Looking back at 2007

Ceramic artist and blogger Cynthia Guajardo recently suggested using this time to post about what the year was like for us art-wise.

Well, it was a good art year for me. In March I had a one-person show at the Tulsa Artists Coalition which was my most successful one person show ever. Besides selling half the show, the staff was great to work with and the whole experience was fun.

Then I took an online art marketing course from Alyson Stanfield which truly helped me make the most of the whole solo-show experience. Some of the participants have continued to keep in touch on a Yahoo group, and that has been very helpful and pleasant as well. With their help I started my website and this blog. I also subscribed to a rather expensive one-year experiment with TODL (Trade Only Design Library) as an art marketing tool. So far I've had no sales via TODL, but I have mailed over 1,000 postcards to people who have looked at my work there.

I also opened a small Etsy store, and have sold a few pieces there (and have bought even more!). In summer, besides the usual Art Camp here in Cushing, I taught a week of painting at Art Experience camp on the campus of NEO University in Tonkawa, Oklahoma. That was a good experience too. We focused on animals. Then in the fall I attended the photography workshop at Quartz Mountain I've mentioned before, and also taught a woodcut workshop at the Ponca City Art Center. All in all, I sold a record thirty seven pieces of art this year. Amazing.

So, what is this year going to bring? I don't know of course, but I do know I've finished one painting this first week of the year, so maybe it is off to a good start.

The photo I just posted isn't a painting, but a lovely bird's nest that was in the weeping willow that is now mostly cut down due to damage from the massive ice storm we endured a few weeks ago. It has a soft swirling form from the long narrow willow leaves, I've never seen a nest quite like it. There are mountains of tree branches piled in heaps in front of everybody's houses, and the birds have all moved in to those warm sheltered places. I'm pretty concerned that they will soon be building nests there which will all be destroyed by the time the city is finally able to haul the mess away.