The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,500 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
Click here to see the complete report.
We’ve had unusually mild weather here and that’s been great! Â I got the green Christmas I asked Santa for and yet I’ve been kind of Frozen lately.
I finally saw it – a student let me borrow the video and I can completely understand its broad appeal. Â Boys and girls seem to like the message equally. Â I’m thinking just about everyone can in some way identify with Elsa.
We all have something that makes us feel both powerful and powerless depending on the way we handle outside influences. Â The song Let it Go is about the freedom of being okay with whatever that thing is. Â Elsa runs away and when she’s alone, she creates an amazing environment and in that moment, she feels extremely happy in isolation because no one is there to criticize her or make her feel like she is wrong, and she’s just not afraid anymore. Â She can be exactly who she is, good, bad, ugly or what have you, and be okay with it. Â It is such an empowering moment that transcends the boundaries of a cartoon character’s angst and becomes a theme song for everyone who has ever felt alone in this world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0MK7qz13bU
I tend to feel happiest when I don’t let the outside world influence my decisions, but let’s face it – that is very difficult. Â 1997 was probably my most productive year as an artist or maybe I just feel that way because it was the year Jasper was born, the year I was finally solvent enough to be on my own again and the year I created a series of paintings that I called Messages From the Other Voice, in which I incorporated poetry infused with positive messages.
I have the above painting in my bedroom. Â The sentiment is still incredibly relevant to my life. Â It is a message for me to stay on the path I’m on and not give up on any dreams. Â Almost like another me telling me not to worry, which is something I pretty much need to remind myself when I have one of those weird days when nothing seems to be going my way.
I call those days comedy gold, of course, because I assure you, I always have time to laugh at all the stupid things I say and do. Â Maybe not right away, but eventually.
I’m not sure what to do next in regards to this art career, to tell you the truth. Â I guess just keep doing what I’m doing. Â I have a goal of having 3,000 Twitter followers by New Years Day. Â I have almost 2,800 now so that is not outside the realm of possibility. Â I know I need to upload more artwork to my Shopify site. Â Why I haven’t done that yet is to do with my inability to move forward.
The painting above is about a specific person, really. Â Someone I had a hard time letting go of and so, he was a hindrance, which is the title of the painting. Â It stopped me from moving forward and yet, whenever I look at this painting I’m reminded that it is okay to feel, whether it be love or loss…or love lost. Â I see my old self telling me she won’t let me down and that gives me the courage to just be that fearless person that I should be.
I have a lot in common with Frozen’s Elsa so that shouldn’t be a problem. Â At it’s core, the movie is a story about the love between sisters. Â Within a day of uploading those paintings to rebubble.com, my sister Sophie purchased a cell phone case decorated with one of my images. Â She is always right there with me. Â My first and best customer, and greatest supporter.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/karentashkovski/works/13226854-breeze?grid_pos=1&p=iphone-case
Last year, in January, we had serious below zero frigid temperatures.  I’m not sure when the weather is going to turn colder around here.  But I don’t care.  The cold never really bothered me anyway.
The hardest part of this Shopify business is reading the instructions. Â I’ve been working on it all afternoon and it’s still not in any way perfected. Â I just get really frustrated with my lack of computer savvy, which means I definitely need to take a break. Â I have uploaded twelve paintings to the site, but I’m confused about how to use their templates and I’m sure it is the simplest thing in the universe, and…blech.
Hopefully, I will get it together and it will all be good.
Here is the link to the sugar shoppe –Â http://karen-tashkovski-visual-artist.myshopify.com/Â I uploaded the Talisman paintings. Â There are twenty-four in the series but I only picked twelve. Â The challenge will be getting those paintings to the customer with as little erased chalk as possible. Â But when I added the chalk text, it was inevitable that the paintings would eventually erase. Â The idea that love is fleeting, I guess.
What is your opinion about the duration of art? Â Because these paintings have more than one fragile element. Â I decided that I would not allow returns. Â Not sure if that’s a bad idea – I mean, I can always change it – but who buys a painting and then thinks it is disposable? Â The artwork could get damaged. Â Pieces could fall off. Â But I am not the art repairman, am I? Â I know that Jasper Johns doesn’t offer to repair the found objects that break off his art. Â If they do at all. Â I’m pretty sure they are handled so carefully by art gallery and museum minions in white gloves.
