Monthly Archives: May 2007

Emma in Butterflies

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Emma looks like she is having fun … walking through the butterflies with her dainty little paw gracefully poised. What fun to have these beautiful, colorful butterflies all around. This is part of “Fanciful Animal Images” that are so popular with many people. Emma doesn’t have to worry about prioritizing in her life. Well, that may not be true, she probably has to decide which butterfly to chase.

Emma in Butterflies

Emma in Butterflies, Digital © Diane Clancy

But I bet you are like me – often not sure how to prioritize the many tasks that lie strewn over my life (and house.) Actually, I too have many beautiful butterflies to chase … marketing these animal images (making the site, creating more images), online stores (posting more items in my stores, setting up CafePress, starting eBay), reworking my business card as suggested, work for clients, catching up on reading, researching and email, and, oh yes, painting – that’s right, I am an artist. I am sure you know the drill.

Today I worked in the physical world (you know, off the computer). I actually have moved the stacks of business related folders from my bureau and from the table in the living room. Now it almost looks like a house instead of a business (at least that part of the house). Hopefully my new, revised system will work.

Organizing the house, studio, office (same thing) often falls through the cracks. It is very satisfying that it is feeling more spacious here. I think the openness will help me with my other work – be less distracting. Then tomorrow I have to start prioritizing all over again!

~ Diane Clancy

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Flowers II

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I got a lot of organizing and clearing up of piles done today, but I am tired tonight. I know when this happens, I need to realign with my higher purpose of why I am creating and marketing and all the other things too. I need to tap into that spirit of joy, allowing and flow that is right there … once I stop and focus on it. I need to remember that there is meaning to what I do. Once I refocus my attention toward this other reality, I feel renewed. Perhaps still tired, but renewed. I feel more refreshed than when I started writing this post – whew! This stuff still works!

Flowers II

Flowers II, Digital © Diane Clancy

As I was deciding what to write about tonight, I checked Alyson Stanfield’s Art Marketing Blog (www.ArtBizBlog.com). There is a great post, Avoid Art Career Overwhelm, which announces that creativity coach, Eric Maisel, will be with Alyson in a free, 30-minute teleseminar next Wednesday, June 6. He is going to talk about his solutions for dealing with the feelings of overwhelm that so many of us have.

I know I look forward to hearing what he has to say. I am always open to new ways of working well and staying aligned with my creativity and joy while I am working.

I would love for you to share with us what does and doesn’t work for you in keeping life and work manageable, not overwhelming, and, hopefully, having joy. Thank you so much for being in my life.

~ Diane Clancy

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Flowers XIV

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Today Neda of Papiers Collés wrote in yesterday’s post, “Diane, how about you have ANOTHER blog and you take people like me step-by-step through all this? I bet there are many of us in our 40’s and 50’s who really want to know more but are paralyzed the sheer amount of technical info? You can do it!!! Pleaaase!”

Flowers XIV

Flowers XIV, Digital © Diane Clancy

I am not going to start another blog, but I would like to keep writing about technical stuff as I learn it. Perhaps it will help someone else out. If people would like me to, I can certainly either share info as I learn it, answer questions to the best of my ability, or I could every several days dedicate a post to another piece of setting up a blog.

I have several friends who are planning on starting blogs soon. That could be one way of documenting the process in a way that might be helpful to more people. If I tag the information well, then someone can come along and use this as a resource – hopefully in relatively clear language.

I have met a friend online lately, Julie, and she has asked me to help her learn about copyright issues for artists. I repsonded to her that I would like to write some posts about that for 2 reasons. One is so that I wouldn’t have to write it several times, but also, more importantly, maybe other people would find it useful too.

Sue O’Kieffe of Sacred Circles Mandalas has also asked me to share more techniques on how I create some of my digital images. So perhaps those two things go together. I would be interested in people’s response. I know there are lots of resources out there about these things. But this is here and now and some people are asking. Thank you for sharing your feedback.

~ Diane Clancy

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Flowers X

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In yesterday’s post I shared my research of the day about feed readers and FeedBurner that allow people to subscribe to blogs so they can read the posts without going to the blog. Free newsletter subscriptions, often through FeedBlitz, are one way of subscribing. Another way of subscribing is to use a feed that brings the link right to a feed reader that you have on your desktop or web browser.

