My Virgin

"Mona had reached the inescapable conclusion that her future was Not to be what she had originally envisioned."

Grin. She's been giving me that look for some time now. We've bonded.

So , another piece in the Workshop series , this one on texture. I tried spackle for the first time with this one and I didn't have as much success with it as I'd expected to. I like the molding past much more - I had problems stamping into the spackle that I don't with the paste. I also played with more watercolor techniques (although with acrylics this time) and although I'm still not great , I am at least getting an idea of where I'm going wrong and improving a leetle bit , lol.

Another first was a product called 'Crackle Accents' by Ranger. I applied it to my image , and if I'd applied it more thickly I would have gotten a really cool effect , I think. It tried - I got a few cracks but mostly I wound up with some 'pitting' , for lack of a better word.

The image itself is a print of one I painted , and then painted again for this piece. One of these days I'll use the original , but right now Mona and I have had enough quality time. I need a new face to play with , and Theresa has got me all wound up about another project entirely lol. There's another method called 'over-painting' I'd like to try too - but again , that's another day.

Eventually I'd like to use some of these idea's on the family photo album. Think about all the shots you have with a less-than-lovely background or some other problem - we could really put an artful touch on the album and use photo's that we might not have otherwise. Pretty neat , huh?!

Norah

This is a little piece I finished today , and I named her Norah as I've been listening to Norah Jones while I was at the table. Love her - music made for listening to with good friends and soft light. And she fit the mood today too , I needed some peace and quiet and a little unwinding at the art table.

It felt good to finish something - I'm still involved with the workshop in the Artists Circle and have been a bit unsure where we were going to be taking these. Cindy let us know today what the last week would involve - and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do , lol. We'll see , and I'll post my bits as I go along. One of them , the girl I have up a few posts below this , I think will go to my mom.

Anyway - Norah was bliss to work on , and I found a use for several of the scraps we all collect and don't use - but can't toss because they're 'good'. Yeah , I know you know , lol. I found an art technique the other day using hair mousse and just started laughing. I should of known I could have used it for something arty instead of tossing it out , shouldn't I?! It was terrible to my hair but I could have Used It. . .

Have a nice evening , all.

Sorry about re-publishing these posts

There have been some problems with Firefox users viewing the blog so I have taken off and then replaced the last few posts for reasons I cannot explain. And I mean that. Love to but can't , just don't have the kind of clearance it requires lol.

So Anyway - the blog is still a work in progress , but progress is being made for all my little Firefox friends who were Not having fun anymore - I think my friend Christy has put you back on board! She has been and continues to be a huge help and I appreciate it very much.

I Think I shall keep her , O yes I do. . .
;-P

Orphan Art bill H.R. 5889 has passed the House

As many of you may know , the Orphan legislation passed the House today and it's on it's way to the House Judiciary Commitee. Please continue to write your political representatives - this bill as written would eliminate our current copyright protection and endanger our artworks , photographs and any other intellectual property we may have available. Please click on the link below to send a letter stating your objections from this site:

http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/

They have several different letters which have already been written for you to choose from , and would automatically be sent to the people who are representing your district wherever that may be.

Don't ya just LOVE IT!

I finally changed the template on my blog , and lucked out in the process!

I've always liked the background I'm sporting now but didn't know which template it was , and got it completely by accident! I am such a happy camper now. I haven't cared for the layout or color's I had for some time . but I just didn't have time to mess with it. They were such a buzzkill , at least for me - I know I picked them but they did NOT grow on me. I actually chose them to work with my header , which I'm none too fond of either but I haven't figured out what to do about that yet. I'd love to make a pretty compilation as I see on other blogs , but I haven't the faintest idea how to do it lol. My skills begin and end with taking a picture - ta da , the end , lol.

Maybe I know someone that knows someone. . .there is always that chance , *grin*. I wanna have a pretty blog too. . .baby steps , Kim , baby steps.

