UNDER CONSTRUCTION:

Recently decided that I wanted to start blogging and posting some of my recent artwork and other creative junk. It's slow moving so disregard sporadic random posts that are imported from old online journals and dead links. There will be stuff here soon!

Life Lesson #1: It's not always about you

Photo Credit: riviera2008

It's not always about you

 

I want to make it clear that I don't mean this in a negative way, in fact, quite the opposite. I have found in my personal experience and from the observation of others that humans, generally take things- all things, awfully personally. Now, don't get me wrong now, I am not saying that there aren't circumstances in which that is an appropriate reaction. For the purpose of this article, I am going to focus on the inappropriate times. 
Let me illustrate:

You are having a conversation with a friend via instant messenger. The conversation isn't necessarily riveting but it's slow yet steady. After a while you stop getting responses. You wait a while assuming something came up, but after a substantial amount of time you type something else out. Still nothing. You wait some more, maybe they are away from the computer, you type more, nothing. what do you think in this situation? The answers will certainly vary but I bet that at one time or another you would answer: 'what did I do to make this person ignore me.'

What about this example?

You run into a friend at work. You smile and say hello and get greeted with a less than enthusiastic remark. What goes through your mind? Could it be something like: 'What did I do to deserve that reaction"

I have personally experienced both of these scenarios, and I have at times felt to blame for the other persons actions. It's during times like these when I try to ask myself this one simple question: What evidence do I have that supports what I feel? I'm talking real evidence. Did the other person flat out say 'Yes, it is your fault that I am in a foul mood'? Most of the time you will come up empty handed. Sadly, humans are self depricating creatures. Often we will take responsibility for negative events, especially if they are no fault of our own and even if we have evidence to disprove this, yet often are unwilling to recognize or take responsibility for our outstanding achievements, even if we have evidence to prove we should. The fact of the matter is that there are a million+1 possible reasons for the reactions you receive. Your friend on the computer could have a serious virus that is freezing their computer up, maybe their oven is on fire. Your coworker may have had a fight with their partner that morning or maybe their dog snored all night and prevented them from getting any rest. You aren't a mind reader and most importantly, it's not always about you.

So next time you catch yourself personalizing a situation make sure you step back and ask yourself 3 important questions:
1- Are you making this about you?
2- Is there any evidence to prove that this is your fault?
3- What would you say if a friend were reacting the same way you are to this situation?

Answering these questions can really help ground you and really take a more objective look at the situation. And remember, don't be so quick to assume that you've done something wrong. Use all that energy to focus on all that you do that is right. 

MMM: Pricing Your Products Fairly OR Pricing So You Can Eat

I have come across a couple of really great articles with regards to pricing your product fairly. I think it's one of the most difficult and important parts of having a business or just selling for fun. You need to find a price that represents your worth and the quality of your work as well as being able to sustain the expenses required to create. I strongly recommend checking out these articles! I found them to be ridiculously insightful and thought provoking.

♥ How to Price Handmade Goods
This is one of the greatest resources I have found in a while. Not only does it detail the ways to calculate a fair price for your products but it gives you step by step calculations to use in estimating overhead costs and things that a lot of entrepreneurs don't think to account. DEFINITELY WORTH READING!

♥ mindful earning: 3 rules to set prices with a conscience.
There is some really great information here about pricing with a conscious  and it brings up a really thought provoking topic. How you may actually benefit by increasing your sales instead of lowering them and the authors take on how consumers view products that are under priced.

♥ more profit = more to give
This is just an interesting article for those who may feel guilty or unsure about increasing their prices. It brings up the idea that just because you can gain a comfortable income doesn't mean that you have to be greedy and that you can contribute to other worthy causes, make a profit, and price your items fairly.

The opposite of love is not hate.

