Posting Online doesn’t guarantee Success

"Sand Crane Dreams" mixed media on canvas (Done free-hand with brush to create dream-like images)

When friends learned that I had been selling online, they were all determined to follow my lead. I was delighted, because I wanted them to feel that element of success when you overcome your fears, conquer the inevitable learning curve of uploading photos correctly, and then seeing your paintings online.

News Flash! It does not stop there! You can’t just prepare a website or blog and hope for the best. You must “work the territory.” What does that mean exactly? You must take advantage of all the apps and opportunities available on each particular website.

"Barred Owl Posing" 16x20 acrylic on panel

If there are contests, you must enter as many as you can. Then you must vote in those contests. If you join a group (I’ve joined many), you must participate in the discussions, comment on other people’s paintings, and generally get to know the artists that are out there. If you develop some relationships, this will bring you votes, a visual platform, and other opportunities to display your paintings.

Many an artist has paid to have someone prepare an elegant website, only to abandon it and leave it to chance. If there are no links or interactive tools to ask questions or make comments, people go away disappointed. Sure they may see your work, but if it’s difficult to find out the information they are looking for, they may never come back.

"Jack's Roses" oil on canvas (SOLD) Prints available!  Done almost entirely by free-hand brush drawing

An artist must still stay active in their home community. If people know you, and become familiar with your name or your work they are more likely to go to your website when shopping for artwork. Collector’s also become familiar with your name as they float from gallery to gallery.

Marketing is a 75% proposition, with a 25% ratio of time for painting. It sounds impossible, but it’s important if you ever want to sell. I never thought I’d sell an original online, but I’ve sold four this past year. Some of those paintings continue to make money through print sales online.

This time ratio means you have to work faster and harder at production. I’m becoming better at drawing with a brush and seeing clearly the painting I want to make in my mind before I begin. I still use models and photographic references, but I’m able to do much of my drawing on canvas free-hand with a brush. The exciting colors and forms that develop intuitively make it a joy to complete.

(8x10 canvas)

"in progress" sorry about the shadow! I painted an acrylic background and have to decide what to put on it!

Marketing is a very slow and upward process. The secret is to “never give up” and “never give in,” even when you get discouraged.

Painting what Matters – an artist’s love; a Buyers Delight

My friend Emma was a joy to be around. She was inquisitive and inspiring. She filled the room with grace and charm.

"Emma's Birthday" 11x14 pencil drawing on Bristol

 I drew this picture of Emma after her 94^th birthday and presented her with this drawing on her 95^th celebration. She was thrilled. She loved it so much that it was hung on the wall in her bedroom where her cherished family photos were displayed.

Emma passed away on Oct. 12, three and a half weeks before her 97^th birthday. I had circled the calendar on Nov. 7 to be sure I remembered it. She will be missed!

"Mother and Child" 9x12 drawing (my daughter after her 1st daughter)

Artwork is long lasting. I know Emma’s family will treasure this drawing for many years to come. Her passing made me ask myself the question: “What will I be remembered for?” Will my paintings leave a positive impression on people? Will they uplift, warm the heart, or please the eye long after I’m gone?

There’s a lot of wild, unusual, even grotesque artwork out there, and some that bend the line between beauty and pornography. There are buyers out there for almost everything. Have you ever asked yourself: “What do I want to be remembered for?” Or do you consider only what will sell in the marketplace?

We all need to butter our bread. We need to pay the rent and make a living. But if we sacrifice our values or our reputation for the sake of art alone, where will it lead? Where will it end?

"Does this hat make me look fat?" 9x12 drawing (Zoe on her first birthday)

The focus of your life and your art becomes the standard by which you live your life. Every artist must choose the God of his or her life, whether a temporal material God that brings out the worst in us, or a Heavenly God that inspires the best in us. Life must not be degraded in any case. Life and the living of it is a hallowed and joyous experience if lived well. 

Emma lived her life well. She served her church and community. She served her friends and neighbors. Rest in peace, Emma dear; the best is yet to come!

Featured Artist;
Stan Prokopenko and one of his marvelous videos. Watch him on YouTube and learn how to draw marvelous portraits! "How to Draw a Nose Step by Step."

Art is the Priceless Expression of the Soul

Work in Progress -- acrylic drawing 18x24 canvas

What is the fine line that separates art from pornography? Can you feel it? Sense it? What is vulgar to one person may be beautiful to another. I was surprised and excited when I took my first drawing class with a live model. I blossomed! My linear ink/brush drawing won first prize in an art show.

I took my sketches and drawings; my prized paintings, to a family reunion and shared them with relatives. My excitement waned as shocked and appalled faces looked back at me. They were not only “not impressed,” they were disgusted.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Obviously, my relatives had never had much exposure to art. What they saw and felt was shame for the exposure of the human form. I was crestfallen. Every emotion and skill I had discovered in myself was frowned on by those who knew me. My best was not good enough. I was viewed with disdain.

