forums that has some useful information – http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169893
I’ve been wanting to make a serious go at switching careers and making art a full time gig for several years. I have consulted books, blogs, tweets, and podcasts on how to do it. I’m ready to act now and I am going to write about the process. This will include both my successes and my failures. Hopefully, someone else out there who is thinking about making the shift can gleam something useful from journey and apply it to their own.
For all intents and purposes I am pretty much a beginner with book knowledge and a portfolio. Here is more detail on where I stand.
So what is my next step? Paperwork. I am going to take stock of what I art I have, what I feel is ready for sale, prices, supplies and equipment.I am using an excel spread sheet from the SciFiFantasyHorrorSpace_ArtShows yahoo group. There are some good resources here, particularly for anyone interested in selling art at convention art shows.
One market I want to explore is art fairs. I need to find out what equipment I’ll need and how much it (and entry fees and travel) will cost. The Boulder Creek Festival is Memorial Day weekend. I plan on going and doing some research and networking as my first step. Ultimately I’d like to do several art fairs and possibly a renaissance festival or two a year.
I also want to submit work to publishers. I have done some research and picked five to start with ( I’m going to keep you all in suspense as to which ones for now). It is a small number, but I still have a full time day job and a toddler. I need to be able to keep track of who I have contacted. After I finish my inventory, I will be putting together submissions for these companies. I will post more about this when I get to it.
And with that, the little one just woke up from his nap. Please feel free to leave a comment, give advice, or ask questions.
Fire Oak Studio