kate gabrielle : artists who blog

kate's blogs: www.flapperdoodle.blogspot.com, www.silentsandtalkies.blogspot.com

kate's shops: www.flapperdoodle.etsy.com, www.silentsandtalkies.etsy.com

Why did you decide to start a blog?

Earlier this year, I was uploading my classic movie artwork onto flickr, and practically writing entire novels in the little "description" box. My friend Vivienne suggested that maybe it was time for me to start a blog instead! It's been a whole lot easier to just link to the blog post on flickr now.



How did you come up with the name of your blog?

My primary blog is about classic movies and the art that I do to go with the posts... I've had the title "Silents and Talkies" floating around in my mind for years now, I just finally found the right venue to use it. My etsy store has this monicker as well. My other art blog is flapper doodle, which was a simple title I came up with for my little drawings of 1920's flappers... they just look like flapper doodles!



How has blogging affected your work as an artist/designer?

It's definitely made me more prolific. I think that last year, before I started to blog, I completed maybe 10-15 paintings total! This year I've probably already completed 100, not counting my drawings and sketches. I'm always anxious to get posts up, and keep the blog up to date. Since each post has accompanying artwork, that means a lot of drawing and painting!



What are your favorite artist/designer blogs? Why?

I love that all three of my favorite artists have blogs: Vivienne Strauss, Elizabeth Bauman, and Samantha Battersby. I am in awe of their talent, and always inspired by their new artwork.



Do you have any advice for artists/designers who are starting a blog?

I think the best advice is just to keep it updated regularly -- having a blog, and trying to maintain a steady schedule of posts has given me more artistic oomph than anything else I've done since I started painting. I always notice that when I fall behind on the posts, it's usually because I've fallen behind on drawing or painting, too.




What has been the most positive and inspirational aspect of having a blog for you?

Making so many great new friends. It's silly since I haven't actually met a lot of the people who follow my blog, but I really feel like I know them. And through my blog I met my friend Casey who is now co-editing a design blog with me!



What do you find the most difficult/most rewarding part of having a creative profession?

The most difficult part is self motivation! It's easy to just sleep in, watch movies and read blogs all day when I don't have a boss making me get to work! Yet the most rewarding part is actually being my own boss. I set my own hours, get to hang out with my cats all day and I can have classic movies playing in the background while I work.



Other than your blog, what has been the most effective way for you to promote your art/design?

I've started advertising online a little, but other than that I don't think I've mastered the promotion thing yet...



How do you maintain a healthy work/life balance?

This question assumes that I do maintain a healthy work/life balance :) I think for me the two are one and the same, especially since my studio is also my bedroom. The one thing I do religiously, though, is stop work every day at 7pm to make dinner, and then I watch the news while I eat. Since I work from home, it's nice having at least one daily ritual or else all the days of the week kind of mesh into each other, and I totally lose track of time.



What are your main goals for 2009?

To continue loving what I do.



Congratulations to Kate! flapper doodle was chosen as "Etsy's freshest shop of them all" last week! Read the article on Etsy here.

victoria smith : artists who blog

Victoria's blog: www.sfgirlbybay.com
Victoria's shop: www.sfgirlbybay.etsy.com

Why did you decide to start a blog?

I started sfgirlbybay as a fluke back in June of 2006. I had taken a bunch of photographs of my interiors and needed a place to store them online (this was prior to my introduction and current addiction to flickr), so I experimented with blogspot.com. I enjoyed it so much, it evolved into a daily practice. Blogging encapsulates my three loves - design, photography and writing, so I find it the perfect creative niche for me. The fact that people wanted to read it was a shock and thrill to me. I enjoy trying to inspire readers to decorate to reflect their own style, and focus on affordability.



How did you come up with the name of your blog?

Again, it was really just an accident - I had previously been using 'girlbybay' for email and I think for some reason I decided to put the 'sf' in front of it. I never intended to start a daily blog, or hopefully I would have come up with something a bit more witty!



