Cat Nappin'

Folks, if this isn't an excellent example of some serious cat nappin' then I don't know what is!

Seems like a perfect image to share with you on a Friday!

And yes, image was snitched from CuteOverload.com

Namaste y'all!

Not home alone ...

Four short days until the husband is home for vacation. Thirteen days off. Two days back at work and then five more days at home. I'm not sure one of us will survive, though which one is still undecided at this point.

Don't get me wrong. I love my husband and all that. It's just I have a hard time being with someone, anyone, for a lengthy stretch of time. I'm used to being alone all week, the husband coming home late Friday night and gone at the crack of dawn on Monday morning. Sure, he calls and we talk every evening. I get phone calls from friends. I even go out into town a couple of times during the week. But, for the most part, I'm alone. I like it that way. I'm a solitary kinda' person. Introverted. My main interests and pursuits don't require interaction with others. So being around someone 24-7, even the husband, gets on my nerves.

Thus, thinking about the impending vacation time is causing me some stress. I'm hoping he will go out, at least a couple of days, with our neighbor-friend Phil and help him work on the plane Phil is building. Maybe have nice enough weather to do yard work or clean the vehicles. Maybe spend lots of time in his studio working on his keyboard. Anything to give me "space" and time alone.

Why don't I go out somewhere on my own? Good question. Thing is, I've got projects in my studio to be working on. And too, even though it may sound completely crazy, I don't like to leave the husband home alone ... and he really hates to be home alone. The way I see it is like this; he works all week, driving a truck and being away from home - the one place he wants most to be - so that I can be a stay home wife and artist. I have to say I think it's a small sacrifice on my part to be here with him when he is home. Tit for tat. Quid Pro Quo. Whenever I leave him home alone, especially since I get so much time to myself during the week, I feel guilty.

Sure, he can find stuff to occupy himself. It's not that. It's the fact that I'm absent. My presence isn't in the house. And it's being near me, even if not in the same room, that makes him happy. He likes knowing I'm close by. I can understand. I don't begrudge him that. So it's a rare thing for me to go out when he's home. Yeah, sometimes it makes me nuts, especially during times like the upcoming vacation ... but that's the art of compromise. Ya' what ya' gotta' do.

I have to come up with a plan for surviving the vacation. For not chopping up the husband into little pieces and burying him in the compost pile.

There's the studio/project work. Of course, almost anytime I walk into the studio and pick up a paintbrush he's looking over my shoulder, watching. Like a fly to honey. He likes to watch me paint, watch the work evolve. Nothing abnormal about that. Everybody loves to watch someone paint or draw - like it's a magic show. Shoot, I could watch someone else paint for hours. Guess that might not be much "alone time".

I've got the website redesign. Not much to hold his attention with me making new buttons and resizing images on the computer. Doing the "grunt work". Although, come to think of it, he does love to watch me work in Photoshop. He's a basic computer user. He can check his e-mail. He can surf the internet. He can meander through ebay. Photoshop is way past his computing abilities, and therefore, when I'm in design mode it's interesting to him, somewhat like watching me paint. He once said watching me work in Photoshop was kind of like actually getting to watch how my brain works. Weird comparison, but okay. Website design might not generate much "alone time" either.

I could start on the quilt I'm planning for my bedroom. Washing, drying and ironing fabric, cutting it into strips and squares, stitching them together ... yep, that would be not so interesting to him. Thing is, I don't have all the different fabrics I want collected yet. Darn.

Knitting. He does like to watch me knit, but he will lose interest after a bit. I have several things I would like to start knitting. I even have a scarf on the sticks right now that I've frogged and restarted, oh about twelve times already. It's Bernat Bamboo Natural Blends in Water, a wonderful pale blue yarn that is too soft and lovely for words. I could eat this stuff it's so nice. I want a scarf and matching hat - the whole Pumpkin Hat thing got me feeling brave - but I've had trouble deciding on the stitch to use. All I know is I would like it to be in a rib stitch, but I haven't got the right knit/purl ratio figured out yet. Might could spend time working on that.

