Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art Works

Calling cards.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

My first real use of a "calling card" came in the form of my high school graduation announcements. In that far bygone era (ha ha), people were still ordering and using the high-level professionally printed and embossed graduation announcements (rather than the photo-postcards that people are making today). These cards came with corner brackets cut inside to my name card inside, with a senior photo tucked behind that.

That name card was very similar to the calling cards I later found of my grandparent's and others of their generation, though I wasn't sure how those little name cards were used. It was while watching a movie that I understood how a calling card used to function. In the film, a man, who had stopped by to visit the family but found they were not at home, left a calling card with the maid so that when the family came home, they could review the cards of all those who had stopped by.

I thought that was really cool.

(And not just because a man came for a visit.)

Of course, people don't just stop by much like that anymore, and email and the telephone and answering machines have made a calling card seem a little ridiculous. And, if people leave a card now, it tends to be a business card.

I have had a gazillion business cards over the years, finally getting a new design that matches the branded look I'm going for here on this website.

But I got to thinking -- what about all the times I find myself saying "do you have a pen and paper? I'll write my email address down for you" -- times when it wasn't about business and I didn't want to seem like I was one of those perpetual networking people who were always shoving business cards and business up into every possible moment. Essentially, I wanted some kind of modern take on the calling card. Something to give the person my name and how to contact me, and not leave them with a niggling wonder if I was just trying to hit them up as a possible customer in the future instead of just being friendly.

My friend Corrine once gave me a set of The Bad Girl's Calling Cards with me promising to use them if she gave them to me (with the intention of helping me meet people, which I don't do well on my own, I admit). I do keep my word, and did use them (sort of), but some of the, messages on them made me blush, and I found myself scribbling out some of the options the card allowed the giftee to redeem. (Here's a tame sample of the calling cards.)

I decided to head on over to the website I frequent when it comes time to get business cards printed, and I chose to only put my name, email, and website address on the card. I didn't talk about what I did. I didn't put my phone number on it because I would rather give out my email address instead.

I made myself a calling card.

It's not quite as traditional as they used to be, where just the name on a piece of high-grade cardstock sufficed, but it serves the purpose I was looking for.

Links:

Get your calling cards printed for free (pay shipping only)
Hire me to design your custom calling card or business card

Labels: links, promotions, supplies

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Scribd.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I've written about Scribd before, so you can read that for the background on what it is.

I've been working on uploading all the documents that I have available on my own site into my Scribd account (since they're free here, already, but a little hard to find sometimes). I also made it so you can subscribe to my Scribd feed (even by email, if you want) so that you know when something new is added.

Scribd is an odd place. There are all kinds of crazy documents on there... One thing I like about Scribd is the ability to embed documents into a web site in a way that is less excessive than the behemoth that is Adobe Reader. Scribd uses something called iPaper, and it's pretty cool. Scribd's blog seems to feature different ways people are using iPaper. They also have an app for Facebook, though it's done in a way to appeal to teachers/students.

I'd be curious to know if any of my readers have an account, or what they think of Scribd. In particular, I'd like to hear thoughts on concepts of information sharing, copyright issues, and so on.

Labels: free stuff, internet, links, promotions

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Ye olde artiste statement.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

My friend is having some difficulty with her artist statement.

I hate artist statements. Are there accountant statements? Doctor statements? Shouldn't we have an explanation for what the reasoning behind the charges of the average doctor's visit is? Why do artists have to give statements?

It sounds like something from Law and Order. "You need to give me your statement now."

I suggested a fairly simple statement for her to use: “I like dogs. I also like clay. Everything else is natural.”

Short and sweet. She came up with a pretty good one, though, without my help.

But artist statements. Ugh.

I have an "artist statement" but I prefer to call it a mission statement because I, like the Blues Brothers, am definitely on something.

Once, back in one of the earlier versions of this site, I had this to say about that:

We're all taught in art school to have an artist statement, or a mission statement laying out in words what it is our work was to accomplish, where our inspiration came from, yada yada yada. I'd go to the senior shows and read some of the statements with a bit of horror, realizing that I wasn't nearly as lofty in my goals or methods. It's like an artist piling dirt on the floor and saying in his mission statement that he wanted to bring attention to the plight of Vietnamese boat people. All I saw was a pile of dirt, and I wondered who'd get stuck cleaning it up. My mission statement is straightforward (I hope) because my work is what it is.

