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December 31, 2006

2007 Artistic Goals

The year is drawing to a close and oh, am I ready to take on the New Year!  For the artistic side ofFourth of July 2006 my life I have made a few resolutions:

1.  Post here often.  I know I’ve promised to post more often, but this year I really have intentions on doing so. (there's a difference in wanting to and intending to) It is my hope to get to know more artists as well.

2.  I intend to write my Morning Pages every morning.  After writing for three days in a row, I realized just how much more relaxed I feel throughout the day.  My mind isn’t occupied with chatter.  (The Morning Pages comes from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron)

3.  I will not force myself to create because of the pursuit of money.  Yes, my creations are my sole source of income, but when your mind and body is tired, you don’t produce to the best of your ability.  But then, sometimes you do create masterpieces when you don’t try too hard.  Which brings me to #4...

4. I’m not going to try too hard.  I’m just going to go with the flow and just create from the heart.  No more listening to those critics inside my head.

5. Create more, work less.  I would like to get my art and jewelry in boutiques, salons, or even an Albany plastic surgery office.  That way I spend less time working on my business, so that I can work in my business. 

6. Find out how to create digital collages.  Anybody out there know of any great resources or websites that will help?

What creative goals do you have for 2007?

December 30, 2006

New Blog Discovery: Tammy Vitale

Flowers in Balboa ParkAfter doing a write-up over at The Good Life, I received a comment from Tammy Vitale.  Of course, I had to visit her website and immediately fell in love with her art work.  The collages that she includes with each post inspired me to get out my sketchbook and continue with the collages that I started earlier this year. 

Little did I know that I really wasn’t taking enough time out to indulge in my own art...I finally dug out the box full of all my art stuff that was buried in storage for the past six months.  It was exciting just to touch all the different papers and pick up a crayon!  The things we take for granted, eh?  After I do all my writing today I plan on sitting down with a hot cup of cocoa, some relaxing music, and simply enjoy getting lost in my creativity ;)

But anyways, back to Tammy...like I said, what an inspiring woman she is!  I love her post where she lists The 5 Most Common Passion Killers.  As for #3, I realized that I should follow Warren Buffett’s advice and just do what I love and stop planning!  Sure, it’s good to have a plan, but to be obsessed with how things should turn out in our lives is very detrimental to our creativity.  Just go with the flow, ok!?!  Let The Universe take care of the rest...

December 29, 2006

Business Lessons From a Friend

Well, we’re down to the wire, folks and I’m pretty exhausted from making jewelry day and night to keep up with all the sales I had this past Christmas! 

I noticed this year that there are more people selling jewelry and it bothered me a little until a friend told me yesterday, “Maria, don’t worry about what those other people are doing.  Just focus on your business and what you’re doing.”  It’s good advice, I must say.  How can you enjoy your journey when you’re worried about what someone else is doing?

That’s the beauty of unique, handcrafted jewelry.  Each person has their own distinctive style - kindof like La Jolla real estate... Each home is different from the rest.  (By the way, La Jolla is one place I’d like to own a home - besides Rancho Santa Fe!)   Anyways, even though we’re all selling jewelry, each vendor caters to different market segments. 

One thing I’ve learned this year - start making jewelry early for the holiday rush and don’t wait! 

December 27, 2006

Art Therapy Resources

Art therapy was a field I had thought about getting into at one time. Perhaps I mayArt Therapy Sourcebook still do it, but right now I’m really focused on my jewelry business. I know that for me, art is very therapeutic. I can get “lost” in my creativity and simply letting go of all my “issues” and responsibilities. In other words, I am happiest when I am creating art. In Connecticut, hair restoration is done for those who worry too much that their hair falls out, but for me, I escape into my art.

If you are interested in becoming an art therapist, there are several schools that offer art therapy programs, including Northwestern University in Illinois. I also came across the American Art Therapy Association’s website that lists many schools that have Art Therapy programs.

**Sponsored Post

Have You Visited My Gift Shop Yet?

I know I probably should have promoted this earlier this month, but perhaps there are some of you that are a little late on the holiday shopping and need some gifts for loved ones…

You may or may not know that I have a little gift shop at Café Press where I sell note cards and gift items with my art on them. Pictured here is a journal with a picture of a flower painting I did a few years ago.

If you have something special in mind that you’d like to see in my shop, don’t hesitate to let me know!

