Thursday, December 31, 2009

2009 in Review!

2009 is coming to a close and I promised a poll!

Really, I've gone through phases over the years of making huge lists of resolutions or none at all. New Year's eve is a fun date on the calendar, but it's meaning is more symbolic than anything to me. However this year the planets have aligned such that I'm finding myself very reflective the past week or so, particularly about my art business.

Although it's technically been over a year since I started Cat-in-a-Box this still seems like a good time to call an 'anniversary' and take stock. This year has been an exploration and a bit of an experiment - for someone with no background in the business side of art it has been a huge learning experience. I've gone about some things in a pretty inefficient or backward manner, but I've learned every step of the way. In the last six months I finally feel like things are falling into place (though it may not look that way from the outside).

The main purpose of this post is to address, what else but the blog! Anyone who's followed the blog since it's inception will know that the subject matter has been a bit random - from posting progressions of works-in-progress to showcasing new art, talking about the technical side of the media I work in and peppered with some more personal entries. This has been a bit of planned randomness to help me get a feel for blogging and see what people are interested in.

Now there are analytics and numbers that can track what entries people are looking at (and I have a tenuous grip on such things so I will be looking at them) but call me an old-fashioned gal, I just can't look at numbers alone. So the purpose of this post is really to ask for feedback from anyone who's reading this blog entry:

~ what things have you enjoyed about my blog?
~ what things did you skip over?
~ what would you like to see that isn't here?

If you have a moment please leave a comment, or take a quick second to fill out the poll to the upper right of this post (it will be up for one week). If you'd prefer to send an email, by all means - send it to pam@catinaboxstudio.com, or use the 'contact' sheet on my website www.catinaboxstudio.com (please note that the website is undergoing some revisions so if you hit upon an ugly page please ignore it and come back next month! :D).

In 2010 I want to take a more directed approach to this blog, and continue the newsletter as a companion to the blog. If you have not signed up for my monthly newsletter please consider doing so! Your feedback will be tremendously helpful in both areas!

Now this being an art blog we need at least one image! So here's the latest 100 dogs sketch:



(you can read more in the Newsletter, and also see this dog's bad habit :D)

See you next year!!

~ Pam

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Happy Holidays!

Happy Christmahanukkwanzakah!

Whatever you celebrate everyone here is hoping that you have a happy midwinter holiday season! Our Christmas tree is up and our little four (and three) legged family members are all with us for the time being.

This will likely be Laurich's last Christmas with us - the old man will sure enjoy his gift (he still hasn't caught on that his gift is always a nasty, smelly bone from the pet store... or at least he never complains at our lack of imagination in gift selection!)


And Dufus wishes to express his extreme enthusiasm for the holiday and the jingly neckband.... (either that or he's plotting my demise?)



ART!!

For those of you who read my previous dog sketch post here, the sketch has been turned into a scratchboard - completed just in time for Christmas! I can show this one because Cali's owner has seen it already... after Christmas I'll have another board or two to show off *wink*.

'Cali' 5 x7" Scratchboard

After this weekend it will be time to start preparing for the new year. A great time to evaluate status and set some goals. My art and studio business have changed and grown in the last year, it will soon be time to figure out where I want to go in 2010. I hope you come along for the ride - or at least stay tuned until the next post (hint: There's gonna be a poll!).

Merry Christmas one and all!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Ballet inspiration

My husband and I went last night to see The Nutcracker performed by the Aspen/Santa Fe ballet. Though it's traditional and rather girlie, we both had a great time. The dancers are just amazing - the strength and control they have goes beyond impressive. The costumes were so lush. The whole thing was just a visual feast.

Watching something like that - the music and movement, the colour and grace - just makes me want to draw or paint. I came home and just sat with the cats sketching for a bit. Some of the sketches are random gesture drawings out of my brain and some are from references of ballet dancers I pulled up.



Thanks to Oude School (Flickr) for the reference for this one ^^^

A deviation from my dog challenge and pet portraits, but in the hours after the show I could totally understand why Degas and so many others have chosen to use ballet dancers for subject material over the years. Maybe next time I drag my hubby to the ballet I'll take my sketchbook along :D