Sometimes I use green in my paintings because I have lots of green paint to use up. Sometimes it's to symbolize life. Sometimes I spilled paint or dropped a brush on the board. Sometimes I think, "Hey. Green. Neat." Not terribly romantic, and fairly disappointing for the customer who really could care less about the image but is more interested in buying into the Oprahfication Art Gobbledy Gook myth that allows a towel rack to be nailed to a board and sold for $20,000 in some gallery.

I don't think if you lack a super-fab artspeak statement that you're going to end up the Art World's Corey Feldman. You just won't be allowed to wear a beret.

I also included a handy list of words to avoid using in an artist statement because they carried a high risk of making your reader vomit:

self-taught (Learned your art on your own, but had to be potty trained. Yahoo.)
heartfelt (Good to know you're not whoring yourself to make money only.)
spirit (Oh, please.)
essence (Also works great on a decorative candle label.)
dialogue (Hey. Try the word "talk.")
capture (What is this, The Fugitive meets artist effort?)
primitive (Unless you've whipped up a few Venus of Willendorf's, lay off the claim.)
yearning (Brings to mind a constipated person on the toilet.)
evocative (Half of the country can't pronounce the word. They think it's associated with pornography.)
"I strive" (I think we can all see that you're at least "striving.")
catalyst (Brings to mind things like "Dr. Frankenstein" and "frog dissection.")
intended vision (Seems a little apologetic, using the word "intended." As in, "I intended to draw well, but instead I bombed.")

I then ended it with this:

mission statement: cliff notes version
I draw what I know. I'm not trying to make social or political statements. I make stuff that I like.

I was told I shouldn't use the word "stuff" in such a statement, as that was not a professional response.

Whatever.

Labels: art life

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Success with Etsy.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

My friend has a store on Etsy, the web site that features handmade and original items of all kinds. I have a few items on Etsy myself, though I haven't made the decision to jump fully over to Etsy. I haven't decided the ifs and hows of keeping a store on my site versus having it on Etsy. Or, if I should move all of my "craft" type items to Etsy and maintain my art gallery on my site.

I've written about Etsy on this blog before, albeit briefly. Its low listing prices and great help with graphics, stores, marketing, and forums (plus a public forum where people list things they need someone to make for them) make it something akin to a huge art fair.

Regardless, Etsy is a favorite place of mine to visit and shop. And, for some, it has really been a path to online, home-based success. An article in the Minot Daily News (April 14, 2008) featured Jenna Lou Dauer. She makes absolutely fabulous purses and wallets and sells them (with great success) on Etsy.

Check out Jenna's store. She has great taste in fabrics, colors, and design. She's also begun to gather attention on other sites. Jenna Lou also has her own blog, and is part of a Minnesota group of artisans tied into Etsy.

Personally, I prefer the higher-priced handmade, not-from-sweatshop stuff. I've gotten a few purses from Yukiko Sato for the simple reason that they are delightfully made and very unique. I've gotten a purse to give as a gift from Amani Ya Juu, a company that features African women and helps them earn a living making really great purses. As I go through my closets and work at remaking and reusing clothing, I realize how the cheapness of things has contributed to not only excessive consumerism and greed, but the abuse of the people in countries forced to make things for so little pay. A $40 purse might be more than the similar $15 purse at Target, but I can promise that when you buy it from a person and make a connection to the person who made it, you're less likely to just toss it away next season.

And so, I encourage you to shop Etsy, and sell on Etsy. If you really want something unique and not cookie-cutter common, that's the place to go.

Labels: internet, links, marketing, selling

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Google pages.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I'm having a lot of fun tweaking my free Google pages web site. You can see it here. I haven't got a clear idea of what I want to do there, but I have a sense of it being kind of like the "extra" file on my desk, the file where I throw in all kinds of random ideas that I may want to use later but that I definitely don't want to throw or mix in with the "serious" files. So, stuff I don't want on my main Lone Prairie site I could mix and mash over there.

I'm not sure.

Google has provided lots of easy to use templates, with an interface that is similar to all of the free services they now offer (Google docs, etc.) so, if you're using those, it should seem familiar to you whether or not you're up on web site creation or not.

Google has made it so you can also include Google gadgets, tweak the HTML to your own liking, and manage your page(s) easily from the dashboard.

If you're a writer or artist and need a quick web site just to refer people to, or perhaps just to get your feet wet on the internet, you might want to check it out. I could think of lots of ways this could be useful. It's much better than the early years of Geocities and those free sites.

