Diane Clancy’s Art Blog

Spring is seriously here even though it wasn’t that warm today. But these flowers are enough to cheer up anyone’s day.  One of my friends last night said she loved these flowers … I am so delighted!!  They are in honor of her.

Flowers XIV, Digital © Diane Clancy

On a more serious note, I often copy and paste the image from a pervious post so I can just change the name of the image (and the title and alt tags).  Html talk if that sounds confusing.  I am very disturbed that there was hacking in the text of the image .. some dishonest person – you don’t talk like that from me very often – has put junk into my post.  WordPress keeps making updates to stay ahead of these spammers … but it is hard work.  

Thank you for visiting … I hope to have my 2 Things Challenge in the morning – I have a client coming at 9:30 am so we shall see.  Please tell me how you are!!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: WordPress

CAPTCHA – those annoying little numbers and letters that are all tipsy that you have to figure out what they look like untipsy and then write them into a little box and push a button … and half the time redo it because you didn’t untipsy the stuff correctly! According to Wikipedia, “a CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human. “CAPTCHA” is an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”, trademarked by Carnegie Mellon University.” Wow – that is a mouthful!!

Monkeys and Owls, Digital © Diane Clancy

Completely understandably, many people start using CAPTCHA to protect their hard drives and computers from computer viruses. Understandable!! to want to protect yourself and your computer (is there a difference?) But that is not what CAPTCHA does.

CAPTCHA protects you from spammers. But, I don’t know about you, I don’t get that many spammers … in the spirit of full disclosure, WordPress has a dynamite spam catcher (Akismet) that comes installed with WordPress and you just have to activate it. And it is very effective – sometimes it catches your comments and I have to go free them from the Akismet monster …

And after a certain site linked to me while showcasing some of my graphic design work, my name did get out there for awhile. And I have traveled wide and far on the web asking technical questions and leaving my address … you have seen how I do …. so my blog has gotten out there in one sense.

But, for most of us blogging, we don’t really need to protect ourselves from those who are leaving comments just to link our blogs to their blogs (usually lists of links from what I see – I check them out before I delete them) so that we will go check them out. And I have friends who would love to have so much traffic at their blog that they needed protection … but no, most of us I know would LOVE more traffic!! So, if you are using CAPTCHA to protect your hard drive, then it is not necessary.

And anyone who has to use CAPTCHA because they are getting too much spam, I sure do understand! But you might want to try out and see if you really need the CAPTCHA … or not. I know I often have to try several times to get it correct … oh, oh … does this make me a computer rather than human? Nah … I make WAY too many mistakes … then again, I don’t think computers are as perfect as they are cracked up to be!! Well, you decide.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: computer viruses, CAPTCHA, spam, WordPress, Akismet, graphic design

Doing some work for a client, I have learned a lot of new technical things today about working on the web. WordPress feels pretty familiar to me and regular website work is something I have done for years. I think I am in the process of learning about content management systems. But I am not sure yet what it is I am dealing with!

Emanate I, Digital © Diane Clancy

I am backing up some files for someone, and the whole system is very different from what I have ever seen before. So, something to learn! I have been wanting to know more about this content management thing, and I think I am on that journey.

Thank goodness I know something about Blogger and WordPress! It is amazing how every hosting system seems to be so so different. Just like most of life I suppose. Once again I have jumped in and I am not sure exactly what I am dealing with … it seemed a simple request. Even the ftp is weird!

But I feel sure that I know enough that I will be able to figure it all out.  Hope you enjoy this weekend. Oh, oh, oh – I got an Etsy order today – I am thrilled!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: client, WordPress, content management systems, Blogger, Etsy

It is pretty simple tonight. Smart growth won 2 town election races and I am thrilled! Perhaps we can see some real healing happen. That would be great.

Old Blog © Diane Clancy

I am hoping you will take the time to look at my blog and tell me what you think. Above is an image of the top part of the old look for this blog. If you want to see my other WordPress blog that is similar (to help you remember what it looks like), please do. I can probably figure out how to put the little title type things over the headings in the sidebar. Also I can probably make it into a 3 column blog.

New Blog © Diane Clancy

I spent a bunch of time changing this theme (template) to be whitish on the sidebars instead of dark green and to be bright blue instead of bright green/yellow. Also, I put my own image in as the header … and made a bunch of other changes.

So I am asking for advice – please! Which do you like better? Given that you spend time here reading, I want you to enjoy the experience. I can change colors and such. So I would greatly appreciate which direction you prefer and what you would change. (The image in the header is not open to change – that much I am clear on!)

I would love feedback on 2 vs 3 columns, the basic look … I think the new look might be too much “in your face.”  Thank you! Thank you!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: theme, WordPress, blog

This is the last (for now) of the Flower Essence series. Today Susan Elkin Photography blog has a new look! Susan has had a site in a section of my site for several years. Due to some changes in our hosting, we were able to set her up with a site of her own – Susan Elkin Photography. When you have a chance, I hope you will go over and welcome her. It is a gigantic step!

