October

Well, it's been a busy month!! I took the last 3 Mondays off, hence the reason why I havne't published anything; Monday being the day that I do that!



Spent some time in Vermont and relaxed. But besides that I did 2 fairs, as I mentioned in my last post. When doing the raffle for gift certificates I got the information of a guy who does boarding for small dogs only. Later that week I called him and asked if he'd be willing to display some work of mine in exchange for a link on my site. He was kind enough not to just put it out, but hung it on a wall along with a post card holder for all his clients to see. I'm thrilled! Hopefully we'll get some business out of that.

I also have some friends who have contacted me about portraits for themselves as well as for gifts for their loved ones. My friends are great to support me and what I do - thanks sooooo much to them!!

I also had a donation gift certificate redeemed so that's one painting that I'll be doing for free. That's okay though. I did it to raise awareness of the shelter (as well as advertising). Now, I just need to tell her to tell all her friends in Nevada(!) about me so that they can get their pets done too!

Ah the Christmas season. I love it. I really do. Every year I'm thinking that I'll do my Christmas cards in June to get it out of the way but it never happens. So I'll be busy this week doing the orders that I have and waiting for more orders to come. In the mean time, clean my house and get ready for the holiday season!! I'll have to put a constant contact email together and since I've joined Facebook, there's more emails to add to my list. Hopefully the friends that I had in grade school will pass my info along as well. Marketing marketing marketing.

This November I'll also be doing a show for a Greyhound benefit. Thank God it's in Waltham, and I won't have to drive very far :)

2 shows in 1 weekend

Yes, 2 shows in one weekend. I'm exhausted and back at work for another fun filled week at McPhail.

First show was the Maynard Fest. This is more street fair than an art show and the place was packed with kids. Every age toddlers to teens. They definately gave me some prime real estate being in the center of the center of town. I was in front of the church where they had live music (always a big draw) and at the stop to get your kid a ride on the tractor train . (Just a John Deere with some passenger cars behind it.) So I was able to capture some of the parents and grandparents attention while the kiddies were on the ride. I didn't sell a whole bunch and some people were interested, but it wasn't as positive as Scituate is (or was for that matter). I did decide to do a raffle for another gift certificate and that brought in 1/2 my revenue. I haven't had many GCs redeemed, but as I said to Mum last night, "Who knows; I may be painting for free this Christmas!" The weather was sunny, but windy. I hate the wind at a show. It destroys everything. I had to lay down some of my pieces flat so they wouldn't knock over and weigh down the paper with everything else. I forget how cold it can get with the wind too. I was freezing.

Sunday was the "Woof N' Worship" at the Pilgrim Church in Weymouth. I stopped doing church shows and VFW shows a while ago. Honestly, really no one goes to these little small ones anymore and really for good reason. I say this because the churches and VFWs or Elks will take anyone in whether it's handcrafted or not. For example, if you've been to these shows before, you know that there are an over abundance of beaders/jewelers out there. They are everywhere. This show that I was at yesterday not only had jewelers, but it was catalog jewelry. Lia Sophia and that sort of thing. Now, I don't care if your a rep for a catalog company, that's your thing. But personally I can't buy it when it's the same prices as the stuff that I see my friends and neighbors make. And they don't even sell the jewelry, they just want to get in your house to do a home show. But I am going off topic.....
So I am one of the "animal themed" people there. There was a pair of ladies that helped with senior citizens and their pets.... such as if Grams has to go into a nursing home or a elderly community what's going to happen to her kitty of 16 years? This org comes in and takes care of your elderly animals. I thought that was pretty admirable. There was also a English Sheep dog rescue and 2 dog trainers. One was smart by making treats for the doggies and stapling her contact info to the paper bag. Marketing marketing marketing. But then it started to rain (Lia Sophia had left by this point anyway). There certainly weren't alot of people there, but this is the first time the chuch had this event, so I wasn't expecting a crazy turnout anyway. She was written up in the papers around the area. But when it started to rain (about 3pm and this was to go on til 5pm) everyone left. Everyone but me and the elderly kitty people. So we moved inside to the church basement. And you know what?, smart move. Because the blessing was at 5pm, more people came during the hours of 4 & 5 than the rest of the day. I don't think I'll do it again, maybe once a year or something but I need more people at these shows.

