How to Enjoy and Use This Blog

Big fat happy THANK YOU to those of you who return to my blog, over and over. 

Based on some emails I’ve received, it is time to go over a few things to help you enjoy this blog.

1. Some of you have asked me how to comment.

This is tricky. Some of your computers don’t show the same page view that I see. There is a sentence at the end of each post that reads “Be the first to respond” or “no responses yet” or “# of responses so far”.

This is true unless you are my amazing friend Nikki. I don’t know why her computer shows her a different view. It isn’t personal. Computers are just weird like that.

If you click on those words (hover over them – see your cursor turn into a little hand? This means you can click on it), it will give you a window or a box or something that allows you to type in your comment or question.

Then, it will probably look as if it didn’t work. This causes some people to submit two identical comments, because they think the first one didn’t work. Don’t worry – it goes into a spam folder, and then I go find it and approve it. If you submitted two, I delete one. If you misspelled words, I fix them. I’m just weird like that (sort of an auto-correct function that comes with my brain.)

2. Some of you only care about a particular subject, such as Mineral King, or drawing lessons. 

You can either type the subject into the search box (if your computer is kind enough to show it) or you can scroll down the main page until you see the word “Categories” on the left side; just click on the particular Category that interests you and you will get pages of post headlines, most current on top. You can click on the headlines that blow your skirt up.

3. Several of you have had a little trouble on the main website with the shopping cart. You click on a buy button, and nothing happens.

How annoying! This is because after you choose what you want to buy, you need to click on the word “Cart” at the top of the page. That will show you what is in the cart.

 

Okay, hope that helps. Feel free to try the cart (you can always close the page if you didn’t really mean to buy something), try the commenting system (you can always close the page if you didn’t mean it),  try the Search box, or try clicking on a category that interests you.

Thanks for stopping by, thanks for making it to the end of this instructional post. Here is your reward:

List of random thoughts about cabins and Mineral King

For clarification, this blog is about a California artist, me, to be specific. Mineral King is one of my main sources of inspiration, it is in California, I call my business “Cabinart”, there are cabins in Mineral King, and this is The Season in Mineral King.

Any questions? Yes? Click on the commenting line that might say “Be the First To Respond” or “# of responses”. No? Let us proceed. . .

 1. While enjoying the sunset on the Mineral King bridge one evening, I met Claudia and Dustin.

They were delightful, and Claudia told me about a great website whose name I am afraid to type on my blog. It is called cabin {blank}. The blank begins with a “p”, has four letters, ends with “n” and has the word “or” in the middle. It is fabulous photos of cabins from all over the world. Unfortunately, I just can’t put the name in my blog because who knows what sort of firestorm of spam it might unleash! So, put on your thinking caps, figure it out, and type in www dot cabin (that word) dot com and enjoy some wonderful cabin photos.

2. You’ve read about the Nature Trail AKA Wildflower Walk in Mineral King several times on this blog. (Or maybe you skipped those days. . .) While on the trail the first weekend in August, I found yet another flower that I’ve never seen before. It is on the downstream side of this little bridge. On the upstream side of that bridge I discovered a new flower several years ago, a Monk’s Hood. That is a real thrill to this rural regional artist who never goes anywhere (except Alaska twice, Chicago twice and China twice). It is a shrub that makes a berry in the middle of the blossom. Two friends said, “Wild Coffee Berry!” but it doesn’t match the photos I found on the internet.

3. This guy blew past me on the Wildflower Walk with his dog. HIS DOG! There are signs at either end of the trail with a picture of a dog and a slash through it. I overheard the guy say that he knew dogs aren’t allowed on the trails which is why he had to walk so fast. Hmmm, that means you don’t have to follow the rules??

DON’T MISS THIS!

Wow. That sounded bossy. Please excuse me – my intention is excitement, rather than shouting orders.

Wendy Miller is one of the best drawing students I’ve ever had the privilege of helping. I urge you strongly to see this show. And, many of her pieces are for sale. What an opportunity to own high quality pencil art at very reasonable prices. (Hint of urgency: I bought one already!)

Yes, I know it is Friday and Fridays are for Mineral King. However, I’m the boss of this blog, and this is Really Important News.

Move Over Mom, graphite on paper, 11×14, Wendy Miller

You are invited to

SUMMER CLASSICS

An exhibit of original pencil drawings by

Wendy Miller

July 2nd – September 22, 2013

Reception Sunday, July 7, 2-4 p.m.

Courthouse Gallery of the Arts

125 South B Street

Exeter, California

FREEDOM!

Celebrate, express your gratitude, relish, cherish, protect it, and never take it for granted.

How to Comment on This Blog

Greetings, Gentle Readers.

I appreciate your attendance.

I appreciate and respond to all comments.

I have learned that the commenting system is irritating.