Flower Essence IV, Digital © Diane Clancy

This is the same blog info that Susan had before. But she used a new “theme” to change the look of the blog. In WordPress these simple changes are called themes. In Blogger the similar change in look is called a “template.” Same idea, different software.

But once Susan decided on the theme, I still needed to go in and make a lot of changes to her sidebar since her blog has some of the bells and whistles I so much enjoy. There is a price to pay for those enhancements though – those get put in by hand.

Thank you to Chris O’Byrne (onlineartsmarketing.com) for clarifying some of the twists and turns for me. And thank you for being here!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: WordPress, Blogger, Chris O’Byrne, Susan Elkin, Susan Elkin Photography, blog

I am curious whether you prefer the look of my WordPress hosted blog Diane Clancy or the look of this blog right here. I suppose they both look pretty nice, but I am lucky enough that several of you come and read and comment most days. So, I would like to know your input. I can’t do some of the fun whistles and bells on the other blog – and, obviously, I do like those extras!

Flowers V, Digital © Diane Clancy

Switching blogs here, I like the clean bright look of the Blogger blog I started the other day – Diane Clancy Art. At the moment I have put my Esty shop on the sidebar. I like seeing the bright colorful images there! Between the banner, the Etsy shop, and the painting in the post, I love the look. I sort of hate to post anything else because it looks so pretty – to me, at least.

Yesterday, I added more complete search capabilities to this blog (this one here). It now searches tags, comments, everything – not only the posts. So if you want to look at an old post and can’t find it (because I use the names of my paintings), now hopefully you can find it!

Thank you again for joining me on my journey!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: WordPress, blog, Blogger, Esty, search

Most days I read Alyson Stanfield’s Art Marketing Blog which I find very useful. I learned about blogging from her free Art Newsletter which you can sign up for at her Art Marketing website. When I started my blog less than a month ago, I studied Alyson’s posts on blogging to make decisions about how I wanted to proceed. In this one blog I get all sorts of insights from many different artists through their comments. Alyson encourages us as artists to use technology in our art businesses.

Conundrum III, Collage © Diane Clancy

Alyson, writing about an art-marketing workshop she gave this weekend, wrote in her blog, “One of the big lessons I always learn at these workshops is that artists who use technology have a distinct advantage over artists who don’t. …”

Alyson continues, “Stay on top of technology and use the tools that are available to you. Only 3 out of 66 artists in the room yesterday had a blog! … think of that. Three of 66!”

From Alyson’s blog I learned that WordPress is free blogging software. From what readers (and Alyson) wrote, I made a decision to go with WordPress and I am delighted that I did! I wouldn’t have known how to start without this great resource of Alyson Stanfield‘s blog.

This painting “Conundrum III” is from my collage goddess series that is inspired by my former quilting. There are many actual fabric pieces in this collage besides paper and paint.

Please share your thoughts in a comment.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: WordPress, Alyson Stanfield, collage, quilting, fabric, ArtBizBlog, ArtBizCoach, marketing, technology, goddess, double face

(Warning: I overused, by far, the world “many” tonight.) Another day of getting things in order with this new blog – but that is OK. Because it is close to where I want it. The people in the WordPress (the software that runs this blog) community are so generous. As are so many, many people on the web! 8 days ago I never even heard of WordPress and certainly never did anything with a blog.

Freedom, Acrylic © Diane Clancy

I am constantly impressed how often help is there from unknown people who are on the web. They take time to look at my problems (and others) and give their advice. Of course, I do that for different people and groups in my life – but it is always so gratifying to see so many people make the time and effort – and seem to enjoy it! It is uplifting so see so much good in so many people when the world is full of contrary examples.

This painting is part of a series I have done with acrylics in hard edge painting style. It is many, many layers on top of each other. Most of the layers are thinned with some kind of transparent medium to make the acrylic more translucent so one can see the multiple layers below. There are many different kind of gel mediums for different effects.

The hard edge part is taking a straight edge – like masking tape – and gently but firmly – putting it on the canvas on each side of the area I want to paint. Then painting that area with the thin acrylic paint. Take off the tape fairly soon. You can see that the layer you put down shouldn’t be too runny so it doesn’t go below the tape – unless you want a softer edge.

Take the tape off soon so it doesn’t stick to the canvas and wreck your painting. I have been meaning to get back to painting like this again. Maybe now that the site is more finished, I can get the studio together again. You may remember I pulled it apart for weatherizing 2 weeks ago.

Looking at “Freedom” tonight, I am entralled with the sense of movement – especially of movement upward. I can see why I named it “Freedom.” I go deeply into the picture and keep moving from one plane and place to another. I enjoy going inside it and feeling the results of my creative process. Enjoy Spring – or Fall – depending on where you are!

- Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: WordPress, hard edge painting, creative process