Julie T. Chapman - ArtBlog

Susan Fox mentions in a reply to the prior blog post that she’s joined Facebook and it’s creating some connections for her that might be worthwhile. Getting into Facebook has been on my list of things to do for a while.

But I haven’t done it yet. Why not?

Well … I’m a little gunshy, I guess. I joined RedBubble earlier this year to market my images in small, inexpensive formats (cards, prints) and one of the things RB encourages is networking among its artists. So I have a bunch of comments (and probably emails, tho RB doesn’t notify me of this until I go to the website) that have piled up without my having the courtesy to reply. In other words, I’m behaving like a complete social slob.

The issue is TIME. I’m trying to figure out where to get the extra time to hang out and do all this social networking when my days AND evenings are already taken up with painting prep, painting, marketing, website management, accounting, shipping, planning, talking to galleries, talking to clients, keeping up with art magazines and art books, email, workshop prep … plus, to keep my creative energy up,  I need to do non-art stuff like read agility magazines and train the dogs. Oh, and I’m the marcom/web person for anything my husband’s business needs as well.

So how the heck do any of you do it? - keep up with social/art networking sites? (…shifts into ‘awaiting enlightenment’ mode…)

Every year about this time I seem to go through a period of what can most charitably be described as “slackerhood”. Given my rather rigid and heavy set of “shoulds” about my work, work ethic, and so on, this annual malaise appalled me the first time it happened, which was after my first year as a full-time artist.

My husband, bless his understanding heart, points out that I never take vacations (hard to when you’re self-employed, vacations are not paid, and you’re puritannical about work) and that I put a lot of pressure on myself with respect to my business … so this yearly cycle is about recharging. It’s particularly pronounced this year, perhaps somewhat due to my emotions regarding our country’s mood and economy.

Anyway, here we go again. The funny thing is, my recharging takes the form of creativity - just not in the same forms as my studio paint work. Sometimes it’s playing with beads, sometimes polymer clay; this year it’s fiber crafts (messing with yarn).

By far the most difficult part of this is actually giving myself permission to recharge (that old puritan thing again).

How about you? Do you ever find yourself needing a recharge? What do you do?

Since I’ve been on this whole book thing for a while … thought I’d pass along some stories that might inspire others.

Recently, Don B (who has probably been wondering when I’d post this!) wrote me about taking the initiative to study works by a deceased artist:

I’ve been reading Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting again. There’s a gallery here that specializes in antique regional art. I’m well acquainted with the owner and gallery manager, so I asked if they’d let me study everything at once. In a miraculous moment, they agreed. So, last week I was able to sit in a back room, all alone with a bunch of his works to study, pick up and handle, or whatever I wanted to do. They even let me take some detail photos. Of course, these are mostly plein air pieces that he did while he was heading up the Broadmoor Academy, back in the early 1900s.

Now how cool is that??

I recall chatting with Tim Shinabarger a few years ago about a stop he made at the Glenbow Museum in Canada (the one that has more Rungius works than anywhere else in the world). When he told them he was a sculptor and wanted to see what other Rungius work was in their archives, they ushered him into a room and laid out loads of drawings, etchings, and studies for him to handle and study. Awesome, eh?

Never hurts to ask - the worst they can do is say “no”.