Labels: art life, internet, writing life

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

The Everything Group, for the right brained.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 3 comments link this post

I've got to stop joining reading and writing groups. I'm never satisfied.

Perhaps it's just a glorified wish of wanting to be part of a group of people who enjoy art, music, writing, reading and film. The common denominator in the reading group and the writing group which I have been dissatisfied with is...me. I can tell you all the things I didn't like about each group, but really, I can only change myself and I was the one who was part of both groups.

I'll use the writing group as an example, since I've long since abandoned the reading group.

For me, writing isn't about grammar, publishers, and novels. Writing is like art, like music, like reading -- it is an essential part of being for me; they are all in connection with each other. They are symbiotic, they feed each other and, if I try to separate one from the other, they all suffer. I need to be able to write to draw to write. It is not necessarily a career, but a way of existing. The writers' group seems only focused on writing as a career, with the goal of being published.

That, of course, makes sense. What else would a writers' group be for?

And that's why I know I just can't go anymore.

I used to enjoy talking with a former member (who no longer attends) about interesting books or things he'd found, because it gave me ideas of things to both read and write about. I feel his absence markedly. A huge frustration for me in both groups, the writing group in particular, has been a distinct feeling of square peg in round hole. I notice it more, now, with the absence of this member.

The last writers' group meeting found me without any writing sample to hand out though I dare say I write enough on all of my blogs to fill several books. Instead, I offered a handout with some web links and a few ideas that people might find helpful only to have it barely glanced at (except by one person) and essentially shrugged off. It may not have been a stellar source of information, but to have to put up with 15 minutes of discussion prior to that, about getting a person in to teach grammar as our special speaker, and not get any similar interest (feigned or otherwise) back from what I had to offer...

And then I handed out one of the cartoons I'd drawn for a comic book I'm attempting to put together. It may have seemed odd to hand out "drawings" at a writing group, but in my mind...it's all connected. It's writing, to me. The cartoons have scripts that I work through. I did preface it by saying my sense of humor was odd and they probably wouldn't get it. I wasn't too concerned about all of that, nor am I terribly thin-skinned about "critique." (You don't go through five years of art school without learning how to handle the critique of your work.) I was attempting to show the writing I was working on, even if it contained drawings.

"These cartoons are kind of like a seriously pared-down, edited story," I explained. "I only have about four to six panels to get the story across, and my dialog is obviously limited." I handed out the drawing.

It was quickly passed around the table and literally tossed carelessly back at me by a member. My reaction to that was of annoyance. I was annoyed at the disrespect showed to another person's work, not that they weren't fawning about the cartoon (frankly, they're weird humor that few people will laugh at) but apparently the annoyance was misconstrued at not being able to handle critique.

"I can handle a critique just fine," I said, carefully putting the original drawing back in the folder case, further annoyed that it was suggested I couldn't take critique even though I'd been part of this group longer than all but one other person there. "This is an original drawing and I don't appreciate you throwing it about the table."

We moved on with the rest of the meeting, but at that moment I knew I was done with the group. I very much like the people, but I do not fit with them as an "official" group, a group with a purpose.

Frankly, I don't mind not fitting.

I want to be part of group that isn't so narrow. I want to be part of a group where, if someone writes something personal that makes them cry, it doesn't have to be awkwardly sandwiched between the discussion of getting a speaker to come and talk about grammar, and a critique on writing. I want to be able to talk about a book in broad terms without falling into pointless discussions on child daycare and side-tracked conversation more befitting a Ladies' Aid meeting. I want to be part of a group where we bring things we're doing -- reading, writing, drawing -- an Everything Group.

Come to my Everything Group, the imaginary poster might say, We encourage you to be and do. If you're doing it, creating it, we welcome it.

Do you like to write? Bring your writing! Have a book or film you are dying to talk about? Let's talk about it. Really into art? Great. Got a thing for music? Come on down. Want help with motivation for your art, writing, journaling, music, or reading? That's why we're here.

A Jack-of-all-Trades group. A Renaissance Man group. A Creative Thinker group. An Aimless Wanderer With Lots of Thoughts group. A Group Without A Traditional Means to an End group.

A group where it wasn't about grammar and systems and how-to, but encouragement and creativity and, essentially, right-brain focus. A group where people who write are encourage to let it pour out without ever feeling like they have to make it a career, where people who read can gush and recommend and talk about a book, where people who have found some great new music can tell the rest of the members, where people who have an artistic streak can let it out before they explode.

Something like that.

I don't know if I'd get anyone to show up.

