The Meaning of Life: Graduation and the Gallery

My youngest is graduating from high school this Saturday. This means we will have a wonderful weekend, celebrating great accomplishments. He has done so well and made so many good friends, this means it will be an emotional weekend. Family coming from out of town to celebrate, this means late nights with lots of talking. It is hot and humid, this is Florida, so this means...ugh.
Next weekend is the opening at Gallery on First. Dreaming up titles to paintings, framing, thinking of decorations, this means my head is swirling. Is this piece finished? Is this piece signed? Is this what I was meaning to do?
This means never wait for the perfect time. There is never a perfect time.
And oh, by the way, I am going to New York City for one night.
This really does mean jump in, relax and enjoy. This is life and this is what it means.

Photos for reference

I was looking at a basket of orchids that were given to me 2 years ago when my dad died. They were so beautiful, I was hopeful they would survive. They have thrived outside my studio window. In the deepest shade, getting all the humidity Florida has to offer. I photographed them for reference for future paintings. Several years ago I started photographing our kitchen concoctions. I would then add the photo to our family cookbook, makes it seem legit, hard evidence.
This spring our vegetable garden has produced such a variety and quantity of foods that I wanted to record it. The camera has been in the kitchen taking pictures of green beans, peas, herbs, ruby chard, and tomatoes. Photo! A dear friend brought a pot of parrot tulips to us for our graduation party. Photo! After Christmas I painted a picture of the fruit that arrived from an aunt in Phoenix. Some pears and apples, instant still-life, but I can't paint as fast as it ages so...photo! Lemons, limes, oranges from the trees in the winter. Photo!
I am not always in sync with the garden or with whatever would lend itself as subject matter. (I found out during a painting class that tulips open when exposed to light. The still life kept changing over a two hour period. A Disney nature film before our eyes.) I may not need the reference for years, but I have it recorded. A photo!
P.S. If you have an etsy.com store keep it going. This morning Good Morning America did a story about artists/crafters who have had great success on the site. Free publicity for the site and your work. Must get that updated myself.
http://www.niftyartgirl.etsy.com

Triage almost complete

So many things are on my radar today. My blog triage class is coming to an end. It has been an eye-opening experience. Evaluating my abilities, what I thought I knew and what I certainly don't know and want to learn is pretty clear. There is so much out there to take advantage of and so little time to pursue it. I think. That is the qualifier, other people are able to schedule and write a blog, paint a picture, feed their children, take a walk, expand their networking so I know it is possible. This is my personal challenge, to keep all the balls in the air. That is why I am using this painting to once more illustrate my blog. Thank you to Alyson and Cynthia for walking us through this high tech frontier. Their ability to communicate so beautifully even on difficult technical subjects has helped me so much. (I still really enjoy the audio.)
And then today I look at the followers on my blog and want to cry at seeing so many new faces. Thank you. This is the greatest support you could offer.

Open late this Saturday Night

The Jim Payne Run for Kids will be tomorrow afternoon in Sanford. Support this worthy cause and cheer on the participants.
On Saturday the Gallery on First at 211 E. First Street will be staying open late until about 9:00. If you are in the area come on by. This is a busy place.
Thank you to all who came by Thursday for Five Alive. The music was great celebrating Sanford de Mayo, the crowd was cheerful, and the weather cooperated bringing a nice breeze instead of the storm that appeared to be on the horizon. Lots of people came through the gallery for the first time and were surprised to see what a treasure was hiding there. The variety of artists and styles. There is really something for everyone and priced for everyone too.

Feed Success

I can't even describe how good it feels to accomplish Lesson 10 from my blog class. I have set up a blog reader in My Yahoo, set up the RSS feed, signed up for sitemeter and a feedburner account. It is a foreign language, but it feels good to speak it and sort of know what I am talking about. Thank you Alyson.

Five Alive in Sanford

Tonight is Five Alive in Sanford. A street party for everybody. A band will play, there will be food, drink and vendors of all descriptions. The Gallery on First, http://www.galleryonfirst.com will be open late to welcome visitors. Come on by, say hello and enjoy the art....

The Party's Over

Okay life can begin again as I know it. The graduation party for 70 at my house, with our cooking, cleaning, gardening, and decorating is over. It was a huge success. Everybody ate a lot, although there is one of four briskets, half a cake, three boxes of greens, and assorted other things, most importantly a lot of wine left over and several kegs of husband's homebrew.
Sales Discussions of all types continued throughout the weekend.
I did as our marketing meeting suggested last week and handed out postcard invitations to the attendees as they left. As my husband, the sales manager supreme said, "Shameless commerce." I guess to some degree it is. This is an invitation however to an event where one can gaze at art, eat good food and drink wine and beer. Wouldn't everybody want to be there?
The sales discussions continued.
My daughter has started a new business in addition to her full-time consulting job. She is in the skin care market. The stuff is incredible. So we were talking about possible clients and reaching as many people as possible. She is taking the approach of going to large gatherings and dealing with people on a large scale, convention type platform. She is not doing one-on-one sales. This is a serious business direction.
Getting advice from outside sources.
A guest we had this weekend, Pringle Teetor, a glass artist from North Carolina, friend from 5th grade in New Orleans, visited the gallery to give me some ideas and tell me what some of her fellow artists had done in Hillsborough.
http://www.flambeauxart.com
http://www.hillsboroughgallery.com
Seeing your sales techniques through other eyes.
When that visit was through my daughter and I reviewed what she had seen and how she would makes changes. We discussed everything from moving furniture, changing vocabulary in signs to what to paint.
To test the new information.
I have a show out of the gallery for an afternoon at a new retirement development. The vote was for more fat lady paintings. We did research at the beach on Mother's Day. There were models aplenty. The human body is an amazing, and beautiful thing in all shapes and sizes. It was an artist's dream to watch the swimmers and sunners, in their pageant walking by on the cloudless and brilliant day.

Marketing Meeting

Tonight we had our monthly marketing meeting at Gallery on First in Sanford, FL. This is the big countdown and planning session for our 11 artist opening, Hot Summer Nights, on Saturday, June 6, from 6-9:00 p.m. There was discussion about food, it will be very good. Wine and beer, in good supply. Decorations, for me to figure out. Door prize tied to a survey, very cool.
Art will be there in his glory. All descriptions, all prices, in his full regalia, turning himself inside out. Certainly worth a drive to Historic Sanford. To take a look at other artists' work check out:
http://www.galleryonfirst.com
and to see the work of my next door neighbors in Studio 4, Tracy Burke and Ralph Verano, check out
http://www.gooddaytopaint.blogspot.com
A lot of good stuff going on in Historic Sanford so come on out, for the finest Art has to offer.