You can now order a piece of Optimism Art with the quote of your choice.

You can also order mugs and shirts with optimism art on it.

All of this is available through the Northland Exposure Artists’ Gallery at 110 Main Street in Parkville, MO.

I am so excited about this new venture.

People have been so interested in the Optimism Art that I wanted new methods of providing optimism.

The art has been purchased many times as gifts for a variety of occasions.

If you are looking for a unique holiday gift, birthday gift or just a gift to say I care, optimism art could fit the bill.

It is so much fun to make.

I hope you enjoy seeing it as much I enjoy making it.

We all need a little optimism in our lives.

One of my Optimism Mugs.

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to never stop questioning.”

~ Albert Einstein

It is definitely half full!

A new piece of Optimism Art.

“A Woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.”

~ Eleanore Roosevelt

That is s-o-o-o true!

Another new piece of Optimism Art

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

~ Helen Keller

If you have a special quote you would like in a piece of artwork, let me know and I can do a custom piece of Optimism Art just for you. It also makes great gifts.

I will soon have Optimism greeting cards available at Northland Exposure or by order.

Here are my latest pieces which will be at Northland Exposure soon!

"There is hope in dreams, imagination, and in the courage of those who wish to make those dreams a reality." ~ Jonas Salk

"If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance." ~ Orville Wright

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." ~ Helen Keller

Take time to play!

Gloria Heifner

This is one of my favorite quotes.

I finally incorporated into a piece of my Optimism Art.

I hope you like it.

Have a great week!

Gloria Heifner

Irene B. French Community Center Art Gallery 

             ~~~~~~

Opening night reception is 

Thursday, July 2, 2009

7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. 

I have a couple of my abstract pieces in the show and there
are a lot of other really nice art pieces to see. 

I have been working on some new pieces for the Northland 
Artists’ Gallery in Parkville for our new show and 
July's rotation. 
So far I have one small mixed media piece for our
Americana show, one large optimism piece, 
and one abstract landscape which will all be in 
the gallery starting July 2nd.

FYI here is the gallery street address and web address:

Northland Exposure Artists’ Gallery

www.northlandartists.com

I have also completed a couple of new small optimism 
pieces that I like a lot. I hope you like them too. 

Have a great week and take time to play! 

Gloria Heifner

is opening a new art exhibit on

Sunday, July 12, 2009.

The opening reception will be from

1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The theme for the show is Americana. Come by and see all the artists different interpretations of the theme. We also have a few new artists whose work you may not have seen before.

For those of you who are not attracted by the Americana art theme there will plenty of  art that does not follow the theme to check out.

You can also see our artwork by going to www.northlandartists.com.

Creativity in Art

I read a blog the other day that talked about what critics and art jurors think about when they look at a piece of artwork. 

What makes a piece of art worth writing about for a critic? 

The answer to this question was very interesting. 

The response from one critic was, they view the art and wait for other artists names to pop into their head. If a list of artists names come to mind viewing the work they then look for whether this piece is a direct duplication of another artist’s style or if the piece has something unique in its own right. If no names come to mind, is this piece truly creative in the artist’s approach, style, and/or subject matter?

This really made me stop and think about my own art. We are all influenced by artists we admire but do we bring our own creativity to our art or are we taking other artists’ styles and painting new subjects. Maybe we are even painting similar subjects in our artwork. 

Creativity asks a lot of an artist. Creativity asks you to step out where there is no path to follow, to forge your own path, and to risk ridicule. Creativity requires courage and an adventurous spirit. As artists we all want to believe we are creative, but the real question is “Do I have the courage to forge my own path with my artwork?”. 

Is there anything more exciting or scary than going in a totally different direction than everyone around you? You must step out into the dark and hope there is something to put your foot on. You must go it alone. You must fight the voices in your head that say, “This is the most ridiculous thing you have ever done.”, or “You are wasting your time.”, or “If this is any good, why isn’t someone else doing it.” or whatever the voices inside your head say to you. 

I recently took a class in writing and the instructor talked about those voices inside your head and how they could get in the way of making real progress on a writing project. Her suggestion was to give those voices a name and to negotiate with them. They can serve a purpose in enabling you to view your art critically but if you allow them free reign they can stop you from being truly creative. 

She said she named her inner critical voice after an aunt that was alway critical of everything. I named my critical inner voice “Jibber Jabber”. A name like that takes some of the negative power away from the voice and puts it in perspective. You don’t necessarily want to totally ignore it because sometimes it has a point. But you don’t want to give it the power to keep you from being truly creative.

Here is one of the toughest ways for an adult to become creative. Allow yourself play time with your art materials.  Tell “Aunt Susie” or “Jibber Jabber” that they need to take a break now and give you time to play. There is no right or wrong, it’s just play time. You are not creating a piece of artwork, you are just playing. This might be easier if you play with materials you do not normally use in your artwork. 

• If you are a painter get some clay or paper. 
• Play paper dolls again by cutting pictures out of magazines. 
• If you are a 3D artist try painting. 
• Try finger painting.
• Instead of using brushes to paint with use sticks or q-tips. 
• Use paper instead of paints
• Use objects you would normally throw away such as bottle caps, plastic containers, plastic or paper bags, old dryer sheets, or whatever you can find.

Allow yourself to be creative.

Tell Jibber Jabber to take a break.

Have a great week and enjoy your play time!

Gloria Heifner

Learn from yesterday . . .

Creating Marketing Communication Pieces for Artists
As artists we are selling a product. There are many ways to go about this. Most of us (including myself) have been so involved in creating art that we have given very little thought to marketing our product. Some have gone a step further and put artwork in galleries, local art festivals, shows, and competitions.