How has blogging affected your work as an artist/designer?

Well, my artwork, or photography really came afterwards, too. I'd always loved photography but I never really did anything with it professionally. I started shooting more and more for the blog and eventually started Sunday in the City - the series I run every Monday which documents my weekends living and exploring in San Francisco. Lauren and Derek of the Curiosity Shoppe invited me to do a show in their gallery and honestly, I was shocked. That was my first show since maybe high school. Since the show, I have been selling my Sunday in the City images in my etsy shop. So, the blog really had a huge impact on my art - it basically brought out the repressed artist in me. Ha! I need to have at least one camera with me at all times. I take shots of even the most mundane subject matter ever, much to the chagrin of my companions.



What are your favorite artist/designer blogs? Why?

My first love is for interior design, but photography is creeping up! I love the work of Wary-Meyers - it's so eclectic and they are the masters of re-purposing home furnishings and accessories. Very hippie chic! I also love stylist Pia Jane Bijkerk's blog - I find her photographs so inspiring. Amy Butler, too - she has a wonderful inspiration page on on her website. I go there often to soak in her beautiful photographs.



Do you have any advice for artists/designers who are starting a blog?

I'd say just write from your heart. Try to share your own, unique personality, and talk to readers like you would to a friend. Share what's meaningful to you, and you will find your own following.



What has been the most positive and inspirational aspect of having a blog for you?

The blog has kind of taken over my life - in a good way. I have met countless wonderful new friends, and I've been able to to quit my job in advertising to focus entirely on the blog. I never would have thought that possible. My life is now filled with artistic people who inspire me everyday and everything I do kind of blends into the blog. If I go out to a gallery or shoot photos all day, eventually they tend to end up on the blog. Life imitates art, as they say.



What do you find the most difficult/most rewarding part of having a creative profession?

Well, the positives are also sometimes the most difficult. I'm not sure sometimes how to just relax and have fun, without thinking about what I'm going to write about next. It can be challenging to write 2-4 posts a day, to keep things fresh and interesting to the readers. But the rewards are when the readers really like a post I've written and really relate to it. I love the positive feedback they share with me, and with the other blog readers. It's pretty awe-inspiring sometimes. I've been moved to tears sometimes. It's very moving for me.



Other than your blog, what has been the most effective way for you to promote your art/design?

I have been fortunate enough to have has the show at the Curiosity Shoppe, and a few magazine articles, in Better Homes & Gardens DIY, Australia's Real Living and Sunset magazines, as well as a mention in Domino and most recently The New York Times...so all of that keeps me pretty busy. Other than that - word of mouth through other kind bloggers, like design*sponge, Poppytalk, decor8, Design for Mankind and so many others. I have found the blog world is one full of really generous friends.



How do you maintain a healthy work/life balance?

This is where I burst out laughing. I don't. I work all the time! But it doesn't feel like work, so it balances out all right. I'm not very good at time management at all! Good thing I love what I do, and all the research and work I do for the blog is mostly just something I'd want to be doing anyway!



What are your main goals for 2009?

To balance my life! No, really I'd love to add more and more interesting interviews to the blog, and travel more and share some of those experiences with the readers. I've also recently written one article for Uppercase Magazine and am about to do another, so I'd like to write more for outside sources other than my own blog. And I am always working on improving my photography.

Thanks Victoria! I'm honored to have you as a guest :)

aimee dolich : artists who blog

Aimee's blog: www.artsyville.blogspot.com
Aimee's shop: www.artsyville.etsy.com





















Thank you Aimee! You are brilliant!

Graffiti

Juf Lisette is the maker of this lesson!
You need:

1. Grey drawing sheet
2. Wasco
3. White drawing paper
4. Felt pens
5. Scissors, glue

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is sometimes regarded as a form of art and other times regarded as unsightly damage or unwanted.
All children get a grey sheet and some white sheets. To get a wall texture, use wall bricks to scratch over with wasco crayons. Cut those bricks and glue them on the grey paper sheet.

