Spring Fever

We are really getting settled in to the showroom space at 154 Glass St., Ste 101, in the Dallas Design District. We've installed a cable system for hanging art, and have some new artists on the walls. The studio space has gotten a real workout with a purchase order for 54 original paintings. Since all the work tables are on wheels, as is my 16 ft slant wall, I was able to reconfigure the space to accommodate production painting. Next week I will move it all around again, to prepare for painting one large abstract canvas.

I've been so busy, with a painting workshop, then a personal transformation weekend, and frantically painting canvases. Then this morning I noticed that it's warm outside and the grass is starting to turn green again. So I'm heading out to air up the bike tires!

Transition

I keep going back and forth on moving my photo printing studio from my very cozy home office to my new commercial gallery space in the Dallas Design District. Like right now I'm sitting at the computer in my fleece pjs, already on my second cup of coffee, running a print job. It's the second batch (2' x 3' prints on canvas) and I have several more to go. Since I'm batch printing, once the job is set up I can do other things. Like read the paper, or scan around the internet to see what's going on in the world. Or start a load of laundry and fix some breakfast. Lot's of freedom to this.

On the other hand I have a fabulous work space on Glass St. that I'm paying good money for! I would probably get more work done if I just bit the bullet and moved everything in there. Jeez. What should I do?

Looking Forward

Usually this time of year finds me looking backward, examining the rewards and shortcomings of the previous year, but I'm not doing that this time. That year is gone, a new one stretches ahead, and I've got interesting things on my schedule.

As always, I'm grateful for the people and things I have in my life, and I resolve to treat them better.

With a new commercial gallery opened in the Dallas Design District, I'll be putting more miles on my car, but producing a lot more art. I'm still struggling with the decision to move my print studio from my house down to the gallery. I work so much from home, and at odd hours, I'm not so sure I want to drive 12 miles to work all the time.

I need someone to set up a network for me - so I can remotely access all my files. I'm trying to keep things simple, but nothing really is.

I learned about QR codes recently, and it really IS simple - so I will be using that new technology as much as possible. Download a QR reader app to your phone, point the phone at the image to the left, and my website will magically appear!

It's such an interesting technology I am looking for new and interesting ways to use it.

I have lots of travel plans for the year. It's my favorite thing to do! Vegas for my birthday next week, Washington DC after that. Looks like I might be making a business trip (photo shoot) out to Big Spring, TX in the near future. Got plans for Paris in April, maybe Italy and Croatia in September. And my photo friend Nancy and I are in the planning stages for somewhere exotic.

Who wants to stay home (in Dallas) when there's a big world out there to discover?

Missing Ingredients

My studio on Chancellor Row has been packed up for three weeks in anticipation of the move to the new place. But the Glass St. showroom still isn't ready for occupancy. I had paintings due for a guestroom project. I put it off as long as I could, but when I couldn't wait any longer I put up the card table in the sunroom at home, bought some paint, and used what I had around the house to create three abstracts. They are organics, since I used leaves and branches as stencils, and rags and straws and rubber cement and whatever else I could find that would work. Today I took the paintings to be photographed, so prints can be made. I'll get the digitals back tomorrow, process them, and forward them on to the printer. All without leaving the house.

Moving On Up

It's been so long since I "blogged" I forgot my login! So much is happening now I thought I should post an update at least.

My art consulting company Art-Centric LLC with partner Margie Cabe got off to a great start with the JW Marriott Hill Country Resort and Spa project in San Antonio, TX. We provided all the art for public spaces in the hotel, the PGA golf clubhouse, and the Lantana Spa. It was a huge project and I painted a LOT. We completed that in February this year, and took a short break before moving on to projects in Seattle, Portland, Oklahoma, and even in Dallas!

We have been subleasing space from our framer in a huge 50,000 sq ft building which has worked out wonderfully. However, when they announced they were moving we started thinking about what kind of presence we wanted for Art-Centric.

We signed a lease on a showroom/gallery/studio space in the Dallas Design District this week. It's located directly across the street from the Dallas Contemporary museum. We hope that our more public location will bring in some new clients, and make it easier for designers to come visit us.

In other news, I have been on photo shoots in Seattle, San Diego, Wyoming (Yellowstone and the Tetons) and Washington DC. Next month I will be in Acadia for fall color. I have taken on the huge task of cataloging my photo inventory and have over 100,000 images all keyworded. I've started the same process with my painting series so I can keep track and find things when I need them.

I have several new series of paintings, the newest of which is the jazz series (above) for a local restaurant chain. I always said "I don't do people" but these paintings are musicians situated in the French Quarter of New Orleans. I'm having fun with them.

Slogging at the Keyboard

One of the biggest problems I've encountered in the years that I've been a professional photographer is the issue of how to manage the vast inventory of images that I've amassed. I've tried several solutions, but they all had their shortcomings. I'm heavily invested in Adobe Lightroom now, and it's working for me. I shuddered at the idea of keywording 60,000 photos. Yet if I didn't I would have to rely on (a rapidly fading) memory of where I was when I took a particular photo so I could somehow retrieve it for a potential sale. It's been a nightmare up til now. Three weeks into it, all photos have some sort of keywords, some more detailed than others right now, but at least there is some sort of organization going on.

Last week a client placed an order for an image I presented three months ago. I had the small jpg and that was it. Less than a minute later I had located the original raw file. A month ago I might have spent an entire day tracking that one image down.

Next is cataloging my paintings. I don't have near as many of those but still think creating a catalog is the way to go. I can keyword each one and when I have a project looking for "red abstract" I'll be able to easily find them.

What a relief to get a handle on something that has bogged me down for years!

Time Out

Sometimes I have to get away -- out of the city, out of the traffic, out of this metropolitan area I live in and into the natural world. So I love it when my friend Nancy calls and invites me to a city where she is attending a conference. We rent a car and take our cameras out into the wilderness. Last week it was Utah. Nancy's conference was in Salt Lake City, so we traveled to Zion and Bryce National Parks. It was cold and snowy, but wild and beautiful. This shot was sunrise on the Virgin River in Zion. We were standing knee-deep in powdery snow, freezing to death, but exhilarated by our surroundings. We hiked as best we could on ice-covered trails, and drove down roads we shouldn't have. Each moment outside filled us with joy. We soaked it all in.

Kolob Canyon, Zion Nat'l Park, Utah