MMCA Marketplace

Let your ART work for YOU this Christmas

Don't let the Holidays sneak up on you again this year!  We all know that money's tighter this year for most everyone, so why not "Let your ART work for YOU" now and join us in our innovative online market, MMCA Marketplace.  Wouldn't it be great to be a part of this & let us showcase your art now on our blog & newsletter, as well as in local, regional & national press campaigns?

 

Are you looking for an easy and affordable venue to sell your original, handcrafted artwork?  A place where you do not get lost among the many shops?  A place that values quality?  No up-front or monthly fees?  And unlimited product listings?

 

When you join MMCA Marketplace we will build your shop while you continue to create more great art!  You simply digitally submit your product image along with our description form and your products magically appear on your personal shop page with your branding logo, bio and photo, as well as links to your blog and/or website and email address.

 

We invite you to submit an application to join us and upon approval, we simply charge 20% commission on your SOLD artwork!

 

http://www.mmcamarketplace.com/application.html

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at market@mmcamarketplace.com

 

Welcome Brenda, Debi & Mary + Comments + MMCA

The MMCA Marketplace place would like to introduce you to 3 new shop owners.  Brenda Wample, Debi Mattingly and Mary Rork-Watson.  Each have started building their shop and will soon delight you with wonderful works of art.  If you are not familiar with these girls, please visit their Marketplace Shop to read a little about them. 

It was recently brought to my attention that some of our readers had left comments, however they are not showing up.  Typepad was contacted and of course they could find any problems.  The problem seems to have magically corrected itself once they were contacted!

We appreciate all the comments and hope you will continue to share your thoughts with us.  Our Guest Interviews are thrilled to see you enjoyed their interview so please if you have not done so, click on the "Guest Interviews" in the categories and after reading some great interviews with Izabella, Linda and Tammy let them know how much you enjoyed it.

Have you heard the news yet?  MMCA has moved!  The MMCA website and forum are now being hosted within the NING network.  The change will not only allow MMCA to grow in numbers, but also in diversity providing for a much more active and full-filling group for everyone.  We hope you will join us in embracing this bold new change to take MMCA to the next level.  Please join us and invite your friends too.  MMCA

Product Review - Color Mists

Color Mists are custom blended intensely concentrated sprayable watercolors. They are water soluble and can be diluted for multiple hues of color. The Metallics have a beautiful iridescent sheen that adds an illuminating touch to your art!

Color Mists can be used to create brilliant backgrounds on a variety of surfaces such as paper, canvas, wood, fabric to name a few. Washes from skin and fabrics with soap and water OR can be sealed with a fixative. No more Stained hands or messes that won't come clean!  So far I haven't found a surface yet that I haven't been able to use the Color Mists on as long as I have a heat gun and seal it with my favorite sealer PYM II.

There are 3 sets: Brite Lights, Molten Metals and Mother Earth. Each set comes with Six-2 1/4 ounce Bottles with fine mist spray nozzles for optimal spraying.

Here's what one of Aileen's customers had to say about Color Mists: "I am eclectic in my creativity. The most exciting thing that I have found with Color Mists is that I can use them for just about any project I am working on...from paper collage to jewelry making. I love the saturated colors. The sheen in the metallic Color Mists is so softly pleasing to the eye. The vivid and striking contrast between the colors always gives me the punch I am looking for. Color Mists have given me more bang for my buck than any other paint or dye product that I have ever used." -Kris Henderson

Product Review by Aileen Roberts of Outside The Margins.

 

Marketplace Founder Featured on Womenwise Marketing

MMCA Marketplace founder, Debbie Overton is this weeks featured Woman In Business on Womenwise Marketing.  Womenwise Marketing is an online community run by marketing consultant, Kelly Watson.  Whether you’re running your own business, working for ‘the man’ or searching for a job, you can experience success today using talents and strengths you already have.....this and more on Kelly's Blog.

Making meaning of mixed media

By Christine Goldbeck, MFA-IA

Owner of Arts on Union

 

Mixed media artists are the scientists of the art world. They solve all sorts of creative and technical problems while making an art object and they experiment with new materials and combinations of techniques and media.

Generally, an artwork defined as “mixed media” signals that the artist has used more than one medium to make the object. The media could be a combination of oil, acrylic and watercolor – the traditional painting mediums – or pastels, paints and ink. Artists are also using the computer to design mixed-media work that conveys visual texture and layers. Often, mixed media art includes three-dimensional objects that the artist considers important to conveying a story or meaning of the work.