It is the Dadaist perspective, like when the glass broke in that Duchamp piece, and he actually thought it enhanced the work.
I would need to find the kind of patrons with disposable income who really understand this mindset and their responsibility in acquiring art. Â I see the new owners as the guardians of…I was going to say my children, but that sounds so cheesy even in written form.
But if they are like children, then the analogy is the one out of SATC, when Miranda tells Steve, you try not to kill Brady when he’s with you and I’ll try not to kill him when he’s here.  I’m paraphrasing – can’t remember the exact line, but you get the gist.
Since my recent website update, I have been experimenting with different themes. Â Lots of redecorating. Â I’m sure I’ll change it and change it back a few more times before the year ends! Â It’s fun. Â I <3 wordpress.com! Â What do you think of the place?
I had a snow day today, which consisted mainly of snow-blowing the driveway (twice so far – I think I’ll go out there again in a couple hours). Â I also cleaned the house. Â I had every intention of doing more art career stuff but got sidetracked by a couple hours of pilates and sit-ups, as well as flopping around reading fashion magazines and perusing Facebook then finally uploading the last pictures of my students’ artwork for Scholastics.
The regional deadline for the Scholastic Art Awards is right around the beginning of Christmas vacation. Â Artwork is judged via JPEGs the first week of January. Â I’m entering ten pieces this year.
Fayetteville NY Bulletin 1981 – 1087Â
For me, winning those awards as a student  was more or less the springboard into this art journey.  I had been getting only packets for engineering colleges in the mail during my junior year in high school because I was in accelerated math classes.  All of my classmates are now CEOs of major companies or prestigious doctors, but no matter.  I still can’t tell you what an engineer does, lol.  I won a blue ribbon for my senior portfolio and three awards for my three individual entries – two more blue ribbons and a gold key.  And that sealed the deal for me.  I thought it meant something, like a sign that art was the right direction for me.
I shouldn’t say it like that. Â I didn’t pick art on a whim or because of some dumb magical thinking scenario. Â I knew it was the right thing for me. Â I think we’ve had this conversation before.
My students’ art is way better than this stuff but they don’t always win. Â Competition these days has been taken to an otherworldly level and it will always be disappointing to at least one someone who is uber-talented. Â There’s no way around that. Â But the dreams are very much alive and the excitement is building!
When I was in college, my fashion design professor gave this bit of advice. Â Always start a conversation, whether it is in a cover letter, job interview or any networking opportunity, with the following statement:
My life is consumed with fashion.
The truth is that I am consumed with a lot of things – consumed, obsessed, whatever you what to call it – but what happens is I get an idea in my head and get all gung-ho/coo-coo-munga on it. Â The fashionista in me got into a lot of financial trouble this way, which happened the moment I found a kindred spirit in Trina Turk whose size 2s fit me to perfection.
With teaching, I would get an idea for an extra-curricular project and run with it to the point of extremes where it would usurp my personal life. Â There were many years where I would work 12-hour plus days in order to prep extra lessons that I technically did not need to do. Â As of recently, I’ve learned to figure out a better method of time management. Â Of course, that took me twenty years of trial and error, but now everything seems so manageable that I have time to pursue something else.
Which leads me to this blog – website and my art career.
I’m still working out details of selling art on-line, but yes, it is starting to happen. Â Shopify will wait a bit longer, as I pursue my friend Sheri D’Elia’s (ArtistShera.com) route – redbubble.
www.redbubble.com is a site that sells merchandise with artwork on it. Â I spent the better part of last night uploading some watercolor paintings and I’m just so excited by this endeavor. Â Even if I don’t sell a thing, I feel enormously successful, because I took the leap, finally, and put myself out there.
   
   
The paintings look incredible on those cell phone cover things. Makes me want to go out and get a cell phone. Â Yes, that’s right. Â I am so last century when it comes to personal technology that I seriously am in danger of becoming an anachronism. Â I’m planning to get an I-phone soon, mainly to extend my social media take-over (lol) to include Instagram, where I have read many artists have launched their careers into the stratosphere of financial success.
http://www.vogue.com/872448/buying-and-selling-art-on-instagram/
I’m working on having 2,000 twitter followers by midnight. Â I’m at 1,959 right now and that seems an achievement in itself since I started tweeting only about six weeks ago, something like that. Â People have been so generous with the re-tweeting and so on. Â I feel incredibly lucky/blessed/grateful – whatever you want to call it, that this stuff is all happening now. Â I almost feel like I wasn’t ready before, if that makes any sense.
https://twitter.com/karentashkovski
I’m a late bloomer.
