I have some more images I would like to share with you.

The first is simply titled “Spiral Ascension”. Watercolor wash- but mostly ink.

Here are two fractal images. I am not quite sure how I feel about them. I really enjoy working with fractals but I have yet to perfect my style with them. Anyway…here they are:

The internet is a big place and it takes time to build up traffic. The Social networking and 2.0 sites are generally pretty good for big bursts of visitors. And it is very easy to find artist discussion lists and forums to advertise your signature files. But these outlets may not be enough to capture the targeted traffic you need to make sales.

You need art buying traffic. It is not as easy to find a large group of art buyers in one spot- although there are a few forums for this. It can be difficult to harness art buyers from the internet since art buyers come from all walks of life and professions. There are art buyers in almost every Internet niche which makes it hard to target these individuals.

Where then does the art buying traffic come from?

There are numerous ways to grow traffic to your site. There are Search engines, forums, commenting, etcetera, so on and so forth. The competition is stiff as you have to make yourself stand out among other artists. What happens when these methods fail you?

There is but one avenue for exposure that will continue to work for you even when these other methods don’t.

Your exposure and your money are in your list.

Do you have a mailing list of those who have purchased art from you before? If you don’t- you should. This alone can increase sales and encourage return art buying traffic. Make sure you keep your list clean by consistently adding new names and removing names that are no longer deliverable. One of the worst things you can do to your professional career is fail to keep an up to date list.

And then…

When you are ready- jump directly into the belly of the beast! It doesn’t matter if your list is large or small you can increase your exposure by adding these professionals to your list:

Local and surrounding Interior Designers
Local and surrounding Members of the Chamber of Commerce
Local Government Officials

Many members of each of these groups spend time in galleries. Interior designers sometimes need to purchase art for client spaces and the Government Officials and Chambers Members are educated and respected individuals who understand and appreciate the value of art especially from a local artist. I am not telling you to load there mail box with tons of marketing stuff- but it is perfectly acceptable and professional to send them a catalog, postcard, or presentation cd.

These individuals buy art. How will they buy your art unless you introduce yourself and your work to them?

The contact information for these groups is public information and is easily findable just by searching through:
http://superpages.com

or for contact information for members of your local Chamber of Commerce look here:
http://www.2chambers.com/

and for Interior Designers look here:
http://int-directory.com/north%20america/usa/default.asp

As more prominent business owners begin to collect your work you will gain exposure from the art buying public and art world professionals whose art opinions matter. This is a really good start to increasing your exposure and making more art sales.

The term was coined by Benoit Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin Fractus meaning “broken” or “fractured.”

Fractals are considered to be infinitely complex. They are to irregular to be described in traditional geometric language.

Objects in nature that approximate fractals include, snow flakes, lightening bolts, crystals, cauliflower and broccoli, and clouds.

You can find fractal patterns in the work of Jackson Pollack, Max Ernst, and is prevalent in African Art and Architecture.

As a genre Fractal Art has been around for probably 15 to 20 years. Generating Fractals is both an artistic endeavor and a mathematical pursuit. Fractal art is created by calculating fractal objects and representing the calculation results as still images, animations, music, or other media. It is the perfect fusion of art and science.

A fractal images is really a tiny region of a complex plane that displays interesting shapes and colors. I use Ultra Fractal to create fractal images. The most interesting thing about these fractals is that when creating them - you know that you are exploring territory that has not been previously explored.

Here are two images that I have been playing around with this morning- they are not finished but I thought I would share them at this stage.

Here is a really strange but kind of cool video that will allow you to watch Vincent Van Gough grow old. Probably one of the weirdest videos I have ever created- but I thought I might share it anyway.

LiqWidArt is promising artists help to find their way through artistic obstacles and internet hype to find the resources that they need most. With a user friendly environment http://liqwidart.com is off to a great beginning.