We humans like orderly specifics, it seems, rather than such "vague without purpose" activity.

But it'd still be cool.

Labels: art life, writer's group, writing life

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Writing about clutter.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I don't know why I'm such a smarta** when it comes to the writing exercises at writers' group. I always write like I'm attempting to get something in McSweeney's.

Yesterday, at writers' group, we were to write about clutter. It felt a little to general -- I tend to lean towards weird writing prompts like our next week's assignment (which I contributed via a writing prompt book), which is to write on the topic of "someone found the Venus de Milo's arms."

Anyway, clutter.

I tapped my pen on my notebook and, with little further thought, decided to try some bad poetry.

Clutter
Rhymes with stutter.
And flutter.
Butter.
Like stutter it repeats without warning
the more you try to control it
the less success you have.

Like a fluttering bird
it drops
dropping(s)
randomly.
Though usually on the nearest empty counter.

Clutter is in no way like butter.

That sucked. I tried again.

Clutter as Metaphor
Clutter is like grammar: double letters, out of control.
Clutter is like iced mocha: not really. No, it isn't.

Terrible. That's the problem with meeting in a coffee shop; everything becomes related to the iced mocha you want.

I decided to go with a list route and be done with it.

Things said upon discovering clutter:

Grandma, we thought we'd lost you.
I guess dairy products need to be refrigerated.
Hmm. A pink slip. That would explain the absence of a paycheck this week.
Let's just buy a new table.
Check out my unique filing system.
I haven't been able to find my blood pressure pills for weeks.
We have six cats but have only been able to find one for some time now.
The service plans from Best Buy seem to be breeding!
You can never have too many Hummels.
That table is my scrapbook.
Grandma, are you still there?

We had a few minutes left, so I decided to further cement my status as Most Unwilling To Participate As A Serious Writer and come up with the following beauty:

The Clutter That Wasn't
"You're room is spotless!"
"I know!"
"I guess we're done here."

Why do I write like this in writers' group, when others try to be serious and when I can be overly serious on my own blog?

I know why...

Labels: writer's group, writing prompts

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

After two months, I'm back.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I'm going to writers' group today. I haven't been there for a while, and I don't know that I'll keep going every meeting (gas is expensive and it's a long drive). However, a friend decided to try out a meeting and I thought it would be good for me to get back into the loop.

It's going to be strange; our group has significantly changed since I was last there.

I don't have a lot of writing to bring, though, with all the blogging I do, it's not as if I don't write regularly. However, I did come up with a little something that I thought I would share with the group. It's a very basic listing of web sites they might find useful as writers. You can see the page I'll be passing around here (PDF).

Labels: links, writer's group, writing

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Hello, green monster.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I look at blogs like these and I weep with envy:

I mean, just look at the sketchbook slide show! Aaargh!

Labels: art, links

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

As the crow flies.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

One of my artist friends, of Prairie Oaks Artisans, informed me of a little project she's got going that has me intrigued:

Details:

1. A limited edition hand bound book called Three Poems on Three Crows.

2. It will feature more than three poems and a few black and white images of one or more crows, so the title is not literal.

3. If you would like to share a poem or a drawing, it will considered for the book. The poem should not be terribly long and the drawing should be something that can be scanned and printed out, as the pages will be printed by computer.

4. You will get a hand bound copy of the book for yourself. The edition of 50 will be sold. Your copy will be marked as A.P. - and artist's proof. You will not be reimbursed monetarily; the copy of the book will be yours to keep.

5. If you send a poem or drawing be sure to note how you want to be credited if you want something more than just your name. Pseudonyms for the book are fine as long as you let the project leader know your real identity.

6. The deadline is April 20.

--------------------------------

So, writers and artists, get busy eating crow.

If you're interested, email me and I'll get you connected with the project. I hate to post other people's email addresses on my site, so I'll just funnel it through mine for now. Or, use the contact information found on the Prairie Oaks Artisans web site.

Labels: art, promotions, writing

SECTIONS

TODAY'S HEADLINES

TOPICS

LINKS

Calling cards.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Scribd.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Ye olde artiste statement.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Success with Etsy.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Google pages.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

The Everything Group, for the right brained.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Writing about clutter.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

After two months, I'm back.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Hello, green monster.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

As the crow flies.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

LONE PRAIRIE JOURNAL LINKS

HELP WANTED

SUBSCRIPTIONS

ARCHIVES

JOIN

PREVIOUS POSTS

QUOTES

BLOG EULA

MISC. STUFF