I bet Lori's dying to help me out *evil grin*. (yes I'm kidding Lori , don't faint , lol.)

edit: I just found the absolute COOLEST thing! Check out this site - Banner of Blessings . I am having such a good day - I have a new banner , I have a new banner - happy dancing has commenced! Lori helped me out after all , lol.

Lola , maybe?

I'm in a workshop in The Artist's Circle on Photo Manipulation , based on Angela Cartwrights book Mixed Emulsions. We've several exercises to complete , the first using markers to color the black and white image , then inks and acrylics - but I just threw out all my old markers since they had dried up. They were pretty old , and given to me by a friend several years ago. What I wound up doing was laying down some paint and adding oil pastels over top. I've had them quite a while and never used them before , they're pretty neat. Feels like a crayon when you lay it down but blends much more easily. There are bit's of colored pencil , Pitt pen and chalks as well - I think she's looking pretty good so far , but she's definitely a work in progress. I love the white hair - very Marie Antoinette-y I think , lol. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday - I'm out!

Bill Widget!

A friend sent me this link today ,

http://www.opencongress.org/tools/bill_status?bill_id=110-h5889

which I thought was pretty cool , since I had no idea what had happened when it went up before Congress. I haven't even checked out the link yet , but she seems to think it didn't happen today.

If you'd like it grab it!

Lots of questions , and a little bit of good news.

A lot of confusion exists about what the Orphan Legislation actually entails and I hope this will help.

The goal of the Orphan leg. is to free up large institutions
or industries like libraries , museums , filmmakers etc. to use
images they’ve collected and can’t use because of current law. They
have millions of images/film/etc. that they can’t locate owners for
but copyright has not expired and they’d like to make them available
for educational and historical purposes. There are more applications
here but I won’t go into all of them. The examples cited are pretty
consistently old film and photo’s and if you stop there it’s all just
ducky , but there are other consequences.

The searcher would input an image , search through the registries for a match , and upon failing to find one would then supply the Copyright office with a Notice of Use. This details the search methods used and the intended use etc. and is referred to as the NOU. The CO is required to keep all records of this indefinitely. Failure to provide a NOU would remove all protection offered by limited remedy. Limited remedy means that instead of being hit with $150,000 fine or some such , the infringer is required to repay profits to the legal owner in a responsible manner and immediately desist use of the item in question.

I don’t mind the goal - I mind the fix. It doesn’t qualify the costs
to little guys in any way , and it doesn’t differentiate our stuff
from the stated interest’s of education and documentaries anywhere I
can find. I‘ve looked - maybe I missed something and if so , please
give me a heads up but I don’t think I have. For the average artist , this is too much $$ and time to spend - we have jobs , families , bills to pay and gas to buy - it just isn’t feasible. For the larger institutions it’s viable - for the little guy it’s very destructive and it turns us into a feeding ground for anyone that’s hungry.

Here’s a link to ASMP with info on the House bill (there areactually two , not just one) that delineates the essentials of the bill and changes to it since inception as well as their proposal to modify it which I actually like a lot -

http://www.asmp.org/news/spec2008/orphan_update.php

It doesn’t address all of the issue for us. But the change I like is that all uses would be required to be non-profit which would effectively make it absolutely no fun for somebody to steal my stuff. I think it would effectively narrow the field of interested parties , and that’s good.

I’ve read several very loving interviews in support of the legislation , I’ve read statements it never existed and doesn’t exist now (?) , but it does. It may not be intended to deliberately hurt us but it can , and the larger institutions just really don’t have our interests in mind here. They didn’t put this together for us to make copies of our old photos for the wedding or collage sheets, they did it to use their collections that currently they are unable to.

