Fear Of The Blank Page - Writer's Block, Etc., anyone got stories to share?

That's good to hear! It's about time..'old woman'




The old fool

yeah, Elspeth! What a switch, eh? It is so dark and dreary here today, I have yet to be in the studio. I have been doing laundry, housework and cooking instead. It is so supposed to be dreary here every day this week.

That is interesting about the magazines. My sis-in-law started out publishing her works in Christian magazines, which is another reason why I asked you. you don't make much money but it did real well for her and got her started being noticed and book deals were offered to her because of that exposure.

I don't have a catalog or brochure or anything. I used to have a website but since I gave up the business aspect of it all, I gave that up too. Like you say, it is alot of working doing the business end of it. Worth it if you make though. I wish you the best!

Hi CR,

Just to let you and everyone else know, my web site is at iVillage.com
and its a free place to create one... iVillage is geared for women with discussion boards, articles to read, recipes, stuff like that - but they offer free web page space and have 'templates' or designs already set up that you can choose from to make a web site of your own. It can be a simple home page or you can make it more complex like mine is. You become a member of iVillage for free and automatically get an amount of space... come to think of it, they offered email addresses to but quit doing that about 2 years ago for some reason.

I know nothing about html and the technical aspects of web sites, but even I found it easy to make a site at iVillage! Ya'll might check it out.

SB

Hi SB! I may check into that. Just depends if I am up for all the work.

Thank you for the information though!

I did www.aaediwen.com by hand, and the hardest part was deciding what I wanted it to look like

Do it just so I can see your paintings. It might be fun. I created a website for a local community theater once through a nonprofit org site and it was a blast, even if it was a bit time consuming. Make the site and you never know, people may start coming to you!

Thanks for that info Siusaidh oh wait, you changed your name, it's Siobhan now? I'm sooooo confused. If I ever get a novel published, then I will need a homepage and this looks like a great place to go.

That's what I keep worrying about for mine too, Aaediwen!

Elspeth, I have posted many of my art pieces in the "Artwork" thread here in this forum. You can see a lot of it there, if you like! I'd have to go back and see what pages they're on, but lots of other nice artwork to see on there too of some very talented people. Siobhan has some of her pieces in there too!

Yeah, a website might be the way to go for you. My sister-in-law has one.

I have seen those, Rose, ( I'm a poet and didn't know it!) but looking at them only makes me want to see more. You really are gifted and I love looking at your paintings. And I'd love to have a place to steer other people to, to say - hey, you've got to check out this artist. She's great!

I know setting up a site is a lot of work initially, and I don't know how selling works for art work, but it seems you could sell via the internet at a low overhead and little committment. And you'd not be beholden to impress or pacify any gallery. If your work is out there for people to see, people will want it. You might find yourself shiping your paintings to Australia, Alaska or Aruba!

I don't collect art, I don't have the knowledge, funds or the decor (my walls are covered with masterpieces from the early elementary period) but I would love to have one of your paintings. I would ask for a catalogue, but I am afraid I couldn't afford anything and I don't want to appear rude. But someday I am buying one of your paintings!

Elspeth, you are very kind. I used to have a website from freeserve in the UK but it doesn't work anymore. I don't know what happened to it. Oh well, it was free anyway. I do have put together a packet with pages of my artwork samples that I mail to people who are interested. Never went into the cost of doing a brochure. And now that I am out of the business, it is pointless to do one now. I know of other artists who have set up their arwork on webpages to not get very much response at all. So that is why I don't bother with it now. I could always send you one of those packets, if you are ever interested.

For writers, I have always heard that it is best to start out publishing your work in magazines cause you get noticed and commissioned to do other things from there. That's how my sis-in-law and others like her I know started out.

CR, I wondered if your web site at freeserve was still in operation but haven't been to check on it. You could create one at iVillage fairly easily; its all done with templates, designs & backgrounds & things already there for you to choose from. You then can add text boxes and put art images into an image file where you keep them & can add them to the site anywhere you choose.

I've spent a lot of time the last few weeks changing the appearance of my site, and just now found out how to change the entire appearance of it with just a couple of steps. They have a background that shows my beloved London & Big Ben, so now that's the very first thing you see when you go to the site!


www.sggardner.com

I bookmarked your site to get back to when I have some time. But I have to say I just love the landscape painting on the front page. Oh, to wake to a scene like that every day.

I really appreciate your comments! I too wish I could wake up to a scene like that one every day...

You know, though, I've been doing a lot of introspective thinking the last week and I've realized that I've been putting off going into the studio for awhile now... I think I am going to have to get back in there now and spend some serious time drawing again. I've got two commissions to do so that's a good reason on its own, but its been very easy these last months to find something that I need to do instead of drawing.

I think I have a bit of 'fear of failure' syndrome going on here! Time to face it, isn't it....

And isn't that just so silly? Fear of Failure? How can art fail? It's an expression. It might not say exactly what we tried to make it say, but it still says something.

You're absolutely right - fearing failure is absurd! When I taught a drawing class, I always told everyone 'no project is a failure if you learned something from it'. That is true.

I guess the kind of failure I fear is the failure to put on paper the image I see in my mind before I begin something new... my tendency is to overwork things, so sometimes I get to a point where the drawing looks fresh and strong then I "pick at it" until it may have more detail - but I've destroyed the freshness of it.

My goal as an artist is to NOT overwork everything!!