You Like What You Like

Okay, as I sit here listening to "Santa Baby" in the middle of September watching people buy thousands of dollars worth of Christmas decorations I wonder why.  Why spend so much on something that you will only used a few months out of the year?  The answer?  Because you like it and it makes you happy!  People like the sense of accomplishment and visual stimulation they get after a weekend of hardcore decorating.  They enjoy trying new things.  Decorating for the holidays is like being an artist with a whole room (or house) as your palette.  I don't know why I was so judgmental before.  People like what they like and that is ultimately why we are here.  I know I like what I like and I don't care what other people think about it, and I spend my hard earned paycheck on what makes me happy.  So, that being said, be proud of what you like.  Don't let anyone tell you that you have "bad taste," there is no such thing!  And remember, if you had a nickel for every time someone told you they didn't like your taste, you'd be a five cents richer and still be surrounded by the things that you love.

~Liz

The Colors We See

While working on our monthly e-newsletter, I was searching for something funny or inspirational to put at the end of it.  And, during my search I found something that I thought was so perfect to write about.  

"They'll sell you thousands of greens. Veronese green and emerald green and cadmium green and any sort of green you like; but that particular green, never."
Pablo Picasso, 1966.

It took me reading it twice to realize what it meant.  There are so often times when we're searching for a particular color... it's in our head, and we know exactly what we're looking for.  But, we can never find it.  This actually happened with me when I was painting my kitchen.  We were painting it red, and I searched and searched for the red that I knew I wanted.  My husband later decided that I make colors up in my head that don't actually exist.  But, I ask you... if the color doesn't exist, how can I envision it?  There must be a way to figure out how to make it, "right"?  

What a relief that an artist like Picasso suffered from the same problem.  

His quote also made me think of a discussion that I had with a friend a few months back.  "I may see the sky as blue, and you may see the sky as blue, but isn't it cool that neither of us see it as the exact same blue."  She didn't quite understand.  I explained how our minds perceive color differently even though it may seem that we all see exactly the same thing.  She still didn't understand.  (And since she's a very close friend, I decided to leave it at that rather than argue).

Color is such an extraordinary thing.   It's amazing how it can affect our ideas, moods, and senses.  It's where I realize my passion for the visual arts begins. 

- Bianca

Star-Bellied Sneetch Tattoo

Liz? You restrict your personal style? HAAAAAAAA! She comes to work with purple stripes in her hair, skull-laden shawls, and black nail polish!!! (You all should see her! She's got the over-50 Christmas Cottage employees all thinking about getting glow-in-the-dark tattoos)

Very true about images though & that law of attraction thing... I'm 45 and I STILL have Harrison Ford pics hanging in my office. He should be calling any day now...

-Angela

The Power of Images

Images are a powerful thing whether it be creating them or looking at them.  Since I am not an artist, and don't feel the passion to create images I can't really talk about how that feels.  But as a collector I can talk about what it feels like to gather and gaze upon the image.  Since ancient times the image has held a special power over individuals.  It was thought that if you were to paint an image of a good hunting season that you would have one.  In biblical times the image was so powerful that sculpting was practically banned lest they become idolized.  You may think that is weird and that we are above that, but are we really?  We hang images up in our homes and why?  To beautify?  Well, sometimes...but I think that is just what we tell ourselves.  Think about when you were a young lad our lass.  Did you not adorn your bedroom walls with the sexiest models and celebrities?  I know that I did!  When you were young you didn't do it for beautification in the design and style sense.  You thought that so-and-so was a fox and wanted to feel that attraction every time you looked at the wall, or that blah-blah-blah was an amazing singer/sportsman and you wanted to honor them and feel their accomplishments each time you looked at the wall.  The point is you felt SOMETHING, and that something made you feel good, and that good feeling is one of our most primal feelings!  Now here is the magic part...

Let's say that you loved...ahem...Jonathan Taylor Thomas when you were 10 years old.  I, I mean you, would ritualistically tear pictures and posters out of TeenBeat magazine, arrange them on the floor, and then carefully adhere them to the wall of your bedroom.  Now, did I, I mean you, really think when I (oh well I guess the jig is up.  It was me) was 10 that the more pictures of Jonathan Taylor Thomas I had up on my walls the more likely I would be to meet him and become his dream girl...well now that I think about it, I did!  He would somehow feel my adolescent attraction and come racing to my door step.  How is that any different from early man painting a good hunting season in hopes that he would have one.  

