This is the official Blog for the EBSQ Self-Representing Artists Community, where you'll find news, reviews, site announcements, and of course, a generous helping of art!
Congratulations to our Raindrops on Roses exhibit winners!
The Lonely Petunia by Vicky Knowles
Boop Boop a Doop by Susan Linville
Loop-de-Loop by Susan Linville
EBSQ Artist Carolyn Schiffhouer has a solo show running now till May 31 at the Red Brick Gallery in Foxburg, Pa. If you’re in the area don’t miss out on her beautiful visions!
April 24 – May 31
Red Brick Gallery
17 Main St.
Foxburg, Pa
Hours:
Friday 2:00 – 6:00
Saturday 11:00 – 7:00
Sunday 12:00 – 4:00
April showers make for some magical outdoor photography. Mundane objects take on a jewel-like quality when wet. This month, we challenge you to get outdoors and show us a bit of that discovered magic. This exhibit is not restricted to only roses. Show us your raindrops on anything!
Fireworks Over Torii Gate by Michael Lewis Glover
Reflections of Earth fireworks Display at EPCOT theme park in Orlando, Florida.
This week’s Friday Five features five recent artworks from various galleries in our community. They are a taste of the diverse and amazing talent of our artists. I hope you enjoy them and have a wonderful weekend!
Please take a moment to check out the artist’s portfolios on EBSQ: Allesandro Andreuccetti, Sherry Key, Torrie Smiley, Martha Di Giovanni, and Janet M. Graham.
1. If you frequent our forums, today’s featured art should look familiar to you. Artist Alma Lee has been creating a series of digital artworks inspired by Tamara de Lempicka. Her latest, Dreamer, is my favorite in the series.
2. Did you know 71 percent of all art collectors having purchased art online? Read: How Mobile Technology is Accelerating Online Art Growth.
3. This year’s Twitter Art Exhibit is taking place in Orlando to benefit the Center for Contemporary Dance, Special Needs Classes. Deadline to enter is February 21st! I won’t be able to make it to the exhibit, but my art will be there.
4. Have you seen the Disney Dream Portraits by Annie Leibovitz? Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at Jessica Chastain as Merida.
5. Ever wanted to learn how to paint digitally? Concept Artist and Illustrator Matt Kohr has a FREE video library at CtrlPaint.com that begins with traditional skills and progresses into advanced digital painting. Did I mention it’s FREE?
I have seized the light. I have arrested its flight.
– Louis Daguerre
Louis Jacques Daguerre’s first surviving daguerreotype image, 1837.
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1. Today’s featured art for the Friday Five is a call for help. Christine E Striemer’s cat Gary is missing. She’s offering an award for whoever finds him: My sweet little Gary went missing Oct 21/2013. An 8″ x 8″ custom pet portrait (or any 8″ x 8″ painting of your choosing) goes to whoever finds her in Eston, SK area!
UPDATE: Gary has been found!! She’s safe and sound at home with Christine. 🙂
2. We are nearing the end of our fundraiser for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Don’t forget, when you make a donation of $5 or more I’ll send you an ACEO and you get entered to win a Think Pink bracelet by Lisa Wiktorek. See the full details here: Raising Funds for National Breast Cancer Foundation.
3. Speaking of Think Pink, have you entered EBSQ’s annual exhibit? The clock is ticking. Enter the Think Pink 2013 Exhibit today!
4. EBSQ artist Michele Lynch posted her show schedule for October through December. See it on the Michele Lynch Art Blog.
5. Exhibition Without Walls recently interviewed EBSQ member Michael Glover on his amazing HDR Photography. Congrats, Michael!
“The guy who takes a chance, who walks the fine line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.”
– Gordon Parks
‘Do you know who Gordon Parks is?’ If you answered ‘No’ I was with you 5-6 years ago. While researching something online one night, I came across an area college photography contest. It mentioned the man the contest was named after, Gordon Parks. I sought to learn more the artist worthy of a college art competition.
If you answered ‘Yes’ you may relate to me now six years later. Here I am with a shelf full of books on and by him, a signed photo of him for inspiration on my office wall, and he is discussed so often in my college courses on photography, that my students often affectionately refer to him as “Gordon baby”.