Mineral King sunset photo by Trail Guy

This is the procedure:

1. Click on “Be the first to respond” or “# responses so far”. This is at the bottom of the post.

2. After you type your thoughts and submit or enter (I’m unclear because as the “administrator” of the blog, it doesn’t ask me for this step)

3. It goes to a Spam folder, and then I have to mark it “not spam”. After that, it goes to a pending folder, and then I have to approve it. THEN it appears!

The commenting system isn’t very good. My own replies go to the spam folder and I have to do the process with them too. It also doesn’t give anyone confidence that their remarks have gone through.

Oh, and you might suspect this of me – I correct your typos, and remove anything that I deem too personal for the World Wide Web. (Please feel free to correct my typos too!)

It might be possible for me to change the annoying characteristics of the commenting system. However, my attempts might break the whole blog, so let’s just limp along with the current method for now.

What do you think? Want to try responding to this?

P.S. If you don’t see your comment for awhile, it might mean I am in the Land of No Electricity or Internet. Eventually I’ll catch up with you!

A Rural California Artist’s Thoughts on LinkedIn

You “MUST” be on Facebook/LinkedIn/GooglePlus/Twitter to be considered a serious promoter of your work.

Oh yeah? Do I really need more time on the computer, with “virtual” friendships?

Are these Giant Sequoias having a water cooler conversation?
Four Guardsmen, pencil on paper, 11×14, unframed, $175
 I’ve heard that Facebook is like the backyard barbecue, another one whose name I’ve forgotten is like the bar scene, and LinkedIn has been compared to the water cooler.

I chose LinkedIn, because the barbecue is too big and feels like a waste of time, I don’t like bars, and having not worked for big companies, I’m curious about the proverbial water cooler. (Ever seen farmers on the side of the road, their pick-ups side-by-side in opposite directions, windows down as they chat? That’s their water cooler.)

Staying Power

LinkedIn is a bit of a puzzle to this simple rural artist. I haven’t yet concluded if it is helpful, or if it is just another distraction from being in the studio. It takes so much time to follow the links, find people’s websites, examine their work, comment if they have a blog, and for what? Are other artists truly my potential customers? And as a definite regionalist (referring to my subject matter), is anyone outside of my area truly a potential customer? Do these people in Minnesota/Washington/New Jersey care about Mineral King or Sequoia or Wilsonia??

Sure, it is fun to be asked to join people’s networks, and I feel warm and fuzzy to see that I now have 120 connections. But why? I’m not having personal conversations with these folks. I’m not looking for a job, which seems to be the primary function of this virtual water cooler place.

I’m always hoping for sales and for commissions, but doubt if this is going to happen from clicking “Accept Invitation” or “Send Invitation”. And that seems to be the motivation behind every person’s request to join his network. We all want sales – we are in business, and businesses exist to make a profit.

On LinkedIn, I am somewhat active in an Art Business group. So far, I have picked up a few tips, commented occasionally, and enjoyed some good virtual conversation. This is conversation minus body-language and vocal inflections, so who can say how authentic it is??

In Mineral King, we seek authentic conversation with real people, complete with body language and vocal inflections.
Sunshine at the Neighbor’s Place, pencil on paper, 11×14, unframed, $175

In this Art Business group there are many beginning artists, seeking answers and help. (Most established artists are too busy working to be spending time talking to strangers on the computer. Yikes, what does this make me?) So many commenters obviously don’t take the time to reread what they have written – the typos almost give me a rash at times. It takes time to weed through the dross.

I pay attention to those who are articulate, friendly, professional and thoughtful.  This sometimes causes me to look for their websites, which is a little tricky and time-consuming on LI. (lots of clicking and link following and window opening) Again I ask, “Why?” Is this my version of reality teevee,  am I just procrastinating,  am I seeking like-minded colleagues or do I just want to find a secret recipe to success by copying the business practices of Someone Who Gets It?

I could buy Linked In For Dummies. If I read it and followed its recommendations, would I begin to sell more work to strangers?

I’d rather be drawing, painting, teaching, or blogging. When I’m not doing those things (i.e. WORKING!), I’d rather be knitting, gardening, reading something, or hanging out in Mineral King.

 

Something Fun for Color Junkies

A few years ago I was at my local yarn store. There were some bins of sale yarns. I could not concentrate until I had arranged the yarns in those bins by color. The woman working there at the time told me it was because I am a color junkie.

WOW! A term to describe my obsession with color!

I wonder why I was happy drawing in pencil for all those years when I definitely have an obsession with color. Since I’ve devoted this entire year to completing all the pencil drawings for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia, I really get immense pleasure from working with color wherever I can – knitting, arranging the clothes in my closet in color order (Everyone does that, right?), mixing paint to cover up dress up parts of the workshop, organizing my drawing students’ colored pencils, et cetera.

