Seth Apter's Blog, page 103

Tell All: Chapter 1

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.
Style File, Techniques & Tools, Master Class, It's Still Life, and Playing Favorites were the first five projects posted and links to all these posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The final project from The Pulse #5, Tell All, starts now...

Participants were asked: what is the one thing that you know now that you would have liked to have known when you first started to create art? ------------------------------------------It's all about the journey. Make. Create. Don't worry or over think. Make art for you and your own sake. Kelly Kilmer
That art would become as natural a part of my life as breathing. That it would dip its touch into everything I do. And that exploring art would make me so happy. Angela Cartwright
That we are naturally all artists and that I don't have to go to school or conform to others' ideas or expectations. In other words, I wish I'd had more courage. That's why as a teacher I always try to instill that. Judy Wise
It truly is about process and that being exposed to the incredible range of talent, styles and possibilities can be as overwhelming as it is inspiring. Patti Edmon
No matter how many paths distract you, or whether anyone tries to sway you in the future, you will always make art. Julie Schackson
Craftmanship will come if you keep at it; get your ideas as best as you can with the abilities you have right now. Diana Trout
There are no rules in art. Follow you own instincts and do what makes you feel good. Roseann Cazares
There will be dry spells and times of creative block and these will pass. Terry Garrett
Not every page or piece has to be a masterpiece. They'll make more paper...just go for it. You don't learn if you don't play. Dina Wakley
That I have my own voice. I don't need to have my paintings look like any "popular" artists in order to be successful as an artist. Julie Prichard
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Next Tell All with be posted on Sunday, January 

2013 Workshop Update

My updated workshop schedule for 2013 can be seen by clicking here or on the WORKSHOPS tab below my blog header. Pictures and descriptions of all the workshops, as well as links to register, are available there.

Included in this update is...
My next workshop - Folded Foto Folio - being held at the Little Bird Creations Studio in NYC on January 27th. You must join the Little Bird Creations Studio Meetup site for more information and to register. 

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Three workshops at Collage in Portland, Oregon. Registration is now officially open!
Folded Foto Folio: May 9, 2013


A Box of Dreams: May 10, 2013



52 Card Pickup: May 11, 2013


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Join me not just for a workshop...but for an experience. I will be attending and teaching at Art Unraveled for the first time in 2013. Their website is now live.
For Your Eyes Only: July 30, 2013



Mixed Media Dossier: July 31, 2013





Text Tiles: August 1, 2013

Spellbinders: A Week of Giveaways

I am so excited to be the newest member of the Spellbinders Blog Team. And just as excited to introduce my mixed media crew to the wonders of Spellbinders products and all the card makers and scrapbookers out there to my world of mixed media. You can read more about my efforts to "break boundaries" across creative fields here.
I am joining the Spellbinders family at just the right time too. They are about to introduce a brand new season of dies, folders, and other amazing products. And with that comes the Spellbinders Explore Beyond Sneak Peek and Giveaway. My sneak peek will be my first project as a blog team member.
 
Beginning today, readers will have a chance to view the new releases before the rest of the world AND have a chance to WIN these products before they hit the shelves. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Spellbinders, this week is the perfect introduction.
How do you play?
Simply check the Spellbinders Community Blog every day from 1/2/13 to 1/8/13 to find out who the participating designers are for that day. Click the entry form link at the bottom of their post and fill in the necessary contact information. You may enter once from each participating blog every day!
If you want to get familiar with the participating designers before the Sneak Peek...here they are!
Becca FeekenDarsie BrunoCindy EchtinawLinda LucasLinda DukeYvonne Van de GrijpBecky FleckBeate JohnsDebbie OlsonHeidi BlankenshipSamantha WalkerSeth ApterSusan Lenart Kazmer Candy RosenbergSherry Cheever
You can read all the details and contest rules here.

The Newest Year

As time passes...


and night falls on 2012...

I remember...

the highs...

and the lows...

the moments of contemplation...

and moments of pain...

objects found...


and people lost...


feeling the weight of the world...

and feeling light as a feather...

a sense of calm...

and being content...

feeling off balance...


and finding my way...


climbing to new heights...

and realizing the sky is the limit...

and throughout it all...

Thank you all for being such a big part of my world this past year. I look forward to sharing the journey together as 2012 becomes 2013. Wishing you and your families a very happy, healthy and creative 2013. May every dream come true!

5x5: Chapter 9

I may be the author of  The Pulse of Mixed Media  but the true, creative force behind my book is the group of artists who generously shared their secrets and passions and, of course, their art. It was important to me that this book be representative of our entire artistic community, but the total number of contributors I could include was limited by the number of pages in the book. Not wanting to be contained by page numbers, I decided that the Internet was the perfect vehicle to extend the book and be able to include more of the community. With this in mind, the 5x5 Pulse Project was born.


