Still Looking For That Blue Jean, Baby Queen

Well folks here are the jeans I am always talking about. I did them with fabric paint. I have washed them about 6 or 7 times and have wore them about everyday for about the pass month. I have complete confidence that the paint is going to last a long time. I haven’t started marketing them as something that I do yet but I have gotten a lot of positive responses to them and got asked to draw on some yoga pants to sell in a studio here in Denver called Samadhi. Katrina, one of the owners there, just loves the idea and thinks her students might love them too.

Now as you know already I will try just about anything and a nice “out of the box” idea like this is why you come here and read my blog. I will be blogging soon about this and how it works out.

P.S. For those of you who liked the title of this blog, heres the song Rock On by David Essex

The Art Institute Of Colorado

A good friend of mine here in Colorado, one Mr. Eric Matelski (who doesn’t read my blog cuz he likes for me to tell him everything I do on the phone), was doing some live painting at the Institute a few weeks ago and since the place is about 5 or 6 blocks away I went down to check him out. They had ice cream and music, kind of a nice little set up for him. I talked to a few of the teachers there and got signed up to do a piece for their fundraiser they do every year to help keep some of the better kids in school at The Art Institute Of Colorado

Shandra (the one who let me in the show) and I

I whiped out a purple hibiscus for them, mainly so I can have a reason to go to the show and talk to all the people since that’s what its all about right?

Guess which one is mine

The show was really nice, they said my piece was one of the better ones and might have brought in more money than the flat rate of 50 bucks the other pieces were going for so they put it with a few others up for auction, well made only made 50 bucks anyway, but it was a nice guesture on their part. The wine was flowing and they had tons of watermelon and you know how I love an art show with watermelon...do you want me to donate something to your event? Have watermelon and I'm pretty sure I will hook you up.

mmmmmm

It was funny because during the whole show every time I talked to someone they would ask me if I graduated from the school or if I was taking classes there, I had to let them down by saying no. Then a favorite question came up, “what school did you go to?” They were always shocked by my “none, I have just always been able to draw prefect circles”

This was what it was all about

I was wearing my jeans (which I will blog about later this week since the testing worked and then this part will make sense) and a few people were really interested in them. One lady runs an online store and wants to start carrying them in her catalogs, so we might end up doing something, she seems like she knows what she’s doing which is good. Then a yoga studio owner wanted to know if I could draw on yoga pants and that the people who go to her studio would gobble them up, so now I gotta test yoga pants.

The band

All in all it was a good show and I meet a lot of people and I was able to tell them all about my open studio show on August 29th so hopefully at least one person comes out from there.

some pictures from the show can you find Hannah?

OMG I don’t sound like that do I?

Ok well a few weeks ago I was asked to be part of a radio blog show to talk about my business and how the internet has helped build my business and especially how I use twitter to build with.

You really have no idea of how much of a dud you sound like till you hear yourself on air, oh man did I sound bad, too many "humms" and "you know what I'm" sayings, oh well just another thing for me to work on.

Here it is if you want to listen. Clilck on "Open in your default player" and give it a little time to start: radio interview

Going to School huh?

So your getting ready to go to art school, ahhhh what a journey you are in for. Are you going to become a teacher? I guess that’s what most people do with their art schooling cuz lord knows it doesn’t mean crap when you are out there at a show and some person is on the fence about buying one of your pieces, but they just don’t know. Saying well I went to so and so school and got whatever it is you get doesn’t help anything.

What little advice I can give to the person wanting to go to school for art is something your folks might like to hear too. A little schooling can go a long way, but if you can draw and think you're already “the artsy type” and you don’t need a class to teach you how to look at shapes on a table, you already know that. Now if you don’t know anything thing about art and have no idea where to start and you think it would be cool to make a painting for your living room by all means take a class. I am talking to the few people out there who feel they are the next big thing. For these people an art class is only going to slow you down, chances are you may already know what the teacher is going to teach and you don’t want to be in a class with a bunch of people who are not as serious as you are about your art and your art career.

The classes you might want to take though, and I cant stress this one enough because it might make or break you, are business classes…. Anything that involves running a business, marketing a business, growing a business, start-ups, taxes, PR or any class that has you run a small business as a project is perfect. Any kind of science class can help when you are trying coming up with concepts or themes in your art, (I know I need this next one) speech classes or any kind of class that helps you speak to a group or debate (soon I will post a radio interview I did which proves its always good to learn how to speak). Any kind of psychology classes will help you when trying to read a person you're dealing with and last but not least, take some graphics classes, learn to build and maintain a website, make flyers and business cards because this will save you a ton of money in the long run.

Please share with me your pros and cons about going to school or not going to school. What things would you have liked to know before you went down that path? And if you didn’t go to school how did you get around it or do you feel it has slowed you down in anyway?

First Solo Show In Denver @ Vain

Now I have had a ton of shows, some good some bad, but this show at Vain could easily be the best show I have ever had, maybe even the best show I had ever been to.

When we showed up to find 3 pieces had sold before the show and to see how the girls were looking I knew it was going to be good, then I saw all the beer, forget it, it was all over.

Tina the owner even put circles in her hair for the show

I was glad to see so many twitter people came out and a few from my building even came out and the place stayed packed right up until the end, I really don’t have much to say about this one but that I had a great time and everyone was great and I hope to do it again next year. Oh and we ended up selling 6 drawings and there’s still 8 weeks left in the show.

