Watermarks

One of the things I want to get done before I leave on Saturday, is to get my work watermarked for copyright protection. Then there are the pieces that still need to be cropped and fussed with for online display. There's really not much that has to be worked on, at least in terms of cropping, but the watermarks could pose more of a challenge. Photo Shop has the digimark filter, but it doesn't seem to have had an impact on the images I put up on MySpace this weekend. So it's back to the drawing board, so to speak.

Interesting thing about cropping the digital versions of my work: it really does change the piece. For some of them anyway. The prints seem to stay pretty much the same, only kind of larger so it's easier to make out detail. But the paintings are going to look completely different. And not in the same way as slides of paintings.. the act of cropping and making color adjustments really does change them.

I'm not upset about this, although it's something I need to keep in mind if I'm putting these things up as representative of my work. What is going to end up happening is I'll use the cropped, digital versions to make all new pieces. This is a good thing because I really do like working digitally, and I really like the idea of using my own images as bases for something new. It's kind of like collage only without the glue.

Anything new, however, really will have to wait until I'm back at the end of the month. I simply won't have the time this week to re-create on top of everything else. What's good is that I may be able to work on the website when I'm at Mom's during the week of the 19th. If that is the case it will save me all sorts of time when I get back and will turn the second week into a working vacation. (I need the time away, but working in a different environment can be just as good as a vacation.)

So that's my thought process right now.

Creative Process

Something I've noticed about myself over the years is that I get distracted pretty easily. Which is why I make sure I have everything I need before I start on any sort of creative endeavor. For example, if I'm going to paint I make sure I have all my materials, my brushes are in good shape, the room is as I need it to be, my subject matter is set up. But I also need to make sure that I'm not scheduled to be anywhere, or that anyone is going to need me for something, and I have no outstanding projects or bills or anything. Because the moment the phone rings, and I've forgotten to turn off the sound, or someone comes looking for me, I'm done working and I have a hard time getting back to it. Actually it's that more than anything else that has kept me from painting recently: I just can't seem to get my ducks in a row so I can comfortably vanish for a week or so. I'm tempeted to lie to everyone and ditch my vacation plans in order to hide here and paint. But that will never work as I've already lined someone up to water the plants and there will be workers here to fix my bathroom, so my plan is thwarted as it's even thought up.

That's my lame excuse for not posting here regulaly and for neglecting my website. Maybe not so lame, as it's been one thing after the other around here. It has occured to me that I'm not busy enough, that my big scheme to devote my summer to freelance work so I can get my apartment organized, work on the website, learn Flash, blog, write fiction and work on some essays to post over at MySpace, visit my nieces and nephews, paint and do things with my friends. It hasn't worked out that way.

I'm not going to get into specifics because, frankly, I don't have the energy. The point is that I have had very little structure this summer and that's a good way for the Forces of Chaos and Disruption to completely take over my life and derail my creative projects. Aside from the writing and the kid-visiting, very little else has come to pass. And I doubt that I'll get enough privacy to paint in peace this summer so as far as that goes I'm shooting for the fall. I'm also going to have to go out and get me some structure. That means not relying on freelance work because that gives me way too much time to be distracted by other things.

But I'm not away yet, and there will still be summer left when I return. The website may just get finished sooner than I think it will, and the apartment can get organized slowly.

Anyway, that's what I have now on my creative process. Oh, I forgot to mention that the reason I need for mundane tasks to be completed and a minimum of interruption, especially when I'm painting, is because I lose time. It does take me a while to get started, but once I do I tend to fall off the face of the earth until I get to a place to stop, or I finish. It's why I don't really date anymore because I've found that men get annoyed when the woman they're involved with vanishes and ignores them in order to spend time painting. (It's never permanent, and I've explained that if they just leave me alone I'll get done faster, and it's not like they aren't warned, but they get annoyed anyway.)

Now THAT is what I have now on my creative process. If anything else comes to me I promise to blog about it.