I’m excited about my latest project. I have just posted a new video to my YouTube channel featuring my painting process in a 30 second time-lapse video! The painting featured is “Interconnected” which you just saw me post last week. I had posted a few photos of my process but the video uses 89 photos which I had taken of the painting as I worked- it’s a 6″ x 6″ painting, so the smaller size worked well for this project seeing as I had to frequently stop to photograph it. The video shows the piece from start to finish, taking a 2+ week period and converting it into 30 seconds. If only it were that easy… You can check out the video by clicking the image above or go to YouTube at http://youtu.be/ExH6dRoV3KU.
For monthly updates on my latest paintings as well locations of where my work is showing, sign up for my newsletter at http://www.amyguidry.com/contact.html
I’ve just finished my latest painting in the “In Our Veins” series! The title is “Interconnected” and is an acrylic on canvas, 6″ x 6.” Yet again, I took some photos along the way as I was working. I must admit they are not the best quality photos, though, since I didn’t mess with the settings on the camera and some are blurry, most are crooked. Yikes. And to think I had to take a photography course back in college… just goes to show if you don’t use it, you lose it. Which is why for the final photo, I rely on a professional. Anyway, this blind old bat much prefers working a few inches away from a canvas with a teeny tiny paintbrush. For a closeup view of the final painting, you can view it here: http://www.amyguidry.com/interconnected.html.
I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day weekend! We’re actually having some nice weather here for a change after Tropical Storm Lee. Over the weekend, my work was featured on Empty Kingdom. This is actually the second time I’ve been featured. Some of my earlier work appeared there almost a year and a half ago (how time flies…). This feature includes work from my “In Our Veins” series including some of the newest paintings from that series. You can check it out online here: http://www.emptykingdom.com/main/featured/amy-guidry-revisit/.
I’m excited to announce that my painting “Zachary” will be in the upcoming “Portraits and Their Stories” exhibition at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. “Zachary” is part of the museum’s collection and will be amongst the many other portraits in their collection (including Grant Wood of “American Gothic” fame) as well as some pieces on loan. “Zachary” was one of my portrait series paintings done during 2005-2006 (which you can view a few of on my Facebook Fan Page). The exhibition will be up September 24th, 2011 through January 15, 2012- ample opportunity for those of you in the Midwest to see my work in person. For more information on the exhibit visit the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art website at this direct link.
I send out an email newsletter each month, and I thought it might be helpful to those of you who don’t yet send a newsletter or are contemplating taking on such a project, to post some tips. Also, for those of you that do send newsletters, you may find some new ideas to help increase your subscriber rate and boost their enthusiasm. So here goes:
-I’ve posted a screen grab of one of my newsletters here to give you an idea of what I do. If you visit my website, www.AmyGuidry.com, you’ll see that I have kept the overall look the same as the website- color, style, logo, etc. This aids your branding campaign in that the visuals are associated with you and identify you in the minds of others.
-Frequency is up to you and you may want to experiment with this depending on how much you produce/exhibit/etc. I like once a month with a concise list of everything I have going on.
-Use a compelling subject heading, not too long- maybe 6 words or less. I like to focus on my “big” news to catch their attention.
-Photos are a must even if you are only discussing exhibits or articles. People are visual creatures so include photos of your new work, or studio shots, exhibition opening photos, installation photos, etc. If you are published in a magazine, include photos of that as well. Same goes for awards or certificates.
-Text should be concise and interesting. Try not to just state facts, which can be hard to do if you are announcing an exhibit but add some points of interest or amusing anecdotes wherever possible.
-Put your biggest news at the top of the newsletter. Unfortunately, you’ll have some readers that just skim through your news, so you’ll need to get their attention first thing.
-Add your other links at the bottom of the newsletter. If you are on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn, etc.- include those links. Your most interested fans will scroll all the way down to see them. Otherwise, you don’t want to distract your readers and lead them away from the newsletter too quickly.
-Limit outbound links to 3 or less. If you give too many links for people to visit, you’ll overwhelm them and they probably won’t go to any.
-Key time to send? According to marketing experts and my own personal experience, Tuesday-Thursday are your best bet. Send during the day, anywhere between 10am Pacific time to 3pm. I think I get more response in the afternoon, but again, try this out yourself and chart what gets you the most response. Monday is a no-no because people are bombarded with new email that built up over the weekend, whether they are at home or at work. Friday-Sunday, people are out enjoying the weekend.
-Have a signup page for your newsletters on your website. Let people know what they will be receiving and how often.
-Include a link to your newsletter signup page in all your correspondence emails.
I recently posted a few photos of work I did as a kid up through high school. Funny, it never occurred to me that someone would be interested in adding one to their art collection…I guess because even though they are art, somehow I only considered work done during my “professional” years to be of interest. That is until someone expressed interest. I was also surprised by the enthusiasm people had over these once I posted them to my Facebook “Fan Page.” Even though they were all pieces I did on my own time, they were still part of my “sketchbook” assignments (even though they were not just simple sketches) which I had to turn in weekly to show that I was working on my art. This was standard for those in the Talented Art Program. Every week I would show what I worked on, usually adding more to the same drawing, and wait for approval. In some ways, it’s not all that different from how things are today. So I think this serves as a great reminder that we shouldn’t be so critical of our own work- on the whole, if it’s good, it’s good, no matter how old it is, no matter the imperfections that we think we see, no matter how many times we had to start over. No one else sees that, they just see a great work of art.
Kathy Rodriguez wrote a great review of the “Artists Who Wish They Were Dead II” exhibit for the NOLA Defender. The show is up now through September 3rd at Barrister’s Gallery (where you can see my work) and UNO St. Claude Gallery- both on St. Claude in New Orleans. You can read the article at this direct link: http://www.noladefender.com/content/art-mortality.
My work is currently on exhibit in “Artists Who Wish They Were Dead II” at Barrister’s Gallery in New Orleans. The show was guest-curated by artist Dan Tague and is up now through September 3rd. I attended the opening reception the other night at Barrister’s which was held in conjunction with UNO St. Claude Gallery. If you would like to view my work in person, it is at Barrister’s Gallery now through September 3rd. More photos will be added soon at http://www.amyguidry.com/events.html.
I just posted some work from my childhood and teen years on my Facebook Fan Page. I thought it would be fun to share on here as well. I have been digging up older work for future projects- videos, mainly- and came across some fun pieces. Of course I then remembered some pieces that I haven’t seen and don’t actually know what became of them. As a kid, I gave away drawings, plus I think teachers ended up with some. So I have some more digging to do apparently. Here are a few of my finds (click on the photo to see the entire image):
And if you’d like to see what I’ve been up to lately, visit my website at www.AmyGuidry.com.
If you follow my Facebook page, you may know some of this news already, but I haven’t posted about it here yet. One of my paintings was used for the filming of a book-turned-movie titled “When Angels Sing.” The painting that will be featured is “Wisdom” from my “New Realm” series, which you can view here: www.AmyGuidry.com/Wisdom.html. I’m extremely honored to have my work included in this film.
“When Angels Sing” is based on the book by Turk Pipkin and is directed by Tim McCanlies. The film will star Connie Britton, Harry Connick Jr., Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Turk Pipkin, Frankie Jonas, Chandler Canterbury, and Fionnula Flanagan. Musician appearances include Sara Hickman and the Jonas Brothers. Filming has already wrapped up and the movie is scheduled to be out this holiday season 2011.