Pretty Dang Clever

Hi there! My studio mate and I are putting out an art subscription. It's like a magazine subscription, except you get art delivered to your door. This was Carolyn's brainstorm, and a pretty clever one that at. Check it out.

Studio News: Canopy Studio Subscription   Carolyn Kimball and Cathy Savage have teamed up! We've moved into our fabulous new studio together at the Canopy Art Complex--it's a big step, but one we're excited to take. Carolyn has had two successful years of offering an art subscription, and one way we're celebrating and supporting our new leap is to offer an exclusive collaborative art subscription to our fans and supporters. What is an art subscription, you ask? It's a unique art-by-mail offering from our new studio! Carolyn and Cathy will be collaborating on original artworks that will be mailed to your door--or sent as a gift to recipient of your choice--at below-market prices. Every month you'll receive something we've been working on in our studio. It could be a new print, screen printed tea towels, hand printed note cards, laser cut goodies, or something else fabulous we've dreamed up. At the top of the month, we'll send you a preview of what's on tap so you can redirect your item to a friend as a gift, order another one for a friend, or have us mount or frame your print for an additional cost. We can offer you our work at below-market prices because you are buying it sight unseen. Once finished, these same works would sell for up to double or triple the monthly subscription price. Because your subscription helps to cover our overhead costs, we're able to pass along the savings. It's just $15 a month--or as the Kentucky girls says, the price of a good bourbon on the rocks (that's four lattes for the rest of us). 100% of the proceeds from our studio subscription will go to keeping the studio afloat. You can join for 6 months and choose from one easy payment or monthly installments. Yes! This sounds cool and I want to sign up! 6 months, one easy payment 6 months, monthly installments  Thank you for your continued encouragement and support--whether it comes in the form of a subscription or an attagirl. :) Carolyn + Cathy Share Tweet Forward to Friend 40! We need for 40 people to reach our goal! Please help us spread the word and share with your art loving friends. Chicken tea towels from Carolyn's spring line One of Cathy's Grackle monoprints

I'm a Kentucky girl, a printmaker, painter, knitter, gardener and kitchen mess-maker. I create both fine art prints and modern home decor. My fine art work centers on layered landscapes that evoke the history and memory of place- currently I'm working a series based on travels in the Middle East-and bold, graphic, woodcuts inspired by food. My home decor line, Kimball Prints, draws its inspiration from the beauty of the natural world. In addition to my websiteand online store, you can find my work in the permanent collection of the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts and in private collections in the United States, England and Kuwait. www.carolynkimball.com One of Carolyn's fruit woodcuts I dabble in a little of everything, but when it comes down to it, I am most passionate about printmaking. I'm interested in textures and layers and enjoy combining printmaking techniques to achieve end results. My favorite part of printmaking is creating the matrix--I love trying to figure out how the image in my mind's eye can be created in print. Collagraphs are my favorite technique. Once I get started building a plate, I have a hard time walking away from my studio for necessities like food and sleep. It's like putting together a puzzle--it's very hard to step away when the pieces just seem to be fitting! My work is a reflection of my life and interests. I'm a mother of two and my experience as a parent is a common theme. I also have a thing for Central Texas' nastiest bird--the grackle, and they pop up everywhere. I've developed an affinity for mathematical and scientific subject matters as a by-product of my obsession with Nikola Tesla. One thing is for sure, my work is either a hand pulled print, or a collage using my hand pulled prints. www.savageartist.com  Cathy's laser-cut Tesla finger puppet Cathy's blog | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend

Laser Magic

I've been lasering some more light switches because I sold my 3 prototypes at the recent Open House. People love Tesla and I guess I shouldn't be surprised because he is awesome. Some guy came into MAKEatx while I was in there wanting to know if I was changing out all the light switches at my house since I was making so many. Now that's a good idea!

I've been wanting to make a print on the first computer, which experts have attributed to Archimedes. I watched a NOVA about it several weeks ago and blogged about it here, and while lasering yesterday I cut some gears for the print. I'm planning on making a collagraph at some point. I have so many things started and not finished and so I'm hoping to hold off on working any more on this print until I have a few other items crossed off my list. But seeing that laser cut out the littlest gear with teeny tiny little prongs made me so incredibly giddy that it's going to be hard to hold off. I needed to create the gears in Corel Draw, but once I had a little help from the MAKEatx people I was off to a good start. The little gear is between quarter and nickel size. It was amazing seeing the laser cut so precisely.

