Open Print Show at The Federation Of Canadian Artists Gallery

Between May 19-June 7th, I will be showing the following print, "Moonface" at the Federation of Canadian Artists Gallery located on Granville Island in Vancouver.  The Open Print Show is a juried international show of traditional and digital prints.

I was really happy to be accepted into an international printmaking show but I was just thrilled once I saw the calibre of artists that I would be showing with. The artists at Open Print are equally skilled as they are creative. 

I would like to share with you a few of the artists that particularly struck me.

Amie Roman entered this smaller woodcut "Pays d'hiver". I really enjoy Amie's work and the graphic quality of her nature imagery. Amie is a wealth of online information for other printmakers with her Squidoo lense and blog "Burnishings".

As well as having an Etsy site in which she sells her editions, she's active in the Etsy printmakers street team,"Printsy". As one of the editors of the Printsy blog, she organizes and conducts the interviews of fellow Printsy members. It truly is one of my favorite blogs.

Mariko Ando's etchings made my eyes grow big and wish that I had some extra cash to claim one of them as my own. As an artist who loves children's book illustration, Mariko's work is right up my alley. They are illustrative, clear and an imaginative take on the Alice in Wonderland theme. 

As a side note, I obtained permission from Mariko and the other artists to use their images on this blog and had initially tried to copy them straight from the show website. Each time I tried I was blocked and was only able to get a black square. I was very impressed. Most artists take the risk of their work getting copied once they post online and this gallery took steps to stop that. As such, I went to each artist's personal site for their images. 

Joanne Price's works appealled to me in the same way as Mariko's in their illustrative quality. Graphic, humourous and compelling, Joanne's work makes me want to try my hand at engraving. I love a well printed black and I was in awe of Joanne's obvious skill as a printmaker. 

Take a look at all the artist's websites to see some of their other pieces or better yet, come down to Granville Island if you can and see them in person. The show runs May 19-June 7, '09. You will be impressed.

A picnic in the garden.

Yesterday my daughter had a plan to have a picnic at our community garden plot. When she gets a plan, look out. Since the day before she had been making lists and organizing everything we would need for our outing. She is five. I hope this bodes well for the future. As we don't get to the garden nearly as often as we should to control the weeds, my husband and I were game with her plans. Below are a few pics. of our fun family day.

 Blueberry flowers waiting for the bees.

 My husband putting in the broccoli.

Lambs quarters. The best tasting weeds.

Homemade butter tarts. Yum!

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I had to put this photo in of my husband showing off last year's garlic. It always make me laugh. Does he look crazy?

The linocut block and I have made friends again. You have to talk nice.

Etsy Canada Sale!

It's time for a sale!

 I've joined forces with twenty-four other Canadian Etsy sellers to offer buyers some fantastic deals from May 18-24. Each store is holding their own sale and the product varies from painting and jewlery to clothing and quilting. As for my own store, I am offering 20% off anything in the shop. The discount will be given as a refund via Paypal.

Below are the links to the various stores participating. Browse around and mark your favourites.

a cagey bee

akane

barefootams

by lynn krestel

carol forsyth

my little eye

debra designs

fickle faerie

gillian beads

jason pottery

groovy glass girl

lucky troll

a second time

bed time beads

bead crazed

cocos jewelry

lulu design

pretty betty

owl and pussycat

rad clothing

sleepy moon design

squareware

white rabbit 21

To top off the great sales, there will be three giveaway draws of items from 19 of the stores. To enter the draw visit the ETSY CANADA blog. Good luck to you.

 

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How do I price my art?

I've been thinking about this post for a while now. As an artist, I have struggled alot with how to price my work and determining its' value. Now that I have decided to be more proactive in selling my work, I have had to question its' value everytime I post something on Etsy.

 Etsy is an amazing site to find so many highly talented and skilled artists. I have found, however, that  there are alot of artists who sell their items too low. This is great for those of us looking for beautiful things for very little. It's not so great for people like myself that realize that I have to compete with those prices. It's taken me many a years to convince myself that I deserve to be paid well for my images and ideas. 

 As such, I have tried different formats of my work to make it more "sellable" to the Etsy shopper. I have created digital prints of my monotypes  and paintings which have turned out to be amazing in their clarity and color. I have access to a Canon Pro9000 and have found it to produce images better than anything that I have sent out so far. Being that they are still archival I think that I may use the printer for my collages which will deteriate much faster.

I have also created some glass pendants of my images which I just love. Now my images are portable!

So even with all the adjustments I've tried to make to reach my "target market", I have to say that I haven't sold one digital print or art pendant yet. I have only sold original paintings and hand-pulled prints so far. Go figure.

I would love to hear from other artists and their thoughts on pricing their works  and how they market their talent.

As a side note, I would like to share with you some of the finds I've seen on Etsy. I love posting my favorites and wish I could puruse the art pages even more than I do.

I recently bought some pieces from meluseena, a.ka. Lisa Falzon. They will be hung up on my wall of inspiration. Lisa's work is fantastic and she collages with a computer in a way that I only wish I could do. Now that's a good use of a computer!

Another artist that I am kicking myself for not buying from is five in the morning. This edition sold so fast that I lost my opportunity to own such a well done print. I kept looking at it and its' description to determine why the artist was selling it for only $15 (!). I will check back often so that I don't make that mistake again.

As I opened up one of my Decor8 daily I was blown away by Natasha Morton and was heartened to see that she sells originals. I would love any painting set by her but I just might convince myself to buy one of her collages.

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Finally, I love the work by Etsy artist Francois Dyment but luckily I get to see his work all the time. I ended up marrying an amazing painter and he has really inspired me in so many ways. Francois is also selling originals and is at the higher end for Etsy prices but has a selling history that justifies this.

Tell me about your amazing finds on Etsy. Is there an artist on there that you feel deserves some more recognition?

  

Breast Cancer Fundraising Pendant

Breast Cancer Fundraising Pendant

 A friend of mine will be doing the "Walk for the Cure" to end breast cancer in August this year and to participate she has to raise $4000. To help her achieve such a lofty goal I said that I would create an original pink-ribbon pendant that I would sell on my Etsy site. With the sale of each pendant I will donate $5 to the Cancer Society in my friend's name. If you are part of a walking team or just wanting to show your support for participants, the necklace is a lovely symbol of hope. 

If you've been touched by cancer in some way I hope that you will feel compelled to give to the cause.

 

Birthday Monkey Cake for a 1 yr. old

I have had the chance to dabble in cake decorating again and made a monkey cake for my niece's first birthday. This cake is a banana cake with chocolate fudge icing.

I got the design idea from Scribble on CakeCentral.com and you should really take a look to see how the cake should be done properly. I think I should've used chocolate buttercream icing instead of the glaze as I'

m not that skilled at creating a smooth finish in all the nooks and crannys with a pour-on icing. I had never made the icing before and it's quite sticky as it starts to cool.

I think with this cake I've learned that:

you should always do a practice cake

it's too hard to decorate sculpture cakes with kids

give yourself extra time and space to get messy

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