Celebrity Art

I came across this article by Baird Jones at artnet Magazine which talks about collecting celebrity art. Whether it is artwork done by celebrities or art that was owned by celebrities, there seems to be great money made in this market.

Baird recommends two galleries where you can find celebrity art for sale:Limited Edition Print by Mike Sergeanthttp://www.imagemakersart.com/ and http://www.rogallery.com/

I’ve always wondered why our society has such an obsession with celebrities. Perhaps people see these celebrities’ lives as very exciting and wish they could be rich and famous. My only hope is that some of the celebrities would spend less on Los Angeles rhinoplasty and spend more on supporting artists Wink

Pictured here is a limited edition print of Prince (one of my favorite musicians of all time) done by Mike Sergeant.  Available at eBay...

**Sponsored Post

December 26, 2006

Why I Love Abstract Art

When it comes to painting, I love abstract art. Just sitting there with a paintbrush in my hand and no set plan about what I’m about to create is pretty exciting to me. I call it a form of meditation because I can just paint with no thoughts…no boundaries… just relaxing and letting the paintbrush take off. I like having the freedom to express myself (like Neil Crespi) - in a positive way, of course.

I came across Thaneeya McArdle’s website where she has some awesome abstract paintings for sale. You can read her blog about her art proMaria Palma's Abstract Artcesses here…

Pictured here is a piece I made awhile back. It was sold a couple years ago! I love incorporating circles into my abstract pieces. Perhaps that’s why I gravitate towards the Audi ;)

December 22, 2006

Ken Aldridge's New Symbolism Gallery

I subscribe to Ken Aldridge’s newsletter and received an email today notifying me of the launch of his new Symbolism Gallery. Pretty interesting pieces, I must say! The way people are eating these days, some of them would have to get liposuction to fit into those coffins! Anyhow, these works of art do make you think a little bit deeper about life...

Ken is offering $50 off all purchases of $100 or more or $100 all purchases of $500 or more until the end of the year!

**Sponsored Post

December 21, 2006

San Diego Photography Blog and Random Thoughts

Off into the blogosphere I went today to find other San Diego artists...I browsed around the San Diego Bloggers website and found the San Diego Daily Photo blog. Felicia posted a few photos of clouds and for those of you who know me, you know my love for taking cloud photos (just browse my "Clouds" photo set at my Flickr album). San Diego Bird's Eye View

Speaking of photos...Here’s a black and white I took a few weeks ago when I was flying back into San Diego from my San Francisco trip. I love that my digital camera has a black and white option!

The San Diego Daily Photo blog is part of a network called the Daily City Photo Blog. If you love taking photos around your city, you may want to consider joining their community of photographers! 

On a random note, for those of you into celebrity pictures, I came across this blog too...Yeah, it’s a guilty pleasure. Sometimes I just have to see what Paris Hilton is lookin’ like these days. I can be random at times Kiss

December 20, 2006

Billionaire Art Lovers

Tamir Sapir Copyright Bloomberg NewsI don’t know about you, but one of my goals on my list of things to do in life is to become a billionaire, you know, like George Lindemann Sr.  How the heck does an artist become a billionaire, you ask? I’m not sure, but I’m learning not to worry about the how’s - just to continue doing what I’m doing and letting The Universe take care of the rest. Who knows, I may not even become a billionaire through my art, but perhaps I’ll become one through another means

I was reading this article at Forbes.com about Francois Pinault, the luxury goods businessman, who has a huge art collection. Apparently, art museums have become the latest “battleground” for wealthy individuals, according to Forbes. Pictured here is Tamir Sapir who just bought this old Duke Semans mansion in New York City. The mansion is being converted into a museum which will house Sapir’s collection of 3,000 ivory artworks.

Read more of the Forbes article, “The Artful Billionaire“...

Learn how to create a wealthy mindset...

Photo Credit:  Bloomberg News

Holiday Dangles From All Sorts

Holiday DanglesVia the Liquid Sky Arts Blog I came across All Sorts, another blog by a great craft/art blogger, Jenny B. Harris. Jenny has some truly inspiring work and she shares some holiday dangles you can use (pictured here is a sample).

This has gotten me in the mood to make some cards of my own! Check out my current inventory of greeting cards...

A Few Ways to Get Your Art Exposed

One of the first "real" paintings by Maria PalmaFor a long time I was a “closet artist”. That’s the term I dubbed myself because I was really shy about showing my art to the public. Then I started getting feedback from friends and acquaintances who came to the house - telling me that “You are really good!”