Flowers X

Flowers X, Digital © Diane Clancy

Today a reader shared another tidbit with me for making effective use of feeds. This reader stays linked in to a lot of feeds every day; he makes great use of them and has studied what works and what doesn’t – at least from his perspective.

He is suggesting that the feeds contain only a summary rather than the whole post. That way it still gives people motive for coming and visiting the blog. He added that it is different for people to read a post on the blog where there is a whole effect – I agree.

You may have noticed that I like bells and whistles and have several ways of displaying where people come from. I am totally thrilled that people from Australia, Europe, Asia, and Africa have visited this blog. I like that the tracking, maping extras show me that people come here.

I cannot, as of now, change my settings to summary – my server won’t let me. For myself, reading the feeds I have subscribed to from other sites, I am mainly using my own new feed reader to see if people have posted yet so I don’t have to go to their blog just to check. Then I like to go read the post in the context and atmosphere of their blogs. But I would like to keep knowing the different places people come from to look at my blog.

You might want to check out these two posts for more information – Ryan Healy and Chris O’Byrne.

~ Diane Clancy

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Flowers I

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Tonight I learned more about feed readers and rss feeds. I had feeds on this site – for rss1, rss2 and for comments rss. So I thought I was doing it pretty well. But for some reason I decided to go exploring and learn more about the world of feed readers in general and FeedBurner in specific.

Flowers I

Flowers I, Digital © Diane Clancy

Now I remember … I checked out the sites of people I tagged yesterday and one person, Chris O’Byrne, had an article, About trackbacks, on feed readers and pointed to another article, Blog Readership Rising, on another blog. So off I went into the wild blue yonder …

One thing I found out reading at FeedBurner is that they recommend using a feed reader on your desktop rather than a web-based news feed reader. I have looked for the article there and I can’t find it again. But they said that some of the most popular news feed readers sort of take over your feeds and go snooping. Sorry I can’t find that quote. But the essence is that they say your privacy is safer if you bring the news to your desktop rather than going to a news service that is web-based because they are always looking for other feeds.

So a friend suggested NetNewsWire (and the Lite is free) and Vienna (free) for Macs. So I am set up to read some of the blogs I like by feed reader. If you like, I have gotten my feeds in better shape and it should be easy for you to keep up through feeds. There is even a comment if you want to keep up with comments.

~ Diane Clancy

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I’ve Been Tagged!

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First off, I want to tell you I have chosen the name for my animal images – “Fanciful Animal Images.” I am thrilled with the name and appreciate everyone who helped me get to this result by your input! I don’t think I would have found this name without you.

I’ve been using this eye from Conundrum I as a logo for my shops. If you are a quilter, you will recognize some of the traditional quilting fabrics in this eye that has been cropped from my collage.

Eye Logo

Eye Logo, Collage © Diane Clancy

Secondly, I’ve been tagged by Lisa Call of New Work and Inspiration, a great blog where she discusses her quilting. I am going to quote Lisa from her site, “It’s basically a chance to nominate blogs that you find interesting and informative. … (it) is a meme where I’m suppose to list 7 random things about myself and tag 7 others to do the same.”

I am kind of excited because I first read about it on a blog a few weeks ago – an art blog of a successful artist – so I feel really good about being tagged. I feel visible. Thank you, Lisa. Here’s my list:

1) When I was 4 and my brother was 2, I convinced him (or maybe both of us) to draw on the painted wall with Vicks Vapor Rub. My mother did not encourage this creativity.

2) When I was four, I ate the white paste on the sly at kindergarten. It tasted good back then. I was terrified someone would find out.

3) I have 2 almost degrees in math and 1 in computer science. With the first math degree I changed to psych and in the process for the 2nd one, I switched to art.

4) As kids we used to go off for the day into the wooded reservation (it was called the reservation) and we would pretend we were Indians and scout for animal tracks and such. There was no fear of us being out there alone all day.

5) When the boys played in the sand box with their armies, I claimed 1 woman settler and 1 man with a rifle resting at ease across his arms. We had a little farm in the middle of the wars. I wouldn’t let them fight on my little property – but I wanted to be with them.

6) As a kid, I used to make paper dolls. They were always at least twins, if not triples or more. I found out my mom always wanted to be a twin too. I thought if I had an identical twin, someone would really understand me.