Photoshoot before the show with the girls

My favorite pictures

Pictures of people at the show

DJ AKA SURFER

Talking shop

She's the one that did the girls make-up and had circles all over her skrit

Two artists drinking it up

Talking to one of my newest collectors!

First Friday on Santa Fe Drive

WOW!!! Thats all I can really say, I didn’t sell anything but just the amount of traffic alone was amazing. There must be about 100 galleries and art spaces with about 10,000 works of art. There’s a crazy energy and buzz that’s like nothing I’ve seen anywhere else.

Hannah at home in front of the gallery


To start the night off we went to a little Mexican place and had a few margaritas with the “Denver Artists Meetup Group”. It was really nice to put faces to some of the e-mails and posts that I have been sending and getting. The food wasn’t all that good but it made me feel at home.

Last month when we did the art walk and we noticed that most of the places and all of the artists didn’t talk to anyone, maybe its because everyone knows First Friday isn’t really the place you “sell” art at, its more of a see and be seen deal. With that in mind I put on my name tag and went to work. I mean, being an artist, even with only 4 pieces up, gives you an excuse to talk to anyone and everyone who comes near you and smile and nod at the ones who don’t.

About half of the people I meet were from Boulder and half from Denver, everyone seem to be an artist or was an artist or wanted to be an artist. There was a few collector types but far and few, although I almost had a sale to one but I think she wanted to see more of my art first. Who knows she just might turn up at another show real soon. This may have been one of the fastest shows I have ever had - just the amount of people walking in and out was crazy and it seemed like everyone was just trying to see everything as fast as they could. I have been to art fairs and tent shows that were slower. I did try to talk to everyone and I did try to make them feel like they were the most important person in the room, which wasn’t hard since everyone was real interesting, not to mention most of the girls were really very nice on the eyes.

Pictures can't show how many people were there

Now if you are one of these artists who likes to hide away in the corner, and you know who you are, you need to be able to turn it on like a switch. Most artists I meet and talk to at shows seem scared and afraid. Scared and afraid doesn’t sell art. I talked to one little girl who had some art there at the same place but when I asked, so you’re an artist too, she said “well….. I try to be” then I asked what her art looked like and she was just looking at me like a deer in headlights, lucky for her and for me her boyfriend was there to say she had art there and could explain it.

One of the hardest things about being an artist is the part when people ask you “what do you do” never fumble with this one, stand up tall and say it proud “I AM AN ARTIST” it might be the most hardest thing to say in your life but once you say it people start to believe it and so will you.

I AM AN ARTIST

First Friday and Vain Salon

I will be wearing this if you want to find me

Today, well tonight, will find us on Santa Fe Drive, on one of Denver's biggest art opening nights, at Spark Gallery which is a pay to play gallery which will host over 30 artists. I saw a flier for this show at the art store one day and called them to see how this would work and since it was only 20 bucks and everyone I met asks if I have art in Santa Fe, now I can tell them yes (this is all research for a blog about “pay to play galleries) I only do it for you guys so bare with me.

Then August 8th holds my show at Vain Salon which will be my first solo show here in Denver and from the looks of the last show its going to be a good one.

So if you can make it out, make it out, if not, oh well you can at least get on my mailing list here.

Last Saturday @ NEMO's

In June we started having a little open studio here at “La Casa Del Nemo”. Every last Saturday of the month we open up our doors and provide food and drinks. In June we had about 2 people come out and they didn’t really even look at the art but we had good talks about why we moved here and how we were liking it. In July we had anywhere from 10 to 15 people come out and we sold our 1st piece to someone in the building.

The way we started having these is an easy way for any artist out there to start having shows, since we are new here in Denver and we started telling people about our show the day before the 1st one we didn’t expect too many people, just too late notice for most people. But if someone said “I wish I could make” or let me know when the next one is” I sent them my website where they could get on my mailing list and never miss another show.

So we put it on our website, I broadcast it on Facebook and Twitter, and every time I meet someone I talk about it. The next month came around and guess what? Yup, more people. So I’m hoping that with every month it gets bigger and better and who knows we might even start seeing more sales!

Are there any questions out there about how you can turn your studio or even your living room into a gallery for one night and have your own art shows? Is anyone already doing it? How long have you been doing it and what results are you seeing?

Pencil Project

Well I passed the 200 day mark now and I have used about 85 pencils and colored pencils.

I think I am using about a pencil every 2 or 3 days, who knew using a pencil a day was going to be so hard?

Resolutions

Here is a little update on my New Year's Resolutions:

Taking Pictures
I got me a new camera so this one really isn’t a resolution. My camera is only a little bit wider than my phone so its easy to carry and I can take it with me anywhere. I never leave the house with out it.



heres a funnel cloud we saw last month or so.




Growing up my mom always had beauiful roses in her garden so now I am always on the look out for them, saw these on my morning walk one day





oh that, thats the money you could be saving with geico


No More Fast Food
Hmmmmm….. I am not really eating “fast food” but I am eating more restaurant food and I might be eating a little to much of it. I am tying to eat a little less here and there but you know its hard.



Only One Glass Of Wine Or One Beer
Hahaha I laugh at you, no really I am doing terrible at this one. The food and the drinking are the hard ones.



Excerise
Well I am doing really good on this one. I still do all my jumping jacks and push ups and now I started walking about 5 to 10 miles every other day, depending on how my feet hold up.