Ariel, Pacific NW poet

I do have two paintings on the Something Red Art Walk in Downtown Salem: RedHead @ Elsinore Gallery  & Framing and Tent at World Beat @ CCTV through the end of December  – both available for sale. (Though I heard a rumor that CCTV is closed this week for the holidays.) I will be picking them up when December ends.

Reminder, my Etsy site CC Willow Arts  has 10% off through December (I can gift-wrap for you).

I was thinking of having this be a regular December Sale … however, no one has taken advantage of the lowered prices yet and it took some work setting up without resulting in a benefit to my customers. So I might not bother with it next year and divert my efforts instead towards other venues.

If you like my art, many images are available on items – like posters, clothes, pillows, device skins –  on RedBubble. For many of my zentangles – it’s the best way to buy them, as many of them will not have their originals framed (an expensive process right now).  I actually have some new ones to upload today – if my e-devices cooperate (I always have some kind of goal).

This Friday 4pm – 7pm IS the December’s Salem Art Walk (SAW) –

I WILL be participating. Not sure yet where – I have not made the last two committee meetings so I need to get a hold of one of the other members to see where my pop-up will be that evening. The theme this month is “Failed Resolutions”.

Which makes me think – I have failed at most of my resolutions this year – but have acheieved unexpected progress in my ART where I did not expect to.

The monthly SAW has inspired me to get my originals scanned and get prints & giclees available. As well as inspiring me to try alcohol ink painting (all my “show” pieces for May were Alcohol Ink & Resin and included the afore-mentioned “Redhead“.)

Getting my own work scanned led me to getting my Dad’s (Virgil L Evans Jr.) work professionally scanned – something that had been his goal many years before his death. (He tried once; the results of it were wholly unsatisfactory & disappointing, he did not attempt again. Still … it had become my family’s dream and hope!)

I have also become more insistant that when my work is displayed – it is first framed by a professional I trust. Which has led to an informal “partnership” with my neighbor, Nancy. Nancy – a talented calligrapher – has a framing shop Wildcat Studio and has a genius talent for framing – creating mats & frames for each piece with a boldness that I would never have ventured trying.  I soon will be combining poetry & art – with her converting my poetry into her calligraphy onto my painted piece. (A resolution for THIS New Year once I get use of my right arm back).

Discovering RedBubble has also been an art venue I had not expected. I did want to make my zentangles available in pillow form … but the costs of creating them myself is currently too prohibitive. And then RedBubble – which means RB not only carries the cost, supplies, labor & shipping of the pillows and accessories – but only needing to supply a digital image on my part means I can offer my non-zentangle art  on pillows shirts, art, prints, etc. as well. I feel like a mini-Thomas-Kinkade! Ha!

And while I did not keep my resolution of joining ALL the available 2017 Art Shows in the Willamette Valley, I did participate in a number of them – thanks to SAW – I was in A Art Show at least once each month.

And as to informal “partnerships”, my artwork printing needs have led me to form a close working relationship with Bill at Salem Blue. I feel so confidant everytime I hand over a precious piece to him that it is in caring competant hands. I feel this will be a log-term benefit to my work.

Although I consider my father a far-better artist than myself (he had over sisty years to improve and refine), I can say – thanks to 2017 – I consider myself a more successful artist; I have been accepted in more art shows and sold more pieces already than he had over his lifetime. And I look forward to MY path of improvement, to find what my destination will be at the end of my life.

That’s not to say my Dad’s and my paths will be over at Death.  (Is any artists?) No, I shall continue putting my art out there. And The Evans Trust (my four siblings & I) shall continue promoting my dad’s work. (A caution – none of us are willing to part i.e. sell any of his originals yet – they may not be available until after our deaths. They are just too precious to us; our legacy.) One of my 2018 goals is in fact to have a posthumous art show of my DAD’s work – either here in Salem or up in Portland. I just have to find the right venue – and the funds to properly put it on.

See you FridayEvening! Downtown Salem!