The youngest of fifteen children, Parks was born in 1912 and raised in Fort Scott, Kansas. Fort Scott is approximately 50 miles from where I sit typing this article. Our great state is known for many historical events, including Brown vs. the Board of Education, a court decision that theoretically ended segregation in schools, the famed Buffalo soldiers black Calvary, abolitionist John Brown, and Nicodemus, the only continuously surviving all-black community west of the Mississippi. Yet it took me until the age of thirty-five to learn about this man, and what I learned impressed me beyond the words I can put together.
From meager beginnings great things came to be. Parks repeatedly credits his parents as being his heroes, for the “Compassion and generosity”, as they managed to raise such a large family in a small two-bedroom house. They helped to prepare him for a rough road that life had dealt him. Racism was a normal part of life in Kansas during his childhood, and he commented he considered himself “lucky to be alive especially when I remember that four of my close friends died of senseless brutality before they were twenty-one.”
At the age of fifteen, his mother, a lifelong influence on him, passed away. As the youngest, his older siblings had long moved on and started their own lives. The young man went to live with an older sister in Minnesota, once there he and his brother-in-law had a disagreement. Gordon was forced out of the home and onto the thirty below zero streets. He managed to survive by working menial jobs, including a piano player in a brothel.
Eventually he fell in love and married. But he knew he would never be able to support himself and his growing family on his low wages. Searching for another way to make a living that would allow him to express himself, he knew he wanted more from life. He had witnessed others around him choose a life of violence and inevitably saw them fall victim of the life they chosen.
While working as a waiter on a train, he frequently found himself in Chicago, on layovers. On one such stop he viewed pictures of the bombing of the ‘Panay’, a U.S. Navy gunboat. Eventually he also saw images created by the Farm Security Administration photographers, such as Dorthea Lange, Roy Stryker, Walker Evans and others. They all showed him that he could express himself and still show what was happening around him. So at the age of twenty five he was inspired to buy a used camera for $7.50, and he to seriously pursue photography.
Ultimately he landed a job at Life magazine as a photographer and reporter from 1948-1968. But this was only a small portion of what this man has achieved. Below is a summery of a few of the things he has done over the course of the last ninety-one years.
The next day he shot a roll of film on the camera and sent the photos off to be processed. The people of Eastman Kodak saw his images and h=gave him encouraging words that lead to them giving him a small show in a storefront window in Minneapolis.
In time his photography won him a fellowship from Julius Rosenwald Foundation. This enabled him to begin working closely with the Farm Services Administration (FSA) and the noted photographer Roy Stryker.
In 1942 Parks moves his family to Washington D.C. in order to work for the FSA. On his first day in Washington, Stryker told him to get a meal, see a movie and to buy a new suit. But when Parks tried to do as he was told, he was shown the back door, refused service, and the stores mysteriously did not have his size, no matter what size he asked for. When Stryker asked how things went Parks commented that, “Mississippi couldn’t have been worse.” Stryker explained to him that his job was now to show through his photographs the way the country really was. It was not enough for him to simply take a photograph and label it “bigot”. He would have to do more to truly show what was happening.
It did not take Parks long to begin a journey of a lifetime. His first professional photo was “American Gothic”. A charwoman happened to be mopping the floor of the FSA building when everyone else had left for the day, and Parks asked her to pose for his camera. Two days later he showed the piece to Stryker. He simply shook his head as he viewed the image. “Well your catching on, but that picture could get us all fired.”
Growing up in Kansas, when he did, he was not encouraged to go to college. Nevertheless he has gone on to be awarded over fifty honorary doctorate degrees from various universities. And despite the racism that was present in the industry, he was hired as a fashion photographer for Vogue Magazine, and became cofounder of Essence magazine. At the age of thirty-five he published his first book, “Flash Photography”, the start of numerous others, including ‘The Learning Tree’ in 1963. It is required reading for many school districts across the nation, and often included among the ‘most frequently challenged books list’. The latter he made into a feature film, as the first African American film director for a major studio (Warner Brothers). The filming required Parks to return back to Fort Scott Kansas to complete the project.
But the creation that most people recognize with his name is the movie “Shaft” in 1971. Making him what many consider as one of the contributions to the blaxploitation genre. Donald Faulkner, director of the Writers Institute once commented, “Gordon Parks was like the Jackie Robinson of film. His history as a filmmaker is part of American history. He broke ground for a lot of people, Spike Lee, John Singleton, who are working successfully now.”
