Rooster

I picked up my very first set of prints today of a colorful rooster painting I have been working on over the past semester. It was an interesting experience. I chose Creative Color on rt 2, which was the most expensive printing business but the only one that specialized in artwork. I had to wait a week longer than I was first told, got passed around between several different people, and had to pay a bit more than what I was quoted, but I will certainly be giving them a second chance. The people there were really very nice. I'm only sad I couldn't afford the Giclees!

I am marking these as limited edition out of 50, and have less than 40 available still. They are 11x14 in size and I will be selling them unmatted/unframed at $30 a piece. The originial 16x20 oil painting is still available as well. The colors of the prints are as vibrant as the original, but I'm still pretty happy with them. :)

Citizen of the Year

About 3 weeks ago Ed King recommended me to the March of Dimes as an artist to create a painting for Dr. Jane Ingall, the recipient of this year's Citizen of the Year award. I presented the painting to Dr. Ingall this morning at a ceremony at UMW's University Hall. I have to admit that at first it was all about how awesome I am for getting to do something that spiffy, but after the ceremony I really have to say that I am honored to been able to do a little something for such an amazing and deserving individual.

Hope House Art Tree

The 4 x 4 art Christmas tree got auctioned off for $1200, all going towards the Hope House of Fredericksburg. Mission success! :) Sorry there aren't more pics!

Hope House

The Hope House is a sanctuary for abused women and their children in Fredericksburg. This year they are doing a charity christmas tree auction. I donated a piece for an art tree. Mrs. Iishi put together this tree, and collected dozens of 4 x 4 paintings from local artists to hang as ornaments. The minimum bid for the tree will be $500. http://www.hopehouseva.org/fot.html  I would DIE to have this tree! If only I had $500+ lying around to spend on art... :( Here is the piece I donated:

America Recycles Week

America Recycles Week is from November 7th-14th. Contact Ten Thousand Villages in Central Park for more details. Stop by CFA next week with an eco-friendly idea and get a free ice cream! :)

Superhero Window Painting

Got commissioned to do a window painting at Chick-fil-A this weekend for a superhero dress-up party and Halloween coming up. It was more difficult than I thought it would be, but I managed to work out all the kinks. Hopefully I will be hired to do quite a few more, and then I will definitely know what I'm doing and it will be a lot smoother and quicker. Due to time constraints I had to make two of the characters smaller and fit them on the same window, and leave out poor Iron Man. The only thing that I don't like is that Spiderman looks like a fatty haha! Still turned out great though! :)

Two New Pieces

Both of these were homeworks for the painting class I am currently taking with Ed King at Germanna Community College.

Pop Art Boxer

Blue Ram

Both of these pieces are for sale in the Gallery section of my blog. :)

More still to come soon! There are quite a few pieces that have been lying around for a while in various stages of near completion. One day I will find the time and energy to put on the last few finishing touches...

Google

Finally my blog is on the first page of google when you search my name! Thanks to everyone who commented and visited just for the sake of traffic. Keep it coming, guys. :)

More art up very soon, by the way.

Christmas is drawing near!

It's will be here faster than you know! This year I would really love to make some holiday greeting cards and rent a table at a craft fair to sell them, but realistically I know that won't happen. I have a list of about 20 designs that I want to do, and I haven't had time to complete the first one I started yet. Perhaps I'll have all of them done by Christmas 2011, haha? We'll see. So I won't worry about that for this year. But I do have to start thinking about gifts!

Last year I started shopping 3 months early, using a little from each paycheck and still had to rush at the end. We'll be in Michigan this year, doing stockings again. As much as I'd like to make a painting for all of my friends and family, totally not going to happen either. So I'm thinking that I'll have a few prints made of a couple of my best paintings (that already exist) and let each family choose between them. There, Christmas gifts are already done, just need to make a quick trip to Kinkos!

