I started pushing buttons I'd never seen before over at my etsy shop and before I knew it I was offering FREE SHIPPING on every single item in my shop, even the original art on canvas! The free shipping is good to addresses in the USA and discounted to all other countries. Go take a look while the basketball fans scream at the TV tonight!
Visit Linda Woods Artworks for prints on canvas, paper, or wood for all size spaces and budgets.
My husband is over at the neighbor's house. They are having a BBQ and
watching the Laker game and hopefully he is explaining that his wife is
a telemarketer or a secret agent or something that means I don't have a
blog. I am at home watching HGTV, LockUp and reading my stack of
magazines. What a treat! When I turned 41 my mom got me a subscription
to More magazine.I love opening my mail box and seeing a stack of
magazines! If you've never heard of it, it's a magazine for women over
40. Sometimes when I was visiting my mom I would see More on her coffee
table and read it but I was younger than 40 then so it didn't really
count. It's got good articles and information and plenty of ads for
wrinkle cream which is odd since a lot of the articles are about loving
yourself just as you are.
In the last year I also subscribed to Sunset magazine which either
means I am way older than 41 or Sunset got really cool. I am going with
really cool. Have you seen it lately? It has great gardening ideas,
good recipes, and really fantastic day trip suggestions.
The next magazine I am reading tonight is Real Simple- also a gift from
my Mom, and another one of my favorites. But, every recipe I have tried
from Real Simple has been Real Awful. Also every mascara they have ever
recommended has sucked. I love the look of the magazine and the
articles and the suggestions for other uses for items you already have.
The last magazine I am reading tonight is Consumer Reports Shop Smart.
There are no ads and after reading it you will be afraid of all foods
and things that plug in, think everyone is scamming you, and be
obsessed with coupons and rebates. So much fun! Do you have any favorite magazines you read while watching prison and decorating shows?
Visit Linda Woods Artworks for prints on canvas, paper, or wood for all size spaces and budgets.
My husband was playing softball on the CSI softball team when he suffered the shoulder injury that he's recovering from now. The injury
that has him out of work for 8 months. His bosses assured him his job
on the show would be waiting for him when his doctor says he can return
to work. Then a couple weeks ago his boss called and said they gave
his job to someone else and that he no longer has a job to return to in
August. He lost his job while on medical leave. I kind of want
to type that line again for emphasis (since I said it in a nice way) but it disgusts me too much.
So when my husband is finally recovered from his shoulder ordeal he
gets to start searching for a new job! YAY! I hope Justified will be
looking for a Grip because I just love Timothy Olyphant! I'd even be
willing to drive my husband to work if he's on that show! Tiny Buddha posted 5 Tips For The Unemployed (and 15 Tips To Support
Them) so I had to look and see if any of them involved refilling all
your Ambien prescriptions before your medical insurance is gone. There
are some very good suggestions, especially about keeping routines,
staying open to possibilities, and inviting your friends to do free
activities. I am not sure sending your friend a list of all the things
you value about them will make them want to attend free activities with
you, though. That one thing was lame. I would think my friend lost her
mind if she did that, especially if I were a man.
I know many other people are unemployed or have unemployed friends or
relatives (or just have spouses home for some reason) and I have a few
things you should keep in mind if your friend or your friend's spouse
is unemployed: 1.
Remember, their spouse is always home now. When you call to ask them
how it's going they are always going to say fine because they can't
really talk since they are not alone. 2. Don't get offended when it takes forever for your friend to
call/email/text you back. It's hard to do all the normal daily things
you have to do on top of having at spouse home, too. It's not about you. 3.
If you have free time, offer to help with the gardening, cooking,
cleaning, or babysitting so that the one who might be working harder to
compensate for the lost income can get a little break. Fifteen minutes
of peace and quiet can make a huge difference in someone's day. 4. Never- ever-ever say "God only gives you what you can handle" or
"what doesn't break you only makes you stronger" to a person who is
facing foreclosure, job loss, or a mountain or medical bills or you
will be the next one in the hospital. 5. Share your good news! We all like to hear good news, even when life
sucks. We'd delight in your good news if we ever had time to call you
back, that is.
Does anyone have any good news?
*Tree In The Clouds prints are available in my shop.
Visit Linda Woods Artworks for prints on canvas, paper, or wood for all size spaces and budgets.
I have some new art in my shop! I also have new cinnamon swirl bread in my kitchen from my Boyfriend Trader Joe and it's all I can think about. There'd be more art in my shop, my laundry would be done, and the house would be cleaner but I need one hand to make the toast.
