Seven Years at The Colorist!

I Mac Smack

Got a new Mac!

This is my first post on my new iMac, which is Apple's desktop  computer.  Here are my observations, reasons (and hopes) for this new platform and how it will effect studio life and this blog.

1. I was impressed with the way Photoshop opens right now!  I am considering updating to CS 6 (Creative Cloud) because I've been capable of completely locking up my pse and use the program constantly for workshop flyers, image manipulation, image filing, and blogging.

2. The kids and family can use the 27" screen for movies, and I for art movies and You Tubes.  When HD TV became mandatory  we left trad TV behind and only use computers for our moving picture entertainment.

3. It lacks the 10 key pad, but I can buy one down the road if I miss it that badly.

4. My otherwise slow internet speed (we get our feed terrestrially and it is as good as we can get living in the country) is a bit faster now, as are most functions with this computer.  My understanding is that background froof doesn't compete for time like it did on my old PC.

5. I can visit other art blogs more frequently, which has been lagging for me as my PC's performance slowly ebbed over time.

6. A fixed-station desktop (iMac) will yield back the time that I have been spending powering-down my Toshiba, packing it up, taking it out to the studio and setting it up for my music (I use Pandora).  A lot of time has been wasted waiting for that elusive broadcast wave to seep out to the studio from the house.  I will try to leave my old laptop there all of the time and play music that way.  If all else fails, I may get Sirius.  Anyone out there use satellite radio in their studio?

7. Another benefit of the desktop is that I can eat and drink here without the fear of spilling on the laptop!  I survived 2 Toshiba laptops, both at about 4 years apiece, without a mishap.  Also, I am poor at backing up my data, and I did dodge that bullet and retain my data from that time.  

8. Solid State Drive technology.  Boot times will be significantly reduced.  Lifehacker says this about SSD:

Launching applications will occur in a near-instant. Saving and opening documents won't lag. File copying and duplication speeds will improve. Overall, your system will feel much snappier. 

Nice Knowin' ya, old computer!

What all this means for you.

1.  More consistent blogging as far as frequency.  More entertainment, more info, and more fun!

2. I will not become a Mac-vangel.  It isn't that important to me, and I have a skepticism of the big claims that Apple makes about it's products   I enjoyed the joke somebody made about Macs being "sprinkled with unicorn tears."  

3. I hope the greater speed and efficiency of this system will yield more time for the studio!

4. More You Tubes/ vlogs from The Colorist.

Seattle Visit

Enjoying the Great Wheel on Elliott Bay, Seattle.  Ferry on Puget Sound in the background.  While I'm sitting here, smiling, the meter maid is ticketing my car.  I blame those new e-meters.  Anyway, we had family fun touring western Washington.

A Letter for You - Four Years of The Colorist

Text of letter:

Four Years of The Colorist

December 16th., 2010

Dear Readers,

This special greeting is my heart-felt thanks to you for your visits and participation over the past four years.

With over 82,000 page-loads this year, 16,000 per month at this point, and one day with 892, The Colorist continues to grow in many ways!

See more bench marks about The Colorist in the post that accompanies this letter.

All my best,

Casey Klahn

This is the four-year anniversary of The Colorist blog. There would be no blog here without the intelligent, kind and consistent readership that you provide. Please accept this handwritten note as my thanks.

With 847 posts here at The Colorist, and 220 at Pastel, there have been many fun and thought-provoking exchanges between you and I in blogland. When I met artist blogger Celeste Bergin in Oregon this year, she chided me that she had once gotten lost in the loop that is all of my many blogs. Hey, they're free, so I take as many as will fit in my pocket.

I also met and painted with Maryland artist and blogger Loriann Signori this year. Other highlights of the year for me include exhibiting in a new gallery, and receiving a national first place award for my art.

On The Colorist, one post went viral (Jackson Pollock) and the number of Blogger Followers ticked over 300. I introduced The Prairie Series, Mind Mapped my blog and studio direction, and was selected as one of 27 Art Blogs to Watch in 2010.

Popular posts and series' included:

• Live-blogging the Sausalito Art Festival
• A close-shave bear encounter
• 100 Things I Love About Art
• Artist's Quotes posts
• Ten Life or Death Studio Tips
• How To Make a Blog Banner
• Degas copies
• The Artist's Ideas series

I look forward with joy to the next year of sharing my studio life and art with all of you.

Casey Klahn

Personal Events

Two kittens remain in our home from the litter we've been bottle-feeding, and they're now dealing with some kind of illness. One is better, and the second now presents as sick. There are some other health things going around my family, mostly minor, but my girl has been sent home from school today.

On the way home, I ran over the neighbor's dog, which is a tragedy I've never experienced before. He ran in front of the truck, as I was slowing down and expecting him to chase the vehicle. That is a heartbreaking event. Somewhat removed from me, but serious, is a friend from my hometown who is experiencing a major family tragedy. This kind of time is what prayer is for, and I am sending mine heavenward today.

I'll be back with the new essay series in a day or two. Thanks for reading here!