Me, good? I thought. After all, I was just teaching myself how to paint. I wasn’t taking classes at the time. However, after awhile I thought I’d take a class for fun. It was the best thing I ever did because I learned about different art techniques. (Pictured here was one of the paintings I did in that class) After taking that class I felt it was time for me to make my debut! I was finally ready to expose myself and let the world know about my art.

One of the first things I did was to build a website. Fortunately, I took a Business class in college where we were required to learn the basics of building a website. Building your own website is actually quite easy. I used Yahoo! Webhosting which comes with Sitebuilder.  Sitebuilder is basically a click and paste way of building a website - no HTML knowledge needed.

After I built the website I decided to start selling some of my smaller art pieces at the Yahoo! Auction marketplace. Surprisingly I did pretty well there. The Yahoo! Auctions aren’t as saturated as Ebay and it’s free to sell there. It’s a great place for starters...

As my own art collection started to grow I thought it was time to start doing art fairs. The first art fair I participated in was ArtWalk here in San Diego. ArtWalk is an annual street art fair in Little Italy, a little community of downtown San Diego. It’s a great two-day event that attracts thousands of art lovers!

One thing I want to start doing is getting my art displayed in doctors’ or dentists’ offices. Heck, I’d even display it in a New York cosmetic surgery office... Eventually I would like to do a solo show! That’s the ultimate goal for me ;)

**Sponsored Post

December 19, 2006

Off Into the Art Blogosphere I Go...

Balboa ParkI love going to Balboa Park on Free Tuesdays. Every Tuesday some of the museums have free admission and my favorite museums to visit are The Museum of Photographic Arts and the Museum of Art.

However, today I’m not able to make it down to Balboa Park, so instead I wandered around the blogosphere to find other interesting art bloggers. Via the Art News Blog I came across Art & Perception which has fascinating thoughts and pictures from different artists.

There’s a post about being an artist and having a “day job”. One of the day jobs I had in the past was working in the kids’ shoe department at Nordstrom. I love kids and I took the job because I knew it paid well, but boy was it exhausting! Kids can be quite particular about the shoes they wear ;)

Anyways, fast forward to now and I’m doing everything that I love. Making jewelry and writing are my passions and fortunately I’m making enough money to live comfortably! A dream come true...What about you?

Body Art

One of the things I’ve always wanted to do was to get a tattoo. I’ve played around with the idea forChair Tattoo by Nick Baxter about ten years now and still haven’t decided what I want to put on my body. Perhaps a butterfly...or a unicorn... My boyfriend has turned his whole body into a tattoo art gallery ;)

I recently learned about this website that is dedicated to tattoo designs. It has all types of resources on tattoo art and you can even upload a picture of your own tattoo and have people rate it. Kindof like the Digg for tattoos. Interesting. I have much respect for tattoo artists. It really is a skill that needs to be perfected because if you mess up...well, you’re pretty screwed!

Here’s another interesting website with pictures of furniture design tattoos?!? Now, that’s really interesting. Pictured here is a design by Nick Baxter.

December 17, 2006

The World Through the Eyes of a Four-Year-Old

Heritage Park in Chula Vista, CaliforniaI've been taking quite a few pictures this past month - which I need to go ahead and upload to my Flickr photo album...I'll have those ready sometime this week.  However, I was able to upload some pictures taken by my four-year-old God-daughter, Emma.  I gave her free reign on the digital camera while we were at the park one day.  It was really interesting to see some of the pictures that she took.  She is quite the artist - this I do know.  I was impressed by the compositions that turned out. 

Pictured here is the park where we hung out which is down the street from where we live...

Check out more of her pictures here...

December 08, 2006

New Jewelry Pieces Added to Etsy!

Just a quick update that I'm still busy, busy making jewelry to get ready for the holiday rush that is going to happen in the next few weeks!  I've added some new pieces to my Etsy shop!

If you live here in San Diego, I will have a booth next Saturday and Sunday (December 16 & 17) at Kobey's Swap Meet - weather permitting. I will post again with the exact space I will be in.  Also, if you are interested in hosting a jewelry party at your home, you can earn $100 in free jewelry!!  Party and get free jewelry - how can you beat that?  Email me at maria [at] salondemaria.info if you are interested.  This offer is available to residents of San Diego only.  However, if you live out of town and can entice me by throwing a HUGE party, I may just make a trip to visit you ;)

Have a great weekend!
  

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