looking at shadows

my eyes continue to work. i'm looking at shadows. in paint the light is yellow and the shadow is violet. my photo editor is not very sophisticated. may move to a gray value format, much more useful for painting. this photo is useful. sort of primal. the set-up is always there, after dark. the light source is fixed. the model does not move. my $100 camera shows its limitations, the depth of field cannot be finely adjusted. i finally, after 30 odd years, get the depth of field. when painting the eye moves around, the experience is in and out of space. my camera flattens it out. this is okay, because i like the tension between linear surface and a perceived depth, either through perspective, thickness/pressure in the application of the paint, value, hue and intensity. something is forward, because something is behind, and then the ambiquity of visually beside.

all of these last arguments must be left for the time when i have a loaded brush, a canvas, a wash bucket, some soap and water and some good clean lines.

Summer in the Nation's Oldest Working Art Colony

There are lots of live/work gallery spaces available on Rocky Neck in Gloucester MA for the 2008 summer season. click the title link to find out more, there are lots of great pics of available digs. If you want to live and work in a beautiful summer place, this is it. Sales? Some artists sell, some don't. The tourists come here to see the art, so if you have what they want, it is worth it.

I can't afford any of these spaces. I know very few artists that can afford this kind of money for short term space. My studio rent in under $500 a month. It is a shared studio space, and off the beaten path in the Magnolia section of Gloucester. Occassionally the tourists find me, but very few buy. Why? because I don't sell any $25 re-prints of my work. Originals only. and the work in progress is usually not what they are looking for. Seascapes and landscapes capture my interest for short spurts throughout the year,then I go back to what I love. process, not product. Most buyors of art around here don't get that. They want the quaint, the over the couch, art that sits on the wall requiring minimal engagement with the work. When folk visit I use it as an opportunity to educate them about the making of art.

Heh...a few visitors last year got very angry with me because I do not sell prints of my work. One day, perhaps I will. When money is a bit more abundant and not dedicated to paying rent, transportation, art supplies and food.

2006/07 'life on the river' mixed media, egg tempera

http://www.google.com/base/a/3321073/D15893999284168136380

the code above leads one to a description of my first product listed on google base. this will appear for 31 days. then, it will come down. i can post a lot of items. 10 is a good start. looks like i have my work cut out for the weekend.

this is the end of my 6 hours marketing today.
my accomplishments: answered email.
uploaded and later found my product via google web search.
visited lj, made a few comments. (not technically business, although one comment was business related. this comment to [lj user="absolutearts"], and another was in response to a fellow ljr's experience setting up etsy, and another earlier one was about another ljr's comment to my blogspot.

noted: Big Red and Shiny has produced two responses. very good.

a few folk have left through my photobucket.com account. i must reconsider an earlier decision to keep the account private. i can go through and make some albums public. again, something for this weekend, or start tomorrow night.

tomorrow: check in on the youtube developments.

and consider entering a laptop with my website address in a show that has limited wall space, although they want 2d images. thinking, thinking, thinking i am brilliant.

google, google, googling, googling

business update:

my on-line marketing adventures continue through google. today i discovered my old business flagged on google maps, along with the Randomarts Studio (where i still have my studio). i up-dated my listing through the google map with all pertinent details and a picture of one of my fish paintings from the Cape Ann Historical Museum. the new debbie clarke studio flag will appear on the google map in about four weeks. very good.

google then suggested that i list my products in the google base.
i set up the base account.
now i can start listing items that i am selling for free. the listings will appear in google product search, as well as, google web search. the posting of items helps google improve google as it classifies all of the world's resources, including people.

the next step, before i start up-loading my items, is to determine the correct rich text attributes to use. looks like i need to spend some time poking around in the art products to find out how others are describing their work. if i can get it right my reverse glass work should show up along with queries for gold leaf.

i up-dated my artist profile on the blog to include a bit about my art, my inspiration, what i do. and the critical: all of my studio inventory is for sale. and commissions are considered.

i am too pooped right now to do anymore.
i work on my marketing every day (6 hour average). one day i want to get back to painting. but right now i really need to make some money. so, my art is made from whatever is at hand. the camera, the paperdolls.

