My Baby Is Live Online

I am very excited to announce the birth of my new baby. I now have a new website and you can view it at: www.nancyturbitt.com. I also have a new email address linked to it. You can still reach me at the old one but the new address is nancy@nancyturbitt.com. 

I am burning the night oil in the studio with two pieces that I really can't show here as they are being made for calls for entry. So I'll show you what I can.

On June 6, I was invited to attend an Etsy Seller's Event in RI so I decided to try it out. It was held in the mill complex next to RYCO in Lincoln. It took me a few days to prepare, however it was good experience. I was one of only a few vendors inside the mill, while other vendors were outside with tents. I actually sold a small piece and some fabric and trim too. It was a profitable day for me and lots of people got to see my work hanging all around me. 

Not a bad set up for throwing it together quickly! My Mom's old drying rack was a great way to display my fabrics.







While there, I had prepared a demo for a small piece. I had a lot of interest in what I was doing and I got a great start on a new piece. 

Here I am cutting and fusing petals onto a piece of muslin with the outline of the lily already drawn in fabric markers.

I've been working on this a bit at home. After fusing the lilies into place, I have been sewing them down. Almost done with the stitching. Then I'll add my border, cut and bind and it will be done.

I really do love lilies!

Art As Quilt, the SAQA MA/RI Regional exhibition for 2015, has been juried and selected. During the month of May it was decided that the MA/RI Reps would not be jurying the show and another juror was selected last minute. My sole entry, did not get selected. I have not seen the selections yet, but I am sure that this is a fantastic show. I will be working with Sarah Aubry to get an exhibition catalog done in time for the opening in October. I'll be talking more about this exciting show as we get closer to the opening. Congrats to all who made it in!

My work is now a part of my Etsy shop. My shop was primarily started as an outlet for my remnant fabrics and sewing sundries that I don't use. Called Zipper Tailor Fabric Snap, I originally had no intent to add my artwork into the mix. Not wanting to create a separate shop just for art, I finally decided to feature some of my pieces in the shop. My views increased quickly and have kept up. Below are my small pieces, matted and framed. The first, Medusa Awakens, has sold. 

They do look nice in frames! 

Check out my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/ZprTlrFbrcSnp

Tomorrow will be another long day in the studio. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Setting Goals

I have a mentor. For the year of 2015, I have the privilege of working with someone who has a wealth of information, experience and business savvy. And she is willing to part with some of that information to help me progress as a professional artist. Puts a smile on my face. 

So the first hurdle I had to face was in setting goals. Not unlike most moderately ambitious people, my first attempt at a list had way too much on it and in much too vague a way. It had 28 items on it. In my second draft I split my ideas into "artist goals" and "professional goals" but pretty much had the same amount of goals combined on the two lists. So then, as suggested, I broke what I had into "short term" and "long term" goals. This got me thinking about time, ability and reality.

As I slipped things into the long term list, I wondered if I was just tabling things that would never be realized due to lack of time. I will turn 59 in 2015. I have always found the "nine" years to be brutal and as I face the inevitability of aging, the looming 60 seems a mountainous hurdle with a hell of a backslide. How much longer will I be allowed to do this work? Will my eyes go, or my hands get shaky, or perhaps an illness or disease will table my goals. So I decided to burn rubber on the short term goals. Seize the day, right?

My business goal list has 11 items on it. My artist goals are 5. I have completed 4 items on my business list already. They were easy, relatively. I now get to dig in to the harder goals. Without listing all of them I will discuss a few key goals. My first artist goal is to create 5-7 pieces in 2015 for entering into specific exhibitions. I have now a detailed list of all the calls I want to enter with their important information, the submission due date and the piece I want to have completed for entry. While a heavy list, I will push to get all 7 done if possible. Having this list in front of me gives me a daily reminder that goal #3 which is to develop better discipline, is absolutely necessary. 

One of my business goals is to smarten up my blog page so that I can use it like a website, offering it to anyone who wants to see what I do. If you read my posts, you will see subtle and even some not so subtle changes happening. I am adding pages to my blog. One for a resume and artist statement, and one for my artist portfolio. Until I start receiving income from my art, I have to make due with an old, slow computer and I can't commit to paying for a website's monthly charges yet. As suggested by my mentor, "You don't need a website, just use your blog." Using my blog not only means adding pages, but also designing it to be a professional extension of my art. Soon you will see a redesign. It also implies that I have to be much more diligent about posting. So the simple goal of having stronger and more professional internet presence entails a moderate amount of work in making changes.

I will be talking about the progress I am making in defining and developing some of my other goals as time permits. In my next "Goal Post" I will talk about how I am developing a few concepts for articles as well as taking those concepts one step further into planning demos and teaching workshops around them.

As our professional lives as artists are so closely interwoven with our personal lives, I have allowed a certain amount of my life into these posts. I have a west coast family. My mother grew up in California with her three sisters. They all stayed in the west with the exception of my mother who moved to her husband's home town in the east. My maternal cousins are all much older than I, as my mother was the last of the sisters to marry and the last to start a family. I have seen some of my cousins on occasion, many of them I have not seen since I was very young. One of these cousins kept in touch with me via snail mail and an occasional phone call. Jeff had been battling with cancer for seven years and has recently lost his fight. In sadness over the loss of him, and in respect for his kindness, gentleness, and his sensitive, generous spirit, I honor his passing here with all the love in my heart. You will be sorely missed, dear cousin.

Jeffrey Wilson Helmer
July 15, 1945 - November 5, 2014