If anyone has any paintings of mine that they like, but aren't ready to commit to an original, just let me know. I will have a couple extra prints made, and would be happy to sell them upon request. :)

CAN'T WAIT FOR THE HOLIDAYS! :D

First Friday

Tonight was absolutely perfect! As well as hanging out with some great friends and eating some delicious food, the 6 x 6 exhibition at Liberty Town opened today. The reception started at 5pm, and I was really nervous to see what it would be like. 1st place went to one of Bill Harris's students, second went to the praying mantis Ed King painted in class one day, and third place I could not find (obviously was not me). I was, however, greeted excitedly as I walked into the door of the gallery. My octopus sold! My first non-commission piece sold! And better than that--there were several people fighting over it, waiting until the moment the clock struck 5pm to buy it! AHHH! I'm like a REAL artist now! :O

Everyone was just so incredibly encouraging and excited for me tonight. No one is seen as competition, and that is what I really love about the Fredericksburg downtown art scene. It's more like one big happy family. Can't wait to get more pieces out and about and start selling more! Getting started has been really hard and expensive, with no pay off. Finally all the effort I am putting in is beginning to be validated. Looking towards a brighter and brighter future every day. :)



Weekend of Via Colori Fredericksburg

Well, I have to say that this weekend certainly did not go according to plan. Saturday morning I arrived, got my supplies, set up, and got to work. I even upgraded to a 6 x 6 square. It was a very hot, very sunny day, and with little means of shade other than personal umbrellas, it was hard on everyone. Besides this, I developed a cold the night before, and wasn't feeling so well. It was a good day though. I got to meet a lot of new artists and see all their work. The public reaction was great. There were tons of people coming to see despite the heat. There were newspaper and television reporters filming and interviewing the artists as well.

I was doing pretty well until about 1pm, when the combination of sickness and sun exposure began to be a bit overwhelming. I ended up leaving the festival, intending to return early the next day to make up for lost time. I feel like I didn't get as much done as I wanted. I only got to grid, sketch, block in, and then do most of the detail on one face.

But of course, after a summer with almost no rain at all, it had to happen this weekend. I awoke this morning to a slow drizzle and an email saying that all of the drawings got washed away despite the efforts of the volunteers trying to salvage them with tarps. A little disappointing for everyone, but in a way it was sort of a relief. Now at least I won't have to drag my sick but out there and doodle on the sidewalk for 8 hours today in the rain (not that I would mind if I wasn't sick). Even though we didn't get to finish, the festival got great exposure, and I know the turn out of artists and the crowd will be a million times better next year! Here are a few more pictures:

May Kimmer; her piece is about metamorphosis.



Curtis Goldstein; street artist and founder of Via Colori.



VIA COLORI

VIA COLORI - FREDERICKSBURG

Saturday and Sunday, September 25 & 26, 2010

Downtown - Sophia St & Charlotte St

10am-5pm

Via Colori is finally here! It is basically a street art festival taking place downtown, following the style of the centuries old tradition that takes in Italy (I am guessing, haha). There will be live music, entertainers, food vendors, shopping booths, ART, and much more! Gabriel Pons is our area's featured artist, and will be recreating the image above on the streets of our city.

My 4 foot square will be located halfway down Charlotte St between Caroline and Sophia, in Via Area 2. Square 2D to be exact. I (hopefully!) be recreating Leonardo da Vinci's famous work 'Virgin at the Rocks', with a few changes of my own of course. ;P

 

I will be downtown Saturday 9:30am till 2pm, and Sunday 9:30am till whenever the heck I finish this monster. I am a little nervous about the festival, but I know it will be a lot of fun. The reception was tonight, and I was surprised at how small the stack of papers for the artists was. I figured I would just be lost in a sea of better talent than mine, but maybe not after all...

More than anything I am worried about the completion of the piece. It's fairly detailed, and I honestly have no clue if it will work out. Unfortunately, if it doesn't, I can't just say "I hate this!", ruin it, and start over. Hundreds of people will be watching every little mistake. I REALLY hope it goes well!

I saw only briefly saw Gabriel Pons today, but I read an online interview with him recently. He was talking about he was apprehensive for the exact same reasons I am. Today he told me that he was also worried that his piece might be too complicated as well. It's actually kind of reassuring that little ol' me that no one knows exists will be up all night thinking about the same exact things that the famous local artist Gabe Pons is. Everything always works out though, so I know everything will be fine for both of us.

