My Left Foot

My internet is still a special shade of slow but I have decided to just multi-task around the slow upload speed and get on with it, everything is almost up together now, but that is why it is almost midnight and Sunday. Normally I would be reading in bed, or watching a film, or asleep, not 'working' but I don't mind, I have a crazy architectural deadline coming up and a holiday to go on, so a few days hard graft will be worth it!  I have had a couple of perks this weekend too, selling my first cushion on Society6 and a giant bespoke 1.2 metre print of Fossil Paving (a photograph of some ammonites taken in Cornwall) and an enquiry about a commission to paint when I get back. Definitely 3 wishes in 1.

But....

What I really wanted to blog about was a film I watched on Thursday (?) of last week called My Left Foot. Just wow. It was amazing. Daniel Day Lewis put in such a sterling performance of a cerebral palsy sufferer that I forgot who he really was. The film was also surprisingly uplifting, educational and inspiring. It was based on the true story of Christy Brown, a painter, writer and 'a character' who overcame tremendous odds to become a successful artist. I can't recommend this film enough, I was totally blown away!

Happy Valentines Day

Seriously internet, you are killing me.

I believe it is customary today to say HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! I have already shared the love by announcing the two winners of my competition that has been running for the last week or so. It is nice to give something back to all the people who have been supporting me. I had 71 entries in the end which was impressive as I was slightly worried I would only have about 3, I needed one more though as then it would have been an inverted 27 and I am sure that would have been ultra lucky. I shall be looking forward to running my next competition when I have figured out what it is.....

(And looking forward to resuming a usual service when SOMEBODY FIXES MY DAMNED BROADBAND CONNECTION or someone finds where I put my patience....)

Snail

So after the excitement of Society 6 and filling my store with cushions, mugs, clocks and all things nice, and just about resisting the urge to buy them all for myself (buying my own products would be pretty vain right?! But I am so doing it) Anyway....after all of that I have had the world's most frustrating day today.

I am about to go on a longish holiday, or as I like to call it an 'inspiration sabbatical' (Artist's technical term, honest) and I have quite a bit I need to prepare and sort out before I leave. This would imply that it is not a good time for my internet to decide to turn into a snail or for me to realise my mobile contract won't let me use my phone as a wi-fi hotspot in internet emergencies.

Therefore can you guess what happened today? Yes. My internet turned into a snail and then I found out I can't use my phone as a wi-fi hotspot. Well that is just super. After trying to download about 500kb of emails which seem to take ten minutes I knew I needed to step away from the open window and put my computer back down (when did I pick that up?). So... I cleaned the house instead, went and worked off some steam at zumba and wrote a blog post as therapy. Productive in a way I suppose.

Please internet, work like normal tomorrow, I beg of you.

I fear tomorrow may be a long day, or at least a slow one. How on earth did people do work before the internet!?

Society 6

So, the other day I did start my society 6 account and I also cursorily joined Pinterest. I say cursorily because I am now totally addicted to uploading things onto society 6 and subsequently haven't really had the chance to investigate Pinterest properly. Who knew turning your own artwork into clocks, cushions, mugs, bags and mobile phone covers would be so addictive!?

I am still not sure whether it is actually addictive to most people or whether I am just weird (sorry ECCENTRIC) but either way it has been three days and I am still going!

So far I am concentrating on just uploading my artwork and not my photographs. I am contemplating starting up a separate photography account as I think they will both look more professional and clearer as their own entities. In some respects I wish I had done this with all my sites but then it would double the amount of things I would have to update. It is a tough call, I may just stick with my paintings and see how they go to start with. I probably need to stop uploading things soon anyway before I develop a proper OCD, I have after all, already gone over my broadband allowance for the month. Oops!

So far, these are a few of my favourite things:

Social Media

I am not sure what to do today. I just had a look at a fellow deviantArt artist I follow who has 10,000 likes on Facebook. This is what I would like to aim at eventually, but quite frankly reaching 200 fans will do me at the moment. It appears she is far more adept at social media than me as she has accounts on Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Behance, Instagram, Society 6, LastFM, Redbubble, Pinterest, deviantArt, Twitter and Shadowness. I have a Facebook account and a deviantArt one and quite frankly don't know what most of the others even are! A friend has recommended I set up a Pinterest account, apparently it is all the rage with her colleagues in America and I have thought about a Society 6 account just because you can make your own art clocks. Did you know I AM TOTALLY OBSESSED WITH CLOCKS!?! Read this post if you don't believe me...

So it seems like I do have something to do today, which mostly involves making social media work considerably harder for me. I struggle to update the things I am doing at the moment though so this might make me cry in the long run, but everything is worth a try, especially when I have time on my side.

Winter Beats

I can't seem to stop procrastinating today. Half the day is over and I have very little to show for it thus far, except for a very nice cooked breakfast, but I don't think that is going to be overly beneficial to me in the long run unless having high cholesterol is a good thing? Never mind, I guess you can't be on the ball everyday. I shall make up for the lack of effort this morning by finishing off making some more cards (my supplies were running low having already sold about 70 of them) and I have an idea in my head for a painting which I shall try and start later. I have no idea why, but I find it very difficult to paint in the day. I can in fact have nothing to do but can't start painting until after 6pm at the earliest. I can count the amount of daylight paintings I have done on one hand which always seems slightly strange, but maybe I need the magic of the night to spur me on.

I think that makes me a little bit more eccentric though, nudge, nudge, wink wink.

I am also trying to decide whether I ought to buy some more canvasses, I still have 7 left but I would quite like some square ones and I only have one left of my favourite size (30" x 24") but I am supposed to be saving up some spending money for my holiday. There is also a half price offer on an A2 sized easel. It is a real bargain and would mean I could stop propping my work up on the radiator (I sit on the floor to work) but it isn't really big enough and I can't quite decide whether I would actually use it? Who knows?

One thing I do know, is that today doesn't seem like a day for decision making, or being productive full stop. Come on Laura, *kick up the backside.*

An Eccentric Weirdo

I read an interesting article the other day, well actually the article was rather dry but it's sentiment was interesting, actually in some respects the article seemed rather stupid but I am going to go with it anyway.

Apparently studies have been carried out that prove that the more eccentric an artist you appear to be the more people value and rate your artwork, and indeed the more they will pay for it. It seems there is a thin line though, you have to be naturally eccentric and not eccentric by choice or via an idea that being eccentric is a marketable quality.

I shall in this case, take the fact that one of my closest friends, who lovingly refers to me as an 'Eccentric Weirdo' (I hope it is lovingly at least) is in fact paying me a supreme artistic compliment. I am nothing, if not periodically, slightly soft in the head. Now, if you will excuse me,  I think it is time to put a bin bag on and a bow in my hair and go shopping.....

(Incidentally, you can read the full article here.)

Mary & Max

I have been umming and ahhing about whether to include this film on 'my list' or not as it is a little bit strange, but considering the fact that my memory is atrocious and it has managed to bubble around in it for this long I think I should just bite the bullet and do a blog post. It also seems slightly more appropriate to do it today as one of the stars - Philip Seymour Hoffman has apparently just been found dead in his apartment in New York. He is an actor I greatly admire, so this is rather sad.

The film in question is Mary and Max which is quite a humorously endearing story about two lonely people who become pen-pals, one a bullied girl and one a Jewish guy with Aspergers. I think that probably says it all. The animation itself is also sightly intriguing as it has been done 'Wallace and Gromit' style but in sepia (or as good as done in sepia).

I don't really know what else to say about it, so instead I shall just include the trailer for your perusal.