Running on Fumes

I am still running on empty. What a season!

Also, I am happy to have readers visit from Katherine Tyrrell, and I hope she'll give us some of the attention that London has been getting. We've missed her regular posts over the summer.

I am getting ready for an exhibition in Spokane in October, and I'll tell you more about that soon. Also on the front burner will be getting back to daily posts at The Colorist Daily. I need to make sure what my inventory is, and do everything right more than immediately, if that makes sense.

See you soon.

Back Home Okay

Here is a note to let everyone know that I made it home from California well and fast. Too fast for comfort's sake, but the family needs me at home, since I missed the first day of school last week for my children. I'm exhausted, not only from the trip, but from the whole season. Time to switch gears and get into a new routine.

I hope to write some posts like last year where I describe to you my methods for creating prize winning work. I have some different ideas, so you can look forward to some interesting posts.

Free Blog

I'm still blogging, and while I'm at it the studio has been in full fiddle.  Above is a studio on-the-easel image, and I want to begin posting from my sketchbook, as well.  Here is the first of these.

Goals Review Time

Mary Cassatt, After Degas - detail
@ 32" x 26"
Charcoal
Casey Klahn

Time to review goals from the past bi-anum. I made the decision to make a two year plan back in September of 2008 because the handwriting was on the wall for the economic downturn. I took a chill pill, and one thing I decided was that the monetary economy would be less rewarding for me, so I made goals that would relate to an economy of reputation. Call it the "profile economy," if you will.

If financial kibbles weren't forthcoming, then I felt that this would be a good time to focus on exposure and reputation. In a strict art sense, I wanted to bring up the quality of my work. But how?

Blue Trees in the Middle Distance

7 - 3/8ths" x 5.75"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

Brought forward from 15 September, 2008:

Since my children are starting school, and my summer art fair season has ended, my goal review and new goal setting exercises happen now. One of the things that I learned from Alyson Stanfield, the Art Biz Coach, has been to think about and state your desired character traits along with your goals. In other words, what are the traits you aspire to along with your career progress?

The artist that I aspire to be has:

Commitment
Courage
Creative Integrity
Decisiveness
Excellence
Generosity
Knowledge
Self Understanding

These are loaded words and "heavy" language, but they have deeper meanings for me. I'll be posting on each one, to expand on what these attributes mean to me.

Need Motivation? Try this renowned article (soon to be a book?) by Gaping Void. Hugh MacLeod is the Gaping Void cartoonist, and a Marketing Strategist. Excerpt:

Ignore everybody.

The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours.

Merit can be bought. Passion can't.

Thanks, Katherine Tyrrell, for this link.

The navel gazing will begin in the next few posts. I hope to review old goals and write new ones. I already have some traits sketched out, but will have to mull them over. Thanks for reading.

Vacation

Now comes vacation, which I spent so much time preparing for that I didn't get the next post written for the prize series. I did read a very great quote by de Kooning on the subject of art content. I'll give you that late next week, and we'll continue with the series. Thanks for reading here!

I hope you have been reading the comments for these past few posts. Much of the content of this series is being said there.

System Corruption

"What Did U Say?"

The geek at the computer shop tells me that my operating system is corrupt. In the Old West, those would be fightin' words! But, in the digital era, it just means that I ought to complete a system restore. So, if I can find my (improperly filed) SR software, this will be my next move.

With August activities pressing, and Sausalito upcoming, my posts will be thin.

I leave you with the most frightening movie scene ever filmed. HAL 9000 has your back, Dave.

Blip

My Toshiba laptop is on life support. Being older than four years, the stalwart tool is losing data fast. As I never did proper back ups, I have it in the shop for a complete back-up of the C drive, and when it gets home, I will be running a HD back up as sort of, well, an iron lung (cue Ian Anderson).

I am contemplating sending the laptop back to its infant stages by wiping everything out and starting over. The only programs I have ever used, that I can think of, are the Photoshop (version 2, which I bought used from Fred Flintstone) and whatever came bundled or free, such as Open Office and Firefox. I have the media for PSE 2 and can put that back on and continue to march. Any geeks out there have input on this?

Posting will be thin for about another week, as we are busy in the framing studio and in the final countdown before my show in California.


gif credit: msbilliejoemonique.

Back in Action

Back to the Studio

We are back safe & sound from the family beach trip. I did blog twice from our beach hotel in Washington, but couldn't get a connection from our camp site on the Oregon beach. Imagine that. Mild weather, big ocean fun and plein air outings at the lighthouse completed our trip. Oh yeah, I can't leave out the Newport Cafe (Oregon) and wonderful sea food baskets.

I made contact with a few galleries along the way, and hope to follow up on one invitation to send a portfolio. Several plein air pieces were at least started - about 4 or 5 I think. I really love one of them, but have hopes for the rest at least producing studio finished works, as well. Believe me, just getting the easel and umbrella and pastels set up on the beach is a huge success. I'll have pictures of all of that soon.

