Flash Back Friday / My Greeting Card Days

Back in the Mid 1990's I was working full time as an independent greeting card designer. Each year I would go to the National Stationery show in New York.  Those were fun days. One of my best pals at the time was also a card designer and we both worked constantly. I learned a lot about design, production and marketing during those days.  I also learned that I could work alone in a business and yet still figure out a way to have collaborators and co-workers beyond the confines of my home office.

This was our first New York show. I had my first Paper Chase order that year and had to come home and figure out production very quickly. Paper Chase is a chain stationery store in England and they would order several dozen designs and within each style would be a required quantity of like one dozen - dozen, so literally hundreds of cards.  A Paper Chase order would make my year.

Notice the card board display! It was back in the day of recycled everything and brown kraft paper was very in. We left our display behind and only had to pack our card decks.

Skinny girl in vintage suit, showing off legs! I was in my early 30's.  This is Michael, he was my mentor and best friend. It was during a press check with him late one evening that I ran into my husband Dan again, and we reconnected after having dated briefly in college. Michael also gave me my very first employee and current employee Lola. She had worked for him when he ran and owned a gift shop here in Dallas.

This is Mark, he is an artist that showed with us and he later became one of our card reps. I think this was our 2nd year at the show. The following year we had a bigger space and some stunning shear aqua fabric as a back drop. The display boards above are made of metal flashing, black coroplast, and cardboard.  The following year we used translucent coroplast and it was very cool looking.

Vote Baby Vote!

© artpaw.com

Bow Wow ... time to vote. Go to the polls .... stay in line ... get it done.

Many New Pet Portraits

I feel like my head has been a real fog since we got back from vacation on the 13th, but here we are at the end of the month and I see that I have actually proofed 12 clients in the last 11 days, so I guess I am working each day and I am indeed very busy. I will post a few recent projects and at the end of this post there will be a plea for those wanting to do holiday portraits to order now.

"Dalilah & Delphi" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Heilo" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Kaz" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Kita" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Oliver"( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

 

Yes .... now is the time to place those holiday orders. I will be putting the Christmas trim on the site next week, and try to start urging folks to order before the end of November.  I always post my deadlines each year and I always get very eager and very kind folks calling me one week before Christmas and they earnestly explain that well they just now found out about my site ... so of course they are not ordering custom art late in the game ... they just are ordering when they discover us. I have gotten much better at saying no to late orders. My first 8 years in business I would be working on Christmas Eve, hand delivering local orders. Now after 14 years in business I am slowly learning to have a life outside of work, and to stick to my posted policies.
You can order your pet portrait On-line today and have a portrait under the tree.

Mosaic Monday / Italy

Earlier this month we went to Rome and Florence. I have some pics to share next week of ancient mosaics that we discovered but today I want to share the many modern mosaics that I saw on my trip, starting with a floor in my own neck of the woods that I have been hearing about. The DFW airport has lovely mosaics in some of their terminals, however to see them you have to be checked in, past security and on your way somewhere. What a great way to start my trip ....

DFW Airport Mosaic Floor detail
"Celebration" - Beatrice Lebreton

DFW Airport Mosaic ( my hubby looking fresh)

Now on to the Subways of Rome ....

Mosaic Rome Subway
Vroom vroom baby

Rome subway Mosaic
Look at the stunning random yellow dots to the right on this detail

It was dark in the tunnels so image quality is not as high as I would have liked. Dan has a couple more on  his camera cards I will try to get and share with yall later this month. If I ever get back to Rome, I plan to spend a day riding the subway, just popping on and off to see what all I missed. To see a few more that I missed, check out the blog: http://mosaicphotos.blogspot.com/2005/08/rome-metro-subway-mosaics.html

Pet Portrait Updates

"Lulu & Harry"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Parker & Pepper"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Working on design updates today. The pups at top are for a terrific repeat client in the UK that always gives me great photos to work with. The canine-feline duo are for a client that is doing multiple projects this month. I am starting on her Westies next. Both clients are purchasing portraits as gifts for their pals. Yay!

Going to try hard to get back to more frequent blog posting. I am teaching one night a week at our local creative arts center here in Dallas and also taking a ceramics art class one night a week.  I find a direct correlation between how much I blog and how active I am in the physical world. It seems that the more I get out of the house and meet with other artists in my city the less time I have to spend on line. I am always trying to find the right balance when it comes to my web-life and my real life. I know that my blog gives my business a pulse and reassures potential clients that yes, there is a real person going to work each day here at Art Paw.