What consumes you?
I can’t stop drinking coffee nor do I want to. Â I like Green Mountain Dark Magic Keurig cups (w/two Sweet and Lows). Â I try to get two cups out of one but the second cup is blech in comparison to the first and so, as of recently, I have been going through a lot. Â I don’t know why the sudden obsession. Â I go through phases like this where I like something so much that it becomes the be all and end all of my world.
If you want to buy me something for Christmas, I’ll take one of those giant 48-packs of the stuff that you can get at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Â We don’t exchange expensive gifts at Christmas anymore. Â It’s silly when we can buy stuff for ourselves. Â I bought two gifts for myself already. Â The first is the Dan Brown novel Inferno – the illustrated copy. Â I really wanted it, wanted to read it then give it an illustrious place of honor alongside the other two of his picture books sitting on top of my grandfather’s cedar armoire in my dining room.
The second gift? Â I upgraded this website to business grade status, which means a new facade and the ability to sell artwork from here and/or from an off-site venue like Shopify, if only I could figure out how to do that. Â (If you have any tips to share, by all means help a girl out). Â I believe it will take more money to operate, as money seems to be the only way to make money these days.
I will then try to curb my spending and start saving (easier said than done). Â Someday I’m going to go to Paris – climb to the top of the Eiffel tower (or take an elevator depending on how old I am when I get there), stare at the Parisian city-scape and think, been there, done that. Â No, I’m sure it will be phenomenal enough to elicit a better response than that.
I have 194 pins of the Eiffel Tower on a board on Pinterest.com.
http://www.pinterest.com/KarenTashkovski/eiffel-tower/
I’m thinking its shape should and will manifest on the yet unplanned/unfocused series of paintings mulling about in my head (Futura).
I actually paid for a passport a couple weeks ago. Â Then I’ll have ten years to make this Paris thing come true. Â Hopefully, I will figure out how to both save money and sell art by then, right?
What is on your bucket list? Â If you had unlimited wishes, what would you wish for?
We had our first bout with cold weather here in Syracuse, NY, Â enough to constitute school delays for some – minor flurries and icy conditions. Â We usually win the trophy for the most inches of snowfall in New York State, but I will be more than happy to concede to Buffalo this year because the alternative of catching up to them is something I don’t even want to fathom. Â Nothing here really even stuck and I’m hearing a weather forecast that I’m liking for Monday – sixties! Â So it was like a Braxton-Hicks.
This false holiday weather tricked me into a desire to decorate my home for the holidays.
Yes, you heard. Â I put my Christmas tree up. Â In my defense, I will probably trim the tree at my parents’ house again this year and it’s kind of like putting the oxygen mask on yourself first, so that you can calm down and breathe your way through the chaos of it all. Â Or in this case – me. Â So I can breathe.
My house always looks messier at first until I decide where to put everything. Â I rearranged furniture then put it back and so it pretty much ended up looking like it did last year with minor adjustments. Â This took all day for some reason, a lot longer than I remember taking in previous years, but maybe that’s because it is like a pregnancy. Â Labor intensive then you (not me – I’m just guessing the analogy fits) tend to forget all the annoying parts and all that’s left is an aesthetically beautiful thing.
I love the way the house looks with this extra bit of decor. Â I am partial to reds and greens in here anyhow so it all looks as harmonious as a Christmas song (I played the Sarah McLachlan Wintersong CD about a dozen times during the process – I <3 her voice). Â The trick now will be to try to prevent the kit-cats from climbing it.
The above picture was taken in 2011, their first year with me. Â They were launching themselves off my great-grandmother’s chair and hurling into the tree despite my protests.
For about fifteen years or so (give or take), I’ve donated a Christmas tree to the Everson Museum of Art for their annual Festival of Trees event. Â It’s a fundraiser for the museum. Â They used to give the donors free tickets to the patron party and so that was the best part. Â Create an artistic tree that pretty much cost well over $200 to put together and enjoy the glamour of sipping champagne and eating little roast beef sandwiches and slices of sage-infused cheddar while traipsing through the galleries until you found your creation then hovering around it waiting to eavesdrop on someone saying something complimentary, allowing you the permission to think they like me, they really like me!Â
Of course, the point of the thing is that someone buys your tree. Â Many corporations simply do it for the publicity – here’s a tree from blah, blah and now they will buy it back insuring the Everson actually makes money instead of the hoping way that I used. Â I’m not sure how many of my trees were actually purchased and enjoyed, and how many ended up in the museum’s archives collecting dust (or thrown away?).