House cleaning. Good old fashioned kind of spring cleaning. Might send him to his studio for hours on end with that going on. I'd get a nice, clean house to boot. Possible.

I guess we'll just have to see how it goes and what else I can come up with.

For now, I'm going to go watch a movie and not think about it.

Namaste y'all ...

Vicks DayQuil, you are my friend ...

It doesn't escape my notice that Vicks DayQuil very courteously supplies you with your own "shot glass" for knocking back a nice dosage of medication. Between my morning shot of drugs, a strong pot of coffee and some Reiki, I'm actually managing to function somewhat normally today. I'm not dancing a jig around the studio by any means, but I'm at least sitting upright and not curled in a sad, whimpering little puddle in the middle of the bed. That's progress.

While I'm waiting for some paint to dry I dabbled around in Photoshop and created a new masthead for my blog. I like it. It fits me. I am a continual work in progress with my art, with my whole existence for that matter. I've come far but still have farther to go. I'm okay with that. Better forward than backward, ya' know?

But back to the masthead. I like the lighter colors, the softer feel. I think it will go well with my website yet stand on it's own as a blog page. The two are integrated, but separate. I think they need different looks, different names, a different tone to each. I'm even considering changing the name of my website as well. I'm not sure what it will be. "Art Magic" worked for me in the beginning but as the focus of my art changes, the direction of my life changes - which is reflected in my art - the current name just doesn't seem to fit anymore. I don't like it.

Any suggestions?

I did manage to have some foresight and plan ahead in regard to the site address, keeping it simply my name. I know me well enough to know I like to change stuff around too much. Slapping an "art magic dot com" up there would have left me stuck with that dot com. Couldn't do that to myself. Anyway, someone else already had it.

Since the "internet art theft incident" the redesign of the site has been weighing heavily on my mind. I've got an art project in the works that will be taking up much of my time. An old friend also contacted me yesterday about doing a new logo for her boyfriend's business. More time taken there. A couple of other things on the burner snitch up more time. So the question comes ... How do I work it in? It's a massive undertaking, designing and/or redesigning an entire website.

Even though this would be Version 6 (Ack!) and I'm more experienced with what to do, it would still demand a lot of work, a lot of time at the computer. Other stuff just doesn't get done when I'm off somewhere in Photoshop Land. And at present, I only have a preliminary splash/front page done. There would be hours of creative/design work to be thought out before the site itself would undergo any change at all. It's in playing with Photoshop that I can burn up some serious time ... too many options! This looks good! Oh wait, this looks better! Ah, that would be cool! Maybe a tweak here. Tweak there. Shift the type up a smidge. No, nudge it over there. What about this type style. Maybe that one. I could emboss this. I could use this filter on that. On and on and on and on .......

Fortunately the basics are already there. I won't really have to do much with setting up new pages except for the additional galleries and such I intend to add. But all of the images have to be re-worked and some new images added. New thumbnails and new buttons to be created. Meta tags and page descriptions. New links and old links redone. Etc. Etc. Etc. Then checking and rechecking. And checking again after it all get uploaded and published. Then making corrections. Oy! Makes me squirm just thinking about it. The upside is I can make all these changes and publish the new version all at once. I don't have to worry about the current version of the site being disturbed or "under construction". This is a good thing.

Speaking of good things, if y'all will excuse me, I do believe I have a lunch date with a bowl of chicken soup and a grilled cheese sandwich ...

Namaste y'all ...

The mind is willing - the body says, "Ain't no freakin' way!"

The Common Cold.

Menace to society.

Harbinger of an ill wind wrought with sickness and miserable body aches and pains.

Sneaky. Devious. Insidious.

An uninvited and unwelcome guest to the party of life.