Okay, as we grow up and our "decorating" tastes evolve we hang different things on the walls that still make us feel something.  But the images still hold the same "magical" power even if we don't know it.  There are a lot of art collectors out there who love Tuscan landscapes who have never been to Tuscany.  They go to Tuscany through the images they collect an hope (whilst staring at said images) that one day they will get to finally go there.  This collector might tell you that they simply think it is pretty!  Other's collect images as a form of nostalgic memorabilia.  Why do we look so lovingly into the past?  Do we think that the more we love what happened there the more we may be able to make it happen again?  Subconsciously we totally do!  So I ask you this...look at something you have on your wall and think about why you 'really' have it.  And does it pull out that oh-so-fantastic good feeling?

Last thing...have you ever not surrounded yourself with an image that made you feel good, or restricted your personal style out of fear.  I have, but that is another blog.  

~Liz

What a difference one little change can make!

While Liz & Bianca, the art historians are focused on other Gallery projects right now, I thought I'd fill in the blog with more operational blabber - and how unbelievable one change can make in the appearance of the Gallery! Yesterday we repurposed some old chrome shelves from the Christmas Cottage in our black & white boutique / workshop area and it looks like an entirely different place! We've been getting so much new merchandise in we had to create some new space for it. Got a couple days off now, the calm before the storm... between the impending holiday season (that has happily already started to show itself in both the Gallery and the Cottage), the Main Street Masters of Art the first weekend in October AND the resignation of Bianca, (going to be a full-time Mommy!), there will be NO rest after this labor day weekend!

In keeping with the "what a difference one little change can make" theme, we've got a pretty cool "You Call THAT Art?" planned for the 19th too - Italian Renaissance Art: among other images, we'll be looking at the different artists's interpretations of their statues of David. To complement this free session (2-4pm), we have the Father-Son team from Pappagallo's restaurant in Satellite Beach coming in to show us the fine art of pizza spinning and offering a few vittles of their Italian fare (Their "Pastagallo bowl" is a MUST! with 3 generations of Italians cooking, you know its great!). "Pappagallo" means parrot in Italian, so they will be bringing "Romeo" their Green-winged Macaw to help squawk about the different artists' use of marble, bronze & paint!

Stop in on the 19th (but call first 321-722-6000), you may even be able to try your hand at spinning with their "trainer pizza dough" - and in the meantime, try making a change in your own place, you never know what moving a chair or sofa can do for a room, at no cost!

-Angela

Things are looking up!!!

Now that September is here, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new Art Business News magazine that is going to have all the Gallery Excellence Award winners in it! Since the news came out about us winning the "Technology Integration" category, I've had a few people asking me to write about how they can do the same thing in their own small businesses. Well, I've started to do that! If anyone has any good suggestions, I'll be happy to include them! I've got a good outline started and in my research to validate what I already know, I've learned a ton more! There is sooooo much free stuff out there if you just know where to look and more importantly, how to implement it. I think that's the approach I'll take - more step-by-step instructions on how to implement FREE technology into a small business.

Its good to see Liz smiling today - yesterday one of her cherished exotic pet rats, "Cindy Lou" passed away. She was pretty upset. Today, however, we got a shipment of awesome Raku vases and funky metal earrings in and in one box was a Raku SKULL! Liz already put "dibs" on it and she's smiling again...

Until the next time,

Angela

Business owners beware!

Hi! This is Angela, the gallery owner, I just took another "social networking" class so I'm going to try to be a lot better about blogging now! Wow, has this year been a learning experience for all of us... here's my big lesson learned for small business owners today: if you take credit cards, make sure you find out what your "high charge limit" is! Ours was apparently only $2500.00. I didn't even know we had one until we made this awesome Steve Barton sale on Monday. It was from an out-of-town client and it was over 4K so we had to take it over the phone. Woohooo! Now, we've had lots of big sales before but I guess we haven't had one charged to a credit card since we changed our merchant services company. I happily spent Tuesday evening paying bills and placing a couple more orders for some cool art glass nail files, when the phone rang.... It was my credit card merchant services company. They said they were holding the funds and not putting them in my bank account because our high charge limit was only 2500. WTF??? It's like you're damned if you do, damned if you don't! Anyway, I had to email and fax to them a bunch more paperwork proving our worth (as if the sale itself wasn't enough) for them to actually put the money through. Soooo - be sure you ask about stuff like that if you have a small business and take credit cards!