His achievements are even more remarkable, when you consider that a man who never graduated High School achieved these things. To help rectify the situation, last July a delegation from his hometown, including a former mayor, came to New York and presented him with a high school diploma from the Fort Scott high school. Seventy-seven years after a teacher named Miss McClintock, told Parks and other black students within the school, “Don’t waste your parents’ money on college. You’ll wind up as porters and maids.” Parks is said to credit her with “…pushing me to find her wrong”.
This past February 2003, Parks publisher released the book, “The Sun Stalker,” a novel based on the life of J.W. Turner. It was his eighteenth book, including three full-length memoirs. Life magazine still calls upon him to write essays from time to time. Today at the age of ninety-one, when his health permits, Gordon Parks continues to do speaking engagements, and to personally accept awards.
If you wish to see his work in person, you can currently view a portion until February 29th, 2004 where a portion of his work is included in the International Center of Photography’s, NY, NY exhibition “Only Skin Deep; Changing Visions of the American Self”.
As an instructor, I encourage my students to seek out a mentor. It is expected that looking to others will find them guidance, ideas and hopefully prevent them from having to ‘reinvent the wheel’. It is also hoped that they will choose someone that will show them anything is possible. For me, one such person has been Gordon Parks. Although he began life as a poverty stricken youth on the Kansas Prairie, he seems to finally be gaining the recognition he has long deserved, as both a creative genius and an inspiration for many generations to come.
Color Images created by Gordon Parks
Links
Bio
Fort Scott Community College Photography Competition
Library of Congress
Photographer: Gordon Parks (U.S. Government Charwoman)
PBS NewsHour transcript, January 6, 1998 Half Past Autumn
Flash site on Half Past Autumn
Gordon Parks Page E!Online
Biographical information Gale – Free Resources
Kodak Site on Gordon Parks
Ford Motor Company funding
Kansas State Historical Society
Movies
Gordon Parks’ Visions (1986)
Half Slave/Half Free – Pt. 1 (1984)
Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (1984)
Half Slave, Half Free (1984)
Leadbelly (1975)
The Super Cops (1974)
Shaft’s Big Score (1972)
Shaft (1971)
The Learning Tree (1969)
The American Documents – V. 9 A Moment in Time
Selection of Books
Arias in Silence / Little, Brown, c1994
A Choice of Weapons / Berkley Pub. Co., 1967, c1966.
Born Black. / J.B. Lippincott, c1971.
Flavio / Norton, c1978.
Glimpses Toward Infinity / Little, Brown, c1996.
Gordon Parks: A Poet and His Camera : whispers of intimate things / Viking Press, [1971]
Half Past Autumn : a retrospective / Bulfinch Press, 1997.
In Love. / Lippincott, c1971.
The Learning Tree / Fawcett, c1963.
To Smile in Autumn: A Memoir : / Norton, c1979.
Gordon Parks: A Poet and His Camera / Viking Press, c1968.
Shannon / Little, Brown, c1981.
The Sun Stalker : a novel based on the life of Joseph Mallord William Turner / Ruder Finn Press, 2002.
Voices in the Mirror : an autobiography / Doubleday, c1990.
You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.
– Ansel Adams
(Photograph by Amanda Makepeace)
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1. Grassy Back-Road by Robert Kimball
2. Female Model at Barnstone by Hilary England
3. Roll out the Flower Carpet by Michael Glover
4. Lampwork Bead Necklace by Vickie Miller
5. Easter Lily by Maria Soto Robbins
***
What a beautiful month of art!
Who and where are you?
I am Windi Rosson of Winjimir Studio which is located in the middle of the woods, GA
How were you introduced to Facebook?
By other artist with whom I had lost touch with over the years. I was glad to find them again and then ended up adding a page for my work that is just art related.
Any tips for other artists starting a Facebook Page?
I think having a page dedicated to your artwork and business that is separate from your personal page is a plus. Keep it updated, and make sure to respond to comments.
What’s your favorite Facebook Page feature?
I like the ability to update from my cell phone. I can update about an event I am at or post work in progress shots directly from my studio, and get immediate feedback. Oh, and incorporating my Etsy store right on the page has been great too.
What’s coming next from your studio?
The festival season is gearing up and I will be focusing on that. I have just started on some new pieces for Art-O-Mat and am finishing up some new and exciting Art Skrap items!