Blue Sky, Obligitory Daily Posts and Trip Planning

Photo: Lorie Klahn

This Sunday is one of the few days that I have almost nothing to post. We are all participating, you readers and I, in a daily post for a month project. So here is today's 0bligitory post, and some blue sky photography.

This week I will be through (on the 11th) with daily posts, and will return to my regular schedule of 2 or 3 posts a week. More art is waiting the photographer's lens, and our family will be taking a vacation for about ten days. I hope to get in some quality Hoquiam River Series sessions in my coastal home town, and also we will visit the Oregon coast just because we can.

See you again, tomorrow, with more hard hitting art content.

Watching the River Flow

River Pilings, Hoquiam
@ 4" x 3"
Graphite
Casey Klahn

The river of my studio life flows on. Thanks for stopping here to watch the progress.

Brian McGurgan has provided us with a review of his visit to the current exhibit at the Ameringer-Yohe Gallery in Manhattan: Wolf Kahn, Toward the Larger View: A Painter’s Process. I found the following quote inspirational: "...color and tone are pushed to their extreme," Wolf Kahn. Note the pdf catalog at the gallery web site. A feast for the heart and the eyes.

Color and tone are
pushed to their extreme,
Wolf Kahn


That WK quote about his recent work is like balm to me. I struggle with the blown-out look of extreme value ranges, but still go there like a moth to the flame. Such is the attraction of pure color in all of it's permutations.

National Day of Prayer. My prayer is to be looser in my art, at the same time as my technique is improving. My God is certainly the God of paradoxes, and so I have faith that He'll answer my prayer!

Incidentally, Twitter Casey Klahn is here.

Watching the River Flow

Spring Break

I will be more absent than present the next week or two, dear readers. Spring cleaning, turkey season, and kids on spring break will keep me busy. My yard looks like a bomb went off in it after the winter that was - with fallen branches, industrial ditches and you-name-it.

You will be kept up on my World War Two soldiers project, and any other random thought that comes my way, though.

Hap!y Mond@y

Medicinal Coffee.

After a full blown rain storm yesterday, today turns out to be a beautiful spring day here in eastern Washington. But, it is pretty much wasted on me. Although my studio furnace is back in action, and my WW II monument illustration is begun (over half the battle is just beginning), I am suffering from the same flu that has been keeping my youngest out of Kindergarten. Ug. No fun, this.

Unnecessary Brightness

Who am I kidding? I don't even like the sun - especially when it taunts my aching head like this. My guiding hope, after getting my daughter and the rest of us well, is to be back in the studio and back to work. I'll confide to you, kind reader, in my moment of weakness, that I fear my best work for the Hoquiam River Series may have been the first one! Can that be? What does an artist do with that situation, I wonder?

Stay tuned.

Active Studio - Honors

Rock climbing and over-exposed
Photo: Lorie Klahn

Letter from the Mayor

It was a pleasure and an honor to receive an e-mail last week from the mayor of Hoquiam. He had his Google alerts turned on, and liked seeing my Hoquiam River Series. Looks like I'll have a public venue or two to exhibit these. I'd better get busy and make some more, soon.

River Sketch
small, graphite
Casey Klahn

Just call me Chilly, Willy

Too bad I'm not in the studio much, as my furnace gave up the ghost two weeks back. Call me Chilly Willy. With the extreme winter, all of my furnaces have needed maintenance this season. Two oil-electric space heaters are fending off the cold so that my stored paper doesn't get damp from condensation.

From the heart

Another project that is close to my heart is an illustration and design that I am working on for a monument. A granite stone, with my design, will be up for review as a memorial to the men of the Tenth Mountain Division who fought in World War II. An elite division of skiers and climbers, this unit has a big legacy both in war and in the post-war period.

US Army Tenth Mountain Division

My drawings will be of either a rock climber or a skier, and will represent the ever upward attitude and grace of these great athletes who went to war. It is an honor for me to commemorate these stalwart men.


Soon we'll have the furnace back in order, and I'll be back with some new Hoquiam works. Also, a few other works as well.

Winter On
The Greenhouse in Snow
Graphite on Sketch Paper
5" x 7.25'
Casey Klahn

Monday Holiday

Sorry - no post for Go-To-Market Monday today. I went to the coast on a sudden trip, and am recovering from the long drives each way. I'll have new photos and art to post, soon, though. As always, my sales site is caseyklahn.blogspot.com.

Ice Storm '09

Frosty Fencepost
Photo: Casey Klahn

Our power is off and on, so I'll post this with haste. It is the great Ice Storm of ought-nine!

Yesterday, the two kids and I were driving home in the van. To our front, I watched in awe, and then in fear, as great arcs of light shot sky high, and then a power pole snapped in two and came down. I was watching the slow motion, B&W, silent movie of power lines and pole crumpling and I thought, "is this going to hit us?"

Now I know that the great tension down these lines keeps them in-line with their original aspect. Mostly. So, it fell along the road side, but across our neighbors' road, and so I dialed 9-1-1. There are over two dozen poles down, by my reckoning.

I was shaken up, but we made it home fine. What next, winter?