Miss Brown with Mr. Fishy Fish, mere moments before his sudden and tragic demise. RIP, Mr. Fishy Fish.
Month: April 2007
For Sale
I’m getting ready to sell off a bunch of my work. Mostly unframed pieces on paper. Larger pieces are approximately 11 x 15 inches, and I’m thinking $30-$50 for most of them. Smaller pieces would be less, obviously. I’ve got some little pieces that will be around $10, so there will be a broad range of prices.
Most of these are mixed media, with a combination of paint (oils or acrylics), oil pastels, collage, and found objects. All are one of a kind. Most are on really good paper, but some are on recycled paper. The recycled paper is good quality art paper, but I think it would be fair to reduce the price on those a bit.
I’m also thinking of letting go of some handmade books, mostly blanks, but there are a couple of finished books, too. Finished books are more labor intensive than paintings, though, so I’m not sure what to charge for them yet. I’ll have to think about that. Blank books will probably be in the $25-30 range, depending on what they’re made of. Smaller ones will be a little less–the materials are less costly, but making them is every bit as labor intensive as making larger books.
My plan is to put everything up on Etsy and get a PayPal account sorted out at the end of the week (Friday, if I can manage it). Until then, if anyone here would like to purchase anything by check, let me know by e-mail. I’ll pre-sell things here for a little less than I will through Etsy. Feel free to make me an offer! For pre-sales, I’m willing to mail things out as soon as I have a check in my hands.
Pretty much anything that is not a journal and is not super big or on canvas is for sale. If you live locally and there are pieces that are big or are on canvas that you are interested in, let me know, and we can definitely work something out. I just don’t want to try to ship large stuff, because of the packing and cost involved.
Balancing Equations Journal
Balancing Equations Journal, front
9 1/2 x 6 inches
collage (altered Polaroid, fragments from algebra book and dictionary, anatomical illustration, old dress patterns)
The paper bag journal has a name, now. Also, a front cover. The covers were made from recycled backs from old spiral-bound notebooks. On one of them, I’d written a bunch of figures while balancing my checkbook. I glued dress patterns over most of the numbers, partially obscuring them, but I kept the “Balance.
I really like the way the hemp cord looks, woven through the holes in the covers. I’ve left the ends long and dangling for now, and will probably attach something to the ends. Little brass or copper cow bells, maybe, but that’ll have to wait until I’m finished filling the book, because the noise might drive me nuts.
Top and Spine Detail
9 1/4 x 6 inches
brown paper grocery bags Coptic bound with waxed linen thread, 10 signatures of 2 leaves (40 pages)
Bridge Tally Card
Esther saved various mementos, many from parties. There are dance cards, a pink mask–a la the Lone Ranger–and several tally cards from games of bridge and bunco.
Esther’s Bank Book
There are several bundles of checks, check stubs, and bank statements with cancelled checks among Esther’s letters. There was also a tiny bank book. It looks like the account was opened in 1919 and was used until 1923, which would have spanned the years Esther was in school at Indiana University.
Working
Working
Mending Bone
9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches
collage (dress pattern, buttons, linen tape, acrylic paint on baby wipe, film strip, gesso, dictionary fragments, and anatomical illustration) on paper bag
Then I Shall Be
9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches
collage (altered Polaroid, sandpaper, anatomical illustration, dictionary fragment, poplar leaf, brass brads, and wick anchors) with gold and copper leaf, tissue paper, India ink, and acrylic paint on paper bag
Spineless
It’s time to go to the Mission, to look for more old anatomy books to use for collage. I’m plum out of spines!
Crankpantsing, Ahoy!
Since I’m in a cranky-assed mood, I thought I’d complain about other people being jerks. Ha! I think I’ve mentioned a certain bad-tempered, kinda crazy, artsy-craftsy person before, but perhaps not. I know I’ve boggled at her behavior in other venues, and, if you have been involved in just about any artsy-craftsy Yahoo group, you probably have run across her. Maybe you’re even a fan? If so, you have my condolences!
Anyway, I’ve belonged to various Yahoo groups run by her, and others that she was a heavy participator in. I ended up quitting all of them, because of how she treated people. I do sometimes read her blog, though, and when I do, I am always amazed at how nasty she is to her “fans” and customers. Maybe they don’t realize it, because they don’t read her blog? I dunno, but I’d feel really crummy if I found out that someone I admired and had been supportive of was, at best, resentful of me. I get the impression that she views her adoring fans as leeches. O ick.
Yaknow, I’m nowhere near her league, and I don’t really want to be. But, I do get regular e-mail from folks who have questions. Some of them are really silly questions. That’s okay. Lord knows, I’ve asked my own fair share of stupid
questions! I also don’t think that anything I do is particularly original, much less proprietary, so if someone asks me where I got something or how I made something, I’m happy to share. It’s not like I invented the wheel or anything.
I don’t know why this person irritates me so much (well, yes I do, but that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fishes) or why I bother to read her blog. I shouldn’t, because whenever I do, it makes me cringe.
Smile!
Harriet and I played a game of soccer with an empty ice cream container. Obviously, she won (and quite pleased with herself, too!), but that’s to be expected. Four feet beat two, right?
For a while now, I’ve been mulling over switching at least some of my Flickr stream to a Creative Commons license. While I was hunting for images relating to the potato famine, I was very happy to find some that were CC licensed. That made up my mind for me. It just seems to be a community minded thing to do. Not that I think my photos are anything special, but if someone did want to use them, now they can. I extended it to artwork, too.
That doesn’t mean I’ve given up my copyright. That’s still mine. It just means that folks may use my images and artwork without asking for permission, given that they A) attribute me, B) the use is not commercial, and C) they share alike.
In other meta-news, lordy! I had a ten-fold increase in unique visitors yesterday. I don’t know what accounted for the spike. Very weird.
In Asshole News
Alec Baldwin is a controlling, manipulative asshole. I don’t care how many ways he tries to rationalize his actions, or how hard he tries to blame his behavior on other people, he’s still a controlling, manipulative asshole. And to think, he’s the “normal” Baldwin!
Camille Paglia is also an asshole. Blaming women for some rage-frothing misogynist killing a bunch of people is really beyond the pale. And the way she goes about it is really kind of special. See, women are either having too much sex with men, or they aren’t having enough sex with men. Either way, it’s all our fault if a man goes on a ladyhating shooting spree. (Via Echidne of the Snakes)
Not having insurance sucks. I’ve been there. Not having enough money to go to the doctor or buy meds even when you have insurance sucks. But, this takes the cake. I nearly swallowed my tongue when I saw how much Twisty’s meds cost. And her insurance won’t pay for them, so she has to cover the entire cost herself. I’m sure that’s only a fraction of what she’s had to shell out for daring to have cancer, but thankfully, she’s been able to afford it. Lots of Americans cannot, and if they are diagnosed with cancer, they will die from it, for lack of treatment.
Can someone please explain to me why this is a better system than socialized medicine?
red paper boat 