Fur In The Paint

But do I want to be a giant squid?
Okay, so a couple of my lenses were blessed recently and because of that (or so I’m assuming. Who knows maybe it’s because “I’m special”) I was invited to join in the Become A Giant Squid group which kinda mentors and helps writers along in reaching their goal of 50 lenses.

Perhaps I should explain the whole concept a little more clearly.
Squidoo is a place where you can write small webpages which they call lenses. Unlike many places the focus is providing quality information but also offering the writers to partake in earning money. This is done in a couple of ways.
1. Monetizing. This means including Amazon and other affiliate links. People click through you get paid. People buy you get paid more.
2. Squidoo Rankings. Squidoo pays out money depending where your lens ranks.

There are 3 payout level.
Tier three: Your lens needs to rank under 85,000
Tier Two: Under 10,000
Tier One: Under 2,000

Two of mine are Tier Two but close to Tier One and 15 are Tier Three. Two completely out of the money.

Currently there is like a million lenses (not kidding there) and so a person writes a lens and then waits for it to rise in the rankings so it can start earning it’s keep

In order for a lens to get ranked higher there are numerous ways.
1.Other squidoo members Star rank your lens.
2 Comments left by either members or non members
3.Clickouts. How often someone clicks through to affiliates
4. traffic. How many people visit your lens.
5. Squid Angel Blessings. (which is the reason I wrote this post) Squidoo has a group of volunteers who go around looking for lenses that are well executed but may not be ranking highly. When they bless them which helps them temporarily raise in the rankings and so hopefully get more attention from the ranking ranking systems and thus elevate the lens.

In theory you can get a high ranking lens with just any one of these ranking tools but it usually requires all of them working together to make it happen.

Okay so anyway back to the point of this post. Do I want to be a giant squid? Yes . . . someday. Frankly I thought shooting for 20 lenses this year was pushing it for me but I have already surpassed that (a couple are still in the building stage) and it’s only Feb. Can I really do 50 before the next deadline? Doubtful but possible.

We shall see.

Initially I had thought I would simply flip the image of my red buffalo over and create a white one. I wanted to make them similar enough to be a possible set. In the end I selected another cow bison that was posed very similarly. I like to think all my critters are distinct so I really didn’t want to just redo my previous bison. I wanted each to be a distinct personality. Well as much as one can when it’s a piece of paper.

The background is going to be different from the previous totem paintings. I am thinking I may do something similar with Raven and maybe Wolf so they all tie in. But we’ll see. Not gonna tell you what it is because . . . it’s a surprise.

Just in time for Easter.
I’ve been hard at work getting my website updated and wanted to announce that A Family Resemblance is now available in print at the Wild Faces Gallery website. For more information on sizing and pricing just click here to visit the website.

Upcoming Post: White Buffalo Totem

So here she is. Her chest and leg area need to be sorted out yet and I want to dark the background around the cat. But I was so excited to move on that I did. I plan to go back to her in a day or two. It always helps to rest a bit and then come back.

Wild is always wild.
When I was working at the zoo people would see me walking amongst the critters and form the wrong opinion. When in with the wolves as they were bouncing around me like a group of very happy to see me dogs trying to lick me or or when in with Sam the cougar and she was acting all kittenish and rolling in the grass, they would often comment how much they seemed just like their pets at home. My saying under no circumstances are these critters tame did little to change that opinion.

It wasn’t until I threw some leg of something in the enclosures (when I was safely out) and the predators did what they do best, fell upon the carcass with the most scary snarling and clawing that they got my true meaning. Wild is always wild. Even when you raise from a few days old with a bottle, which is what this park did.

Totem animals come and go in our lives. You may have some for awhile that later disappear only to have new ones replace them.

Or they may stay with you always.

A few days back Angela Finney asked me if cougar was a totem of mine. Though cougar is not, it got me to wondering if any of you have totem animals that you would like to share.

Robert Sloan had mentioned his was cougar Also Lorie recently made a request for Raven as it’s one of her favorite critter.

Anyone else want to share? I may just get inspired to add your critter to the series.

My Muse Has Thwacked Me Hard With Her Inspiration Stick
I’m all a flutter with ideas. I had been pondering my series thus far and like what I’ve got but I don’t want 15 to 35 paintings all the same color and concept. So I pondered this and slept on it and woke up to all sorts of ideas.

I now have a plan for Horse and White buffalo as well as (possibly) Raven and Wolf.

Disclaimer
I am also currently building a Squidoo lens about totem (and spirit guide) animals which will include information about the significance of each animal. Hey I warned you I am kinda new agey.

That being said I find this all very interesting. A curiosity. But much like I don’t put a lot of store in my being a Libra . . .so it goes with this.

My Totem Animals Are. . .
(appearing in the order of significance.)

1 Bear. This one has been with me for a very long time. Between the ages of 16 and 25 I often dreamed I was a bear and I still remember them vividly. Also my personality is very bear like. I’m loving and amiable but if someone pokes me . . . well, let’s just say things turn ugly.

2. Raven/Crow. Raven came to me about 5 years ago when I was exploring imagery regarding my health. I have more than one condition, though they do not really effect my daily life, they will undoubtedly shorten my life and do on occasion cause me distress.

So I was doing some healing visualizations and Raven and Crow came to me. Rather unexpectedly. So much so I was startled out of my meditation. Since then they have been a part of any healing imagery I do. I consider them a sign of good luck when I see them in real life.

Also last year at an art fair I was looking at another artist’s work and commenting on how lovely her things were. Her art was packed with strung beads and baubles. I said”I do love the dangly and the sparkly” She smiled and said that I was a Raven in a past life. I looked at her and smiled and thought “Whaaaa?” But that thought kinda stuck in my head.