Do ya'll hear the whining? Do y'all hear the pathetic and pointless plea for the good health I was carelessly enjoying just a few short days ago? Oh yes, Mr. Acute Viral Nasopharyngitis has come to call. I feel like I've been hit by a truck, all achy and sore, back of my throat feels like the hide has been scraped off, can only breathe out of one side of my nose. It's not pleasant.

I'm supposed to be in the studio creating art. I want to be creating art. I've got so many ideas for a Can't Elaborate On The Details Of Just Yet project in the works but ...

I'm going have a cup of tea, take some drugs, then have a nice nap.

Namaste y'all ...

Internet art theft ... violation or flattery?

Celtic Rose, painted canvas on hand-quilted panel.

Copyright infringement. It's a risk you always take when you put your work on a website and post it on the internet for all the world to see. Now, some people will actually contact you and request use of your art for certain purposes. I've had that happen. Some people are ignorant and don't comprehend the meaning of copyright. Some people don't give a rats' butt. With the latter two, your art gets taken and used for their own whim. Most often, you don't ever even know about it. On occasion, you are told by someone who sees it, or, you stumble upon it yourself.

Happened to me this past weekend. I stumbled on one of my images with an unknown internet address while doing a Google search. A mysterious individual had used my Celtic Rose as a "card" in a comment on their friends' MySpace page. Tracing it's origins I discovered six more mystery people have it in their Photobucket accounts. Lord only knows where the Hell else it's gotten whisked off to.

Y'all, this kind of wigs me out.

I did a bit of checking on the Photobucket site to see what can be done about copyright infringement and it's a bit of a process to pursue. I do intend to follow through with the process even if it will take awhile, and it may or may not garner satisfactory results. I feel it's necessary. It's my art and I worked hard on that painting. I've posted plainly on every page of my website all artwork is copyright. It's not for anyone's use accept my own unless someone contacts me and requests use of it. My art is how I earn my living ..... how would they like for me to come take the car they use to get back and forth to work?

On the other hand, I will honestly admit there is a certain amount of flattery in that these mystery people liked it enough to put it in their Photobucket account for use on their MySpace pages, blogs or whatever. It's not a high enough resolution image to use for anything else - I set that when I uploaded the images to my own website. It also shows my signature fairly clearly in the bottom right corner. Could prompt someone to check out who "Carol Snedeker-Martinez" is, ya' know? Ta Da! Take 'em to my website ... but hopefully not to steal more art images!

Anyway, if you look at their Photobucket accounts you see immediately these people have spent some time searching the internet and are collecting other images from other artists they like. 99% of them are those aforementioned ignorant people who just don't get the meaning of copyright ... they don't think they are stealing! They really believe because it's on the internet it's fair game for them to take if they want it. Stupid, but true. They aren't being malicious, they are being stupid.

What's to be done?

For starters, I'm going to have to put copyright seals on all the art images on my website. I've seen other artists do the same and yes, I even considered it when I first built the site. Why I didn't do it then is mainly because it takes away from the image. It's hard for many people to look at the work and "see" it without that ghosted copyright seal plastered over the top of it. Even if you post clearly on the page that the final print will NOT have the copyright seal, that it is for internet security purposes only, they don't understand. Again, people are amazingly and incredibly stupid sometimes.

I had also hoped the low resolution I uploaded the images with would deter theft. No matter what software you have, no matter how much of a Photoshop Wizard you think you are, you can't make a low 72 dpi resolution image print like a high 300 dpi resolution file. The pixels simply aren't there. You can't fake it, you can't re-create them, you basically can't do anything with it other than use it on the internet. If one of those image thieving mystery people tried to print it they would only end up with a fuzzy, pixelated piece of crap.

Obviously, I was mistaken in thinking no one would steal my stuff.

Wow. What a pain in the ass.

Guess that website rebuild is closer around the corner than I thought it was going to be. Gah!

Okay then, let's take a quick breather and a pause for a cute, make you feel all warm and snuggly photo from Cute Overload ...


Ah, that's really nice.

Namaste y'all ...