Welcome!

Hey there readers, cohorts, co-conspirators, peers, family and friends,

It's so nice.... finally starting a blog related to my business as an artist. This seems as good a time as any. I suppose I'll jump right in with an update of what I've been doing artistically.

Earlier this year, I set up a virtual shop. It's now easier to share my recent art with friends and family afar, and finding customers who appreciate it. It also serves as a good way to organize, document and categorize the things I am making.

Primarily a painter and 2-d artist in the past, I started making polymer clay jewelry and small scale sculpture to sell in the shop. I figured it would prove less expensive to create and ship. I hadn't made jewelry since I moved to San Francisco in 1991. Beginning again was an interesting process. I learned some things about how memories are stored in our muscles. Or at least it seems like it.

I have so much to say about etsy in general, the friends who helped me get started there, the indie crafts movement.... ahh, plenty of fodder for future blogs.

So far, the shop is not profitable financially. However, it is extraordinarily profitable as a learning tool, and an endless source of inspiration and ideas involving creativity, marketing, and the business of art. It just happened to be the right impetus to get me selling again. Several years ago I had sworn off the commerce part of my art. Again, that's another story, I think I'd better save it for another post, or maybe I'll just move on and be happy that I'm finally enjoying this aspect of being an artist!

Though I find the virtual world of the internet engrossing beyond belief, It has been important for me to simultaneously put a foot out into the real world of the arts. Off and on for the last 8 years, I have been on somewhat of a hiatus from the workforce and the more vibrant life I had before a series of injuries and a chronic pain condition put me on the bench for too long. I don't get out enough to see art, and I hadn't shown my art for some time.

Life takes its many odd twists and detours, and I found myself in this charming little college town on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Not exactly San Francisco, but certainly a place with an interesting culture and community. It happens to have a vibrant arts scene that is growing and changing to meet the needs of a historic downtown district which strives to remain historic AND functional as a town center.

Part of Chestertown's vibrancy is the First Friday festivities every month. This year I have volunteered with the Chestertown Arts League. It sure has a different speed and feel than the SF Bay Area galleries... but as with any gallery and arts organization, there is so much to discover and learn by attending its shows and classes, and meeting its artists.

As a member of the Exhibition Committee, I help coordinate and mount monthly exhibits in the gallery and nearby places of business. Currently we are planning the exhibition schedule for next year. This is all very foreign to me. One thing I've learned through the various volunteer jobs I've done is this... you pick up where other people left off, and suddenly find yourself with more responsibility and opportunity than you have time and energy to take advantage of.

Finally, I guess I should mention something about what I'm doing in 'the studio' (code for anywhere I can find a clear surface in my apartment - my studio tends to permeate the place and take over everything in site.)

-Vaguely Halloween themed jewelry - like these
-Tormenting myself over whether to enter a very personal (and messily executed) piece in the League's next show: 'Art that Speaks out' - figuring out how to frame it
-Painting on found wood 'craft forms' like these (Sold to a VERY dear friend, thank you very much!)

Ok. Thank goodness I'm only reporting on my art and not the other aspects of my life. Sheesh!

Till next time,
Angela