Awhile ago, I discovered something really fun to do online. It is a color test, and it is free. I scored very high (low, actually, because in the test low is a high score.) Then I forgot about it until last week. I took the test again and look!

Isn’t that thrilling??

You can take the test too. Try it and tell me what you think, either by email or by commenting on this blog. I’d love to hear if it is as fun for you as for me. It’s probably just me. That’s okay, I’m used to being different from the average bear.

Color Lesson: About Lavender

First, a confession. I thought “lavender” was spelled “lavendar”. Really! Me, the Typo-Psycho! I was getting it mixed up with “calendar”. This is a prime example of the Middle-Aged-Mush-Brain I am currently experiencing.

Barbara’s Lavender

Now that I know how to spell it properly, let’s talk about it.

Lavender is light purple. I used to hate that color. This was the result of a trauma that happened when I was in about the 3rd grade.

My older sister had a bee-yoo-tee-full lavender dress that I COULD NOT WAIT for her to outgrow. Finally, finally, it came to me. I tried it on, looked in the mirror and was HORRIFIED. My skin looked YELLOW!! I ran to find Mom and told her, “This dress makes my skin look yellow!” She was astonished that yes indeed, it did make my skin look yellow and probably even more astonished that her 8 year old daughter noticed such a thing.

It was a life-defining moment, although I didn’t know it at the time.

In the 1980s, my Mom took my older sister and me to a color consultant to “have our colors done”. (My younger sister was and is too smart to need this and too cute to care.) Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

It was. Turns out that everyone can wear almost every color. The problems occur when you choose the wrong shade. That lavender did not have enough blue in it to suit me. I still have my color swatches from that session, and they have helped me tremendously through the years.

You can learn about it from a book called “Color Me Beautiful” by Carole Jackson.

Penstemmon

I also learned that as we age, our eyes become more aware of the color purple. Sure enough, in the last 5 years or so, I have come to be almost obsessed with the purple color that has a ton of blue in it. There is a version called periwinkle, and a darker version that is the color of my favorite dutch iris and some lupine and definitely a penstemmon and for sure my favorite Mineral King wildflower called “Explorer’s Gentian.


Explorer’s Gentian

So, I’ve grown from “I hate lavender” to “Oh wow, check out that color!”

What else would you expect from a color junkie?

 

Lupine

Lots of Thoughts

Or, Loughts of Thoughts? Or Lots of Thoughts?

Clearly, this California Artist has thinking time while drawing all those pencil pictures of The Cabins of Wilsonia, where she is right on schedule.

This is some of the noise in my head:

  1. While at the Post Office, the clerk asked if I wanted cash back. While at the grocery store, the clerk asked if I wanted stamps. I wondered if perhaps I would be offered a head of lettuce at the bank. . .
  2. How can I live in a town of 2600 (so says the population sign) and go months or perhaps even years without seeing people I know?
  3. How can I live in a town of 2600 and attend a party where I meet scores of new people who live in my same town?
  4. Doesn’t it seem to you that if your phone and internet service quit for 2-3 days that the phone company should offer a discount? I think they know that they have a monopoly and won’t lose a customer because there is no other place to go. And just in case you were thinking of calling to ask for a discount for being without service, they make sure there are 47 phone numbers for them, each complete with its own maze of button punching to make you think you are getting somewhere when instead, you are just punching buttons to pass the time.
  5. How is it that saturated fat, eggs, butter, protein and coconut oil used to be Nutrition’s Worst Enemy and now they are all considered fine, in fact, beneficial?? I’m reading Young for Life by Marilyn Diamond and someone else. She has changed her mind. She thinks there is a plot to keep us from learning correct nutrition. We know it is true that in the years since non and low fat products have gotten popular, our population has gotten progressively fatter.

That’s it. I’m having ice cream for lunch. I’m sure sugar will remain the Enemy, but my fingers are in my ears, my eyes are squeezed shut, and I’m shouting, “LALALALALALA!”

Worth It, oil on board, 8×10″, sold, sorry, but not really, Hi Shannon

Weird

First, I want to share something with you.

I am a spelling nut. Typos jump out and slap me between the eyes. (My own don’t – it is a fact that proofreading one’s own work is nearly impossible.) It sometimes feels as if I might have a form of Tourette’s Syndrome, except that I shout “TYPO!” in inappropriate settings instead of swearing.

Come to think of it, “typo” IS  four letter word.

I’ve never forgotten the spelling rule “I before E except after C”.

Weird.

Think about that for a bit. I saw it as a pin on Pinterest. Might have been on a tee shirt:

I before E except after C.

Weird.

Now that I’ve shared that little oddment, I can’t remember what I was going to say.

I’m on schedule for the pencil drawings of The Cabins of Wilsonia. Here is a cabin drawing.

You can read more about the project at my other blog, The Cabins of Wilsonia.