I also got Mochi from my boyfriend Joe because my husband is suddenly obsessed with it. He thinks it's the greatest thing since sliced cinnamon swirl bread. I didn't know what it was but got it for him anyway and made the mistake of trying it because it looked like a cute round marshmallow and the cashier at Joe's was all OHMYGOD YOU WILL LOVE IT. I suppose if you like food with the texture of a chewy uncooked lip, you too will love it. It's basically ice cream wrapped in a lip and frozen. The lip part isn't frozen, though. It's kind of like a Hostess Sno Ball without the coconut and cake and with ice cream in the center and way more lippy. I don't like Sno Balls, either. If this sounds good to you, the strawberry version seemed really good right before I gagged. My husband loves them.
I probably shouldn't talk about gaggy food right next to my new art. Oh well. Look how refreshing those pears look! Cinnamon swirl bread...YUM!
Visit Linda Woods Artworks for prints on canvas, paper, or wood for all size spaces and budgets.
I was recently asked to give some advice to a class of university art
students who were about to graduate. The teacher wanted me to discuss
what life is really like for a working artist. Funny since I am only
15. Would
these kids really listen to someone so young? This lecture came
right after I discovered multiple websites selling knock offs of one of
my trademarked designs, I saw an author posting text from Visual Chronicles as her
own on a blog, a client asked me if I could design something similar to
another artist's copy of one of my prints, and after spotting
copies of my art created by my friends for sale on etsy. What a week! I
didn't recall any of my art school teachers preparing me for that
whopper when I was about to graduate. The only thing I remember my
teachers telling me about copying was not to do it. I am pretty sure we
all got that lesson beginning in kindergarten and heard eyes on your
own paper for the next decade (at least). That rule didn't apply to
only art class, it was in all classes from English to math.
So, I told the students the truth~ If
you let Life inspire you, you will never run out of ideas. People who
haven't let their own lives inspire them will borrow yours
especially if your life makes money. Often it will be your friend who
is suddenly out of work and wants to try being an artist and thinks you
won't notice or care when he or she makes art strikingly similar to
yours. It happens to all of us. Saying DON'T COPY is pointless. They
never see it as copying and always have an excuse ready. Just begin by
knowing that if you put art into the world, someone will copy it.
That's it, plain and simple.
Have you ever copied art?
I have. You have to really study it and figure out what colors the
artist used and what papers they used and then you have to look at your
own canvas and figure out what goes where. You're all ok, she painted
this blue and that red and she put this piece of paper there and you're
looking back and forth between the original art and your blank canvas
and suddenly you're out of breath because it's hard! It's not like
creating a piece of art that involves any sort of self expression or
storytelling. Instead of being a stress-reliever it's a stress
inducer. What would normally flow freely from the Life that inspired it
is choppy and clunky and weird and it took 7 intense hours. Instead of using techniques to convey your mood-o-the-moment or to create a unique symbol for yourself, you are trying to fit yourself into another artist's moment and symbol. The result may be ok, but it is never authentic. When confronted,
the Copy Cat will say she didn't copy it, she created art that just
happened to look like yours. And probably after figuring out how you
created yours she thinks she mastered the arts. That is how Lifeless
Copy Cats think. They are not thinking about you or how you might
feel when they are looking back and forth trying to figure out where to
put that last bit of dripping paint. They are thinking you made money
off your art, maybe they can, too. That's what we call a Scam Artist!
Knowing the thought process of the Scam Artist doesn't make it less of a shock when you see copies of your art floating around the internet or
on store shelves. You still feel sick to your stomach and full of wonder. Why wouldn't they think I'd
see THAT?! Like I don't know my own stuff?! And
then you'll be so pissed and hurt that you will blog about it and someone will say at least your art is good enough to be copied, you should
be flattered and then you'll dive head first into a tub of frosting
while listening to Erasure sing about Respect.
Dear artists, I don't know the trick to making that part of
the job any easier to deal with. If it were easy and you could deal with that part without feeling anything you would be a boring, Lifeless artist. Having emotion is how you know you are still alive. And as long as you're alive you'll always have ideas. Some jobs come with office gossips,
ours comes with Copy Cat Bitches and clothes forever stained with
paint and glue. It's a hazard of the job. It's not a reason to quit
creating, ever. Get your feelings out and move on to your next masterpiece while keeping your sense of humor. Hey, make
friends with lawyers. They don't have time to make art and you'll
always need one.
Public Service Announcement: If you aren't
sure how to be inspired by your own Life or you are about to copy
someone's art, STOP! We take the fear out of art and self-expression
with our books Visual Chronicles and Journal Revolution. Both are
available in my etsy shop.
Visit Linda Woods Artworks for prints on canvas, paper, or wood for all size spaces and budgets.
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