They don’t give artists the golden ticket anymore. Â They offer one for 1/2 off the hundred dollar fee, which is still too expensive for me. Â This year the Everson Museum Festival of Trees runs from December 5th- December 14th, 2014.
http://www.everson.org/events/fot.php
I’ve done many trees with my students throughout my teaching career as well, the most recent was last year when we created a card tree based on George Rodrigue’s Blue Dog paintings. Â A few of my students and I had interacted with his wife Wendy on his Facebook like page after I had posted student artwork on his website based on his beloved blue dogs. Â He died last year, coincidentally, on the final day of the festival. Â I still don’t know if that tree sold or not and to whom. Â I hope it found a good home.
 http://www.chittenangoschools.org/teacherpage.cfm?teacher=3110
When you suffer a disappointment, the trick is to throw yourself into something that is fun, something that maybe you are good at, something that you love.
I made a painting.
I’m doing an encaustic lesson with my 9th period classes, using my own supplies from home – crock-pot of wax, two pancake griddles and my messy wax-only brushes. Â The melted beeswax was seducing me with its pungency. Â That plus thinking about Linda Bigness enjoying the bliss of mark-making. Â She sold the painting that I watched her create during that video we made.
And so, when my friend Stephanie asked for a bigger painting of a heart, I complied.
I lacquered it and mounted it to chalkboard-painted masonite and added the dominoes as a frame. Â It will be ready to ship to Florida in about a month. Â Steph is officially a patron, owning four (and soon five) of my paintings.
I want to make another series of heart encaustics now (no doubt due to my obsession with making a dozen of something – I know you were thinking it!).
In 2012, when I took that Syracuse University graduate course on encaustic with the amazing Davana Wilkins as instructor and mentor, I had this idea that I would just make a bunch of heart paintings. She convinced me to push myself out of my comfort zone and create other iconography, the result of which were the horse and cow paintings.
I’ve sold all but two of the heart paintings. Â I need to take inventory of the rest. Â I think I have sold four of the twelve horse paintings now and I gave away a cow painting to one of my favorite students, Zachary, who lives on a dairy farm. Â The cows are more of a tough sell, I guess.
But hearts, now that is the motif of motifs. Â You gotta love a heart. <3
Most teachers can relate to this simple fact. Â Students always react strangely when they see us outside of school. Â It’s either a hyper-freak out – OMG! Ms. Tash, Ms. Tash! or the total reverse; a shy backing away and a chorus of whispers –Â I think that’s Ms. Tash! Â What’s she doing here?
Do they think we are robots that are turned off and put away at the end of the day, like a stack of I-Pads? Â I talked to my sister about this and she said, “Look at it from their perspective. Â Seeing you outside of school is like seeing a unicorn.”
I am a bit of a unicorn. Â Because in this day and age, in a culture of me, me, me social media and with it the belief that we are all the stars of our own reality shows, it seems that everyone wants to be recognized for their individuality. Â Their spirit, creativity and the like should make them the black hole of the universe, sucking everyone else inside their vortex. Â Everyone wants to appear cray-cray, the risk-taking artist that deserves all that attention.
Maybe I’m the opposite. Â The crazy person who just wants to be normal. Â Am I crazy? Â Sometimes people say I am, but maybe I’m the only sane one in the room and everyone else is crazy. Â My last blog post generated a flurry of comments in the group postings on www.linkedin.com. Â Mainly camaraderie in despair, which really made me wonder if they understood me at all. Â Something made me feel sad last week. Â I’ve had my share of ups and downs, wearing my heart on my sleeve and on the walls of my home, as I’ve shared in a previous blog post. Â But my emotions don’t swing on a Vincent Van Gogh-caliber pendulum. Â I’m still sad about that particular thing but it’s compartmentalized now and I’m, yes, perfectly normal.
Emotion certainly plays a chunk part in the world of art, though, and it’s funny how important it is to many that they are perceived as more emotional than another. Â It’s not a competition, you know. Â There are all sorts of emotions that come into play when making art. Â It doesn’t have to be sadness. Â It can be serenity, anger or euphoria….