3. Horse. I would have thought horse would have ranked higher but I’m not totally sure of this one anyway. The horse plays prominently in my life and I am very passionate about the animal. Also I was born in the Chinese astrological year of the horse and for the most part embody what it stands for.

UPDATED:
Discover Your Birth Animal Totem
Interestingly, last night as I was doing research for my totem lens I decided I wanted to incorporate other totem lenses into mine and I ran across this one. Discover Your Birth Animal Totem

I found out that what while I’ve known about my zodiac sun sign (you know like I’m a Libra) that I also have a moon sign. According to that I was born in the month of the crow/raven. And that my spirit keeper (not sure what that is) is Grizzly Bear.

Huh? What do ya know.

Also Bev, the author of the lens also has a blog about animal totems and spirit guides so if your curious to know more check it out.

BTW the finished (well almost finished. She’s up to the tweaking stage) cougar will get posted next.

Many of my Suidoo lens were created from gleanings off my blog. So I thought It high time for my blog to do a little gleaning of it’s own. And thus this post was born.

Robert Vavra is one of my art heroes and I have an extensive collection of his books. The biggest issue I have with them is NOT using his images as reference materials. Trust me, it is oh so tempting. His photos of horses buried in jewels and gold, or draped with chains or hundreds of ribbons are stunning. He also marvelously captures horses just being horses. LOVE the art of Vavra.

So okay enough waxing poetic. Here’s an excerpt from my Squidoo lense The Art Books Of Robert Vavra

When I was young girl (and that was a looong time ago) I begged my mom for this book. I had to beg because it was $40 and this was the early 80’s so it was a hefty price to pay for a picture book for a child. So the answer was no.

But I wasn’t about to accept that, so I set about getting the money myself. Eventually I earned enough through various odd jobs and working the fields in the summer to not only buy all my school clothes and such but also the book.

When it arrived in the mail it was truly the picture book to end all picture books. I spent endless hours flipping through the pages and reading all the passages. And still do on occasion.

I think in many ways Robert Vavra’s vision shaped my horse art from a very early age. His books aren’t just pretty pictures of pretty horses, they are indeed art. They are spectacular horses, in spectacular settings with choreographed movement.

From this very first book I was hooked on Vavra.

Squidoo Goal
So my goal for this year was to make a total of 20 lenses. I already had 7 so this was in effect doubling my numbers. It seemed like a rather big challenge but at this point I have 18 functioning lenses and two work in progress lenses. So yeah, shouldn’t be a problem to mark this goal off. Though one of the work in progress lenses is about my totem series so that may be awhile in coming. The other is a lensography which is kinda the mother of all MEMEs rolled together with compilation (or rather a directory) of all my lenses.

If any of you visit my lens I would really appreciate it if you took a moment to leave a comment. I think you have to be a member of squidoo to rank the lens but anyone can comment.

Meet Samantha
(Sam for short)
I always love the intensity of big cats eyes. Even when at rest they have a stare that (perhaps because we humans are prey animals) speaks to the very primal mind. Here she is a sub-adult though in the wild she would be old enough to be on her own by now.

Sam is giving me a good stare because she is trying to discern whether I might be smuggling some haunch of elk or something. (I was not.) Mostly she slept out of view so zoo goers were often disappointed. Part of my job was to talk with people so I often would call her out. Of course she always came. After all she wouldn’t want to miss a meal on account of being anti-social.

The person I replaced was attacked by a mountain lion. Whether it was Sam or not, I do not know. They fell into the electric fence and that is pretty much what saved the keepers life.

I had only one “really” scary moment with Sam when she wrapped herself around my right leg and started chewing on my boot. Fortunately I had my trusty garden hose and all it took was a spritz to end her making a snack of me.

About The Painting
The body area is not done. Considering I’m not a fan of yellow I certainly have allot of it here. I am moving onto to the background now and then may play with the coloring of the cat again.

The photo here is a little dark as the paper should show white. This is a cropped view of the latest in the totem series. Tomorrow I will post my reference photos (and introduce you to my model Sam) and the full view.

This is once an again oil pastel on handmade paper. Kinda fun to play with the wild colors after doing so many realistic horse paintings. Trying to decide which to do next. Moose? Horse? I’m thinking also of a white buffalo sometime in the future. I want to change up my color palette some in the next few. Though I keep seeing the Moose as green.

I should finish with this one by tomorrow and plan to just jump right into the next one. Mike has left for his classes so I have 5 days to myself.

Make that 5 productive days to myself. (Whoohoo!).

Well this is just to say that I haven’t forgotten about the blog. Between blizzards and being sick very little has gone on and most of my actual “awake and functional” time has been spent working on my article for Apples ‘n Oats.

But . . .I should have an actual post about something on Friday. Perhaps tomorrow but definitely Friday. I’ve got my new totem critter drawn out (inspiration courtesy of Robert Sloan.) And so may have some color in play by then. Or I may talk a little about my favorite equine photographers/artist inspiration.

Either way there will be a post with actual content.

Okay I apologize for being gone so long. Partly this is because I’ve got nothing going on artwise to talk about. Or at least to devote a whole post to. And I’ve been sick this time with a sinus infection. I’ll spare you the details but it involves me not sleeping because I can’t breathe!

Prior to my illness I went to see The Blind Side (with Sandra Bullock) and Avatar. (yes, I know that I am the last erpson on the planet to have seen these movies.) And of course they were both totally awesome.

I did agree to do the artshow with Barb. The director said they actually have two galleries available if we want them both. I’m not sure there is enough work for that for either Barb or myself, but we’ll see.

And lastly I’ve been putting effort in my Squidoo lenses again as well as beginning my next article (Spanish Gold) for Apples ‘n Oats.

That’s my week in review. I promise as soon as I’m feeling human again I’ll do a real post.