I have this recent Tesla matrix, which I reported on a week ago or so. I have coated the back of the mat board with 100% liquid medim/varnish and the front with 50:50 varnish:water. I added some gel with pumice to Tesla's hair and moustache so they don't wipe out. I need to coat the front again with another 50:50 solution before proofing, which will hopefully happen next week. So much to do, so little time.  

Post Mortem of First Open House

Studio mate Carolyn Kimball and I had our first open house last weekend and it was successful! Yay! I'm so happy about our choice to move into Canopy. I love it there and the busy weekend has done nothing but invigorate me. This list may seen pretty boring to most of you, but if you're thinking of holding a similar event some some of these items might be helpful.

Observations:

• Carolyn's side looked very professional and well displayed. Mine seemed a little wonky in comparison. My work in progress magnetic strip was in the way and I'm not sure how to handle that going forward. I use it and it might mess up the walls and never hold again if I try to remove it for a show.
  
  

  

  Carolyn's side

My side

• Marketing materials a must. Several folks picked up the one-card bio and postcard image of Carolyn's work. She had plenty of business cards and I had barely any left from my last gig.
• Paypal triangle thing worked great for me for accepting credit cards on my mini ipad. I loved it and it was easy to master. Carolyn uses Square and finds it equally as awesome. 
• A cash box would be helpful for next time--or a big apron with deep pockets. Needing to retrieve my hidden wallet every 2 seconds--inside my purse, stashed under the desk--was inconvenient.
• Including tax on small items where people usually pay cash is a convenience for all.
• One artist in the building had her work space hidden with a curtain and that looked very professional. She had spotlights installed and pointed at her work and her studio had a very gallery like quality. Ours looked kinda worked in, but that's OK--we do work there. :)
• The small bookcase took up valuable wall space so for future open studios, switch it for something longer and shorter so there's room for hanging up top. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Music drew people to our building, plus sign boards with chalkboard paint were great for directing traffic. I appreciated the signs at the bottom of the stairwell directing people to the upstairs studios. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Food and bottled water were good to have on hand. Philosophically I'm against bottled water due to the waste, but really, going simple was key. 
• $20 and under--great price point. Carolyn sold a bunch of $16 tea towels and I sold a bunch of $10 and $5 Tesla items. The first day I had bigger items sell, but the smaller items were big hits day two. 
  
  

  

  Thumbs up is right on the light switches. Score!

  
  
• Bubble wrap and packaging materials were good to have on hand, but we ended up not needing them. I'm thinking I'd like to offer buyers a small brown handled paper baggie for smaller items. I felt weird handing people their purchases without a bag. 
• The print bin wasn't looked at as much as it could have been. I think we may need a different location next time. It was wedged in a corner (it's big), and when people did the circuit they were kinda already on their way out and didn't do much bin browsing. 
• Name signs looked great! We were going to paint them black but ended up leaving them natural wood and I think that was a good decision. They balance out all the black I have on my frames. 
  
  
  
  
  
• MailChimp was a great tool. I sent out my announcement to everyone--not just Austinites, so I could spread the word of the studio. It brought in a lot of friends on my mailing list. I sent the invite out on a Monday night with the event the upcoming Saturday. Possibly a little shy of a week good timing for planning. 
• Being there with Carolyn at the same time was great. I appreciated not having to lock up during a potty or water break. Plus I noticed a lot of my friends bought tea towels from Carolyn so there's that bonus. (Carolyn, you need to bring in your Tesla-loving friends and assure them they need a puppet.)
• Collective PR was key to our success. There are a lot of motivated artists at Canopy, and we all capitalized on our collective efforts. 
• We should be directing people to our mailing list. It wasn't seen by all and maybe we could have encouraged more people to sign up. 

Tuckered out, But it's All Good

Canopy's First Look Open Studio--it happened!
This weekend my studio had it's debutante ball. It was so, so good. All of it--Friends dropping by, talking with people about printmaking, sharing my time with my studio mate Carolyn Kimball. Yes, I felt the weekend was charmed. And to top it off, I squeezed in son Wes's baseball game and a picnic with my family in perfect weather (somewhat remarkable for Austin since it's usually hot by now). Thanks to those of you that were able to make it, and to those that didn't, don't worry we'll do this again.

Postmortem
I hope to jot down and share observations on the event for those that are curious, though I probably won't get around to that for another day or two.