Did that deter me? Yes, for awhile until I rediscovered myself and the beauty of all God’s creations, including the human body.

Work in Progress -- "Fish Market--You Buy?"

During the transformation of the German people under the leadership of Hitler, Heinrich Heine made this observation: “Where books or art is burned, they will in the end, burn people.”

We must protect our freedom of expression. In China they cannot use the Internet freely or speak freely. Sometimes in government’s efforts to control and protect, they end up extinguishing freedom. Just like blowing on a lighted candle, they diminish the light of truth and the power of the individual to choose.

Work in Progress, 18x24 canvas, Fishmarket

Here are some of my favorite quotes by famous artists: Enjoy!

"When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college- that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?"	Howard Ikemoto
The more horrifying this world becomes, the more art becomes abstract.	Paul Klee
"Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us."	Roy Adzak
"A painting is never finished - it simply stops in interesting places."	Paul Gardner
"A line is a dot that went for a walk."	Paul Klee
It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.	Pablo Picasso
Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.	Pablo Picasso
It takes a very long time to become young.	Pablo Picasso
There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.	Pablo Picasso
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.	Michelangelo Buonarroti
"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."	Maya Angelou
An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision."	James McNeill Whistler
"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures."	Henry Ward Beecher
It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.	Henri Matisse
I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.	Henri Matisse
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-things I had no words for.	Georgia O'Keeffe
Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.	Georgia O'Keeffe
"The source of genius is imagination alone, the refinement of the senses that sees what others do not see, or sees them differently."	Eugene Delacroix
"I am an artist… I am here to live out loud."	Emile Zola
"Painting is easy for those that do not know how, but very difficult for those that do!"	Edgar Degas
"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."	Edgar Degas
"No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination."       Edward Hopper "Hey, Coconut Mon" (part of my African series)

”What’s Love got ta’ do, got ta’ do with it?”

Photo from contact in Uganda

 The words in the title are from Tina Turner’s greatest hit. “What’s love got to do with it?” Why, everything, Tina!

No matter what we give our heart or our time to, if we have the passion and the love, we’re bound to be successful. Why? Because what we love we give our devotion to; we give it our all.

Bert Sugar, prolific author and promoter of life and boxing, loved what he did. But that wasn’t always the case. Sugar started out as an attorney and then worked in various professions before he started doing what he loved: boxing. When he started writing about what he loved, and engaging in the technical aspects of the sport, his success soared. He died a few days ago doing what he loved.

Work in Progress -- Fish Market -- "You Buy?"

Successful artists or professionals have one thing in common: passion. Their love of what they do drives them to produce more and more of what they love. It skyrockets them to success, but not over night. The path to success requires blood, sweat and tears and the willingness to accept criticism, anger, and hatred; especially if your work has a political intent. One artist comes to mind: a Utah artist named Jon McNaughton.

The Los Angeles Times calls McNaughton’s work “junk” because they disagree with his ideas and his politics:

"Titled "One Nation under God," the earlier hack propaganda seems content to pretend that the United States is a Christian nation, with Jesus as the law-giver. (Weirdly, a figure identified as James Madison stands directly behind the Constitution, even though Madison famously rejected any religious sanction for government authority.) A professor of constitutional law who knows that America was instead founded as a secular nation, one where the freedom to practice any religion or no religion is fundamental, would probably blanch if he saw it.”

McNaughton’s response is a quote from Washington:

"I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction. To this consideration we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation, respecting religion." (from the Magna-Char ta (constitution) of our country.)

You may or may not agree with McNaughton or with the L.A. Times. But to say that McNaughton wasted paint and canvas and that his work is “junk” is an atrocity in my lowly opinion. He is a superb illustrator who is being “vilified” for differing with the political agenda of “some of the people,” but not all.

It is interesting to note that the L.A. Times and their ilk were fond of the urine soaked painting of Christ that received rave reviews by the "left."

"He Lives!" -- 16x20 mixed media

When you follow your heart and mind, your work and your opinions may not be popular. You may be labeled a “hack” and your product called “junk.” So were the works of Van Gogh and many of his contemporaries who dared to speak out and to create what they felt strongly about.

Do you have the courage to stand up for your beliefs, or will you succumb to popular opinion and the forces of power? Freedom in art and expression must never be suppressed, especially by government or the media that serves that government. The perfect example of this is in Iran, and Russia, and Venezuela, and in Cuba to name a few.

http://youtu.be/4KGlBHyVeYU

"Americana" 16x20 acrylic

America is the world’s last Bastian of freedom. What will you do to preserve and keep it alive?