For artists good marketing skills and resources can increase an artist’s exposure many fold and can make the difference between a solid career and a never was career. Without these skills an artist may never realize their full potential.

On this site you will be able to list your art, artist exhibitions, list your art web sites, art press releases, news of art events, and you will be able to view submissions made by other artists. Most importantly this web site offers a service to share with artists ways to promote themselves and their art career using outside the box thinking and proven traditional methods also. The artist will be taught to rely on themselves to remove artistic obstacles they are faced with and in turn be able to build sustainable income for themselves.

An artist needs as much exposure as possible to survive. However conflicting it might seem the oh so open minded artist is sometimes reluctant to accept change. Most of the artists I meet offline tell me about reluctance to learn their way around the internet. Luckily there are also a large number of artists that have embraced the internet and realize that it can help build their career.

While LiqWidArt may be a great beginning here are a few other sites that offer artistic exposure also:

http://ink-splatz.com

http://1000-times-1000.com

http://redbubble.com

http://myartspace.com

http://deviantart.com

http://macacca.com

http://carboncopy.com

http://millionmasterpiece.com

http://artgonia.com

Here are more images from my sketch book. I have been so busy that I have not had the time to paint seriously- but I work in my sketchbook everyday. Both of these sketches are done with a woodless pencil.

On the main pages of this site I have described LiqWidArt with this definition:

LiqWidArt: -noun- a substance that flows through the conscious production of arrangement of sound, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty by having the ability to take on the form of its container.

Which basically is stating that “Art is not bound to any given format, but rather formats itself to fit its needs.”

While that may seem like a simple enough definition I realize that it is not nearly descriptive enough to truly explain the concept.

As artists each of you realize that art takes many different forms. You also realize that trying to make a living as an artist will turn up obstacles at what may sometimes seem like every turn. But it is true that anything that is important to you will put you on your knees at least once.

When I first began the construction of LiqWidArt I struggled with finding the best way to get the site’s concept across. The design changed several times. The elements changed several times. But the concept has remained intact.

The main point I am trying to express is that the obstacles that you face don’t really exist. It may be better to say that they don’t have to. Aside from law and taxes we are not bound to the same rules that most people are.

If you do not fill out an application or submit a resume you do not get a job. If you do not have the required education for a profession it isn’t possible to work in that profession. These are true statements. With this frame of mind we believe that if we do not sell a painting we do not make any money. If we do not have good representation we have no career. These are also true statements. But it isn’t that cut and dry. This is not a black and white area. Much like your work there are many shades of gray and a full spectrum of color.

Anyone can create their own opportunities but as artists the opportunities that we can create are much more reachable than many other professions because the only boundaries our art face are the ones that we either create ourselves or have not learned how to get around yet.

As I mentioned each of you realize that art takes on many forms. Each of you are different artists with different styles, mediums, backgrounds, experience, and paths. But your goals are the same. Your main goal is to express your thoughts, feelings, experiences, hopes, and dreams in your chosen medium and then share that with the world. It isn’t just that you want to or that you choose to. A large part of you has to. It is one of the professions that isn’t what you do- it is who you are.

In the beginning I had so many things planned for this site that I wanted to use to get my point across. I had visions of this epic web site that did so many things and solved all of your creative problems. I am simply trying to prove that art has no boundaries. Of course we all know that. But just as there is a difference between talking the talk and walking the walk - knowing that art has no boundaries and applying our talents as if boundaries do not exist are two different things.

My concept of LiqWidArt simply states that art is not bound to any given format but rather formats itself to fit it’s needs. You will read that many times in my posts, my emails, my signatures, and various profiles of myself. But I while I was attempting to build this epic website that solved all of your creative problems I never lost site of that idea. I will say it once more:

“Art is not bound to any given format. It formats itself to fit it’s needs”

I realized that I can say that until I am blue in the face. It is still just a concept that cannot be truly understood until it is made concrete. At that moment I had an epiphany of sorts. I realized that one web site could not possibly solve all of your problems. If LiqWidArt attempted to help you overcome all of your creative obstacles it would only provide confusion of that concept. There would be to many things going on to provide any sort of “light at the end of the tunnel” for any artist. In the end my plan to make this concept clear would only make it fuzzier.