We may or may not have communication pieces about ourselves and our artwork but if we do they are put together with little thought to an actual marketing strategy. If we have marketing pieces such as artist bios, business cards, postcards, blogs or websites there is no common thread between them.

All successful companies have an image that is conveyed in all of their marketing pieces. Companies spend a lot of money and time developing just the right image and feel for their company communication. It may start with a company logo but it also includes typefaces, images, colors, backgrounds, and slogans just to name a few. There is a lot of psychology involved in developing their look and feel. We all recognize their television commercials even before they give their company name or display their logo.

As artists most of us do not have the time or money to invest in developing our marketing image but we can still develop a consistent look for all the different communication pieces we use.

The question then is “How do we find the look that fits us?”
Look at your artwork:
Are there colors that are used regularly?
Is there common subject matter?
What is your art style?

Find a typeface that reflects your art style. You may have to try on a few before  you find the one that works for you and you may need help from someone who is more experienced with computers and graphic design.

Find a color palette for your communication pieces. This palette may be very similar to your painting palette.

Find a piece or two of your artwork that exemplifies your work that can be used on your communication pieces.

Just a few small steps can pull your marketing image together and create a consistent professional image for all of your marketing pieces.

Gloria Heifner
gloria.heifner@gmail.com

Let’s see what are my excuses.

I’ve been working on some things for the gallery; the May Newsletter, and setting ups some guidelines for the galleries plein air painting project. The plan is to have gallery artists painting outside the gallery Saturdays in June, July, and August. You should definitely come by and see our artists at work on their artwork.

My son turned 24 on Friday and came home and spent time with us Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Then there was the long holiday weekend when we went to a BBQ competition at Sandstone and spent some time hanging out around a neighbor’s pool.

With all that going on my blog got neglected but I did spend some time working on artwork and created a brand new (I think my favorite so far) Optimism piece. I hope you like it too.

"Hope is the thing with feathers...."

I am also including some pictures of my current display at the Northland Exposure Artists’ Gallery. It includes 3 pieces of my Optimism Art and 3 other pieces.

I hope you like them. They are all available for sale at the gallery.

Display at Northland Exposure Gallery 5-09.

Display at Northland Exposure Gallery in Parkville, MO 5-09.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Memorial Day!

Northland Exposure Gallery

Address: 110 Main Street, Parkville, MO – Phone: 816-746-6300 – www.northlandartists.com

The Northland Exposure Artist’s Gallery is an artist owned and managed gallery in Parkville, MO, of which I am one of the artist owners. We have an amazing group of 44 artists currently in the gallery. Each one brings their own unique style of artwork and world view to the gallery. 

Being an artist owned gallery, we have the advantage of being able to keep the price of our artwork affordable by keeping overhead to a minimum and cutting out the middleman. Our art print bins hold items from around $25 and up. We carry many items such as original jewelry and pottery which can be purchased from around $12 and up. In addition we carry original pieces of artwork ranging from $35 up to several hundred dollars.

If you happen to be in the Kansas City area, please put the Northland Exposure Gallery on your list of places to visit. There is always at least one of the artists working the gallery which provides a wonderful opportunity to visit with an artist about the artwork in the gallery.

My 8”x10” canvas board pieces of Optimism Art is available for purchase for $35. These and other pieces of my artwork can be purchased at the Northland Exposure Artists Gallery in Parkville, MO. 

I have not started any additional 8” x 10” Optimism pieces since my last blog post. I do have a 9”x12” piece that I worked on last week. It was fun to do but when it was done I realized it looks an awfully lot like a Christmas package which to me is extremely distracting! 

The second piece is an abstract piece which is a study in using color to add depth to a painting.  The idea in this painting was using cool colors to push the background back and warm colors to bring items forward giving the piece a more three dimensional look. I’ll let you be the judge as to how successful it was.

"An optimist...."

Depth with color

“Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have completed painting, adding some glass and wire embellishment, and gluing the quote into position.

I still need to finish it off with a matte medium and then it will be ready to purchase. 

I did not write any posts over the weekend but I did start on my next piece of Optimism Art. My viewers are such a talkative bunch that I did not get any comments voting on the quotes I asked to be selected from but I did receive a few comments via email.

The quote I will be using is quote #2. I set it up using my word processing program (mine is Pages on my Mac computer) and using the following steps.

1. Insert a text box
2. Type in the quote.
3. Format the text.
   • *I made the first letter of the quote bigger so it would stand out and I left the    name of the person being quoted in a small italic san serif typeface.
4. Flip the text box horizontally (this will make the text wrong reading).
5. Print the document on vellum with black ink.

When the printed vellum is flipped over to the back side the quote will be right reading as in the photo below.

I painted an 8”x10” canvas board with black and purple acrylic giving it a bit of a mottled look. When it dried I drew my basic shapes on using white conte crayon and started adding in some color using an medium red, yellow, and purple acrylic. Below is an image showing where the painting is so far.

Let me know what you think. I’m anxious to receive some comments on my blog.

By the way another thing I did accomplish this weekend is getting my own website up and running. Just click on Gloria Heifner’s Gallery in the right hand column under blogroll and it will open my website for you.
I still need to work on it some more. I do not have pages set up for my mixed media, charcoal, pencil work or links yet, so if you click on those you will get an error page, but everything else should be working.
The thing about this web site that is really exciting for me is I built it all myself using html, which I learned from a class I took earlier this year. I hope you like it.