Art Paw Birthday Sale!

We are turning 14 this month. Wow, I can not believe I have been creating pet portraits for 14 years. To celebrate I am having a sale on 14 x 14 stretched Painterly style portraits. If you order on-line and check out with our shopping cart you can save 14% ( $49) on our new square 14 x14 sized portraits.  You just have to use promo code " Birthday" then hit recalculate to see your savings.
The sale is good until the end of the month.  Order Now!  
This will probably be our last sale of the season on pet portraits, so don't miss out. Now is the time to be ordering for Christmas.

"Big Tommy"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Lovely German Shepherds

"Frankie & Phoebe" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Sometimes clients need just a little help choosing from the many proofs I provide ( anywhere from 10 to 16).  The good news is that once they narrow their favorites down I can easily create a mock up for them of the artwork on their walls, if they can e-mail me a quick snapshot. I am usually not a fan of cell phone images for the pet photographs that I work from, but cell phones are a great tool for showing me interior shots of where the artwork will hang.  I also kind of enjoy seeing inside the lives of my 4 legged subjects... notice dog toys at bottom left of fireplace ... so cute.

This project is a large 36 x 24 for a terrific repeat client. I can not wait to see these stunning pups printed up, great original photos on this one.

Mosaic Monday/ Skull Art

"Write This Upon a Page"
© rebecca collins

Last Friday I started a Day of the Dead project using appropriated text from my Grandfather's poetry. I never knew my biological Grand Father because he died when my Mom was just a kid. I think he must have been a bit of a character. The little I do know of him is this:
He had the only auto in town when he met my Grandmother.
He was 60 years old when he married my Grandmother and she was only 20.
He had 6 wives total in his life and I am not sure how many kids.
When he was just a boy he fought in the Spanish American war.
He was a printer by trade and a poet.

The last factoid was interesting to me since my husband is a poet and a printer as well.

The entire skull will be covered in glass and then grouted. The text will show through the glass.
I have about 6 more hours to go on this one ... I think.

"Write This Upon a Page"
© rebecca collins

"Write This Upon a Page"
© rebecca collins

"Write This Upon a Page"
© rebecca collins

"Write This Upon a Page"
© rebecca collins

Kina & Vesty

"Kina & Vesty"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Goodbye to sweet Kina & Vesty. I am so very sorry to hear that these sweet pups have gone on to the bridge.

New Pet Portrait Video

Lola knocked out another video today of  Art Paw's recent pet portrait commissions from July. I really enjoy it when we can get these quick monthly portfolios on-line and I hope if you see your pet here that you will share the link with your pals.  I am sure as we get busier towards the fall with more commissions we will have to put video making on the back burner.

Sketch My Pet Contest

I am in the mood to draw and experiment this month and I am having a contest over at Facebook. I will be doing Wacom Sketches of 20 pets. I have decided that 10 of the winners will be based on vote count and 10 winners will be just based on photo quality and my own personal whims. 

Click here to Enter Your Pet Snapshots!

Prize:
 I will be mailing out 8 x 10 prints and goody bags to all winners at the close of the contest.

Rules: 
• You must be a fan over on facebook to enter.
• You may vote every day and encourage your pals to vote.
• The photo you submit must be of your pet and taken by you or other non professional ( in other words no copyright protected professional photographs.)
• You understand that Art Paw holds the copyright on all artwork created from your photos.
• Your artwork may be used in marketing materials or printed book portfolios.
• Contest ends September 1st.


What is a Wacom Sketch?

A wacom sketch is a quick drawing that I create using my wacom drawing tablet and photoshop. These works are different from my standard portraits in that they are much faster, looser and there is more emphasis on line work.  You can see samples below, or check out my facebook page for some examples of winners from last week. It is not too late to enter, I am picking new winners almost every day of the week.

© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Mosaic Monday / New Robot Mosaic Started

© rebecca collins / work in progress

This is the start of a new mosaic. I am still painting on the board right now. It will be my very first mixed media mosaic that will combine some of my ceramic elements. I think of it as a "spare part robot totem". A totem seems like a natural transition from some of the Mounted Bot Trophies that I have been painting and working with earlier in the year.  Totem poles and taxidermy make me think about reverence and sometimes the irreverence that man has shown for nature and wildlife over the centuries. Treating technology and robot related stuff with the same exalted status that we reserve for animals is a little silly and quirky. I could get philosophical and talk about "the machine versus nature", and tons of other smarty pants art talk, but the reality is it just makes me giggle and that is why I am doing it. Maybe there is a lot of deeper stuff going on that I am not even aware of, but it makes me smile and that is reason enough to do it.

