Okay, I've let a lot of things slip this summer, especially photography. To be honest, I don't think I have picked up my camera more than 5 times all summer, apart from a short vacation at the end of May. I find that sad.
Yet on the other hand, I haven't been exactly dormant when it comes to art. I've been exploring the other areas, as I mentioned in the previous post. Painting, oil pastels, colored pencils mostly, along with some collage and mixed media. Most of what I've done has been in art journals I have created from scratch after learning how from YouTube videos. (Anything you want to learn you can probably find a YouTube video about it.)
But now that summer is officially gone, some other things are now gone as well. First, I ended (temporarily maybe) my relationship with Fine Art America while I figure out what my next steps are going to be. I can always go back easily enough.
Secondly, I ended my relationship with Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. Granted this was only an online relationship as far as displaying my photography and digital fusion photography. My work was not on display within the storefront gallery. I could still continue to show up to 10 works of any kind of art for free, but without selling anything there, it was getting to be too much on my wee budget to continue paying for unlimited art display and a website. I gave them two years and that was quite enough. To be honest, that was a total experiment on my part from the start. Up until I had taken the email course to prepare for gallery showing, I had not even considered gallery shows. I was looking in a totally different area.
Thirdly, my Facebook page for my photography is on temporary hiatus while I decide what my next course of action will be.
I did keep my domain name even though at the present time it connects to nothing. I am exploring WIX for my next website. Then again, I might just take a swing at designing my next website myself. It wouldn't be the first time.
Okay, so Xanadu's gone. Fine Art America is gone. Facebook is gone. What's left?
Well there is this blog for one, (and the other one called page 2.) Flickr is still filled with my images taken over the past few years. And oh yeh, I am on ViewBug. Have you tried ViewBug? There are lots of fun contests and challenges. You can win prizes with the contests; and the challenges allow you to see how others like your work. You can also choose to sell your work on ViewBug. I have not tried that yet. I only have a few of my photos on ViewBug so far due to only uploading those that I think might do well in a contest or challenge. At this point, I am taking it quite slowly. It is a paid account for the pro status.
So, there you have it. Some major steps taken now that summer has ended and autumn is here with all its glorious colors. While I am still mostly spending time with the hands on type of art right now, my mind is working to make some decisions as to the next steps to take with my photography. One of the things I am considering is how to use my domain name since it only applies to photography. For example, should I keep the straight photography separate from the digital fusion photography? Should I place all the digital fusion photography into a fine art category? Xanadu got my mind on high pricing and I am just not that style photographer at this point. So I have a lot to think about and plan, and though I am not in any great rush, with only three more months left to the year I am thinking maybe to have something in place by the end of this year.
Here are a few things I did work on over the summer. From just one photo I took, I made these. I did take more photos than this one, but this one was a pretty one for creating digital fusion.