A few quick oil studies from summer 2007

Looking Towards the Rudder 2007

Beacon Marine across the cove 2007

Magnolia Pier 2007

quoting The Bollenberg

Thursday, February 14, 2008

valentine

this is from a very aged, overly ripened journal that now has a thick layer of mold and teenage angst weighing down its pages. circa 2002, a very fine year. i was 18, and just as bitter then as i am now. how refreshing!

Tuesday, February 12th, 2002

on the thought of roses, flowers, chocolates, love, hearts, cards, bitterness, nausea, and some minor fatigue....

...the day of romance approaches!

one supposed story of valentine speaks of him as a christian doomed to die in a coliseum. before he was sent off to be torn to shreds by lions and gladiators, he wrote a love letter. the catholic church (in conjunction and partnership with hallmark and Trojan condoms) made him a saint, although with a name like "valentine" he most likely was writing to his sweetheart Brutus which is a most uncatholic thing to do and therefore very much to my own approval.

no matter.

this v day im off to baby sit the little boy that puked on me last sunday. after disinfecting myself, i do however intend to twirl around my own bed room in a truly sensational lacey getup while adorned by a beaded crown ive had since the 4th grade and high heels from my 8th grade semi formal...this shall be initiated by the playing of abba's "dancing queen" and other various romantic compilations. possibly some divinyls in the mix as well.

the mere thought of myself doing that is the perfect thing to ruin any passionate and amorous expectations and desires that myself (or other unfortunates reading this entry) have of this day to come. it's a step above drinking alone and sobbing to your cat, but after the imagery presented above, you just might find yourself one rung higher on the proverbial ladder of self deprivation.

drink deeply friends and happy, happy humping.

copyright elizabeth bollenberg, all rights reserved 2008

rich life 2007

Paper Dolls

busy, busy, busy.

The winners are: Latharia, Inner Reflection, Deelight, Susan, September Bird.

Gotta get ready for work now. Will update with more information later today with a big surprise!

Paper Dolls First cut

Francis Bacon Studio, and I thought I made a mess!

Paper Doll Paper

Freshly pressed hand dyed, waxed rice paper, folded, ready to be cut into paper dolls.

One World One Heart Blog giveaway

Update 2/12/2008: I am overwhelmed by the response to this! I have seen so many beautiful blogs by visiting the sites referenced in your comments here. I have learned that I do not know how to respond to individual comments left in my blog. I have entered very few of the giveaways, because I have been downsizing my possessions since my husband died 5 years ago. First our apartment, with all furniture except beds was unloaded. Then I and my daughter (now 24 and in art school, graduating in May if we can keep up finances) moved in with a friend of mine. Moved with this friend two years later to another house and downsized further. Last year I moved into my significant other's apartment (small, small, small) and downsized further. I still have more stuff to unload, including a 40 year inventory of art. SO....do not be offended if I did not enter. There are so many wonderful things out there. The giveaways I entered are for items that, should I win, I know to whom I will give them to.

Drawing time: 11:59 pm 2/13/2008. I will pick winners for original paper dolls.

I will give away as many freehand, freestanding paper dolls as i can by the end of february.
made from hand dyed, waxed rice papers.
paper dolls range in size and format. following are samples from my last giveaway to friends at my LiveJournal.









to receive one, comment here and send pertinent address to elli01930@yahoo.com

Self Portrait at 54

Gone Bananas!

reconsidering diebenkorn

My Rich Life

Above: Debbie gets Diebenkorn
Digi Print FOR SALE




debbie clarke reconsiders diebenkorn. above/below digi prints FOR SALE

my reading list.

Below:There is a Debbie order to this. Coil Head Doll photo byphotographer Cynthia Capone (collection of Debbie Clarke)

Below: Shrine to the Heart of Love, in my bedroom.

FOR SALE: wire drawings on mirror with wax and gilt. HA! We made a 15 minute mad dash through Shambala
in Central Square last Saturday morning. SCORE!

wave of my possessions. paper, wood,hot water bottle

Gilding the 3rd Eye mini

This is the mini or what could be called 'the rush' for the longer Gilding the 3rd Eye.

Gilding the 3rd Eye

another 'short shot' in the 'hands to work' series. this is the long version

hands at work

Another 'Short Shot' is in the works. The short video will show how I apply silver leaf to a panel using acrylic paint and medium.