Etsy Maine Team

    My Art has been on Etsy for a few months now with no results and no sales.  For those of you that don't know, Etsy is an online shopping place for small businesses to list their homemade and vintage items for sale to the public. I was seriously thinking of closing down my account after the holidays, but then I met a fellow artist at one of the craft fairs I did the fall that has had success with Etsy.  So, I took some of her pointers and joined a couple of teams.  The one that has made the most difference has been Etsy Maine Team.  They are a community of Crafters, Artists, Moms, all from Maine.  All the members work together as a team to like and share each others items so that you can get your shop out there beyond your own friends and family.       I have been so overwhelmed with appreciation for these team members since I joined a couple weeks ago.  They have all been so welcoming and supportive.  I have even gotten my first two sales from the team members.  Now I know that 2 sales doesn't sound like much, but to someone that hasn't had a single sale in the almost three months I have been on etsy, 2 sales is a huge deal!  My shop is now up to over 30 items in it and I am working towards 100 listings by this time next year. Yes, yes, I know, that is a LOT of painting to do in the next year!!
 

 I will be branching out soon to wall art, paintings large enough to put in a frame on your wall.  And maybe if I have the time to experiment this winter, paintings on fabric for scarves and such.  Right now I still have cards with my beautiful watercolors on them, as well as jewelry beads with my watercolor artwork on them. I would love it if you checked out my  shop.
     A big thank you to all the Etsy Maine Team members!!
www.pianobycheri.com
www.facebook.com/pianobycheri
www.facebook.com/maineteam

New Challenge

      Well, my art teacher Doris Rice gave us a big challenge this week, a still life with multiple items and textures.  So we have spent the last couple weeks learning to do different textures and now for the real test -- a full blown still life.  So I spent a week racking my brain as to what to bring from home to create my still life.  What to use, what to use??  I didn't want to do a bowl of fruit with a tablecloth, too boring.  I could do a picture of my dog, but what would I put with it?? Hmmm, maybe a martini glass with a mask and beads, a Mardi Gras still life, no, that's not really me.  Maybe one of my scarves, with a pair of boots? No, again too boring.
   

 And then, I finally got it!!  I have tons of old music, why not use that?? Ok, so now, what do I put with old music.  An old plaque with a music saying, yup that works, but what else?  A musical instrument would be nice but all of mine are too big.  Oooh, what about a pair of my fingerless gloves? Oh, and pearls and a flower.  Ok, I'm on a roll now.  All I have to do is arrange it in a way that looks awesome.  Well, now, that is easier said than done.  It took me 40 minutes of arranging and rearranging and taking pictures of them, and the help of another set of eyes to finally decide on one that I really liked. 

  Phew!!! That's over, well, I thought that was the hard part, wrong!!!  That was the easy part.  I bring my selections to class, set them up and think I should get my pencil drawing done of them this week, and can paint it next week.  HaHaHa!  Doris, had other plans.  She gave us all a sharpie and a cheep piece of watercolor paper.  Do a contour drawing in sharpie, she says.   OMG, are you kidding me??? I think I must of held my breath the entire time!  Just knowing that you can't erase it is enough to give you heart palpitations.  I guess, that is why its art CLASS.  I get half way through it and I think, Why did I select so many damn items?!!  But I finally finish the sharpie drawing and of course it looks awful.  But now we have to put in some of the color to make sure we are going to like the end product.  This is our "study" to make sure we really like what we are doing for a still life, to make sure everything is where we want it, to find out what background looks good with it, etc...  Oh, man, I think we were all glad when that class was over!

     So, next week, I get to actually paint this still life, and hopefully it comes out better than my "study" did!!
To see my art visit me on Etsy or on my website
pianobycheri.com

Move your Hands, Move your Feet, and Them some ...

     I have recently gotten involved with the local Dance Hall here in Kittery, Maine.  They offer classes such as tap, belly dance, ballroom, african dance, hoop dance, and others, as well as, hand drum classes.  And they also bring in wonderful music and dance artists to perform on the weekends.  thedancehallkittery.org
     I discovered the little venue from a Spot Light article in the local paper.  They were having a performance featuring Guinean dancers and drummers.  I love African sounds and dance, so I grabbed my friend and we went.  This was last October.  The performance was amazing, and on top of that I discovered that this little venue right around the corner from me offers great classes at a very reasonable price!
     Well, as I've been able, I have taken classes there.  The drumming class is so invigorating.  The teacher, Namory Keita, is very patient.  He is great at working with drummers from any level, and even as a beginner I felt like I was able to learn the song that was being taught to us.  What I underestimated was just how sore my hands would be after that first class.  WOW!  It really takes some getting used to.  I liken it to the first time you ride a bicycle as an adult or the first time you take a spin class.  Your butt is very sore when you get off, but after a few times you don't even notice it =).
     Now, I've never taken any dance classes, unless you count the zumba classes at the gym, but I love dance.  And, African dance intrigues me, in fact so much so that I finally decided to join a class.  I thankfully picked a good night to start, because there were several other first timers there.  The teacher, Liz Fowler, is amazing!  She is joyful and exuberant, and takes you through every little step.  She dances in a really great medium ground, so that you don't feel like you have to kill yourself to keep up with her.  I got to stomp my feet, flail my arms, shake my butt, play drums, connect with neighbors, scream and holler, and get my sweat on!!  How can you go wrong with that?
     So this past weekend they did another performance featuring Guinean dancers and drummers.  It becomes an all day event, because they also do drum and dance workshops throughout the day.  I said, why not, I might as well take advantage of the artists while they are here in town, so I signed up for ALL of them.  Now, in hindsight I may have been a little over zealous.  I don't think I put much thought into what my body would be saying to 2, hour and a half dance classes back to back.  And clearly I underestimated the amount of energy it would take to do all the work shops.
     But, I started the day gung ho, with a drum workshop.  Ismael Bangoura was our teacher, and he is so much fun!  Always smiling, making you forget you are concentrating, and making you smile too, his energy is contagious.  If I had had him as a teacher when I was little, I would have wanted to drum 24/7.  His son was there drumming too, and he was better than all of us in the circle.  Two amazing talents right here in little Kittery, Maine.

