Self (portrait)

Inspired by this month's Creative Every Day theme, self, I decided to start a new self portrait today. Can you tell what kind of mood I'm in?

I've done tons of self portraits, my whole life long. I like making portraits, and I'm always the most available subject. I'm doing this one (like most of my self portraits) by looking in a mirror. I like working from life when I get the chance.

I actually try to curtail the number of self portrait paintings I do, because they are pretty unsellable (and ungiftable). Not that I only do art to be able to sell it, but I have to sell things in order to have room to produce more. And who wants to live in an apartment full of self portraits? That'd be a little creepy. So would giving people portraits of myself as gifts... so yeah, I try to focus on other things. But I'm enjoying this chance to revisit my oldest subject.

Revisiting the Volksbad

I keep coming back to this tiny painting, trying to rework it into something I can be happy with. The colors have become brighter since the last time I posted it. Not quite where I want it to be yet, but moving in the right direction.

Catching up on the 100 in 100

I signed up for Warrior Girl's 100 in 100 challenge a few days late, so I've been behind from the start (which was supposedly June 1st). No problem, since I don't mind doing more than one drawing/painting/collage per day to catch up. Most of my 100 things will be small sketchbook pages, but I'm also counting the larger works I do when I happen to finish one.

As opposed to Art Every Day Month, when I posted daily, I've decided I don't have to post all 100 creations for this challenge. That leaves me freer to experiment and produce some totally crappy stuff. I like it that way. But I will post some of them. Here are a few of the drawings, paintings, and collages I have created over the past month. I'm proud to say that as of today, I'm all caught up on my 100 in 100.

To join or not to join

Since visiting Munich's new Brandhorst Museum this weekend, I've been trying to justify buying myself a membership to the Munich art museums. For €90 you get a year pass to several of Munich's best art museums (plus a couple in surrounding towns, as well).

Without the pass, I am unlikely to spend €90 on admission to these museums in the next year. But with it, I will be incentivized to go to them more often, in order to make sure I get my money's worth. And wouldn't it be great to have an excuse to go to the museum more often?

Do you have a museum membership? If so, tell me how wonderful it is to help me justify this purchase...

New series: city collages

Dublin, Ireland, 24 x 18 cm, found paper and acrylic on panel.


Tampere, Finland, 24 x 18 cm, found paper and acrylic on panel.

I really enjoyed making these, and I'm pleased with the initial results (I'll do a little more work on the Tampere one, at least). The collage elements consist of paper (maps, fliers) from the cities themselves that I've collected on my travels. I need to buy more panels so I can continue the series.

I think this one is finally finished (although this photo of it is somewhat out of focus):

Piran, Slovenia, 40 x 30 cm, mixed media on panel.

Would you let Google use your art for free?

My husband brought this article to my attention today, about how Google has been asking artists to create skins for them for free. The reward to the artist, naturally, is "exposure", that insipid internet currency.

I am familiar with this sort of scenario, not with my art work, but rather with travel writing. Ever since I started my other blog several years ago, I have been asked to provide my writing to various websites in exchange for "exposure" more times than I can count. My reactions to these requests have ranged from cheerful acceptance to indignant refusal. These days I usually just ignore them entirely.

So why the varied reactions? I've found it hard to come up with a blanket policy to determine how I handle such requests. Whether or not it is in my best interest to provide my writing for free depends on several factors. For example:

• Is it for a cause I believe in? By submitting my work for free, am I helping a really cool website grow? Am I helping to promote someone or something I care about?

• How much "exposure" are we talking about? Will it actually direct traffic to my website or lead to paying gigs for me? Sites that ask you to write for free often exaggerate the number of readers they get or expect, and these days most of them doing the asking actually get less traffic than I do.

• What else is in it for me? Will it give me practice writing in a new style? Will it help me explore a new topic that interests me?

• Who will be earning money from my efforts? Am I OK with that?

Now, back to the art/Google scenario at hand. Would I jump on such an opportunity? Probably, given where I am in my art career right now. Perhaps it would leave a bad taste in my mouth that a large, profitable company was asking me to work for free, but in the end I would probably stand to gain from the scenario overall. But Google is not asking me; it is asking much more well-established artists. Artists who are well-known in their fields, who already have loads of exposure for their work. For them, Google exposure would not necessarily be a benefit. In fact, as the article mentioned, artists agreeing to work for free for a giant, profitable company such as Google could set a "dangerous precedent", one that would harm artists overall. It makes perfect sense to me that so many are turning Google down.

If Google asked you to provide artwork to them for free, would you do it?

Inspired by Kandinsky

Played around with gouache today.