Art serves many purposes but it is primarily made for two reasons—for the pleasure and enjoyment the artist gets from creating and for the pleasure and enjoyment of someone else viewing it. An artist may never be famous or financially successful, but as long as he or she continues to find pleasure in creating, the artwork will continue to be made. Finding viewers is another matter.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately because after making artwork most of my adult life, I am still a “non-famous, non-financially successful artist”. Unlike Van Gogh, I have sold paintings steadily over my artistic career, but if you add up all the money I’ve made and subtract all the expenses, art-making has been a money-pit for me. At times, I have despaired. The pressure to sell has sometimes been excruciating. I have supported myself or my “art habit” by working either full-time or part-time jobs, and I have come to see that earning my living at something other than art is a blessing in a way. It lets you have more choice in what you create rather than creating for the market all the time.

Getting the artwork before the public is often an uphill battle, however. My work is accepted into 2-4 juried shows each year and sometimes, I win an award. Lots of people come to see the shows and make lovely comments, but few give in to a desire to own a painting and write a check. So, again, I have been examining why I keep making artwork and finally arrived at the pleasure principle.

The last few months, I have created an online presence. So far, it has not brought any additional sales of artwork, but it does serve the pleasure principle. I get to enjoy making the art and I get to share it with others through my photographs on Flickr People are able to enjoy not only a current painting in a show or the few displayed in my studio, but bodies of work that are stored away or have been sold.

I am currently doing work that is unique, work that is a joy for me to make, work in which I take pride. I invite all of you to enjoy what this “non-famous” artist has to offer.

© MountainWoman Silver and MountainWoman Silver Speaks, 2010

Wow, I am so heavily into my 2010 “Must Do” activities, I am forgetting to eat, literally. On Monday, my husband came home to take me to our dinner out with friends (every Monday event), and I realized that I could not remember eating lunch. I actually sat racking my brain wondering if I did eat and it slipped my mind, but no, I had not eaten since breakfast. I’ve done the same thing two more times, but I’m not complaining; every morning, I’ve lost some more weight.

What am I doing that is so engrossing? I have opened a Flickr Pro account and have been uploading images and organizing them. I hope all of you will check out the site. Just click the icon under Art By Silver in the righthand column.

Now I’m ready to paint and sew.

Yesterday, I completed Joshua’s quilt and washed and dried it. I considered the quilting a success since it held together through the washing and drying. When I make a baby quilt, I want it to be used. I talked with a  mother awhile back who put the quilt I made for her baby four years ago in a drawer to save it for her daughter when she is grown up and has a child of her own.  What if her daughter does the same thing? The quilt will never be used.

Here are the three photos of Joshua’s quilt in different stages.

January 11, 2010 Finished  quilt

Joshua's Finished Quilt

January 4, 2010

Joshua's Qult Pin-basted

December 22, 2009

Qult for Joshua

I hope everyone had a great holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Year’s day. I did and am very glad it is over; I am ready to hit 2010 running. The first week of each new year, I basically tie up loose ends from the previous year.

First on my list this year and every year is editing my life and art journals and printing and binding them. I get a nice feeling from getting that job done, but my feelings on reviewing what I have done during the year are usually mixed. I could have accomplished more, I could have done certain things differently, I wish I hadn’t done some things at all. But, there are always things I am proud of.

In 2009, I am delighted that I changed my eating and exercise habits. Not only have I lost 23 pounds in the past four months, but I am feeling so much better mentally and physically. I am delighted that I have become a grandmother and that I finally retired from my day job so I can focus more on painting and quilting. I am glad I got off the fence and began blogging and using some other networking venues–facebook, twitter, putting my art online. From those, I have become acquainted with some incredible people around the world and re-acquainted with some old friends.

One loose end I mean to tie up this week is the baby quilt for my neighbor. Here is a picture of the quilt pin-basted just before I begin free-motion quilting it.

Joshua's Quilt Pin-basted

We woke up Christmas Eve to the sound of sleet which quickly turned to snow. Our local NBC, ABC, and CBS television channels became non-stop weather channels for the rest of the day. The snow, which  continued through midnight, set a record for a one-day fall in OKC–14.1 inches.