The Pulse of Mixed Media  presented the results of a survey in which contributing artists were asked questions that they had to answer with words or provided with prompts that they had to respond to by creating art. These ideas were combined in the 5x5 Pulse Project. I put out an open call for artists to submit artwork created in response to one or more of the following questions that were part of the original book:
1. If your artwork could talk, what would it say?
2. Who has had the most impact on your creative life?
3. What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?
Submitting artists could chose 1, 2, or all 3 of the questions and respond to each by creating artwork in any medium in the form of a 5" x 5" square. They were asked to include words as a part of their artwork as well. There was a tremendous response to this call and I will be posting each submission every Sunday throughout the months of November and December. 

The 5x5 project is also being featured in a ten-page spread in the November/December 2012 issue of Somerset Studio, now available in stores and online here.
---------------------------------Who has had the most impact on your creative life?
Stephanie Hilvitz "The women in my life. My artists tribe. My grandmothers. My mother."
Paula Bogdan "Thank you dad for constantly reminding me that I have a brain in my head and that I can do anything I want to do. Thank you for putting that first camera in my hands and for showing me life's beauty."
Amy Duncan
"I owe my creative spirit to my mom...fostered at an early age"

Sarah Fishburn "A child of the 1930s, she played with her sisters, the neighborhood children, and all the other little things that comprised her world. She grew up to be dizzyingly clever and dazzingly beautiful. She is never far from my thoughts."
Lelainia Lloyd
"For the last 15 months I've been taking online photography classes with the fabulous Vivienne McMaster. Taking on photography was a huge leap for me. Picking up a camera & learning to use it to make art was way outside my comfort zone. Vivienne has informed my creative practice & forever changed my artistic life."
Maggie Crawford "Since discovering rubber stamping in 1996 I have taken many classes from a number of very talented teachers on the art retreat circuit - all of whom have influenced me and helped me to grow along the way. I have tried lots of different mixed media art forms but am happiest with art journaling, book making and collage. I create art just for myself, for my own enjoyment and fulfillment. I don't have a blog as I would rather be making art than writing about it, but I do get an incredible amount of inspiration from checking out other people's blogs. I cannot chose just one person. Everyone I have encountered has had some impact; large or small. I thank everyone who has inspired me on this incredible journey but most of all me. I discovered a passion and nurtured this creative life for myself."

What is the one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

Barbara Kleinhans "I feel stuck in this repetitive landscape"
Chris Meissner "Broken, disheartened, isolated, alone, outsider, misfit, disenchanted, disappointed, left out, forgotten, wounded, regret, broken."
Deborah Guthrie "Meltdowns. Good old I'm a loser meltdowns. I can rage as hard as I delight. Thank goodness I delight most of the time as the rages steal so much. I work hard at walking the walk and talking the talk as an artist/instructor but sometimes the ground gives out and a storm blows in and rages. It passes and I believe once again."


Trudi Sissons "I know all the words to Tiny Tim's Tip Toe Through the Tulips"-----------------------This is the last edition of 5x5. Join me for a new Pulse question - the last in the 5th series of The Pulse - in the new year on Sunday, January 6th.

Collaboration Station

In my continuing efforts to slowly update my blog, I have recently added two new static links just below the blog header: a link to my ONLINE SHOP and a link to a page that highlights my COLLABORATIONS with other artists. I attribute much of my growth as an artist to the many collaborations that I have been involved with. You can read some of my thoughts about collaborative projects in this article from the MMCA Marketplace Blog from 2010.

Although I have taken some time off from collaborations in the recent past to focus on other projects, I hope to get back to creating with other artists just as soon as I have a bit more time.

In prepping my collaborations page I realized that I had never posted pictures from my collaboration with Sarah Whitmire. Both Sarah and I created our own handmade and handbound books, which we traded back and forth via mail for the three years of the project. We each worked in both books, sometimes creating our own pages and, even more challenging, sometimes working on every page - on top of the other person's art.

So, by way of introducing my new collaborations page, here are some of our pages from my book...

The Business of Art

In 2010 a series of survey questions were posted on my blog as a means of ‘taking the pulse’ of the online art community. More than 40 questions were posed and the results of the survey were presented as sidebars in my book The Pulse of Mixed Media: Secrets and Passions of 100 Artists Revealed. The survey tapped into a range of issues, both practical and psychological, related to being an artist today.

