Difficult Week

This past week it just seemed more bad news followed bad news. I work with individuals who are unemployed and looking for work and this past week around 200 people in our county lost their jobs. We also learned of over 50 more that had lost their jobs in the previous week that we had not heard about. January has been a bad month in our county.

Our unemployment rate for December was 8.9 percent and I wouldn't be surprised if it topped double digits for January. It is hard to hear all of the stories these people tell and very sad. We offer all of the assistance and referrals we can but what they need most is employment and unfortunately there is just not much available.

I know the entire country is being affected, not just our county but these are the people I interact with and am working with on a daily basis. I can only hope that things begin to improve soon but I fear that will be a long time coming.

With all of this going on it was hard to get into the mood to produce any art work but on the other hand I knew I needed to do something because creating art is good therapy for me. It relaxes me and improves my mood and I always feel better after I create.

One of the artist's forums I belong to had a drawing challenge for January. I selected a photo and used that. It is an OSWOA (original small work of art) 4x6, colored pencil on bristol board. It did not come out quite as well as I had hoped but it is OK.

I have become addicted to this form of art as with my busy schedule of working and raising a family I can complete one of these pieces in an evening with very little mess. I believe this type of art work is becoming more popular as more and more works show up on the internet for sale. When I first began researching this type of artwork, there would be around 90 works for sale on Ebay. Now there is continuously over 130 offered on Ebay at any time for sale and many more on other places on the web such as Etsy.

Anyway here is the latest:

Butterfly

By: Lori Talbert

1/29/09

I have also been searching for other artist's blogs on the internet, especially artists from North Carolina. I have made some new friends this way and have viewed some really great works of art. I hope to add links to these blogs on my site soon so stay tuned!

First Sale!

I have been creating artwork for many years but have never actually sold a piece. I have given many works away, created artwork by request, and have had people ask me what amount I would sell a work for, but something just stopped me from charging for my work. I would think of all of the hours of work I had in that piece and even if I charged minimum wage I believed they would be shocked at the price I would have to name so I just told them it was not for sale. Usually, I actually did not want to sell these pieces as I had put so much time and effort in them. However, it has always been a secret dream of mine to actually SELL something!

I discovered the OSWOA website a few months ago, read the rules, decided to create a few and put them up for auction on Ebay. The ones I have created thus far have been shown on this blog. The website recommended a minimum price of $9.95 per OSWOA so I decided to start there, put four of the pieces on Ebay and last night I sold one! Not a fortune but someone actually wanted to purchase one of my works! I am so thrilled! Hopefully I will be able to sell more as time goes on.

I am also currently working on a piece now that will take awhile to complete. It will be 8x10 graphite on smooth bristol board. It is of a stone barn with an antique wooden wheelbarrow that has a metal wheel standing in the doorway. There is a pitchfork with one of those incredibly long handles that books used to call "widow-makers" because the user would have to "heave his guts out" to use it. The photo came from Morgue-file. I will post it when complete if it works out as I want it to. I also want to work on some more OSWOAs.

Until next time!

First Artist Trading Card Exchange

I recently participated in my first artist trading card exchange from Let's Make Art. An artist trading card is the same size as a regular trading card; about 2.5 x 3.5 and is supposed to be traded with another artist. Although many of them are sold on Ebay, etc. the original purpose was trading among artists and not selling.



Anyway, I created my first one and sent it off in the mail last week. It is colored pencil on watercolor paper. Since the recipient has acknowledged that they have received it, I will now post it here.

Fall Fruit

By: Lori Talbert

11/2008

Can't wait to receive mine and see who it is from! I really enjoyed doing this and hopefully another trade will begin soon. It would be nice to eventually have a trading card from all members of the forum.