A New Goal! More blog followers needed--can you help?

Why don't I have more "followers" on my blog? I have 45 now. I'd like to have 100 by the end of December 2014. Can you help me? Just go to my blog, go down the right hand column until it says "Join Now" and click on that. Once you join, you'll get notifications whenever I do a new post and you can read it or not, as you wish.

Here's a photo of the gallery, taken by my artist friend Paul Parichan, from a slightly "elevated" view. . . .

Autumnal October newsletter. . . .

I finished my October newsletter yesterday and it has a lot of current news in it so I'd like to post it here for your review in case you haven't received in via email or seen it on Facebook. Let's see if this works:


https://t.e2ma.net/cshare/inbound/f/ziwfd/b07a8d99acd6df3ac446cdfe36e92b42


If you click on the link, you'll be taken to the newsletter. Hopefully, I'll soon be able to figure out how to create an archive of past newsletters. Maybe I'll even try that now!

One of my favorite shows of the year!

Tonight is the opening reception for "Celebrate Agriculture", a yearly show sponsored by the Madera Arts Council. It is a unique show in many ways--limited to a theme that's always the same, and judged in agricultural categories but not by media. It's usually a spectacular show and I'm sure it will be no different this year. Come out and see it, but plan to visit more than once because you need time and space to take it all in. I was notified that I'm getting an award so I'll find out tonight which of my paintings was successful!

Quick Links Artists Cultural Arts Map Lifelong Learning in the Arts About Us Concerts in the Park Membership Contact Us Join Our Mailing List Forward to a Friend Please join us this Wednesday Oct 1st at 5:30PM for our opening reception and awards presentation for our 21st annual Celebrate Agriculture with the Arts exhibit. This juried show of agriculturally themed artwork by California artists runs through the end of November, 2014. Artwork is submitted by categories developed to encompass the broad range of California agriculture. Categories are: Dairy, Livestock & Poultry; Farm Machinery & Structures; Fruits & Nuts; Irrigation, Row & Field Crops; Vegetables & Vines; Pomegranate Festival of Madera County; and Celebrating Agriculture-The Human Factor. The 2014 show is a mixed media exhibition showcasing original artwork in media including: paints, drawings, and photography. Admission is free. Please share this information with your facebook friends!  Thank you to chairperson Margaret Diebert , and to our sponsors: Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Walter & Wilhelm Law Group Union Bank of California The Andrew Family Quady Winery Lee's Concrete Warnock Food Products Oberti-Allessini Investments The Specialty Crop Co. Fresno Plein Air Painters Daniel & Jacquelyn Flanagan Drs. David & Dianne Rich AMJ Cattle Ranch, Inc. Madera Chamber Pomegranate Festival Creative Copy Thank you also to our current MCAC board members and past board member Tina Holmquist and her husband, Jon, for their continued support. Copyright © 20XX. All Rights Reserved.

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"This is a test. . . . "

. . . . to see if my blog is linked to Facebook again. If it is, it should show up as a post. I am so proud of myself--I changed my header into something a little bit more interesting, all by myself! It's still not what I eventually want, but it's an improvement and I've learned to take things a step at a time.

It's been an interesting but not a terribly productive day. Tomorrow is Sanger Art Hop so I have some straightening up to do and preparations to make. Let's see if the "test" works!

Saturday Art Hop in Sanger, California! Can you come?

Post by "Mixed Messages" by Kathleen Mattox.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!"

Looking down on the gallery from above, it appears and I feel like Annie, shouting "Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness!" The last blog post that I made was on January 28th, at which time something happened and my blog address (a third party address hosted by some obscure someone, somewhere) was redirected to my in-progress WIX website. My blog was not lost to me, but access to others was no longer possible. I haven't written since January and I'm so excited to have just spent an agonizing but, apparently, productive few hours this afternoon in touch with WIX, Blogger, and obscurity trying to solve the problem. I think I can write on my blog again! Yippee!

It's been so long that I have no idea what to write other than to say that I'm extremely excited to have this avenue of communication back under my fingers and my control. I'm just going to say HELLO for now and bask in the revelation that I've solved what I found to be a big problem. I am now back and will write some real blog posts VERY soon!

Advice from a "sage". . . .

We have all just learned that Pete Seeger just passed away at age 94, after a long and interesting life. I was reading an interview he did with Sarah van Gelder for YES! Magazine/Spring 2008. He shared something with her that got me thinking about my desire to open my gallery in Sanger because I wanted to "connect" with my own community. Read one of Sarah's questions and Pete's response here:

Sarah: What’s your secret to getting children singing, getting people even at Carnegie Hall singing together, getting people to fall in love with their river and take care of it? Are there some things we can learn about why people choose to get involved?