About This Art Project:
The background artwork will be covered in translucent glass. The center strip of black has a white circuit board pattern and it will be raised up on a thin board that will be bolted to the main board, the bolts will of course show. The background portion of the board will get grouted however the main totem part will not be grouted and it will have lots of chunky tessera to go with the chunky ceramic parts. I have a rusted spark plug and rusted piece of metal that I found on one of my dog walks and I will be using lots of that sort of stuff on the top totem portion. I think the found metal objects will mesh perfectly with my ceramic bits.

The Mosaic Challenge:
My mixed media mosaic work has always been layered, however the layering has been underneath the surface with the top of the mosaic work being relatively smooth due to the nature of my stained glass material. My goal with this project is to start getting chunkier and allow my layers to start coming forward by creating a very rich surface texture with chunky tile and mixed media elements.

My other big challenge is a constant design issue that I face and that is the problem I always create for myself by having so much going on. I am not into big bold simple compositions, I tend to throw everything possible that I can find into a piece including the kitchen sink. The result can be that sometimes my main subject gets lost a bit. For example the totem portion of this piece might stand out and be more powerful if I were to just do more of a solid bold color on the background board where you see all of the painted work, but of course I like it busy.... and so I will work hard to make it work. Wish me luck!

Golden Doodles Shipping Today

Roxy & Westley ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Roxy & Westley ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

It is a rainy cloudy day here in Dallas, (yay). Lola is here and she is stretching several projects today that will ship out very soon. Once I get her projects printed up I will organize the month ahead. We are getting very busy here at Art Paw.  Today we ship: Roxy & Westley, Chewy, Nico, Lara, Buster & Mishka.

Mosaic Monday / Mosaics Dallas

Looking forward to a trip to the Dallas Museum soon to check out the show " The Legacy of The Plumed Serpent in Ancient Mexico". It runs through November 25th and is the first large-scale exploration of the ancient kingdoms of southern Mexico and their patron deity, Quetzalcoatl, an incarnation of the spirit force of wind and rain that combined the attributes of a serpent with those of the quetzal bird, thus the name “Plumed Serpent.” The mosaic disc below looks like a must see.

Turquoise-mosaic Disk, Mexico, Yucatan, Chichen Itza, Maya, AD 900–1200. Wood and turquoise. Diameter: 9 5/8 in. (24.4 cm). Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City (10-9649). Photo Credit:  Museum Associates/LACMA, by Jorge Pérez de Lara

 Mosaic Learning Opportunities in Dallas:

In other news, I will be teaching a mosaic class at the Creative Arts Center that starts on August 23rd. There is still time to register on-line.  I have already heard from one student that is planning on doing a mosaic pet portrait, and I really look forward to helping her with that. Class is Thursday evenings 6:30 - 9:30.

My friend Katrina Doran is teaching a glass on glass Mosaic workshop this fall at the Dallas  Arboretum that is based on finding inspiration from the glass works of Dale Chihuly. You can learn more and find contact info at the Aboretum website or by calling them at 214-515-6500.

© 2012 Katrina Doran
9 x 12 inch glass-on-glass mosaic designed by Katrina Doran
for her upcoming workshop at the Dallas Arboretum. October 27, 2012 9am - 3pm.

Hearing From Pet Portrait Clients

I always enjoy hearing from my pet portrait clients. A local client picked up his project last week and he sent me this very kind e-mail note:
"I just wanted to take a moment to thank you again.  Your unique product combined with this rare Tibetan Mastiff, makes this gift a one-of-a-kind original.  We kept asking ourselves what we could get for someone who has the ability to buy anything for himself that he wants, and we found it with this art.  Thank you so much! We will be giving it to him tomorrow and have no doubt that it will be very special to him."

Today I spoke with a terrific repeat client that is doing her 4rth project with us. She always orders 24 x 24 because she says the thought of going down in size makes her feel guilty, as though maybe the pet with the smaller print is going to know somehow or appear to be less loved. I can understand that thinking. Those of us with multiple pet households must always strive to be fair after all.


Below is a shot sent in from a client for me to use as reference on his next portrait that I just started working on this week. I think this client is on project #5.  This is a great shot that shows how terrific a grouping can look.