YES, ART IS WORK. NO, IT'S NOT ALWAYS FUN

People think that artists don't work. They think we sleep 'til noon, have a few lattes, throw some paint at a canvas and call it a day. They think we doodle for a few hours and then party into the wee hours of the morning.

I'd love to have them follow me around for a week or two. Right now I am in the middle of revamping PopArtDiva.com. I do love doing my websites but there is more drudge work involved than pure creativity. I just spent the last two weeks resizing and organizing all my images for the new pages. Bah. Total drudgery. Not fun at all.

I do not sleep until noon, I work about 16 hours a day sitting at a computer screen. My coffee is slurped in between keystrokes. I haven't done a fun, creative thing since I started to lay out the templates, resize the art and burn files to DVDs. I'm saving my party for when I upload my shiny new website look.

Prior to the web revamp I was building my online store at CafePress. More work and long hours. Next I will start the designs for the three new domains I just bought. In between I will allow myself the luxury of designing some new pieces for my stores and websites and posting to my blogs. Oh, and I might sleep a little and catch up on all the Top Chef episodes waiting for me in my DVR!

Oh, btw, the design above is one of my abstracts I did when I actually was having fun as an artist! I call it Robin Williams Shirt because it was inspired by comic Robin Williams shirt!

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ART CAN DARN NEAR KILL YOU!

I came across this article in Yahoo news about Mexican artist Filemon Trevino who wanted to create a drawing that would get him in the Guinness Book of World Records. Trevino created a drawing that is over a quarter of a mile long on the human heart and circulatory system .

He says that his attempt to break the existing world record became an obsession that led him to neglect his health. He spent over 6000 hours and used over 800 pencils in the course of his masterpiece, was hospitalized seven times for dehydration - he became so obsessed he forgot to drink water!

Now that is true passion for one's art! I admit that I can become so involved with my work at times that I will not stop even when my body is demanding rest, nutrition and a break from the tension and hunching over that is a habit with me when I work, but I've never been hospitalized as a result!

Don't ever let anyone tell you that art is not work or that it's easy! Just tell them about this truly dedicated - though slightly over obsessed - artist, Filemon Trevino!

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ART IS ART IS ART - If you make it pretty they will come?

I haven't been in the studio for a few weeks but I have been making art! I've been creating some images for my navigation icons on my new shop - the PopArtDiva Boutique and for the redesign of PopArtDiva.com.

Summer is generally the time I work mostly on my web spots and online enterprises because I have fewer art shows. This is especially nice when you live in Arizona - you get to work at home, inside, awash in air conditioning! It gets so hot here that it's not even fun to go out to the movies because you end up soaked in sweat just walking to the car! So I'm happy with my keyboard and my Wacom tablet and a cold Pepsi!

The image here is the icon you click to enter my Pop Art Section! I took several of my pop art images that are featured in the store and combined them and added the type for navigation. I plan to use the same icons on my website's homepage - I love to be able to use one image for more than one purpose! Check out the store to see some of the other icons I designed.

When you have a large site you have to break it down into sections and the best way to point people where you want them to go is by an image, or icon if you want to use computer vernacular. Images are really critical on a web page - they keep people's interest and they can create focus on important areas. You have to known how to keep them small and still get your message across. A picture really is worth a thousand words on the web so you want a relevant image or combination of images that are clean and viewable at a smaller size.

When I created the icons I used art from the sections that was going to reduce well, have a dynamic impact and give the best impression of what images were available in that section of my store. These are things you want to think about when you're creating composite images or icons for your sites.

So, a little lesson in designing web images and a little update about my artistic activities! If you want an update on my personal life and my other obsessions stop by The Martini Diva and The Diva of Tiny Foods!!!

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