Pete: Well, it’s been my belief that learning how to do something in your hometown is the most important thing. It’s not just me who thinks this. Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” And the great biologist René Dubos said, “Think globally, act locally.” And E.F. Schumacher said “Small is beautiful.” And now Paul Hawken. All these people are saying the same thing.

If there’s a world here in a hundred years, it’s going to be saved by tens of millions of little things. The powers-that-be can break up any big thing they want. They can corrupt it or co-opt it from the inside, or they can attack it from the outside. But what are they going to do about 10 million little things? They break up two of them, and three more like them spring up!

---

The power of "little things", mentioned once again. When I opened my gallery in Sanger a little over two years ago, my goal was to do my art in a place where I could connect with my own town. This Friday, I am invited to a luncheon at the local Rotary Club where 20 people (10 men, 10 women) have had the honor of thanking their town of Sanger on the 125th anniversary of it's existence. I am honored to be one of those 20 people. I'll talk more about it after Friday, but, for now, I'm going to ponder Pete's statement that "It's been my belief that learning how to do something in your hometown is the most important thing" a bit longer and harder. . . . . 

"My Dad's Home Town"

Beginning of 2014--a call to artists and friends! I need 10 "Mixed Messengers!"

Here we are on the 8th day of 2014. The weather is gorgeous here in central California, rather un-winterlike. We desperately need rain and there is none in sight. I want it to stay mild but I know that it needs to rain.

I want to continue on the path that I've taken in my studio/gallery for the last 2 years, but I know that I need to do some different things to move forward. There is a difference between wants and needs and the challenge lies in satisfying what we want while providing for what we need.

I need to broaden my artistic reach and I want to enlist your help. I've thought of several ways to get more exposure and I'm starting to implement them. I'm going to be part of the 3rd Thursday Art Hop in Fresno on January 16th. I will be at the Vintage Market at 601 W. Shaw, at the intersection of Shaw and Wishon, between Palm and Maroa on the south side of Shaw. I will be starting to reconnect with the art scene in Fresno after a self-imposed period of time spent focusing on my gallery in Sanger.

Doing more events in Sanger and nearby will help me as will intensifying my advertising and social networking and blogging efforts. I am going to try really hard to blog every week the rest of 2014.

But what I am most excited about trying is to develop a group of supporters/friends/family/fellow artists and art lovers who I will call "Mixed Messengers". These "Mixed Messengers" will be my allies in helping me tell others about "Mixed Messages" ART, my gallery in Sanger, and about me as an artist.

I will attempt today to tell what being a "Mixed Messenger" will entail. To start off, each person who asks to be one will receive a small packet of items. The packet is a little folded "box" or cover with 3 different things inside.

The first item is a button that says 'I'm a "Mixed Messenger." You can be one, too! Ask me how!'

Each person who asks to be a Mixed Messenger wears his/her button or displays it as desired.

In the packet, there are also a dozen business cards, each different, made by Moo.com. Business cards can be handed out to people who like art and might like to visit Mixed Messages Art. If they bring a "Mixed Messenger" card (see below) into the gallery, they will receive 2 free greeting cards and so will the person who gave them the original business card and MM card.








The third item (just mentioned) is a dozen "Mixed Messenger" cards to be given out one at a time to prospective visitors to the gallery. So when someone is interested in knowing more about the gallery and/or the "process", button wearers give them 2 cards, 1 a business card and 1 a MM card. When the interested person goes to the gallery, he gets  2 free cards and so does the person who gave him the card. We will start with 10 button-wearing "Mixed Messengers" and expand from there. Packets can be refilled as needed so that cards can continue to be passed out.



Talk to me if you have questions and please let me know if you'd like to be one of the first "Mixed Messengers"! Once I have 10 volunteers "in place", we'll have a meeting to talk about ideas etc. and we'll celebrate the beginnings of the new year and some new ways to reach artists and art lovers.

Another idea that is ready to be implemented is a "Loyalty Card" plan.The cards pictured above will be handed out and punched or stamped when customers purchase greeting cards. For every 9 greeting cards purchased, they will receive one free!

I am looking forward to a new year, with it's share of new ideas and new friends and customers to "Mixed Messages" ART. And I am looking forward working with a dynamic group of "Mixed Messengers" ready to share the "I Love Art" message with others.