     My first dance class of the day was with Sidiki Sylla, Now, don't let his age affect what you think this man is capable of.  Ten minutes into the warm up and I'm already short of breath and sweat is poring off me in rivers!  OMG I still have 80 minutes left of this class!  Unfortunately for me, I was in a room filled with people that have been taking African dance classes for quite a while now.  They picked up this dance the first time every time!  That left me in the back row, flailing my arms in the completely wrong direction, going right when I should be going left, standing up when I should be squatted down, and completely lost, but still sweating my ass off!
     Well, needless to say, I did not make it to the last dance class.  But, I did come back for the performance that night.  And it was everything that was promised.  Liz Fowler's classes got to show off what they have been learning, the Guinean dancers and drummers got to give us a little taste of what the celebrations in Guinea would be like, and the audience got to participate with singing and dancing.  Overall, a very exciting, joyful evening in the Dance Hall, that I hope all the neighbors got to hear, because the drumming was spectacular! pianobycheri.com
 

Owl Craze Insanity

     I have somehow been unwittingly sucked into the owl craze that is in full swing right now.  How can a beautiful, scary, head swiveling, over sized eyed, meat eating bird become a fixation for us??  Who woke up one morning and said I think I will spread that word that it is cool to go mad over owls?  I want to be that person!  I want to be the person that creates the next CRAZE!  Hmmm what shall I pick, ooh, how about the dik-dik.  Don't you want to decorate your baby's room with dik-dik? I mean who wouldn't like a miniature deer/antelope decorating their house?   Way cuter than an owl I think.  But who am I to say what pop culture will choose to fixate on next.
     So, owls it is.  I'm not sure exactly how I got sucked into the craze, but I was surfing the net one day looking for inspiration for a new painting and I found a picture of an owl with a scarf around it. So I chuckled a bit over it, and then realized that if I thought it was cute, other people would too, and that translates into sales.  So I did a painting of an owl with a scarf around it.
     Well, now, I can't just have one owl painting, I have to do a couple more so that I have a collection.  Back to the internet I go for owl inspiration.  OMG, talk about owl overload! Now, I knew that they were popular because of working in retail, but Jiminy Cricket, I had no idea to what extent. So I'm surfing and saving pictures for future inspiration and I realized that I've saved like 25 pictures!  What am I doing?  How did I get so sucked into owls?  How can there be so many cute pictures of owls out there?
     Well, with more than plenty of inspiration, I start painting.  I added two more owl paintings to the first one, to create an owl collection, that is pretty darn cute, if I say so myself. They are now on Etsy for purchase. http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbycheri
along with some of my other art.
     But, now, I have been commissioned to paint a baby owl suitable to give a mom at a baby shower.   So, back on the internet I go to look at more owls!!  I think it might be impossible to avoid this owl insanity. As long as I don't start buying any of it, I might be safe.  I'm still all for the dik-dik, anyone with me?? Together we can start our own craze over miniature antelope.! pianobycheri.com

Printer Catastrophe!!

    So, I'm not just a musician, I also paint.  It's basically a hobby for me, but last Christmas I accidentally found a nitch that I'm kinda good at.  Small sized watercolor paintings that you can make cards out of.  I sold quite a few, much to my surprise last Christmas!  So, this year I thought, instead of making prints on my home computer, I would have them made at a professional printing company.  My plan was to save me a little time and headache from doing it myself.
     Well, I call up Infinite Imaging in York, ME to see if they can give me a quote, they don't have the right machine, so I'm transferred to the the Portsmouth, ME Infinite Imaging.  YES!, they have the right machine and the right paper, so I take in my art and wait for a quote.  A day later I get the email, ... $520!!!!  Jiminy Cricket!!!!   There better be gold inset into these prints for that price!  So off to the next printer I go, not the right paper, the next printer, not the right machine or paper.
     Finally I find one that has the machine and will use my paper, New England Printing in Portsmouth, NH.  They want me to pay to have one done, before they give me a quote for all of them, so I'm reluctant after the first quote, but I agree to it.  They take the one that they think will be the hardest to match, because of the pastel colors in it.  Two days later they have a print ready for me to proof.  I don't know if I have a more keen sense of color, if the guys at the printer are color blind, or what??!  But somehow my red's are pink and my pale pinks are HOT pink.  How does this happen?? and what makes them think that i'm gonna be ok with it??  I mean really, you have the original in front of you, can you not see the glaring differences?
     So, now I have paid them $40 for prints I can't use!  How is it that I can get a print from my home printer that is closer to the original than the printers can with this big huge color printer??  Fellow artists, I now know why prints are so stinking expensive!  So, with no time saved, with less money in my pocket, and definately with a headache, I have learned my lesson. I will continue to use my home printer for my prints. Want to purchase holiday cards from me? Visit my website pianobycheri.com or email me at cherichristenson@yahoo.com