The law that is changed here is that now if you can’t gain permission of use by finding the owner or the item in question , you can’t use the image or what have you , period. It’s copyright protected. The change would be if the owner is not found by doing the “qualifying search”, you CAN use the image etc. after filing your NOU. Instead of assuming all work is owned , it assumes it’s not , essentially. That’s why the infringer is no longer culpable financially , unless they continue to use the work after the true owner discovers it and notifies them. If they do NOT file a NOU , they lose the right to claim limited remedy and we’re all back to square one. Litigation costs against infringements are no fun now , of course , but we didn’t have to jump through all the other hoops too. Now all we have to do is make it and go merrily on our way. It’s ours , we know it , the law knows it , the end. Pouf done. If one was going to sell a design there’d be more to it , or if
someone wanted to base their derivative art on our design and sell it then we should have done more and we have these things available - but on the whole many of us could stop there.

A note regarding that petition too , folks - or any online petition.

I meant to include this in my earlier post with the link information but lost my own trail there , I'm sorry.

You can sign that petition and stop there if you'd like , but all a petition will indicate is the degree of interest on the topic , really. That's fine as far as it goes , but who is in charge of submitting it? To whom? Will it get submitted? Your best option would be to email your political representatives directly , and I provided a link with a list of names and contact info for all of them too. Write one email , copy it and send it to everyone you can think of and state your case. My theory is if we bury them in as much bs as they'd like to bury us in - they're the ones that will fold. There's a lot more of us and we should take advantage of that. It's EASY , people - give it a go.

would you prefer to pay more $$ for copyright protection you now enjoy by law , for free?

If you don't care whether the images on your blog or photostream of your are taken and profited from - legally - unless you are very vigilant and willing to shell out a fair amount of cash , don't waste your time reading this. What if your kids blown up poster size or your artwork and idea's are now being legally used by someone else? How's that sound?

I hope you will read this. I know it's long - it took a long time to write too , believe me. And I did it because I'm angry at the mere thought of the above actually happening and there is real potential for it to manifest. This legislation is crippling - you have no idea until you read it and really start thinking about what it actually entails. The cost alone is too prohibitive to safegaurd our work - a safegaurd we enjoy now for free , by law.

Current law states that your artwork is protected from the moment of conception - registering it and adding the copyright symbol is not required to protect and proclaim your right to your own work.

This bill would 'orphan' every photo or artwork or available piece of your personal/intellectual property unless you've registered it with private companies. Yes , that is plural. This bill would require you to not only add the copyright symbol to all images which requires a donation to our government , it would require that you pay to register your work/image at not just one but all THREE registry sites , or run the risk of your image or work being orphaned. 'Orphaned' translates to 'appropriated' by private business or anyone else who wants them. One of the search engines these registry sites would be using is PicScout , which has a 99% success rate. It's the only one I've read about , but it's not the only one that will be used and this has a bearing too.

This is an excerpt from an article written by Mark Simon here: http://tiny.cc/qQjdY

"Photos on the internet could be orphaned. With tens of millions of photos shared online with services like Flickr, Shutterfly and Snapfish, there is a huge opportunity for unauthorized use of your photos... legally.

You could see photos you take of your family and kids, or of a family vacation, used in a magazine or newspaper without your permission or payment to you. You would have to pay to register your photos, all of them, in every new registry in order to protect them. Say the average person takes 300 photos per year (I take a lot more than that). If a registry only charges $5 per image, that is a whopping $1,500 to protect your photos that are protected automatically under the current laws. If there are three registries, protecting your images could cost an amazing $4,500. Not to mention the time it would take to register every photo you take. Plus, you will also have to place your copyright sign on every photo.

It gets even better. Anyone can submit images, including your images. They would then be excused from any liability for infringement (also known as THEFT) unless the legitimate rights owner (you) responds within a certain period of time to grant or deny permission to use your work.