The EBSQ Friday Five offers a brief look at noteworthy news from around the EBSQ Artist Blogosphere.
1. Peaceful Twilight – Stunning. Need I say more about Michael Glover’s new photograph?
2. Edith and Promarker Ultra-fine Nibs – Mark Satchwill discusses is latest portrait and includes an incredible time-lapse video of its creation.
3. Review of the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener – Kari Tirrell offers up a product review on a very retro pencil sharpener.
4. Post your Etsy Treasury on Facebook – Miriam Schulman has an in-depth post on sharing Etsy treasuries on Facebook
5. Increasing Traffic to your Blog – Natasha Wescoat’s simple and to the point tips will help you draw more visitors to your blog.
2011 is shaping up to be the biggest year for juried exhibits in EBSQ’s almost 11-year history, with our first juried show of the year, Motion Photography, accepting entries through the end of March. We recently sat down with this month’s juror, photojournalist Eric Schmadel, to learn a little about his background, his approach to photographing objects in motion, as well as some concrete tips for getting your best shot.
My name is Eric Schmadel and I’ve been a photojournalist for the last 15 years. I’ve spent 12, going on 13 of those years at the Tribune-Review in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. I’ve won some awards on the local, state and national level for my work, but that’s not what’s important here. I’d like to share a little about my background in the field and my opinions on action photography.
I became a photojournalist when I had two revelations as a psychology major in college. One was that I started to believe more in psychiatry (and I wasn’t going to med school) and the second was that I should not be responsible for anyone’s mental health. I needed to find a career that suited me. My roommate at that time was the photography editor at the student newspaper so I informed him that I was going to buy a camera and take a photography class and that he should hire me. He did and after a series of right place/right time job openings, I landed in Greensburg.
Though I cover anything that happens on my shift on a daily basis, I would say that 75% of what I shoot is sports. My shift is structured in a way that I am one of the main high school sports photographers in our chain of newspapers in the Greater Pittsburgh region. I do some college sports, but that accounts for less than 10% of the sports photography that I do. I suppose I became a sports photographer by default because of my shift and I fell in love with it. Sport, any sport, any game, holds the potential to make a beautiful and timeless photograph. The peak action, the moments around that action and the old “thrill of victory, agony of defeat” can be very rewarding as a photographer.
I want to touch on the fact that first and foremost, I’m a photojournalist, not a photographer when it comes to sports coverage. I am working hard to produce the best image I can that tells the story of a game. That can be anything from the girl that scored the game-winning basket in a high school playoff game to a dejected senior football player that just lost the last heart-breaking game of his college career and everything in between. I’ve passed over wonderful action shots of dropped passes and meaningless tackles in my edits because they don’t contribute anything to the story of the game once it goes to print. That, to me, is where the art lies in sport photography and in action photography. I want to see meaningful peak action.
As for judging other styles of action or motion photography, well that takes a little more interpretation. I’ve won awards for photos where I’ve panned with the subject to blur the action and give a sense of fluidity and I’ve used high-powered strobes to stop droplets of water. I think what separates art from snapshots is highly subjective. What I may give only a passing glance to may be the world’s most wonderful photo to another viewer. As a juror, I’ll be looking for any number of qualities. The first one being that intangible connection one feels when you first see a photograph that you like. We’ve all seen those photos and we’ve all taken them. You know the photo that you can’t stop looking at because you can’t believe that everything came together just right to make it happen. Secondly, I’ll be looking for technique. 99 times out of 100, it’s not enough to just point the camera at the action and stop it. Composition does still count for something in the world of art. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a photo and thought “if the photographer had just taken a knee and looked up at the subject rather than down,” or “that’s a nice image, but all I see is that light pole growing out of the subject’s head.” Lastly, I like to see subjects that I’ve seen a million times before in a new light. Bird in flight stopped in mid-air? Maybe try panning with it and keeping it’s eye in focus. These aren’t suggestions (yet), just the musings of a juror.