On Christmas morning after gifts and hot chocolate, my husband and I put on many layers of clothes and our yak-tracs (things that keep you from slipping on ice) and went out to build a snowman. My husband, who grew up in Michigan, was much more familiar with this activity than I. The snow was powdery and would not stick, so he filled a gallon sprayer (one for pesticides, I think) with water and he would spray a layer of water and I would pack on a layer of snow. In that way we managed to build a three-tiered snowman.

I added driftwood from Lake Michigan for arms, mittons, a straw hat held on with shish-kabob skewers, two blue bottle caps for eyes, a cork for a nose, English Ivy for ears, and a twig for the mouth. I added a red sash around the neck from my quilting fabrics. Of course we had to take pictures. Here are a couple.

Snowman in Oklahoma City

We were not able to get out at all on Christmas Eve but did manage to drive 8 miles to attend Christmas dinner at a friend’s house on Christmas afternoon. There were many stalled cars abandoned along the way. I have lived here for 12 years and this is the biggest snow we’ve had. I don’t think I like it especially when I have go somewhere in a car. 

This is sooooo un-Oklahoma!

Although we seem to be in the holiday party season big time, I have managed to complete the top for my neighbor’s newborn son. I will not have time to layer, quilt, and bind it before Christmas, but I am thrilled I got this far in a week. The finished size will be 34″ x 44″. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Quilt for Joshua

I have done a bit of work on the ufo quilt, #8 of WTTS series. I removed the binding and have decided to add about 6 inches of pieced borders around the edges.

Since my last post, life has gotten in the way of art and blogging. In the middle of one of the coldest falls and early winter seasons in Oklahoma, I have been overseeing carpentry and gutter work on my house. I feel like a doctor on call. When the weather is clear and the temperature above 50, the workmen can steal an hour to come over and work. Those times since Thanksgiving have been few. Hopefully, this week will see the work completed and I can once more concentrate on painting and sewing.

My usual practice during times when my creative life is interrupted, I continue to doodle. That means that at any time, any place, I feel an urge to draw something and heaven forbid there is nothing handy to draw on. I have tablets and sketchbooks all around my house and studio, but I also have been known to draw on old envelopes, backs of mail I’ve received, the edges of a newspaper or  magazine page, and even on paper napkins and toilet paper. I honor these “doodles” because they have inspired some final paintings and quilts. I am planning a post showing some of these doodles and the final works.

Another incident of “life” dictating rather than I is that I have a new neighbor who arrived early into this world. I have been planning to make a quilt for my neighbor’s new child due in another month, but the little one arrived six weeks early. Weighing in at 5 pounds and 9 ounces, he is healthy and only had to stay in the hospital for one week. Now, I am scrambling to get him a quilt made for Christmas. I will post a picture of it when I get it done.

If I don’t post again before Christmas, I wish all of you a wonderful holiday. Be safe and have fun.

In the quilting world, a UFO is not an alien spacecraft; it is an Un-Finished-Object. Most creative people have them, whether quilts, paintings, crafts, novels, or whatever. I have actually met a person  who never starts another project without finishing the one she is working on. She also had a perfectly clean sewing room and a list book permanently attached to her wrist.

I, on the other hand, do have lots of UFOs as well as a studio that looks post-tornado most of the time. Rather than start a new project before Christmas, I have decided to work on a UFO. This quilt was begun three years ago. It is a quilted wall-hanging, presently 22″ x 27″ . It started as a doodle made while watching television. I decided I would create a series of paintings and/or quilts with eyes as the focus. Over the next few days, I did drawings for 20 different projects in the series. I chose #8 as the first to work on. Here is the doodle

Windows to the Soul #8, doodle

I scanned this image into the computer and cleaned it up in Photoshop, adding color. Here is what I came up with.

Windows to the Soul #8, colored drawing

I usually begin a quilt with an enlarged drawing on paper which I pin to my design wall. I then select fabrics from my extensive stash. On this quilt, I decided to use an adhesive to attach the pieces to the background muslin. The biggest challenge was using solid colored fabrics since I love patterned fabric so much.