A Glimpse of Brahe's Nose
Here's my Kepler/Brahe collage project I put on hold while getting ready for the open house. I look forward to getting back to it on Tuesday when I'm in the studio. I have 5 projects in process and need to crack the whip.

I added silver leaf to Brahe's nose. I plan on adding some contrast and definition with India ink to his head and noggin this week.

Open House this weekend!

I'm busy working, hoping to finish up some works in progress. I did finally send out my email campaign newsletter yesterday. Whew! It's exciting and a little unsettling. (How will it be perceived, did I have a typo, etc. Usual nerves...) If I somehow missed you, here's a snippet and you can view the full monty here. If you're not on my mailing list but want to be, enter your email address in the box on the right.

Lasering started today! 
I engraved another Tesla plate that only worked so-so the first time around. He's on mat board. Here's a proof using the old plate. Even though I could have fixed the lack of black in the mustache and eye area, the patent drawings didn't come through very well, so I'm hoping the second time is the charm. I will coat the plate with liquid gel medium and proof at some point. (The lasering happens at MAKEatx)

I made Tesla light switch plates today too, soon to be on Etsy--hopefully with a better picture. If you have to order 10 for your house right away, let me know and I'll get on that STAT. :)

What Was I Thinking?
I starting thinking about how this is May and at the beginning of the year I wanted to finish one piece per month. I finished one piece so far in 2013. Granted, I have several in the works, but I'm wondering if I can ever catch up. Needless to say, I have great plans for May.

Hello Friends

Look who I found lurking in my "One of These Days" pile. Kepler and Brahe! The were printed intaglio (cel-tec substrate on Rives BFK) and then cut out and placed on this new blue monotype background--soon to be adhered. I'm thinking of using silver leaf for Brahe's nose. Poor guy lost it in a duel. Yes. A duel.

I also starting working on this piece. I coated it with a layer of soft gel medium. Still brewing on what's happening there. It hasn't gotten any love for weeks. Usually I have a fixed idea of a project before embarking. This is one where I don't know which move is next until it happens. It feels a little like driving blindfolded, but I'm going with it.

I had a friend and blog reader say to me the other day that she can't believe I get so much done. Well, from my angle it doesn't feel like that at all. I'm a master procrastinator, preferring to watch my recorded PBS programs (name one and I probably watch it) and play WWF when I ever happen to have a spare moment. Because of this my house is generally a disaster. I moved into my studio the end of February and yet my home studio--now the all purpose/guest room--still looks like this.

I promised my husband that I would have it cleaned by the end of April, but what I really meant is that I would start cleaning it once April was over. So May 1 I ventured in and I've been plugging away at it a little each day. I need a scheduled guest to make this a reality. Any takers?




On the other hand, my new studio looks like this. I'm ready for visitors right now! Come to Canopy's First Look on May 11 and 12. I'm so excited to be opening up the studio to the world so I'll be sending out blasts and promoting the tour to everyone I know, no matter how loosely.








The good news is I'm feeling amazingly caught up on non-art related stuff (house is in decent shape and there's food in the fridge) and feeling way behind on art-related stuff, so I'm hot to get into the studio and work. 

The Bright Side of the Moon

Yesterday was an incredible day. 
Simply, I worked in my studio. I'm having fun with my Io painting. I'm hoping to have it finished by Canopy's First Look event, May 11 and 12th. Here I have a bunch of super watery acrylic paint kinda running together all moon-like. While it was drying I put a layer of acrylic medium on my cut-to-size Masonite. I plan on mounting this baby on panel once it's finished using this method.





This is where I started.

Io is an absolutely gorgeous moon. Here's a link to an amazing pic.  I still have work to do on painting my moon, but I'm making progress.

Canopy First Look, Artists Studio Tour
Besides actually working yesterday, I met with some of the other studio artists at Canopy to talk about our open house, First Look. Luckily we have a couple of very capable leaders at the helm, so things appear to be running smoothly. If you haven't put our studio tour on your calendar yet, please do. I'll wait while you take care of that.

Join My Mailing List
I'm working on my personal mailing list today, which unfortunately, needs a lot of work. I need to log into Mail Chimp (have you tried this? Great for managing mailing lists.), enter more names while editing what's already there. My mailing list is my biggest asset and my biggest weakness. I don't use it. If you'd like to be on my mailing list (trust me, I sent announcements out infrequently), shoot an email to me and I'll put you on!