I know every serious photographer has probably heard these tips before, but it can’t hurt to repeat them. When you’re looking for action shots there are two basic ways to go about it: stop the action or interpret the action. Stopping the action with a fast shutter and a large aperture is best for things like sports and most wildlife action photography. You’re looking to show the viewer the peak action in a way exposes elements that were too fast for the eye to see. Rippling muscle and a grimace on an enthusiastic slam dunk or the spread wings of a hummingbird at a feeder are good examples of why you might want to go this route. Panning with your subject or doing multiple exposures are better suited to showing the way things move. An incredible photo of (then) Arizona Diamondback pitcher Randy Johnson comes to mind where the photographer used a slower shutter speed and moved the camera with his wind up and delivery (while keeping his face and necklace sharp) to give a sense of motion to the image. Multiple exposures work well to show things like how a skateboarder moves during a kickflip. That can be accomplished with a flash that has a repeating strobe. The only other suggestion I have for action photography is this: know your subject. My most successful sports images have come from sports and teams that I know and understand. For example, you are more likely to get a great photo of a reception in a football game if you know which receiver a team likes to go to on third and long.
All this takes me to my last point. Through the internet, I’ve learned that there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of extremely talented photographers out there. I am by no means the best there is. And any one of them can make a great photo at a professional sporting event with great gear and that wonderful stadium and arena lighting. But if you ask me, the best sports photographers in the world are the ones producing consistently good work in dimly lit high school or middle school facilities. When you start getting recognition for that work, that’s when you feel professionally successful. That and when Aunt Sally calls you up to order 30 prints because you took the best photo of her niece playing field hockey that she’s ever seen!
On the Go: Motion Photography Juried Online Art Exhibit will be accepting entries through 31 March 2011. The winning piece to be selected by juror Eric Schmadel will receive a $150 cash prize, courtesy of EBSQ.
If you haven’t yet, you still have a few days left to enter one (or more!) of our monthly exhibits for February 2011:
We invite all works of art depicting dancing in all of its forms. We strongly recommend all artists include in their statement information about why and how they chose to create their piece, as statements can enhance the experience for the online viewer. We also encourage you to include detail shots of your entries. This will allow the viewer to fully appreciate your work as small details can…
Artists have long had a love affair with the City of Lights. Show us your take on Paris. We strongly recommend all artists include in their statement information about why and how they chose to create their piece, as statements can enhance the experience for the online viewer. We also encourage you to include detail shots of your entries. This will allow the viewer to fully appreciate your work as…
We have another unusual botanical show for you this month: show us outdoor plants in winter. Evergreens, shrubs with berries, and even winter-blooming plants. We strongly recommend all artists include in their statement information about why and how they chose to create their piece, as statements can enhance the experience for the online viewer. We also encourage you to include detail shots of you…
This month’s word: PLURAL. Unlike our traditional EBSQ exhibits which are very structured, the point of EBSQ “one word concepts” is to present you a word and leave it totally open to your interpretation. Take your word anywhere you like. Just make sure your finished work relates in some obvious way to this month’s word. There are no media restrictions. Any and all materials may be used…
The deadline to enter February exhibits is 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time on 28 February 2011. Voting runs through March 7th. Winners will be announced on March 8th.
Here’s what you can look forward to in March 2011:
Is there anything more preposterous than an artist-made rhinoceros? Show us yours!
Show us your best motion captures. Both digital and traditional film photographs are welcome. Juried by Eric Schmadel
This month’s focus is the Art of Bonsai. In art
This month’s word: FAMILIAR
So–8 shows for your consideration, including our first juried show of the 2011 exhibition season. Go create something awesome!
This week’s EBSQ Blogger of the Week is one of many extraordinary photographers here at EBSQart.com. If you’ve never experienced HDR Photography, you are in for a treat and if you are shopping for a special someone for Valentine’s, prints are available (hint, hint).
Who and where are you?
My name is Michael Lewis Glover, and I am a photographer residing in central Florida on the Gulf Coast and my blog is Mlgphotography.
How did you get started art blogging?
I started out using Twitter as a means of communication with other photographers but soon realized I needed something more. An actual blog page seemed like a better way of gaining more exposure (pun intended!). I started blogging in the summer of 2010 but didn’t really get going until the beginning of 2011. That’s when I decided to blog at least once a week, every week and I am so glad I made that choice. I enjoy reading fellow artist’s blogs and I hope they enjoy reading mine.
Any tips for other EBSQ art bloggers?