7) My mom once made me a cake for my birthday that had a doll in the middle and the cake was a big dress around the doll. I was thrilled.

Here are the 7 people I am going to tag. If you would like to participate, then tell us 7 random things about yourself and then tag 7 others. I am going to email these 7 people to let them know they are tagged.

1) Susan Elkin of Susan Elkin Photography creates stunning photographs – particularly reflections and a Night Light series.

2) Jean Claude Lejenue has a blog called The Bishops Satchel which features dozens and maybe hundreds of incredible links.

3) Sue O’Kieffe of Sacred Circles Mandalas makes beautiful inspiring nature mandalas.

4) Chris O’Byrne of Online Marketing for Artists has some dynamite information for helping artists get out our work.

5) Andrew Daniel of Art of Andrew Daniel has lots of incredibly bright and colorful paintings.

6) Don Lesser of Russelnod.com specializes in food and commentary from the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts.

7) Dougal Campbell of Geek Ramblings has a helpful blog with lots of info about WordPress and plug-ins.

You are each tagged and if you choose to take up your task, you will share 7 random things about yourself and tag 7 others.

Thank you again for reading this blog and being part of the community here!

~ Diane Clancy

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Animals IV

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This is one of the “Vivid Whimsical Designs” that I mention on the art business card that I am working on right now. Lisa Call (blog.lisacall.com) made a helpful comment that sends me – and hopefully you in a slightly different direction.

Animals IV

Animals IV, Digital © Diane Clancy

In a comment, Lisa says, “Love the business card but I guess I’m not so excited about digitally enhanced as a phrase to describe what you do. It sounds so technical to me. You are doing something more decorative/arty – digital sounds to sterile to me for what you are doing. I’d also toss the word “digitally” because it doesn’t matter how you do it – you want someone to understand what it is. What type of enhancement are you doing? What word would you use for that?”

Lisa continues, “Colorful, Joyful, Playful, Nature … If I were you I’d make a huge list of words that describe the additions you make and maybe a combination will jump out at you. “

I think this puts the finger on what has been not quite clicking for me – whew! I think that “Animal Images” still works … but maybe in playing around something better will emerge. As I have been saying, each of you have contributed greatly – thank you. I am still *very* open to hearing your suggestions – particularly in this direction.

~ Diane Clancy

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Business Card for Design Business – Final Version

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I am so excited because my first business card that is not a Staples freebie is printed and it is in the mail! Both the front and back are somewhat changed so I wanted to share the final versions with you.

Business Card for Design Business-front

Business Card for Design Business-front © Diane Clancy

I would still very much appreciate your feedback on the name for the “Digitally Enhanced Pet Images” or “Digitally Enhanced Animal Companion Portraits.” I need to get the name finalized before I can print my other business cards. People’s input is still greatly appreciated as each day things get a little clearer.

Business Card for Design Business-back

Business Card for Design Business-back © Diane Clancy

If you would like to read more details about the decision, please look at the post, Bambi in Butterflies, the post Violet in Flowers, and the post, Lady in Butterflies. People have written terrific comments for these posts also.

Thank you again for all your help!

~ Diane Clancy

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Bambi in Butterflies

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Thanks to your help, I am close to pinning down a name for my “Enhanced Animal Images,” probably soon to be known by another name. Some of you thought “enhanced” meant photo restoration – Sue O’Kieffe made that observation. So that isn’t such a great thing. I looked up in a dictionary and thesaurus and I didn’t find any good synonyms.

Bambi in Butterflies

Bambi in Butterflies, Digital © Diane Clancy

The last two days I have discussed this conundrum in posts Lady in Butterflies and Violet in Flowers and there have been some terrific comments. I am going to share what Chris O’Byrne (www.onlineartsmarketing.com) suggested. I would like to get your feedback.

Chris says, “I was just listening to a marketing cd yesterday that emphasized how you can’t (and should not try) to be all things to all people. Choose a narrow niche and go deeper. Better yet, choose more than one niche and market those separately.”

Chris continues, “If I saw Enhanced Animal Images, I would think you were talking about animals in general. I think your niche of people’s pets is a good one and you might have a name that is very clear, such as Digitally Enhanced Pet Images. People might have different ideas of what “digitally enhanced” means, but in general they will think that you are adding or changing something to the image.”

