...me and photography

Because Etsy's approach to SEO seems suspect at best, I'm going to post here every time I add something to my Etsy shop (as well as on Facebook/Twitter etc). That way I have a fighting chance of Google finding my listing...

So - here are the last three (I'll be adding links to my 'back catalogue' over time too):

Lonely Crowd

Send in the Clones

Faces in the crowd

Nothing posted in a while, not because nothing is going on, just the opposite!

So - printmaking continues

I've made lots of ATCs (60+!) for an Etsy promotion

I'm also getting my pictures into shops and retail galleries

Ridgeway Gallery, Marlborough, England

Bluestones Gallery, Devizes, England

Another gallery in a tourist area has commissioned me to make some digital pictures of their locality and I will soon be making delivery to them.

I'm also entering some open exhibitions - I'll let you know if I'm successful.

I've also joined Facebook (as Ian Bertram and with a Panchromatica page) and Twitter, where I post quick snippets and thoughts, as well as details of new items on Etsy. If you are on either of these make me a friend/follow me for regular updates.

I'm also trying to set up a mailing list, for those who don't like social media. I don't anticipate sending out more than 2-3 newsletters a year. Sign up by going to my blog here or directly by going here..

Finally, on my main blog I have a list (always growing) of Art Bloggers. Drop in and follow some of them up.

Not short of things to do...

Oh - and now my Etsy shop has over 100 items. I aim to double that by the end of June!

I've started selling on a new site DaWanda, based in Germany, but with three platforms in English, French and German. I've posted one of the pictures now for sale in my gallery. Call in and have a look at the pictures for sale. Don't forget also I have an Etsy shop here with 80+ pieces. If you see something on Etsy but would prefer to pay in Euro, let me know and I will list it on DaWanda for you.

The first 10 people who respond to this post on my main blog will get something made by me. My choice, for you, but I will do my best to respond to input from you... a colour request.

This offer does have some conditions:

• You must make a comment on the main blog to qualify (although comments here are welcome)
• What I create will be just for you
• I cannot guarantee you will like what I create (though I can hope!) If you really don't like it, then please feel free to pass it on.
• You will receive your item sometime before the end of the year.
• You will have no idea what the item is going to be
• You can add one colour suggestion in your response to this post.
• You have to repost this meme (or a variation on it) and make and send out at least *five* surprises of your own. What you create is up to you - a poem, a story, a photograph, or anything else you can think of.

I need some non-english language newspapers for a collage project I'm working on (theme Babel). I have some small amounts in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Turkish, but any language you might have would be wonderful, especially using other alphabets.

All I need is a single sheet that you can fit into a normal size letter post envelope. Folds don't matter, age and condition don't matter - in fact old and battered would be welcome!

I hope you can help.

Please contact me if you can help and I'll send you the postal address. I'll put all those who help out into a random draw for some free art - at least 5 pieces but more if I get a huge response.

Thanks

I suppose it is a truism to say that our tastes change as we grow older. Not in all things of course - I still love Duke Ellington and have done ever since I discovered him aged around 15, which is now some 45+ years ago. I still like the music I discovered as a student - Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Leonard Cohen.

...but what else? I ask this because for most of my life I have had no real interest in making art - I have had pictures on my wall and I have been taking photos almost as long as I have been listening to Ellington, but apart from a short lived attempt about 15 years ago I have never tried to paint. However, over the past 2-3 years, I have almost been overwhelmed by an urge to create. If you look at my photos, you will see a fair number of photomanipulations and that is where I started, but now I'm painting, making collage and making prints. So where is this coming from I wonder?

Sarsen Stones

I haven't been doing much photographic based work lately, concentrating instead on what is for me a new skill, printmaking.

I didn't intend this blog to be once a month posts, but it seems to be working out that way. So, what have I been doing?

Most weekends for the last 2-3 months I have been at craft fairs, but foe whatever reason they haven't gone well and most times I have struggled to make my table fee. To make any money at it I really need to take at least 4-5 times that, especially those for which I can be travelling over an hour to get there. Consequently I am reviewing my 'strategy' for next year (that is code for thinking how the hell do I stop losing money at this game...). I will be concentrating instead on getting my pictures into shows and galleries, even if they are what some US commenter on a Yahoo group I subscribe to called 'vanity' galleries - ie you have to pay a wall fee. For my part I don't see any significant difference between a wall fee and a table fee at craft fairs. I can't display as much in a gallery, but on the other hand once the pictures are up I don't have to do anything. I'm hoping also to get pictures on sale or return into as many retail shops as possible.

I'm also painting and have started a printmaking course. I an currently doing some monoprints and working on a set of collagraph prints. The monoprints are by way of getting to grips with the feel of the inks and papers, but one or two have worked out reasonably. Others are something of a curates egg, but I'm hoping to be able to use those good bits in ATCs and ACEOs.

I'm also experimenting with ways to show the small ATC size pictures, other than the standard transparent sleeves. My idea is to mount the image on a piece of mountboard or card, decorated to complement the image and to frame them, also decorating the frame. The aim is to present the image, mount and frame together in a bag to be sold as one piece of work. We'll see how it goes. This one for example has been mounted in a frame decorated with Chinese language newspapers and then sealed with acrylic medium. I will probably treat this one in a similar fashion, perhaps using Japanese or Korean texts..

Although not triggered by recent events in the financial markets, they have certainly reinforced a changing attitude to the vagaries of life that I have observed in myself over the past few months. As the world outside gets ever more desperate, I find myself becoming more introspective, more inward looking. Don't get me wrong - I still fume and do a Meldrew at the stupidities of politicians and bureaucrats, but I no longer have the urge to get out there and break down walls and change things.

Is this age related? I have just turned 62, and I know from bitter experience that I have bugger all chance of making a difference politically. Indeed my head is still sore from 40 odd (some very odd, but that's another story) years of brick walls. So I suppose it is. Whatever the trigger, from now on life is for me and my family and I shall do whatever seems like a good idea at the time.

For now that means my energies are directed into creative activity. Alongside photography and digital artwork I am sketching and painting and I have just started a printmaking workshop where I hope to learn and develop new skills. At the moment I am concentrating on monoprinting and collagraphy. If I get involved in the community again it will be artistically, joining with other artists and writers to share and talk and generally have a good time - and about bloody time too...

[cross posted from here]

More photos from the carnival uploaded.

Because there are so many, I've used the Ipernity resize function, rather than doing it myself. I'm not very impressed with the resulting quality.

First batch of photos from the carnival just uploaded.

Because we haven't had one, I've just uploaded three summery images - taken over a period of almost 40 years!

I've just uploaded a new batch of images. I normally take each image and do what seems right at the time. This is an experiment in making a 'suite' of images with a consistent feel.

I've just uploaded a new batch. These are only new to Ipernity, going back as they do to 1966!

Last two atcs from my current batch now uploaded.