.tuesday.

Sometimes my sleep schedule gets all out of whack, especially after a holiday weekend. And I have to go to work anyway. My brain gets all bibbelty, and I start pondering...things...

And then it gets weird.

And then it becomes a sales pitch.

I'm fine, by the way. This wasn't inspired by a specific event - except for maybe the series of specific events conversations I've had over the last 12+ years of art making for profit.
Because pocket lint is the new black.

.pigment+palette.

Like everyone else everywhere, I've gotten into subscriptions boxes - fist with one I provided items for, then LootCrate for my Other, and NerdBlox for me. 

I've been side glancing the various art supply subscription boxes out there for a bit, checking out [ast boxes and reviews, and Pigment+Palette seemed the way to go. Artist themed boxes, and most of the past boxes looked like they had a decent amount of quality items, and the box they come it looked fun and useful - black with a magnetic closure.

I received my first box yesterday (the 21st Edition) and .... disappointment.

The first thing, the box. Not as advertised.

 

Inside the box, two colored pencils, a woodless graphite pencil, a paint stick, and three samples of a new paper from Fabriano. 

The postcard has a print of a oil painting by Alex Krigbaum on it - so I suppose there's a connection to the paint stick there?

 

All in all, I'm kind of disappointed. Mostly because of the container - or if there'd been one or two items in there.

• The Krink K-80 Permanent Paint Marker on DickBlick is $8.79; though P+P has it's price listed at $11.00
• The Cretacolor Monolith Woodless Pencils on DB are $1.58 P+P prices them at $2.30
• The Creatocolor Studio Artist Color Pencils on DB cannot be bought individually, but you can get a Studio Set of 72 for $36.05, which breaks down to about 50 cents a pencil.
• A full sheet of the Fabriano Unica is listed by P+P at $2.30 each, and Fabriano paper usually comes in 22" x 30" sheets - my three samples are postcard size, 4"x6" - so you can cut 25 of these from a single sheet.

As far as I can tell, I received $13.22 in art supplies, for 18$ with shipping included. Throw in manpower, printing, shipping, and packaging - it probably works out even, but I wouldn't call it a deal by any means. The Paint Marker might be cool - I haven't played with it yet, but I'm drowning in color pencils, as I think everyone else who suffered through high school AP Art is as well. If you're wanting to try out new things it might be worth your dollars, but I'd personally be more interested if the things included were more unusual or if the box had been nicer.  I know I keep harping on about this box, but I'm always looking for storage for all of my nichey little bits I use in collage work - the box I received I'll re-purpose for shipping etsy orders but nothing more. 

I'll probably cancel.

.boycott everything.

.mermaid battle.

This is not nearly as exciting as the title makes it sound.

Several years ago (read ten) my godmother asked me if I would create a painting for her. Of a mermaid. Based on a painting she'd seen in Key West, where she spends a lot of time. Being in a tizzy of post graduation triumph, I agreed - after all she's FAMILY.

 But then I moved to Missouri and started doing other things and really didn't want to go about repainting someone else's work. And I either got a reminder ot started inquiring out of guilt about what else she wanted in the painting - just a mermaid or...? And there was a list of different fish, which I promptly lost.

Finally last February I reupped and got the list of fish - which had grown exponentially into a list of fish and birds and trees and things, and my brain kind of died a little but I made a digital sketch which she approved (except could I add a guy on a boat) and then my brain died a little more.

Because that's a lot of stuff in a very large painting. And because everything I've been doing has been pretty abstract.
And I put it away again because it was too overwhelming.

And today I took the plunge - prepped the canvas, gridded it, laid out the "things," restretched re:boiling water, and I'm about to put on the first layer of this clear gesso I picked up today on a hunch.

And my plan is to post weekly updates until it's finished in order to keep myself on task.
Because I am overwhelmed.

.boycott tuesday.

 

On Zazzle!

.happy.v.day.

And here it is - that day of days which I have tried my best to ignore for most of my life.