Neda started off the discussion with these suggstions – “How about “Petproject” or “Yourpetproject” or “digi-pet”??” That started the ball rolling. At that point, I wanted to refer to the animals as “animal companions” instead of “pets.” What do people think in terms of “pet” vs “animal companion”? Animal companion is a lot of mouthful for a name. So is “digitally enhanced,” but maybe that is needed.

Is “Digitally Enhanced Pet Images” the winner? Or is there further refinement needed? At least “Digitally Enhanced Pet Images” fits on the business card that I am getting ready for printing … whereas “Digitally Enhanced Animal Images” certainly would not.

Thank you again to all who have helped in the process. Also, thank you for those of you who have been reading and caring, even if you didn’t comment. I appreciate your presence and your reading!

~ Diane Clancy

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Violet in Flowers

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Yesterday’s post had several great responses to my request asking for feedback. Thank you again for your help. Again, I am going to ask for more feedback. Here is the family companion of my sister’s family – she has her own sitting post at the window.

I thought it might be helpful if you could see what I do. Here is a picture I took of Violet. The second image is what I did with the image to make it into an “Enhanced Animal Image.” I cut Violet out of her picture and created a field of flowers for her to play in. This is how I enhance animals.

Violet III

Violet III, Digital © Diane Clancy

In a comment yesterday Sue O’Kieffe (whose blog is Sacred Circles Mandalas) says, “When I first saw “enhanced” on your website, I was expecting something like restored photographs of animals, so maybe there is a better choice of wording.” I had no idea that someone would think that – although, of course, someone would. So I am asking for help in renaming the magic I work on these pictures and the resulting paintings.

Violet in Flowers

Violet in Flowers, Digital © Diane Clancy

The day before Neda had suggested variations of “pet”. In yesterday’s post Sue continues, “What if people had a favorite animal that wasn’t necessarily a pet? (Such as a medicine/totem animal?)” I had been using the words “animal companion” to show respect to the relationship many people have with their animals. But that phrase doesn’t really account for totem animals either. And, of course, I would be delighted to make a field of flowers or butterflies for a totem animal.

I would greatly appreciate if you could come up with ideas of which words to use to let people know about this service I offer. I know people who have had their animal companions enhanced have been delighted. So how do I communicate this? Thank you in advance for your help!!

~ Diane Clancy

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Lady in Butterflies

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This photogenic dog is a family member of my brother’s family. The kids love her greatly. In a post 2 days ago, I talked about starting a new site (within my regular site) for my enhanced animal images that I make. I take a photograph of an animal companion (this one is supplied by my brother) and put them into a field of flowers or butterflies. Lady in Butterflies, Digital © Diane Clancy Yesterday Neda responded to my post with, “Good idea. Want some suggestions for the new business? How about “Petproject” or “Yourpetproject” or “digi-pet”?? Submitting these just for fun!” Thank you, Neda for being enthusiastic and having suggestions!! I appreciate your ideas! I hadn’t thought about having a new name for this part of my business. I have been using “Enhanced Animal Images” for these images. I have also been using the words “animal companion” rather than pet to show the significance animals have to many people. What do you think? What would you like to see on a site? Maybe pet is more direct and honest. But I have a fawn and bear cub too. But I hadn’t gotten further than that. This new site it not set up yet – but I am planning to use www.dianeclancy.com/animals as the address of the new site. It may not be quite as effective as a whole different site and url, but it is more cost effective. I would love to get your feedback on these issues. Do you … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Flowers XIII

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With these flowers, I hoping to encourage some more warm weather to arrive in the Northeast of North America. It has been a little chilly. One nice thing about spring (here in the northern hemisphere now) is that it breeds new beginnings, fresh starts and hope. For me, spring is about both inspiration and “allowing.” The life force is in a phase that supports growth and upward motion. Flowers XIII, Digital © Diane Clancy In the spring it is very clear that the life force itself, the universal flow, actually is a power in itself that moves us along if we “allow” it to. Part of taking action is the active part, the “yang” in some cultures. Another crucial part of action is the receptive (rather than passive) part, called the “yin” in some cultures. In many western cultures, such as the U.S., the active or yang aspect is emphasized, over-emphasized according to me. The receptive part of action often gets dismissed in this culture. Being in the flow and allowing is an important part of my creative process. I think that is true for most artists. But being in the flow is an important part of my living and marketing processes also. I have been learning and acting quite a bit about whole new aspects of interacting and selling on the web. I need to absorb and integrate some of this new information. I need to go inside and allow my soul to guide me now that I have … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Stella in Butterflies

