September 10th, 2012 Program

("The Angel of Mesa Penistaja" batik on cotton 24' x 30" by Cathy Haight)

About the image (written by Cathy): "Mesa Penistaja is an area of beautiful badlands southwest of Cuba, New Mexico. A great place for hiking. Cabezon is in the distance." 
Cathy Haight will present a Batik demonstration at the RRAA September membership meeting program.

Cathy began batiking in 1973 when she took a workshop at the Denver Free University. After living on an island in the Caribbean during the '70's, she moved to California and tried to find advanced instruction in batik. What she was searching for was in Indonesia so she sailed there, with many interesting stops along the way. In 1981 Cathy studied with batik master Bambang Oetoro near Jogakarta on the island of Java. There she learned techniques that she still uses today.
 
Cathy creates impressionistic landscapes in both batik (using wax to resist dyes on fabric) and oil paints. Be sure to visit her website to see a good representation of the kind of work that Cathy does.

Cathy Haight in the Cariboo region of British Columbia, Canada doing plein air.

 (image from Cathy Haight's website)

Adobe in the Cloud

 ("In the Cloud" copyright Paula Scott: Molokai Girl Studio)

Say you always wanted to get the 'whole enchilada' to Adobe's Creative Suite but find it impossible to cough up the green stuff to pay for it. And maybe your computer doesn't have enough memory to install the program anyway. But, what if I told you that now there is a way to have access to that 'whole enchilada' at an affordable price and you wouldn't need to do a thing to boost your RAM-would you be at least somewhat interested? Oh, wait-and you can do a month's worth of a free trial version of said 'enchilada'. Now, are you interested?

"Adobe has released Adobe Creative Suite 6 and all-new Adobe Creative Cloud. Creative Suite 6 is a killer release with hundreds of new capabilities. Many Adobe customers are excited about it, but some still have questions, especially about Creative Cloud."

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE...

I hope you do read the article. It addresses a lot of key points that a potential buyer would have. I myself have downloaded it and now I have the whole enchilada for a mere $29.99 per month-at least for the next year.

I also hope that you at least download the free trial version and play to your heat's content for a month. It's a great way to find out if you really wanted that 'whole enchilada' to begin with!

Good News! The Arts Are In Good Health

Don' feel quite so bad about the economy and it's affect on the arts. Here's why:

2012 National Arts Index

Americans for the Arts 2012 Index report delivers a 2010 score of the health and vitality of the arts in the U.S. The arts turned a corner in 2010 with a slight increase, following two years of recessionary decreases.

To read the entire article and to download the report, go here...

Copyright Notices-Should You or Shouldn't You?

From "Plagiarism Today"

Why Bother With a Copyright Notice?

Written on: June 27, 2012

 

On the surface, a copyright notice seems like an anachronism.
The law hasn’t required such a notice for decades (in the U.S.), the structure of the modern copyright notice was developed well before the Internet and few people seem to notice them, beyond the presence of the date.
So why have a copyright notice at all? Why, as I discussed previously on Performancing, take the time to learn how to write a proper one and append it to your site?

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE...

Making Good Use of Your Face Book Page

To not use all the wonderful handy tips that Alyson Stanfield shares with all the artists out there would be a crime. I know many artist don't know how to use Face Book as a marketing tool. Let alone, navigate it's functionality. Here are some great tips from Alyson:

5 Actions to Rock Your Facebook Page

by Alyson Stanfield on June 4, 2012

Here are four things you can do to distinguish your business page on Facebook from your personal profile. These actions (especially #4) should give your art business a boost in visibility on Facebook.

1. Schedule Your Posts

You can now schedule posts on your page. I think this is a game-changer!
If you’re like me, you often think of 3 or 4 things at once that you want to post to Facebook. But you risk annoying your fans if you post them all at once.
No worries. Use the scheduler.
To schedule a post in a status update, follow the instructions in these two images.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE...

100 Ways to Creatively Reuse Old Magazines from Always Chrysti

Do you have  piles of magazines that are doing nothing but collecting dust?
Ever wonder what you could do with all of them? Here are 100 ways to creatively reuse old magazines.


Always Chrysti - Always Chrysti - 100 Ways to Creatively Reuse Old Magazines

Alyson Stanfiled's Tips on How to Engage More Fans on Facebook

Alyson Stanfield, the Art Biz art coach explains how to engage more fans on Face Book and how to make it work for you-the artist. These are tips that she learned, tried, found them to work and has passed these tips on to you.

How to Engage More Fans on Facebook

by Alyson Stanfield on June 25, 2012

Last month I listened in on Mari Smith’s free webinar 10 Essential Facebook Money-Making ‘techie’ Tips.

At the time of the webinar, I had a fan engagement ratio of less than 1%. I had 6962 fans with only 74 people talking about my page.   read the rest of the article here...

Santa Fe Symphony Violin Art

The Santa Fe Symphony is auctioning off some amazing original art on violins. The event is Oct 5th and supports the musicians of the Santa Fe Symphony.They approached professional artists in all mediums -- beading, carving, metalwork, painting, etc.  and gave them a basic violin to work from, with no limitations.   This video show the incredible work donated, and is an inspiration to creating your own unique masterpieces.  Enjoy!

Click Here for a Video Preview

Great Advice: 10 Steps to Better Art Show Sales

Carolyn Edlund, author of the Artsy Shark (site for emerging artists) has a valuable list of what we all should do when we are in an arts and/or crafts show. All distilled in to 10 easy steps for us to take.

(image from Artsy Shark site)

Want to increase your art sales at fairs and festivals? Here are ten tips to make the most of your show:  read more here...