Of course, now I officially can't, as it's the one year anniversary of me and my Mister getting engaged. This year, in order to celebrate my getting one step closer to being a normal girl (but who are we really kidding?) I thought it would be a stunning idea to make valentines for all of my nearest and dearest.
And in typical fashion, I completely forgot to mail them.

But it's never to late really....right?

I also forgot half of my lunch today and I'm really hungry. Anyone want to bring me some noodles?

just for the record...

That last post was entirely the result of my reaction to a job listing on guru.com in which a potential "employer" wanted someone to do 15 illustrations for a childrens book, and was going to pay no more than 100$ - which breaks down to roughly 6.67$ per finished piece, and if you think of it in hourly wages.... Normally an illustration takes longer than an hour, and that's not even taking into account initial sketches and revisions.
Even speeding through it - say 2 hours on initial sketches, and if they got approved, maybe 2 hours per finished illustration (once again, we're rushing this), and perhaps another 4 hours spent on revisions, because there are always revisions. If you call the whole project 36 hours of work, it breaks down to about 2.75$/hour.

This guru post wasn't anything new, or unusual - they pop up daily: "I need a book illustrator, but I don't have much/any money. But it will be a great opportunity for your work to be shown!"
And it gets a little tiresome to see...

Art isn't magic. It doesn't spring fully formed from an artists head and magically appear on paper - perfectly how the client imagined it in every way. We aren't psychic - there's a lot of guessing and research that goes into artwork of all kinds. It's worth considering.

.the.cost.

Quite frequently in dance as well as art I hear two arguments from people not wanting to pay what I think my work is worth. Always the same arguments, though phrased differently - always consistent, and always with the same underlying message.
"But you do this for fun, right?"
"This would be a really great promotion for you."

Both of these statements echo in my mind of the same thing: "I don't want to pay you for this because I don't see it as actually being work." No one argues with a plumber with these phrases, or a doctor, or a lawyer. No one goes into a restaurant and says to the manager "You should feed me for free because it would be a really great promotion for your restaurant," or "You really like cooking, right? You do this because you enjoy it, so I only want to pay half that."
But here's the thing - very few people fall into a profession by choice without enjoying some aspect of what they're doing. Yes, I enjoy art and I enjoy dance. They happen to be things that I'm fairly good at and so I've turned them into my job. Yes - JOB. But lets look at these other professions for a moment.
Do you think a doctor, on some level, doesn't enjoy not only understanding how the human body works but also the problem solving in diagnosing a disease or ailment? Does a doctor not gain satisfaction in having treated that same ailment? Does a chef not enjoy the look of delight on a customers face as they take a first bite of special dish? Do lawyers not enjoying both arguing, and winning arguments based on logic or trickery? Does a police officer, on some level, not enjoy protecting the innocent? Does the maintenance man not enjoy fixing things?
If they didn't enjoy it on some level, would they put up with the garbage brought to them by their customers on a daily basis?
Yes, customers. People paying other people for a good or service. We might call them patients or clients or patrons or tax-paying citizens, but they are all customers.

And so yes, I do enjoy making art and dancing. But someone who calls about an illustration or a painting or a performance is still a customer. I don't do this for free. Aside from the massive amount of time that it takes to create a costume or an art piece or put together a dance, there is also a material cost. And when a person asks for a performance or a drawing for free or nearly so - they are not only disregarding the time that I put into my craft, but also the cost of the materials.

I can only assume that when people call me for any of these services it is because they've seen my work and seen value in it - there was a reason you picked me over the myriad of other artists and dancers available. I may only be dancing for 15 minutes that you can see, and that painting on the wall that you've fallen in love with may only be 12" x 12", but is it really so easy to disregard experience, talent and craft?

Please don't insult me by assuming you're doing me a favor.
My prices are not arbitrary. And in art as in law or medicine or cuisine - you are getting what you pay for.

.beginning.again.

With LiveJournal perpetually on the fritz, along with the imminent threat of shutdown - it seems to be the right time to move myself over to a new blog host site. Hopefully LiveJournal will return for long enough for me to back up all of my old entries and my other old entries, and crosspost the ones here that actually have real content. It's going to be strange, to not have the community and other little perks I loved about LJ.
Oh well.