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In the post 2 days ago, Chris O’Byrne (www.onlineartsmarketing.com made suggestions about starting and promoting a website for my Enhanced Animal Images. His ideas got my creative juices going! Stella in Butterflies, Digital © Diane Clancy Here is part of his comment “Give something away for free in exchange for a name and email address (yup that again). The freebie could be a five step mini-course on how to photograph your pet. After you get that information and the potential customer has received the mini-course, send them an offer to take one of their pet photos and enhance it for $9 to $19.” I am not a photographer – I am a designer and artist. But it helped me realize what I could give away that would be very unusual. As far as I know, no one else makes these kinds of enhanced animal images. I have shared in my past posts how to do this. But I could put together 5 steps (I guess 5 – I would have to see how it came out) on how to make your own enhanced animal images. Once people tried it themselves, I might well have more customers! I certainly could not take someone else’s photo and make one of my paintings for $9 to $19. It usually takes me between one and two hours – even with all my setup. Getting an animal companion cut out correctly takes me quite a bit of time. I usually end up using several different … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Irie in Flowers

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When a local person saw some of my other animal images at the local Visitors Center, she called me up and ordered a print of her own dog, Irie. She had a nice photo showing his bright blue eyes. I am delighted that a few orders have come in for people asking me to make their own animal companions into these Enhanced Animal Imges. Irie in Flowers, Digital © Diane Clancy In yesterday’s post I talked about online marketing and the next steps to take. I asked for feedback and Chris O’Byrne (www.onlineartsmarketing.com) made a suggestion to start an Ebay store. Chris said that if I made $16 per month, I would cover the costs. Chris also suggested that I could put single items up for bid and have an “About Me” page. This fits better in with my budget and seems a good way to ease in. I have a couple of friends who have sold there before. But even though they are artists, they sold camera equipment or antiques. But still I can ask them for hints. Chris also made the suggestion to make a separate website for my enhanced animal images. I am not sure if I will make a separate site within this site (www.dianeclancy.com) for these images – as I have for this blog – or not. It would be a way that I could work out the bugs on shopping carts and my redesigning my art galleries. That might help it feel a little … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Flowers XVI

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Online marketing is pretty exciting to me still. It is amazing that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, anyone with computer access can go to certain online galleries and shops and look at and buy my work! I am thrilled that I have work at ArtFlock and Etsy. Flowers XVI, Digital © Diane Clancy Now I need to take this to the next level. It seems like I should open an Ebay store to be more visible and have work available in more places. I am finding there are many places one can have work sold on the web. I think I could probably spend 18 hours a day keeping up with all that. Obviously, I don’t have that much time to work on selling online. Also, I want to sell only at reputable places. Any information people can share with me (and my readers) about selling online would be appreciated! ~ Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: ArtFlock, Etsy, Ebay, online marketing … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Lady in Flowers

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I want to thank everyone for help who has been giving me feedback about my business cards. I also went to an online chat about business cards the other night at Self Representing Artists (www.ebsqart.com). It was interesting. I learned about the chat at Alyson Stanfield’s Art Marketing Blog, (www.artbizblog.com). Lady in Flowers, Digital © Diane Clancy It is amazing, inspiring and overwhelming how much information and support there is out there on the web. Just amazing! People have been extremely helpful to me as I have getting my blog set up and taking my marketing to another level. I want to get a newsletter going to keep in touch with my collectors, current and potential. All the advice I have seen says this is a great idea. I have been looking around trying to make decisions – things are not clear to me. When I looked into blogs, it was clear I wanted to use WordPress. I am so glad I did! But with the newsletter project, I don’t see which way to go right now. It would need to be inexpensive – otherwise it wouldn’t make sense right now. I am not sure why I shouldn’t just ask people for names and emails and then send the list from my email program. I welcome hearing what others have decided for themselves or what they have researched. Be great to get a topic going discussing this. Thank you! ~ Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: business card, Self Representing Artists, Alyson … [CLICK TO READ MORE]