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference." -Elie Wiesel 

I read the book 'Night' when I was a sophomore in high school. This quote has always stuck with me. I think there is such truth behind this statement. I be if you were to ask 10 people off the street what the opposite of love was, most, if not all would say hate.  was one of them, if you were to ask me I'd answer the same way...without thinking. Maybe that's the problem. The fact that people often say what they are used to hearing instead of taking the time to think. I'll talk more about this next week. It's what I like to call the battle between true beliefs and accepted truths.
The issue with the accepted truth in this scenario is that love and hate are placed on the same scale. Do they belong on the same line? I don't know but I don't think so. You see, love and hate are a lot more similar than one may think. Yes, they are manifestations of positive and negative but that doesn't mean that as a whole they are opposites. It seems strange, I know, but when you break it down it makes more sense.
Love and hate are both emotions. What do they both have in common? They are both extremes. They both require passion, without passion people wouldn't get to the point of love or hate. They also require investment, emotional investment. Without emotions invested there wouldn't be any reason to reach those extremes. One of the most compelling similarities between the two is energy. Especially the amount of energy invested and used. Both emotions require the same high amounts of energy to even reach these feelings. I mean, for the most superficial example love and hate are both represented with the shades of red. You see there is a fine line between love and hate. The only defining factor is circumstance. Whether the circumstances harbor positive or negative feelings. Love and hate are most like two sides of the same coin, different but together.
      When you think of indifference as the opposite of love it begins to make more sense. Indifference is a prime example of the absence of f emotional investment and invested emotion. Indifference is not extreme at all. It's nonchalant and indescript. That is what sets it on the other end of the spectrum from love and hate. They don't need to travel the same scale but the don't belong on opposite ends either.

Monday Morning Meeting #1

posted by cfi02 on www.sxc.hu

     In my search for knowledge about starting a business I have come across a substantial amount of good information. Information that I could keep to myself, however, I'm feeling generous and would love to share some of the nuggets of knowledge with whomever happens across this blog. I am continuously scouring the interwebz for more info for myself, thus benefiting you in the process.

Here we go!

♥  Short and Sweet: 4 Tips for Fast and Easy Blog posts
I found this article on meylah to be simple, yet informative. I was really interested in the information about the audio software on the computer. I actually tried it out after I read this. I have wanted to invest in a recorder for a while now. Turns out my mic is too crappy to work well, but cool too nonetheless!

♥ Want More Readers? Try Expanding Your Internet Universe.
This article on Copyblogger was surprisingly insightful and eye opening. Intergalactic theme aside, I found it interesting how I, personally, was operating in a generally small orbit online. Without thinking about it, I assumed the people I came across online knew the same people/things/places that I did. The reality is I was right. The people in my 'circle' online are all connected, and most do know about the same things. It's really kind of exciting to go on a link hunt (At least I like to call them that) Where you click on an interesting link and then another and then another. You'd be surprised the types of things you learn and the types of places you end up. Actually, this is the way I have learned so much about small business, craft business, SEO and marketing. I hadn't ever ventured in that part of the internet before. I'm sure glad I did.

♥ 3 BIG mistakes to avoid with your creative biz blog
I liked this article by Tara of www.taragentile.com but I have to admit, it made me a little uncomfortable. Not in the way you may think though. It made me uncomfortable because I didn't know. She poses three simple topics that cause issues if not addressed well. I thought about how I utilize those things and I noticed I don't do it very well. When I try to think of the answers, I get stuck. It's good in that it makes me really think about things but it definitely is uncomfortable to not completely understand how it all works, or at least where to start. I'm on a journey and it takes time.

Hope you find something to take from these three articles! Until next time...

Poor man's image tranfers: A how-to

I MADE MY FIRST IMAGE TRANSFER!
(check out the video)

I had always been so intimidated by the thought of making my own image transfers. For some reason it always seemed so far out of my reach, but alas! It's really quite simple.

