Found this draft blog: Why I love “First Fridays”

It’s February 24th. I haven’t looked my blog in weeks. I guess it’s part of that time issue I wrote about last time I blogged. What I found was an old draft from a blog I started to write on January 1st. Should I “Move to Trash” or post it?????  Although it’s a bit dated, the sentiment is current. Ahhh, I’ll post it. Here it is:

January 1, 2009…NO, correction…2010…get used to it!

Nothing better to welcome the new year/decade then a First Friday. This is what I LOVE about First Fridays…PEOPLE. It’s a combination of the visitors who walk in and the other artists in my building. For those of you unfamiliar with 450 Harrison Ave, it’s a beautiful old building that has been recycled…now it’s artist’s studios. There are many of us in the building, I’m thinking it’s close to 75, maybe approaching 100. On the first Friday of each month, many of us open our doors to the public. I never miss one. Although I plan my schedule around them, if I can’t be there, a couple of my close friends open for me. Yeah for good friends.

Tonight was the First Friday of the month…year…decade! Sounds important. No more or less important than the other 11 this year. The volume of traffic tonight was small, yet, the people who came out were wonderful. It’s so nice to hear what people have to say about my work . It often gives me a view that I can’t achieve on my own. On occasion, someone will notice my paintings. Usually it’s a fellow painter.

Never quite finished that thought about when visitors notice my paintings. I remember back about three years ago when I started painting. A friend, Steve, and his wife Diane were visiting. They saw my black and white self portrait on the walls and said: “You’d better stick to photography”.  Now I’m not going to tell you that I”m strong enough to always embrace a comment like that, but this particular time I did. In fact, I loved it. It was honest and I suppose to me it meant that they like my photography. Otherwise they might have said, “stick to house cleaning”. If you’ve followed my blog…you’d know that I would have to have taken that as a reason to quit painting. What could be worse than my house cleaning?????

"You'd Better Stick to Photography"

Back to tonight…looking forward to First Friday in March. February was packed. The Chronicle TV piece that featured three artists in our building aired the Tuesday before and on the day of, we were featured in the evening news! Hundreds came out. It was crazy fun.

On that note…I’m off to sleep.

xoxoxo

Need Your Advice…please (always better to be polite when asking for help)

Here’s the deal, I have sent off 6 photos to be face mounted. They will be quite large, approx. 26×40. One of the photos has been nixed so I need to choose another one. I’ve posted a website with photos of others and I need help choosing one more.  When you look at the website, the first four photos are the chosen photos. The fifth one is:

These are the original photos, full size. They haven’t been cleaned yet in Photoshop so ignore dust and dirt spots. I’m stumped and thought that your opinion would be useful. THANKS!!!!!

Please post your favorites in the comments. Note that there is a number for each photo when the photo is displayed on the page, i.e. 1/72.

Here’s the site: Choosing the 6th Ocean

For those who replied the night I posted this, thanks for being so fast!!! I updated the site so the numbering has changed. It will stay the same from now on.

Have you ever googled yourself?

I googled myself tonight.  It began because I wanted to see if my blog would show up. It did, the fifth entry on page 3.  Wow, that was fast. I just started the blog about 2 weeks ago.

I’m looking as I type this blog. I found an article published in March of 2006 called Art Buffet. I hadn’t seen this one before. Where did it hide on my previous searches?

It’s fun to read stuff about me. I can find out information that I never knew. For example, I didn’t  know that I graduated from Boston University School of Fine Arts. I remember spending two years there, but didn’t I transfer into the school of education?

I just found another entry I’d never seen,”blogcatalog, a magazine for interior design and decor”.  On May 14, 2009, they wrote a story called “Gorgeousness in White”.  They actually have 5 of my photographs as well as a story written about me by someone named Linda. Who is Linda? Have I ever met her?

June 15th, 2009 I made Style Carrot!  Their site looks really cool so I’ve decided it’s a good thing to be on Style Carrot.

On page 13 I found my facebook fan page translated into Japanese! Is everyone’s fanpage translated into Japanese? And speaking of Japanese…this was on page 15, photomemo and a Chinese blog called Soft Happiness@01238.

By the time I reached page 16, most of the entries are not about me. I did notice in the right hand column, the paid ad section, intelius has  found me! I didn’t know I was lost. And just below that, my favorite, “Sexy Baltic Ladies”. How did MY NAME generate THAT AD????

It’s amazing what we can learn on the internet. Some of it’s even accurate.  If you looked me up  10 years ago, all you might find is my phone number, and it was only in English in the local phone book. The next time I look me up, I might even find this particular blog.

xoxoxo

Sneak Preview

Energy

Colors in the Storm

I’m working on a series of ocean photographs. I hope to have them ready for the studio in March. They will measure approximately 26 x 40″ and be face mounted behind acrylic, giving them a wet look. That seems appropriate for water. The photographs are from my latest trip to China and Vietnam. The captain of the ship was attempting to avoid a typhoon, which hit Vietnam the day after we left. The sea was absolutely gorgeous!!!!