Getting paid to Art

One of my resolutions this year was to make and sell more art. I actually wrote it down in my moleskine. I've made a few things, sketched a few things, but the selling has been hard. This blog is difficult for me, because I'm fairly shy; I know talent when I see it--in my architecture studies, and career, there were things that turned out great, and others that were not so great. I looked around and saw the cool things my classmates were doing, and we learned from each other, and from our mistakes. My dad always used to say "Sbagliando s'impara!" which is Italian for "we learn by making mistakes" or we can only learn by doing, and then sitting back and wondering where things could have gone better; such is drawing, and art in general. So, this blog has been difficult for me in that I don't like showing my work--I know where the pen moved and shouldn't have, or I know where I wanted to go with it, and where it fell short. But, hey--sbagliando s'impara! I'm trying to relax and let go of the self-criticism, the shyness, what have you. Recently I've seen a bunch of things selling on etsy and ebay and thought, well...good on ya for putting it out there! So, my shelves and books are getting filled with things I make and do, and never anyone sees them. But no more--I just started selling stuff on ebay, at a modest price, but still it's something. I will show you what I've sold.

These all went to the same lovely person. They're matted with 100% acid free museum mat and ready to be framed. These are part of my abstract expressionist watercolor series. When I studied in Italy, one of the profs would have us listen to music, and just shut our minds off and doodle and explore--I got so into the habit of doing that before painting or sketching that I kept doing it--these are the result. I love the way this exercise frees up the mind and sort of gets you tuned into the media. Then I sold some art cards (small trading cards called ACEO)

Also sold, to a different ebayer--I've made 25 of these little buddha cards--they're so fun to make, I couldn't stop. Each one is different and embellished in ink pens for an individual look. That's it for now. I will keep listing stuff on ebay, since it's going well :)