I cut and adhered all the design using cotton fabrics everywhere except for the eyes. For them, I used a metallic fabric. I zigzag stitched around each applique piece directly to my cotton batting. and since I wanted a clean look to the solid-colored fabrics, I did not quilt any more on the face.

Windows to the Soul #8, so far.

 Here is where I stopped on the quilt. Nothing is telling me it is finished. I have decided to add some sort of border, not necessarily the same width on all sides. I will keep you posted on my progress.

© Mountain Woman Silver and Mountain Woman Silver Speaks, 2009

     I have been spending so much time learning about blogging and social networking, I have been neglecting the production of art. I am trying to understand why I have gotten into this new time-consuming activity.

     I am reminded of what happened to my husband during the late 1980s. Prior to the advent of personal computers in the work-place, managers had support people—secretaries, receptionists, assistants. When a manager was given his very own desktop computer, he was suddenly expected to compose on it (no more need to dictate) and that composing required typing (no more typists). It did not matter that this highly-paid executive had never learned touch typing. He was expected to hunt and peck his way through a proposal or report while still completing all the work he was hired for.

     Now, my husband types 28 wpm. I know because in 1992, we bought our first personal home computer and I got a book and program to teach him to touch type. He worked at night for six weeks trying to retrain his fingers to touch type rather than hunt and peck with his forefingers. At the end of six weeks, I tested him and he typed by touch 28 wpm. He typed 29 wpm hunting and pecking. Touch typing made him a nervous wreck and his typing was filled with mistakes. He gave up and to this day continues to hunt and peck at 28-29 wpm. He also does his own filing. So, instead of paying a typist $9-10 per hour to type, they pay my husband a manager’s salary to hunt and peck and do other clerical work. 

     So now, I’ll get back to myself. In 1989, I began working full time as a painter. Having no gallery affiliation, I knew I would need to market myself. I took an expensive, week-long marketing workshop with Sue Viders. We received a huge notebook of handouts with lots of instruction and samples of every form an artist would need to do business. We were told to research what was selling, In 1989, the top selling art was landscape. We should follow home fashions and what color schemes were popular and add those to our palette. The main advice I remember was that an artist must determine how many hours a week she had to devote to her business (making art and marketing art) and then spend equal amounts of time on each. If you had 40 hours, you would spend 20 making art and 20 marketing art. If you had 4 hours, you would spend 2 hours on each. You get the picture.

     I have tried very hard over the years to be creative in marketing. I have sold through my studio and at fairs. I have been represented in a traditional gallery and in co-op galleries. I have donated art to good causes and done demos to get my name out there.  Now, I have migrated into online marketing using an art-hosting site, facebook, twitter, and blogging. Still, I feel a bit like my husband. I keep thinking that all this time I spend doing something I am not great at (marketing) takes me away from what I should be doing (confronting my easel in the studio and producing something fine).

     I know I am not alone in this pining for the time when artists produced art and galleries took care of the business of selling that art. I realize that only a few artists today have such an arrangement with galleries. I am just glad I live in a time when people all over the world can click a button and see my latest output and every so often, I am notified that someone loved a piece enough to purchase it.

      So, I’m off to begin a new project.

© MountainWoman Silver and MountainWoman Silver Speaks, 2009

I have just discovered an abstract painter (new to me) who is not only an exciting visual artist but also a writer. His name is Andrew Polk, of Arizona. http://www.andrewpolk.com/index.htm and on his website is a category called Statements. In this category, he has written several statements each associated with a particular painting. I found his writing both inspirational and instructive. Statements are often difficult to write, especially for us visually oriented people. I do hope you will check his site out although it appears it is only up to 2004. I tried finding more current information on him but was unsuccessful. I do know he is still a practicing artist because he will be teaching a one-day workshop in Oklahoma City in March, 2010. I would love to hear from anyone who has more current knowledge of him.

© MountainWoman Silver and MountainWoman Silver Speaks, 2009