Mary Richmond Design

Get Ready for the Countdown....

On Alyson Stanfield's ArtBizBlog she has invited everyone to look at their successes from last year here and to look at their plans for this year. I decided to join with many of the other artists taking this challenge and publish my responses to the questions she asks.

This year I plan to stop making and painting tiles once and for all, market my cards and prints and find at least one gallery to sell my pastels and oil paintings. I am keeping my day job working as a naturalist/educator since I truly love it and because it also feeds my writing and painting right now. I am only planning a year. I have two opportunities to travel abroad this year, to Paris and Amsterdam in May and to the British Isles in the fall so with all that I should be busy and happy with lots to paint and write about. I am giving up my feature writing for local papers but will continue my weekly and monthly columns.

As for promoting my paintings and drawings this year? Here are my answers to Alyson's questions.

How will you promote your art consistently? I will make up a calendar to refer to each day, week and month with my promotional plans on it. I like the idea of doing 3-5 things a day to promote my work and had success with that in my tile business so will do it again to promote my drawings and paintings. I will use postcards and an email newsletter to get my new work out there.

What new ideas or tools will you try? I will look into some of the websites and other online tools available to artists.

What will you do to amplify your online presence? I know I want to upgrade and change my website and will also be making my blog and Flickr site more artist and gallery friendly. I'm not really sure what that means but will be doing a lot of homework and exploring.

What technological skills do you need to learn or improve? I need to improve my framing and photography skills.

How many people would you like to add to your mailing list? I have a good mailing list but would like to add at least a hundred active and interested people to my mailing list this year. I would happily double or triple that number as well.

What cool or influential people in your community would you like to meet? There are a lot of really interesting artists and business people in my community. Some I have met but never followed up on and this year I would like to learn more about them and maybe work with them on some projects, etc. I am joining several art groups and a chamber of commerce to help meet more of these people.

What printed marketing piece do you need to create or revamp? I need to create a good portfolio of past work and have it printed and bound.

What medium or skill will you attempt or master? I would like to improve my oil painting skills and reacquaint myself with woodblock printing which I used to do a lot of and loved.

What will you try that is completely new? I will try to join artist groups and actually go to openings, etc. and talk with people.

What have you been procrastinating because it's uncomfortable, but you know it will be good for you? Trying to get my work in a gallery.

What art events, galleries, and museums will you plan to visit? I will go to Boston at least once a season to see what's there and go to art openings and exhibits at all the museums and galleries on the Cape at least once this year. I will also be going to Paris and Amsterdam this spring and plan to take in as much art as I can there!

How will you improve your studio habits? I will be in the studio at least an hour every day. Since I've closed my shop I have been neglecting my studio and want to get back in there no matter how busy my day job keeps me.

What books do you need to read to help your career? I'll be reading Alyson's "I'd Rather Be in the Studio!" and any other books that I come across that will be helpful.

What seminars/workshops/lectures will you attend? I don't know yet but I often attend at least one or more art workshops and several marketing/business related workshops each year.

What organizations will you join or become involved with? I would like to join the local pastel organization and would like to be more involved with the Arts Foundation here.

What grants/honors/awards will you apply for or receive? Getting the application completed is a win in itself. Right now this doesn't feel like it applies to me and my work.

What articles would you like to see written about your work? In the past I've had a lot of articles written about my tiles and right now I would like to take more time to develop more paintings before having anything written about me or my work.

What galleries, exhibits, or other venues will you submit your art to? I have several galleries in mind that are here on the Cape and also am planning to enter my work in at least one juried exhibit a month. I hope to enter the Yawkey Birds in Art this year.

Where can you save a wad of money? I have a lot of art and supplies as well as frames, envelopes, old portfolio sheets, etc. I plan to go through all of them to see what can be reused and recycled before ordering new supplies, etc.

What is the single thing you can do in 2008 that will move your career ahead the fastest? have an actual plan written down and spread out over the year on my calendar.

Setting Goals for the New Year!

I don't know about you but I'm always excited to look at the new year as a blank canvas or blank page. I love the fact that there is all that openness before me, all that wide open space waiting to be filled up. Will I fill it with doodles or drawings of substance? Will I write a shopping list or a list of new goals? Will I write that story that hums around in my head, dig out the old woodcuts I found while cleaning out my mom's basement and do some prints with them? Will I finally go through all the rest of the photos and other memorabilia and clear space in my life for all the new adventures I want to embark on? Will this year be the year I finally find a good gallery? Will this be the year I go through all my old work and either catalogue it or throw it out? It's all so exciting!

I have lots of ideas and lots of possibilities on my horizon. I am working on several projects and a year's worth of goals and plans. They'll be listed here soon.

In the meantime, what are your goals? Your plans? I would love to have an online community of artists, writers, creative folks who are interested in an ongoing goal setting, goal reaching sort of group. Any ideas?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I'll be back online and blogging by the first of the year. I have all sorts of new things going on and will be changing the focus of the blog a bit but for now it's off to the kitchen to make one last batch of cookies and finish wrapping some gifts.

Here's to a wonderful holiday with all your friends and families!

Rethinking Blogging

It seems to be time for me to take a little break from blogging. When I started blogging I had a shop and a business and these days I have neither and find my blog has no focus.

As the year turns I am thinking a lot about what comes next and with that may come a new focus for my blog. Or I may just give it up. I don't know yet.

How are you bloggers out there keeping up your focus and your commitment?

The Beach, the Woods, the Sand, the Sea....the Light!

Late afternoons with the kids walking in the woods, along the beach....this week has been so lovely and beautiful. It's been warm enough to walk outdoors for hours and the light has been simply amazing. I love the light at this time of year except when I am driving.

This photo was taken at the site in Wellfleet where Marconi transmitted his first telegraph. The station he used has long since washed out to sea and even this vantage point is being undercut by every storm tide and wind.

Look how lovely the sand and water look in this soft light, so calming and sensuous. Everything looks so sweet and calm from this angle on this quiet afternoon. There is no sign of the raging waves that tore half this cliff away. Looking down from this angle one can't see the damage this fall's storms have already wrought. The sea looks so innocent here.

Another view with the hint of the setting sun in the distance. What you can't see in these shots is that the sky was filled with hundrends of wheeling, diving gannets. Gannets are huge white seabirds with black wingtips that only come near shore in the fall and spring. They usually get blown in by the wind and hang around for a few weeks doing some fishing before heading back out to sea. I love watching them dive bomb and splash head first into the water. Their splashes pop like little whale spouts. There must have been good fishing this day because we watched them hit the water, boom, boom, boom, over and over again.

At this same spot there is a trail into a white cedar swamp. When I brought another group of kids here earlier in the week we were lucky enough to see a great horned owl. I hoped we might spot it again since owls tend to hang around in the same area for a while but no such luck.

Again, the light through the trees was just awesome. You can see one little man running ahead of us on the trail here.

This is my favorite picture of the day. These two little people were running ahead of me and when the sun silhouetted them like this I just had to snap their picture.

I have a few days off this weekend. I have to laugh as I say this because actually I have a tile job to finish, an article to research and write and the mess from last weekend's sale to clean up! On the other hand, my schedule is my own for the next few days, always a nice thing to look forward to.