Norwescon: my spring art show

I'm starting a new group of dancer pieces using the phrase "Dancing with the Stars" as my theme.  While I'll be talking about them and some of the pieces will have silkscreen prints in my etsy store as I make them, the new work will debut at Norwescon at the end of March.  Norwescon is a volunteer run Science Fiction & Fantasy convention that's held on Easter weekend every year in SeaTac.  It's very popular with artists so I was only able to get one panel this year so I'll have a 4ft by 4ft panel of new art to show.   I'm basing the new work on older pieces and doing variations on these pieces shown below. 

Original 'Space Dancers'

This piece was my first combination with the dancers and astronomy photos.  That worked somewhat but I'd like to simplify the composition by reducing the elements and not have as many textures and colors going at once.  One of my other pieces that sold almost immediately has that simpler color palette.

Infinity & beyond

The problem with this piece was the funny size.  This was 20" wide and 10" high and was a pain to frame.  I'm going to try this piece with a more square finished size and we'll see how that goes.

And finally, the piece that got lost in transit while I had 2 studios, one public and one at home. 

'Grounded'

I really like the central figure with the marbled fabric streamers swirling around the globe, the dancer and then off into space.  I was so sad about losing this piece that it's been hard to do another one but it's definitely on my list for this year's work.

Things I want to combine in these new pieces:  glow in the dark paint, some new celestial fabrics I just ordered this morning,  and using paper to work out the compositions before doing the textile pieces.   I'm excited about the ideas I'm getting as well as finally having the studio set up so I can work easily.  I got in some studio time every day this week which is also a good thing. 

I'll be posting as I make progress on these and I look forward to sharing them with you all. 

My top ten blog posts of all time

I seem to mostly be over this horrid flu, having lost at least 3 weeks to it. This post, about my top 10 blog posts ever, was intended to be done around Jan 1 since that's when lots of folks look back on what's been accomplished in order to help plan what's coming up.  So, almost 2 weeks late, here it is.

Top of the heap with 1096 views is Quilt labels.  I wrote about how to use word and clipart to make pretty quilt labels in September of 2008.  This is one of the posts I'm planning to redo sometime this year as I think it needs updating to what I'm doing now which uses gimp and my photos instead of Word and clipart.  Still getting lots of views, mostly due to links from other blogs and websites. 

#2.  http://lizcopeland.blogspot.com/2009/12/december-baking-and-gluten-free.html  The most popular of my non-art blog posts.  Because who doesn't love cookies?  Especially for the winter holidays.

#3.  http://lizcopeland.blogspot.com/2011/10/stamp-carving-or-another-way-to-make-my.html
This is the other blog I'll do an update on.  I did much more stamp carving after this article and I'm planning on using some of those stamps this year for etsy store products.  The photo below shows the large size of the carved stamps that I used to make several pieces of art so I'll talk about carving those stamps and show my new uses of them. 

#4.  The first blog post about news sources and where they sit on a spectrum of ideology and accuracy.  It was done recently, 12/1/16, and has been viewed 192 times.  (For context, I get 300-400 views per month so that many in essentially a year makes this a very popular blog post.)

#5.  http://lizcopeland.blogspot.com/2010/11/shows-entry-tracking-system.html  One of my most technical artist business posts is still very, very popular.  And I'm still using the same system so I am confident in its utility.

#6.  The second blog post about news sources, done 12/14/16.  Some quibbling about exactly where sources rank but in general, very similar to the earlier one.  

#7.  I am still not sure why Virtual Vacation in Chiliwack was so much more popular than my other virtual vacations posts but it was.  It's been 7 years (and a bit) since I went to Chiliwack and now that I live closer, I'm planning to go much more often.  

In 2012 I did several art experiment posts.  #8 was about experimenting with discharge paste and #9 was some dye experiments.  I was looking to do a fabulous gray and tried some things out.

#10 was about upcoming shows in Edmonds which is pure history at this point.

So what did I learn?  Six out of the 10 were art related which is a little bit higher than the percentage of posts I do about art.  So I guess people like hearing about my art, at least the experiments and how-to's.  I had already decided to do more of that type of posting so I'm happy to have the data to support that decision.    

Some other things I got by looking at the statistics blogger provides is that regular posts mean higher traffic.  (All together now "Duh".)  And links to other blogs/sites matter.  Again Duh.  My goal for this year is to focus & practice in my studio and part of that will be blogging about what I'm doing.  So here's for meeting goals in 2018!

National Bird Day - share and enjoy the birdiness

I'm so glad it's National Bird Day.  This gives me a really easy thing to blog about as I go down for the third time with this blasted flu.  So while I curl up with my iPad and look at birds online, drinking ginger tea and opening yet another bag of cough drops, here's some of my favorite local birds that I am quite pleased to share space with.

2009 - Langley beach flyby

This fav great blue heron shot was taken during an early morning walk on the beach while at a quilting retreat in Langley.  I only wish I had had a better camera so the picture would have more pixels.

2005 - bushtit babies

This great shot of a group of young bushtits was taken through the greenhouse window in the kitchen from at least 25 feet away.  I got very attached to the bushtits in my yard because they would come perch on the holly bush outside my studio window, lining up in a row and peering through the window like a group of toddlers asking "Whatcha doing?"

2005 CA trip - cactus wren

Another favorite old shot of a cactus wren.  I love the light hitting him, the spot of red, the shadows on the cactus.  A friend and I did an intense birding trip to various areas of Southern California in 2005 and that's how I discovered I really like traveling to bird.  It reminds me that all birds are local somewhere no matter how exotic they seem to me.

2009 - Lake Sammamish SP - eagles

And what look at Western Washington birds would be complete without Eagles?  It's so funny to go to, say, Louisiana or the Texas coast and have the local birders want to show me the bald eagles that have shown up unexpectedly.  Yea, thanks, backyard birds for us....  How bout a grackle?

May 2018 be healthy and birdy for all of us.