So this week, I'm planning to replenish inventory that was sold over the weekend. The Red Sox are playing tonight so I'll be painting (I listen to it on the radio). I also need to pick up my artwork that didn't sell at the NEAFA benefit. Bummer. Talking with Ernie last week, we were talking about how to increase my sales and suggested that I put together flip portfolios with photos and paintings and have them displayed at different places. At the Maynard show, I was able to get contact information from the Hudson MA Animal Hospital and Idle Dog (a boarding facility for small/toy dogs) so I'm going to be contacting them some time this week about putting a display up in their offices.

Marketing marketing marketing.... It's like 97% of what I do.

the past 2 weeks

I can't help but blame the economy and the recent financial markets for my slow business lately. I attended the JP Open Studios yesterday and there were a lot of artists expressing the same thing. But their works,,, some were in the thousand dollar range. Some pieces were great. But it's all in the eye of the beholder.

The upside of being slow is that my portfolio is growing leaps. I am able to do paintings of the breeds that people have requested. Not that they look like their dogs, but whatever. I've done a mastiff and there's a blood hound coming next. Not to mention the "2 kittens in a corner" and the sheep that I'm working on right now.

I just can't stop painting regardless of what the business is like. After touring around the JP Open Studios, Tracy and I have decided to open her apt. for open studios next year. She's got a good set up. She just has to start beading.

we shall see....

The Last Week of Summer

And it's still 80 freakin degrees out. I'm ready for fall and the cool crisp mornings that come with it.

And the business! Let's hope that this fall and Christmas season picks up despite of all the crazy financial stuff going down. I heard this morning that Bank of America bought out Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers has filed for bankruptcy. How does this effect me, the Pedigreed artist? Just like you'll see today in the stock market that a lot of people are holding on to their money, and not spending it on luxury items such as pet portraits or art for that matter.

So it's going to be a slow season I'm sure, but I'm hoping something will turn up. This week's projects include putting together a bit of a displaying portfolio and gift certificate and driving down to Norwell to drop it all off for the Scituate Animal Shelter fund raiser. And of course to work on paintings. Last week I finished the "sisters" and did a small 5x7 of a mastiff and started an 8x10 which I'm going to call "Kittens in a Corner".

Until next week....

This past week zzzzz

Last weekend was a whirl. Why is it that every time there's a 4 day work week that it just seems to go on forever.

I was finally able to get my constant contact email out with my events for the fall/Christmas season that has snuck up on us rather quickly. One included a event for the New England Arts for Animals with the reception on this past Sat, the 6th. Granted I sent it out the day before the reception, but the exhibit is running through the entire month of September, so you could go out and look at it if you wanted to. One good thing though, is that I have a woman who also donates alot to the causes that I donate to and that's how we've met. She is now donated a piece for the New England Arts for Animals. I love it when good things come together.

The reception was quite nice. What I did notice is that some people were selling glicee prints for as much as my original watercolor! Which makes me think that maybe i'm pricing to low, but hell, no one's buying as it is anyway. I'm not going to change anything right away. I do know that glicee printing can be very expensive (at least the last time I looked into it) and some of the framing was custom done and that is always expensive!!

I also went riding this weekend up at Chrislar, was able to swing by my parents house for lunch and a dip in the pool. Yesterday, Jason and I went up to Newbury NH (and other towns west of Concord) and try to scout out some deer. We found more moose sign than anything! I may just take a day and sit and wait for a moose to show up and watch him. That would be soooo cool.

Jason's already talking about driving up to NY state next weekend so that he can sniff out some hunting spots out there. I told him that he's pretty much on his own. I don't want to make a 3 hour trip up there only to come back early the next day (another 3 hour car ride). We're going to Mars Volta on Sunday night.

Labor Day weekend

I've been away to lovely lake Carmi in Vermont this past weekend, so nice!

I've been accepted to participate in the Howl -A-Day greyhound fundraiser so that's good. I'm ready to update my events page but our computer's are having a meltdown today and I haven't been able to get up to that site yet just to see what the traffic stats are. I'm sure it wasn't a whole lot anyway. I don't know many who spent this past weekend on a computer vs. being at the beach or the lake (like me!).

So it's the start of September and it's the last month of this quarter to try to make up some $$ for the worst sales season since I've started. I haven't spent alot, but I haven't recieved alot of interest in what I do either.

I still feel like I'm riding that freakin rowboat from the weekend though. Vertigo is the worst