In Pulse Points, my newest series continuing here today on Create Mixed Media, select survey questions from the book were presented to several different groups of artists working in mixed media and beyond. 
Today's rockstar panel includes: Mary Beth Shaw, Marie Otero, Ronda Palazzari, and Angela Wales Rockett.
Today's questions and original survey results from The Pulse of Mixed Media:
How do you feel about the "business side" of being an artist?This aspect is usually problematic for me…53%Don't really embrace the business side but I handle it well…28%I feel equally able to focus on both creativity and business...12%The business side is easy: it is the creating that is hard...2%
If you sell your work, do you have trouble with pricing?No, I have a system that works for me…8%Yes, but overall I am comfortable with my pricing decisions…42%Yes, and as a result I tend to underprice…48%Yes, and as a result I tend to overprice…2%
And a taste of what our panel members had to say:
Mary Beth Shaw: "Coming from my previous life in corporate America, I find the business side inevitable and easy...of course that doesn't mean I like it."
Marie Otero: "I think the key is in recognizing where you want to go with your art and understanding what it will take for you to achieve your goals." 
Ronda Palazzari: "While the business side of is not my favorite part and I would rather be creating, I appreciate that I have to take care of it in order to create."
Angela Wales Rockett: "I am learning to be clear with myself about my own definition of success, and not to compare my efforts and results with somebody else's."
Head on over to Create Mixed Media to hear much more of what the panel has to say about these issues. You can also read the first three posts in the series if you missed them. And if you would like, please share your own thoughts in the comment sections here or at CMM.

5x5: Chapter 8

I may be the author of  The Pulse of Mixed Media  but the true, creative force behind my book is the group of artists who generously shared their secrets and passions and, of course, their art. It was important to me that this book be representative of our entire artistic community, but the total number of contributors I could include was limited by the number of pages in the book. Not wanting to be contained by page numbers, I decided that the Internet was the perfect vehicle to extend the book and be able to include more of the community. With this in mind, the 5x5 Pulse Project was born.


The Pulse of Mixed Media  presented the results of a survey in which contributing artists were asked questions that they had to answer with words or provided with prompts that they had to respond to by creating art. These ideas were combined in the 5x5 Pulse Project. I put out an open call for artists to submit artwork created in response to one or more of the following questions that were part of the original book:
1. If your artwork could talk, what would it say?
2. Who has had the most impact on your creative life?
3. What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?
Submitting artists could chose 1, 2, or all 3 of the questions and respond to each by creating artwork in any medium in the form of a 5" x 5" square. They were asked to include words as a part of their artwork as well. There was a tremendous response to this call and I will be posting each submission every Sunday throughout the months of November and December. 

The 5x5 project is also being featured in a ten-page spread in the November/December 2012 issue of Somerset Studio, now available in stores and online here.
---------------------------------If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

Kim Henkel
"I have brought joy, peace and comfort
I have brought silence, beauty. strength
to the very heart of my creator.
I have let in the light."

Cat Storey
"grow"

Robert Stockton
"I exist as a fragment of the everyday details of a life lived in another place or time."

Olivia King
"She often does not know the way. She stands alone in front of me waiting, sifting through memories looking for the still point of a fragment, a whisper, a color. Then she begins with her brush. because she must show you what lies beneath her soul."

Karen Isaacson
"What will she do next?"
Lindi Stevenson
"Art...in real life. Where have you been?"

Carrie Siems

"My artwork did have something to say... until I took the words right out of its mouth. Seriously, have you looked inside?"

Sandy Babb


"I extol the warmth of I the shimmering summer sun.... I express the purity of the atmosphere on full moonlit star studded nights... I express the verdure of the forests that cover the hills and hollows of her home both through color and symbol... I express the intricacy and detail with which she likes to create... I express creative freedom and artistic adventure where the inception of new ideas are formed and begin being worked out... I express the emerging artist who is slowly working her way out of  her insulated cocoon and testing her new found wings..."

Who has had the most impact on your creative life? 

Carol Henley
"Find A Project was the standard cure for almost everything... So... I learned to be very creative! Thanks Mom!"


Elizabeth Bunsen "shadowlady"-----------------------The next and last edition of 5x5 will be posted on Sunday, December 30th.

Solstice Sun

Today is the winter solstice, the longest night and the shortest day of the year. For me, the solstice represents transition and new beginnings. As we pass through the longest period of darkness in the northern hemisphere, we enter into a new phase where the light gets longer and stronger with each passing day. And with the light, comes hope - something that is desperately needed in these times.

Solstice Sun available in my etsy shop

sold. thank you!

Art Allows........

Thought for the day.........