Moving Forward

I am trying very hard to 'embrace change'...

in fact..

I'm trying to initiate it as much as I can bring myself to do.

I don't think I'm a lazy person...I just think I get into

a 'comfort zone' that is hard to think about leaving.

That's where I've been with my art...

I don't want to 'radically' change things...

but I need to 'shake things up a bit'

to keep it from becoming 'stale and uninteresting'.

With this in mind...

you know I've retired many of my 'Melancholy Girls' prints...

including my most popular ones.

And...I'll be retiring other prints over time...

But...in the meantime...

I want to 'mash up' some of my older 'melancholies' with 'fairytale' settings

to see what new prints I can create.

 

It sounds different and fun...

and will certainly be a change.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

It's "official"...

The 'Mad Hatter's Tea Party'

painting

took me far longer than any other

painting I have ever painted...to date.

 

I started this two panel painting in April

and only finished it a little over a week ago.

 

Creeper History

 Most of my followers probably already know the 

'story behind' my Creeper characters.

But...I'll relate it...very briefly again.

In 2006...I lost my husband and best friend in the whole world....

our lives (after almost 35 years together) were so very intertwined

that I had a very difficult time getting through the stages of grief...

mostly I just wanted to stay in bed and not be bothered by anyone.

I did make myself get out of bed...and tried to continue to work on the art

I had been creating and selling on eBay...mostly abstract stuff.

But...it wasn't exactly my best work.

I came up with these 'androgynous' little characters

who were portrayals of my emotions...

and revelations of whatever stage of grief I was in at the time.

This painting was titled...

'Say A Little Prayer'

and it came into being during the

'bargaining' stage.

Now I need to decide if my Creepers are 'history' or

if I will continue to paint them.

I think if I don't paint them, that might make me a bit sad...

and if I do continue to paint them...they will be fewer

and further between.

They did what I needed them to do, and helped me through the

hardest time in my life...

and I'm not sure where to take them from here.

More 'tough' decisions...

New Fairytale/ Fantasy Pieces

BEAUTY and the BEAST

This painting has been Sold, 

but the 8" x 10" print is

available in my Etsy Shop.

ALICE in an ENCHANTED FOREST

I used an 'Alice' from one of my paintings

and set her in one of my digitally created Fantasy Forest Backgrounds.

I'm just doing a little experimenting to see what works

and what doesn't.

I have listed this print in my Etsy Shop as well.

SNOW WHITE and the SEVEN DWARFS

In this one, I experimented with one of my

digitally enhanced 'girls' as Snow White and included

her in a a print of a painting I did a couple years back,

to see what I thought.

I don't know yet if I'm going to list

this one as a print or not...

still getting some feedback on what

folks think about it.

Making Some Tough Decisions

There are a lot of decisions one has to make

in the course of their life and a lot of those

are tough ones to make.

I think the tough ones are the hardest of all...

we tend to second guess ourselves...

is this the right decision?...

what if it's not?...

and on and on with all of those types of questions.

I've been thinking...for a while now...that I may

need to take my art in another direction.

For me...that's a tough decision...

thing is...

to be honest...

what I've been offering, while near and dear

to my heart...

it's just not going anywhere.

I wished I could afford to create art..."Just Because"...

unfortunately

I can't.

Since I have to depend on my sales to pay the bills...

well..

if the art I'm creating is not selling as well as I need it to...

then it might be time to

go another direction.

Like I said...it's a tough decision....

and it will be a gradual thing...

but

I'm considering letting Rustic Goth go...

at least on Etsy.

I'm going to have to take my art in another direction

and hope that once I've done that,

the sales will pick up and I'll be able to

pay my bills again.

In the meantime,

I will keep the Rustic Goth Zazzle shop and

I'll leave the Facebook page intact...

perhaps I will move some of

the pieces to Zibbet

or Bonanza...

I still haven't decided.

 

 

 

Wizard of Oz is copyrighted

The other day my emails started coming into my inbox like crazy...

my messenger was binging so often, it sounded like someone

was firing a toy machine gun.

They were all emails, from Zazzle, telling me that

some of my products (each product gets its own email notification)

were being pulled due to copyright infringement.

Each email was on a different 'Wizard of Oz' item.

Well...I fired emails right back demanding to know WHAT

copyright I was violating.

The book is in the public domain and the image

was created by me and I OWN the copyright.

This is a portion of the email I got back the next day...

"Unfortunately, your product was removed due to an infringement claim by 

 Warner Bros. Studios.  

While the artwork as you claim is original, 

the characters from the Wizard of Oz are currently 

property of Warner Bros.  

As a guideline, designs from the Wizard of Oz that are currently prohibited for sale 

on Zazzle’s Marketplace are:

•    All inspired artwork and character renderings from the Wizard of Oz
•    Quotes from the Wizard of Oz Franchise
•    All tags and descriptions that reference the Wizard of Oz"

It seems that 'because they own the movie rights...they somehow

managed to acquire some kind of copyright

on 

'Wizard of Oz'

and any likenesses thereof...

no matter how different they are.

Who knew???

Less is More

I was surprised to find how long it had been since my last post.

Suffice it to say...I have more on my plate than I'm

able to manage.

I have myself on so many sites...mainly because this is how I

make my living.

But...I think I'm beginning to learn that

'less is more'.

So...with that in mind...

over the next few days...

I will be closing several of my

online shops/sites.

I will...for sure...close

my

Bonanza and iCraft shops.

And..

possibly my Rustic Goth Zibbet shop.

There's just not enough of 'me' to

go around.