I decided to change the format of LiqWidArt -but the concept remains the same.

LiqwIdArt will become a launch pad for a series of websites that will each demonstrate the concept of LiqWidArt in different ways. Each of these websites will operate independently but will be used to help express the concept that I call LiqWidArt. These websites will take different forms but each of them will be geared towards helping you to truly remove the boundaries that you are faced with. All of them will focus on providing you with different avenues of exposure, education, avenues to meet individuals like yourself, and a means to grow as artists both personally and professionally.

“LiqWidArt’s vision is to make it possible for every artist we touch to be armed with the neccessary tools, skills, and resources to continue to feed their soul by being able to build a career doing what they love.”

LiqWidArt will remain an avenue for you to gain some exposure by adding your links, events, news, and by commenting on each others work. But remember this website is just the foundation of this “LiqWidArt” concept. Some of these websites will be simple and some complex. But my goal is to take you from knowing that your art has no bounds to living your life with no artistic boundaries.

The first of these websites has already surfaced.

http://ink-splatz.com

This is a simple bookmarking site that will allow you to share your sites with other artists and discover new art sites. A simple site to help you gain exposure for your sites, create back links for your sites, and have access to information that other artists find useful. My goal with this site is to not have to rely on search engines to find what you need but to receive important information about other sites from other artists. I believe that a group of artists are better suited to tell each other what has value than a search engine.

I hope that you will participate and stay tuned as each of these sites unfold.

I  had some un-forseen difficulties working online a few weeks back. I had some trouble with my high speed internet connection and it took the cable guy a week to repair it. I have been using a dial up connection all week.

With all of the complaining I did- you would think I was using an old 14.4 modem. I lived a lifetime between each email.

Now that my internet connection is finally fixed and I am zooming along once more- I took the time to make note of all of the things I found the time to do while waiting on pages to load. I thought the list might be helpful for those of you still operating with a dial up connection.
1. take a walk

2. paint a picture

3. use a whole roll of film- always good for inspiration

4. survive an intervention because you picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue

5. work in your sketch book

6. visit a gallery

7. contact H.G. Wells to transport you back to 6, 999 BC and see how well you like your meat uncooked

8. read a book

9. fix a pot of coffee

10. astral project to Antartica to introduce yourself to a family of penguins

11. talk to another artist

12. write an autobiography

13. build a house to hang your paintings

14. graduate from college

15. read War and Peace

16. raise a family of 3

17. prepare a Chinese meal to feed 20 people

18. paint a 30 ft mural

19. make a complete journey to the center of the Earth

20. identify all of the unknown species in the ocean that paleontologists have yet to discover

21. live to see pigs fly

22. run the Boston Marathon

23. wash two loads of laundry

24. re-arrange your furniture

25. discover the meaning of life

26. be reincarnated as a dung beetle

27. watch The Godfather part I and II

28. build your portfolio

29. resolve all conflicts in the middle east

30. cure the top five most fatal diseases

31. grocery shop

32. clean your car

33. clean your bathroom

34. start an art movement

35. market, produce, and hang an entire corporate art collection

36. throw a lump of clay into a beautiful pot

37. restore a ‘55 Chevy

38. create a presentation to approach an art gallery

39. rewrite your resume

40. clean the old names from your mailing list

41. build a frame for your newest work

42. come up with the next KooKoo for Cocoa Puffs advertising slogan

44. solve a Rubik’s cube

45. mow your lawn

46. finish writing your artist’s statement

and last but not least…

47. lighten up- things could always be worse because I sure got a lot done that week!

Shadow and Figure Study

Shadow and Figure Study