Whatever it is, it should be nurtured and supported.  I have not been doing this as often as I should.  I get invited to local art openings and events all the time and I just don’t go.  I want to be a better friend.  This Friday  from 6-8 pm, the Edgewood Gallery is holding a reception for an exhibition and sale of artwork by Amy Bartell, Linda Bigness and Todd Conover.  Edgewood is located down the street from my parents’ house – you can see the house from the gallery’s front door if you look east.  It’s on Tecumseh Road in Dewitt, NY, right across from the Nottingham shopping plaza.
http://edgewoodartandframe.com/news/
On Saturday from 10 am-4 pm, the Delavan Center will open its doors for a holiday event and sale. Â The Delavan is a building filled with local artists’ studios, many of them are Facebook and personal friends of mine. Â Linda, of course (find the link at the end of this post to the video we made on Columbus Day weekend), and Amy plus Laurel Morton and a slew of others.
http://www.delavancenter.com/Coming%20Events.html
This unicorn plans to make a cameo appearance at both events. Â I’ll be in black, naturally, but I draw the line at wearing a beret on my horn. Â That’s way too cliche, don’t you think?
This morning I woke up in tears, the kind typically reserved for when Oprah interviews you. Â I guess my life sometimes feels like I’m in a labyrinth, one that seems to be a lot easier for other people to navigate but incredibly road-blockey for me. Â I’m sure I’ll find a way to laugh about this later but not now. Â The crummy weather day is insisting I remain miserable, sad and hopeless.
The good news is that I’m going to try to bottle the feeling and use it later as an element in a new series of paintings.  I have a vague idea of what they’ll look like – I often tell my students that I tend towards having psychic visions of future work, which helps to focus me during the process of going from thumbnail sketch to reality.  There are no thumbnail sketches yet.  Just feelings, colors, and fleeting imagery.  The planned series will be titled Futura, which is funny that I know that  – the way I knew I would call my cat Jasper before I met him.
I didn’t have a working title for a series of paper collage works I displayed back in 2004. Â I received a grant from Senator John DeFrancisco and subsequently was granted a lot of press on the show that accompanied the artwork. Â It didn’t actually work that way, but in reverse. Â I made the art a couple years before, secured an art show at Pastabilities restaurant in Armory Square (downtown Syracuse), charged up a storm to frame the art then applied for and received the $1,000 grant (or was it $1,500? Â I don’t remember).
I used to teach at Bryant & Stratton, my second job out of college, in the long-defunct Fashion Merchandising program where as a business college professor, I learned and taught students to write press releases that would get them noticed. Â I had a lot of success with my own press releases, frequently getting follow-up articles about my work published in the local papers.
John DeFrancisco is someone I’m following on Twitter.  Yeah – I tweet now.  You can see the link somewhere on the side of this blog post.  It’s https://twitter.com/karentashkovski.  I’m @KarenTashkovski.  I’ve tweeted a handful of times, mainly links to my social media activities – Pinterest, Facebook, here, etc.  I’m learning the whole hashtag culture or as I refer to it – number sign.  And I’m re-tweeting and following back.  Cyberspace is a vast black hole but it has the dichotomy of being a small world as well.  Kim Kardashian (yes, I’m following her – who isn’t?) could easily flick a thumb and retweet to her universe and all of a sudden as a consequence because we’ll become besties, I will be able to identify a Kanye West song (or not, probably not.  I’m more of a classic rock/alternative person).  Hopefully the real consequence will be resulting sales.  People have a lot of power at their fingertips, to friend you, connect with you and know you or at least your on-line persona.
I have a google email now too. Â It’s ktashkovski@gmail.com. Â I needed it for something, I can’t remember what now – and used it successfully to send Linda Bigness those videos through google docs. Â So they should be up shortly on You Tube and on here. Â Oh yeah, that’s what it was. Â I’m on You Tube. Â I have a channel (meant to be said with a posh British accent). Â I posted three videos, two of them of my students in my super secret (not so secret) Harry Potter club at school.
The hope with that is to seek a fairy-godmother-wizard person who will pay to send my students and their families to Harry Potter World in Florida. Â Oprah, are you listening? Â Because I’ve mentioned you twice now. Â And if you want to do a surprise interview first, then I will be well prepared. Â I have mastered the ugly cry and everything.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQFc9d1i6QGQcQBsimYyWyQ