I'm calling this a tutorial but it's more some tips on how I did it, and some neat things I found out. There are many, many image transfer ideas out there, more than I would think. I just happened to take a spin of the gel medium transfer. I find that most mixed media artists suggest doing the image transfers with Golden's soft gel medium. I didn't have any of that, so I just never tried it out (which you shouldn't do! I have found out with experimentation that you should never not try something based on a lack of supplies, there are always alternatives, especially cheap ones- these are things I want to share)

After viewing a video on YouTube of Claudine Hellmuth doing a demo of image transference just using some acrylic paint I realized that even though the majority people may do something one way doesn't mean that is the ONLY way. Great thing to remember folks.

Anyway, onto this little tut.

The supplies are simple:
-Mod Podge (used for decoupage and much more inexpensive than Golden's gel medium, although gel medium nonetheless I found out)
-A paint brush or sponge to apply Mod Podge
-Your surface to put image on
-Your image (Which must be toner based ie: photocopy, magazine image, picture out of a book etc) **please note that whatever image you are using is going to be in reverse so if you want it to be text you will need to flip the text and then print it out**
-A credit card or something hard to use as a burnishing tool
-Bowl of water


1. Take your image and apply mod podge liberally to the FRONT. Now I've heard several different references to how to gauge this and what I did was spread it like I was lightly buttering toast. Cover the entire image.

2. Place image/mod podge side down where you would like your image to transfer.

3. Take your credit card and firmly drag it across the surface in all directions being sure to apply even pressure. You have to be careful not to rip through the actual paper.

4. Now here is a variable part. I am impatient so I wanted to push the limits. I've heard to leave these for up to 30 minutes to dry- I on the other hand, probably waited about 3 minutes. Pull from the corners up to see if the ink stays on your page being altered. If it has start tearing it up gently. It doesn't need to all come off, I just like to get rid of as much as I can get away with. If you see the page underneath starting to rip or the image starting to distort you may want to leave it a bit longer or stop pulling it up.

5. I take my fingers, but you could take a cloth and get it damp and begin rubbing in circular motions gently. You'll soon see what's left of the image sheet starting to roll up and fall away. This part may take a while for you to get it all up but it really depends on your taste. I happen to like the shabby sort of feel. The imperfection of it looks nice to me. I think if you wanted a more uniform or perfect image you should let it dry longer. I was concerned about the fact that some of the mod podge got onto the back while burnishing and the fact that once the mod podge is dry it is waterproof so I honestly don't know how that will work.

6. Keep working at your image until it is clear of the haze that is left from the image paper pulp and there you have it. A awesome image transfer.

Now keep in mind that this is not necessarily the idea method. It produces quite a messy result (which I happen to enjoy sometimes) I just wanted to share this one because it is the best for those who have a tight budget (like me!). I also wanted to encourage experimentation because you never know what you will figure out!
                   Some examples:
(Self portrait- image printed on plain printer paper, transferred onto a watercolored background)

(Image from a paperback book- window on a brick building onto water colored background)

**Please click for larger images**

If you end up seeing this post and trying this out, share what you do- I'm totally interested in seeing

Conte Crayons: Review

So I've heard about/seen conte crayons before but never really knew what they were. They were on sale online the other day so I got a small package of them and decided to try them out. They come in a plethora of color choices I guess but I got the traditional package which consists of black, white, brick reddish brown, and chocolate brown.

I ended up drawing a couple portraits, and I really liked how they came out. The sepia tone that is created is really nice I think, and it gives it a very old world feel. Which makes sense considering conte crayons are what the old masters used so a lot of the ancient art is made with that brick/brown tone.

I posted a video of me quickly throwing together a portrait on my YouTube. Feel free to check it out here.  I really liked using these. They reminded me a lot of chalk pastels, which I expected considering these are made from clay and other materials instead of using up the precious graphite back in the day. The plus about them is that they are less chalky even though you can blend them. They will get on your fingers but they don't get everywhere if you just lay your hand on them. The downside is similar to that, they don't necessarily blend as easily because they aren't as movable. I found that it was hard to blend the brick and brown together without putting the white over it to smooth out the lines which you will see in the video. I guess you just have to play with it. I think they are definitely worth checking out though at some point or another, I had a good time.