I decided to go out and practice once more tonight, to try and calm my nerves. My last practice was about 30 minutes just before nightfall on my front porch using soft pastels. Tonight was similar, except on the back stoop and with hard pastels. After a while I was just drawing in the dark so I had to call it quits. Not to mention the mosquitos were driving me mad!

Please please PLEASE stop by the festival this weekend! I know it will be crazy amazing and tons of fun. Hope to see you all there! :)



Business Cards

I am almost like an official artist now! :O

Printed them with a DIY packet from Staples. I wanted to order them online, but it would have taken a few weeks, and I need them for Via Colori this weekend. For some reason only 3 edges are white, and the ink looks a little funny in some places, but it will due for now. Too bad I had to get matte--a glossy finish was like an extra $10!

So, what else do I need...? Certificates of Authenticity? Knowledge of how to run a business and what I have to do in relation to my taxes? TO ACTUALLY SELL A PAINTING?! All of thee above, I think. X)

Commisions

If anyone is interested in any commisions or portraits done, here are some very general pricing estimates. The prices may be more or less depending on subject, complexity, and size.

Pencil, black and white
11 x 14...........................$100
Pencil, Prismacolor
11 x 14..........................$200
Charcoal, black and white
11 x 14..........................$100
Charcoal/Pastel, color
11 x 14..........................$150
24 x 30..........................$250

Watercolor
11 x 14..........................$150
24 x 30..........................$300

Acrylic/Oil on canvas
16 x 20..........................$250
24 x 30..........................$400
36 x 48..........................$600

Discounts for family and close friends of course! :) Email me if you have absolutely any questions or requests.

Second 6 x 6 Submission

Arial view robins nest painting.

Sorry for the bad quality! I will get better pictures soon.

My two submissions! These are for the 6 x 6 juried show at Liberty Town. The reception and awards are at 5pm on the First Friday of October, which happens to be the 1st. I would love for anyone to join me-- meet some awesome artists and just have an awesome night in general. :)

http://www.libertytownarts.com/

Google Search

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

I do searches on my name every once in a while just to see what pops up. Lately the first page is almost all facebook stuff, or people with the last name of Kreiner, but it generally changes. Hopefully this blog will be number one on the search soon (now its not on there at all... :( ). But one thing that always pops up is a link to an old Elfwood account I had when I was 13. Elfwood is a website for strictly sci-fi and fantasy art.

Ooooh yes... I can't even begin to remember the login information, and the million times I have emailed them, asking for my account to be deleted, I get no reply whatsoever--not even an automated one! So I give up. Every time you google my name you will see my silly middle-school, anime-fanatic, sci-fi artwork with silly made-up names and stories to go along with them. And if you see any Japanese, I have no idea what it says now, and probably didn't then either.

Untitled & unposted piece that I found in my dresser:

Hey, this hair looks oddly familiar... HEHE! :)

Enjoy the hilarity...!

As my mom keeps reminding me, it's not that they are BAD, just that they are different from my current art interests. I hate them, but I suppose that's just part of being an artist, and that I need to try not to be so hard on myself after all.

Lesson to be learnt here: Don't post crap on the internet that you don't want people to still be finding a decade later.

Contest Submission #1

My first submission for the 6 x 6 contest at Liberty Town! I'm doing a second piece, which will be a robin's nest. Elizabeth Seaver told me that there haven't been many submissions so far, but hopefully there will be a rush at the end! Ed King is doing a series of praying mantids, which are sure to be amazing. I think it will be a spectacular show, regardless. :)

Ideas

Entries for Liberty Town's 6 x 6 contest are due the 26th. That means I really need to get going! I have two 6 x 6 panels, and I started an octopus on one last night. I still need suggestions for the other though! Hopefully they can be finished and dry in time...

New Site

Hey everyone, welcome to my new blog. I'm still working on getting everything right and uploading all of my pieces, so please have patience and above all enjoy!