Design your own name in graffiti characters and colour it with felt pens. Cut it out and glue it on your brick wall.
Of course children can choose for a slogan of a pop artist instead of their name.

Graffiti, made by children from 10-11 years old

mati rose mcdonough : artists who blog

Mati's blog: www.matirose.blogspot.com
Mati's website: www.matirose.com
Mati's shop: www.suspectshoppe.etsy.com
**Mati's current show "Little Pink Houses" at the Curiosity Shoppe with Lisa Congdon** www.curiosityshoppeonline.com

Why did you decide to start a blog?

I decided to start a blog in 2005 when I went back to art school. I wanted a place to chronicle my thoughts and growth. I thought it would be akin to a personal journal that I would share with a few (I mean 3) friends who also had blogs. We would leave comments for each other and it was sweet. Pretty soon, as you know, the blogging community snowballed past just a few supportive friends! It was very exciting to witness artist friends taking off in success through exposure from their blogs, as well as to participate in this inspiring community.



How did you come up with the name of your blog?

Easy, Mati Rose is my first and middle name. My Papa named a boat after me called "The Mati Rose" which in retrospect feels like a very free and strong metaphor for living the creative life. Prior to my blog, there were also a few dear people in my life who called me Mati Rose and it always made me feel happy. I introduce myself just as Mati (pronounced Matey, like the shipmate).



How has blogging affected your work as an artist/designer?

Wow. I'm not sure what my art would have been like with out the influence of blogging since my artistic progression happened alongside my blog. I do know that the blogosphere connected me to so many other artists and windows into the way artists and creative people live. Consequently it made it seem possible for me to pursue the self-employed art lifestyle.



What are your favorite artist/designer blogs? Why?

Let's see... there are so many! I really appreciate them all for different reasons. Some are more personal. Some offer a mere sliver of a persons day. Some are curated. OK, one of my favorite bloggers and people is Andrea Jenkins of Hula70 for she seamlessly weaves her interests in photography, dance, writing, color, lists and I see everything she writes is an extension of her authentic creative self pouring out. Additionally I adore the blogs Dear Ada and Modish and appreciate their unique creative aesthetic. I am constantly book-marking artists featured on their blogs!




Do you have any advice for artists/designers who are starting a blog?

I think your blog will evolve naturally with your interests. Be natural and sincere in what you share. I feel as though I go through phases of feeling called to write more or less, but I try to write about something be it an upcoming show, artist I admire or sweet bag I really pine for when I feel genuinely excited about sharing something. I don't over think it I just get overcome with "this is so amazing I must share it right now!" Hopefully what inspiration and words I do end up sharing resonate with others and aren't too scattered!



What has been the most positive and inspirational aspect of having a blog for you?

Being part of a creative community has been a wonderful part of my life. I have made so many dear friends whom I respect and admire and feel consistently inspired by. I feel like I could move almost anywhere and have creative blogger friends. For the month of June we've been in Maine and although I haven't had the time to meet up with all my online art friends, I have met up with several and there's an immediate dropping into friendship because we've been part of each other's daily life for so many years.



What do you find the most difficult/most rewarding part of having a creative profession?

Being your own boss and then being your own boss. It takes discipline, vision, balance, confidence, motivation and hope.



Other than your blog, what has been the most effective way for you to promote your art/design?

Through Etsy and having a newsletter where I stay in touch with people who buy my art. Also by participating in art and craft shows like the Renegade Craft Show where there's a lot of visibility.



How do you maintain a healthy work/life balance?
I schedule big time outs for a healthy dose of perspective and to prevent total burn-out. This year my husband Hugh and I sub-letted our SF apartment twice: the first for a month in Italy and the 2nd is where I'm writing from in Maine.



What are your main goals for 2009?

I would like to find an illustration agent and expand my art to include textile design, licensing opportunities and make more big colorful paintings! A sense of balance, inner calm, ease and joy in the process and many celebrations are also my goals for 2009.

Thanks Mati!