That means you will also have to look through every image in every registry all the time to make sure someone is not stealing and registering your art. You could actually end up illegally using your own artwork if someone else registers it. DOES ANYONE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS? "

That 'anyone can submit photos , even yours' thing - that includes you Etsy and Ebay sellers as well. If it's liftable - guess what. You're no longer automatically and legally protected. Alarming? Let's take a quick second and ask ourselves how many people are busy stockpiling our images right now , wherever they are , in hopes of some personal gain? You know these cretins exist , and this is a heaven sent oppurtunity for them. So both the jackals AND private industry stand to gain here.

Those fees are just for 300 photos and one person , and we've all seen blogs and photostreams chock full of beautiful pictures , have we not? Can you imagine the haul these people and businesses are going to make in it's entirety? My pocket is not ample - I can't afford the registration , and I sure can't afford the fees required to go to court to fight for my right to my own work.

So that's just the registration - it get's better , because even if you've paid the three sites , you've still got problems. Right now we're all protected under current international law. These people are seeking to re-write that law on an international level - it is apparently on the board in Europe as well. I don't understand all the complications there , only that they exist. My best choice will be removing every thing I have from public view , as far as I can tell. And I will. In a heartbeat I will - but if the image has already been lifted , too bad for me , huh? You too. Where and how are we going to sell our work , anyway? Can we afford to register each piece to protect it?

Let's go back to the wicked cool technology with the 99% success rate. I read an article by Brad Holland and CynthiaTurner here: http://tiny.cc/KCJ02 , explaining how this works. I wish I could just post the excerpts but in this case I can't. It would behoove you to go to the site here and read the information links: http://tiny.cc/D3rRX

Copyright law as currently written could change rather significantly , and I think you ought to concern yourselves with that.

And here is a link to contact info on government officials , so that you can write them a letter stating your feelings whatever they may be:
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

I hope you do. It's your images and work , it's your community and you should be angry they have so completely discounted our concerns , for petes sake. For photos of our family , our intellectual property , our artwork - we'd have to pay. For protection we enjoy now as a lawful right - we have to pay. That's not working for me.

Spring has sprung indeed ,

Hi everybody (or anybody , as the case may be) , I've been slacking on the blog posts lately and thought I'd at least drop in and say hello.

I've been working on cleaning and organizing the kitchen studio. The house too , but who cares 'bout THAT lol. It takes me a while to gear up for the kitchen , to be honest. Just the thought of moving everything made me tired , but I did - I also found new storage at fab prices , and that's made a huge difference! I'm funny - I'll spend the money on supplies , but I balk at paying for plastic storage drawers lol. I don't like them to begin with , I think they're priced too high and though I did try - every time I put one in the cart I wound up putting it right back on the shelf shortly thereafter. I finally hit a sale (and the thrift) and got two more sets of drawers that were not only reasonably priced but would function WELL. That was my other peeve - I didn't want to buy storage that I'd still be "making do" with. I've got all kinds of weird stuff here , I could do that for free lol.

I have taken a few pictures in a responsible blogger sort of way and I'll load them up in the next few days so you can see what I've been up to. Don't know how exciting that is for y'all really , but hey - maybe you'll get a brilliant idea or be inspired to burrow through your own supplies and detritus in search of the table you're sure you had at Some point but you've been working on the counter for months (which is ok , you actually like that more) but anyway the table could be GONE for all you know because really all you can see is one leg. Which could be from a thrift store and not really belong to the table at all. Think about it.

So I did that , and now I'm working on unmounting all the rubber. If any of you have been thinking about doing the same thing , but have been procratinating as I have - you know what? Go with that. You think it's going to be a tedious job now , wait until you get started. It all goes downhill from there. I'm indexing and unmounting at the same time , and it really is just a long haul , girls. But I will say that the space I'm gaining is very nice , and it is totally worth it. I do love the sight of an empty drawer , lol - it's just not fun. But it's worth it , lol.

I'll tell you more about how I did my unmounting when I come back - hope the rest of you cleaning and organizing will post a few pics too , since this spring fever seems to visiting the studios of several of my friends! I love that I'm not the only one suffering through this lol. It really does feel awesome when it's done , doesn't it?!