Yes, I would say be persistent. I know it sounds cliche but it works. The more you establish a web presence the more people you will find and more people in turn will find you. Just keep at it. Try to blog every day or every couple of days. No less than once a week, and once you begin to get a following I believe it helps if you post more because now people are becoming curious to see what you’re doing. It keeps up their interest. You don’t have to write a lot, just enough to keep everyone updated on your work and what’s going on in your part of the art world. Post pictures when you can. It holds their interest when they can see your work or talk about an event you’re involved in and always if possible find time to respond to their comments or questions. I know how much I appreciate it when I leave a comment on someone’s blog and I actually get a response. It only takes a minute and much of the time one reply will cover many inquiries.
What’s your musical inspiration of choice when you’re working in your studio?
You know I actually love country music but most of the time when I’m working the music tends to slow me down (too much listening on my part) so I either turn it real low or leave it off completely. For me total quiet is preferable. Although sometimes I do enjoy listening to a meditation C.D., very low, just in the background. For me it depends on the day and my mood. I tend to get into deep concentration when I’m working so I love total peace and quiet.
What can we expect to see next from your lens?
With me there is never any set thing. I’m usually inspired by different settings and subjects. I enjoy trying to capture a special look, a special light, or a different angle of some of the same subjects I’ve worked with so often. I like nature, architectural designs, classic cars, most any subject. It’s really whatever strikes my fancy on any given day. I’m looking so forward to a very exciting and LENS-adventurous 2011.
http://mlgphotography.wordpress.com/
Thank you Michael for being an EBSQ Blogger of the Week!
If you are an EBSQ Artist and would like to be considered for Blogger of the Week just add us to your blogroll. I’m searching EBSQ profiles weekly for links to artist’s blogs. If you aren’t an EBSQ Artist, what are you waiting for?
This week’s EBSQ Blogger of the Week is an inspiration. It makes so difference what medium she chooses to work in, her art speaks to the heart.
Who and where are you?
I’m Ruth J Jamieson and thank you for featuring me as blogger of the week. I’m a visual artist and potter, though I have been on hiatus from clay for a number of years. I live and work in a little house my family and I built on the beautiful north shore of Lake Nipissing, in northern Ontario, Canada. My dining room is my studio and I watch the sun travel the sky and watch glorious sunsets many evenings while I work. I would say my current artistic focus is on photography and fractal art. I also create many digital art images by combining various elements including my photographs and fractals.
How did you get started art blogging?
I never really thought about blogging until 2009. I had begun reading various topical blogs on a semi-regular basis, but felt it was more of a commitment than I was able to make at the time. Finally though I set up a blog on Blogger and began featuring my artist friends periodically. My posting frequency dwindled off and my blog languished while I dealt with other issues until late 2010 when I decided that if I was going to blog, I was going to blog regularly. So now I have my original blog, remixed as “Isn’t This a Fine Kettle of Fish”, in which I now intend to chronicle what is happening in my studio and shops. I have added two new blogs, THE ZAZZLE REVIEW, and THE ETSY TIMES which feature a Zazzler or an Etsian weekly. As well I now do an artist feature weekly on my website blog. So Monday, Wednesday and Friday are now blog posting days at my house.
Any tips for other EBSQ art bloggers?
Blog regularly, at least once per week, preferably more often. Posts don’t have to be long or complicated but they should be genuine and share a little of you with your readers. Think about the kinds of things you like to read about in other artist’s blogs, what kind of posts keep you coming back to your regularly visited blogs.
It is VERY important to have pictures in every blog post. Readers like to see what they’re reading about. Keep your text in short, easy to read paragraphs with white space between them. Save the fancy flourishy text for titles or effect, the main text should be in a clear, simple, easy to read font, in a color that contrasts with the background. Be sure to activate links for anything that has a web presence. CHECK THE LINKS, make sure they work properly.
CONNECT, CONNECT, CONNECT! Your blog should link to the rest of your online presence and the rest of your online presence should link to your blog. This gives you an organized, competent, professional web profile. Be sure to have easy access for people to join, follow or subscribe to your blog, have a search feature on your blog and make it easy for visitors to share your blog via email, twitter, facebook and other sites if possible.
Be sure to reply to every comment made on your blog. Check out your followers and their blogs, if they have one (or more). Network with those blogs and others to build your visibility and draw traffic to your blog and your business.
What’s your musical inspiration of choice when you’re working in your studio?
I rarely listen to music while working. I work in my dining room which adjoins the kitchen and living room, so I get to listen to The Weather Network or whatever the family has on television and the sounds of activity in the kitchen. When everyone is out or elsewhere in the house, I prefer quiet. The only time I really feel like having music while I work is when I am working on Christmas themed art. Then I like to have Christmas music playing quietly.
What’s coming next from your easel?
What a question! I have so much to do this year it boggles my mind. Currently I am working on a 72 image series, which I want to complete before Pesach begins on April 18. The series is of the 72 Names of God. This is a Kabbalistic series. The images are digital collages of vector graphics, fractal images, photographs and Hebrew and English text.
I have set hefty goals for building my Zazzle shops this year. In particular I will be tackling more ‘occasion’ oriented images and designs for my newest shop. This is in addition to building a more robust inventory in my two original Zazzle shops.
I am also trying to keep up with the new EBSQ Fractal Challenge. I’m liking the challenge as it has prodded me to create some new fractal images. I have a very large library of existing fractals that I created and work with, but it is good to add more for future use. Photographically, I continue to follow the seasons as I do each year and add to my inventory of images to draw from when I am creating digital works. I think I need an assistant just to manage my image inventory.
This is turning into a busy, busy, busy year!
http://ruthjjamieson.blogspot.com/
Thank you Ruth for being an EBSQ Blogger of the Week!
If you are an EBSQ Artist and would like to be considered for Blogger of the Week just add us to your blogroll. I’m searching EBSQ profiles weekly for links to artist’s blogs. If you aren’t an EBSQ Artist, what are you waiting for?
Excuse the delay. I like to have all the EBSQ Artist Blogs in my feed reader and that feed reader is not cooperating today. Don’t fret! The show must go on, right?
1. Lady of the Forest Wip – I love watching an artwork come to life. Check out Sara’s latest WIP!
2. Blue and White – Photography by Micheal Lewis Glover. We saw his work in the recent Classic show at EBSQ and with any luck we’ll see a lot more soon! 😉
3. My Art Day Job – Cathy Darling shares her plan on selling art and also growing as artist behind the scenes.
4. Thinking of Kentucky – Kimberly Vanlandingham is nice and cozy in her Florida home, so why is she thinking of Kentucky?
5. To Catch an Artist off Guard – Yes, I’m plugging my own blog! If you haven’t heard my latest news, check it out! 😉
Have a great weekend!
The EBSQ Friday Five offers a brief look at noteworthy news from around the EBSQ Artist Blogosphere.
1. New Christmas Angel Painting – Above is just a snap shot of Betty Stoumbos’ new Christmas angel! It’s definitely that time.
2. What Stop Animation Taught Me – A must read, whether or not you are a fan. Personally? I love Stop Animation, especially the holiday classics like Rudolph. Read what The Smelly Rhino artist, Rebecca Salcedo has to say.
3. Studio Update – The lovely Torrie Smiley has a new show coming up; which will mean new paintings too! Read all about it.
4. Gadgets for Photographers – This has to be the most awesome gadget I’ve seen for photographers and would make a great gift. It’s called Gorillapod. I want!! Thank you’s to Stacey Zimmerman for sharing it with us.
5. The Happiest of Holidays – I’ve probably saved the best for last. Check out Sarah John Afana’s Christmas spirit. 😉
Have a great weekend!!
This month’s featured gallery is Photography: Colour. Photography lets us briefly stop time and capture tangible moments. Whether spontaneous or crafted, what our eyes see is frozen forever. When the photograph is in colour, we will always have the blue of the sky, the flush of a cheek, and every colour the world presents us. During the month of June, we are going to take a few moments to catch up with some of the EBSQ photographers that enjoy capturing the world in colour.
I became interested in photography when I was about 16 years old…got my first SLR as a high school graduation present from my parents. Much to their dismay I spent the better part of my college years in the photo lab. I spent a couple of years learning the silver process (B&W) and developing a personal gum bichromate process (water colors) before moving on to color (long before the digital age).
I call myself a social landscape photographer, which is like photojournalism without the paycheck. I like to capture the truth in a person’s eyes, something they prefer you wouldn’t see; a soft spot. It’s there for a moment unguarded then jumps back behind the wall. I also enjoy performance photography: music, dance, sports. Nature is also a big draw. Stopping time in the flight of a bird or a bee. Enjoying the bloom of a flower. Helping others be moved by things they otherwise might not.
I feel color photography deals with reality. Black and white by its very nature manipulates the moment. I love both. – Richard Holland
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