 

Mixed media paintings range from collages to elaborate, layered canvases that feature stitchery, lace and just about any other item an artist wants to work into a piece. Elements such as old keys, buttons, beads, hatpins, cancelled postage, dried flowers and mirrors are examples of items an artist permanently affixes to the substrate. This type of art is not only for the wall though. For example, artists and artisans use multiple mediums to make books, furniture, clothing, jewelry, sculpture and pottery.   

If you like to make crafts, to scrapbook, to sew or to try your hands at new things, you will find that creating mixed-media art is fun and liberating. Although most artists use the elements and principles of art and design in their mixed media work, imagination and intuition are the real guides. So, making this type of art is energizing because experimentation with “the rules” is, in a sense, one of the unwritten rules.

 

 

Art & Fear Book Review by Christine Goldbeck

Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmarking by David Bayles and Ted Orland. 

This book is filled with inspiration and insight. It helped me make it through my MFA-IA portfolio, but don't think of it as a cheesy self-help book because it is anything BUT this. It is a book about what it feels like to make art and finding your voice.

Here's one of my favorite observations. "The need to make art may not stem solely from the need to express who you are, but from a need to complete a relationship with something outside yourself. As a maker of art you are custodian of issues larger than self." (Pg 108)  Want to see some of what this book inspired in me? Visit: http://christinegoldbeck.com/present/historydestinyfront.htm and the whole MFA-IA portfolio had a lot to do with being exposed to the book Art & Fear - you can see the overall, online project at: http://christinegoldbeck.com/present/index.htm

Book Review by Marketplace member Christine Goldbeck.

FreeArt Project

Art on the Web

 

Marketplace member Sue Minier will be interviewed Thursday October 16th for an online project, FreeArt in the works for Orange County New York artists.  The interview is part of a short video documentary and future plans may include an online text version of the interviews according to Lindsey Graham, Director of the FreeArt Project.

 

FreeArt is a free service for Artists living, working or who were born in Orange County New York.

 

Mission Statement:

We live in a society where multi-media technologies have changed the way art is viewed. The relationship between the viewer and artwork has moved from the three dimensional gallery to the World Wide Web. Hudson Valley art is more prolific and diverse as ever.  Where to go?  What to see? Busy lifestyles do not always allow the opportunity to research the local art world.

 

A solution is at hand. The creators of FreeArt are presently constructing a site where a virtual map of Orange County, via Google Maps, will be a platform for local artists to profile and document their life's work, making available to the public the art work of the Hudson Valley. The creators of FreeArt will also be creating short documentary videos on individual artists who work or reside in Orange County. These videos will become the main content of the FreeArt webpage. This is an opportunity for local artists to participate in a unique communal exhibition and to also take part in the historical preservation of the arts of our beloved county.

 

Objective:
To create an online archive by documenting Orange County Artists.

 

This project is made possible, in part, with funds from Orange County Tourism/Orange Arts and the County of Orange.

 

For more information on the FreeArt project please contact Sue through her Marketplace Shop or the FreeArt Director, Lindsey Graham at FreeArtinNY@gmail.com.  Graham said at this time they do not have a website, however if you are interested you can become a friend of FreeArtinNY on MySpace and receive updates as the project progresses.

 

Congratulations Sue!

Congratulations Regan!

The MMCA Marketplace shop owners would like to congratulate Regan Tomlin at Cre8ive Juices on winning our Grand Opening Thank You for helping to promote the Marketplace Surprise package!

Regan we hope you will enjoy this package filled with over 100 original papers, some dated from the late 1800's - the mid 1900's.  You will find pages from foreign language books, antique dictionaries, elementary readers, ledger pages, sheet music, and more + bits and bobs of this and that!  We hope it inspires your Cre8ive Juices!

We would also like to thank Lisa, Carolyn and Carrie that left us a comment showing they were helping to promote our shops as well as many of our friends that have added the Marketplace Link or Badge to your blogs.  We know who you are and are truly grateful for your support.

We will be announcing another giveaway within the next several days that is sure to delight another Marketplace supporter.

Q & A with MP member Elaine Brady Smith

The Marketplace has created a list of questions and we will randomly pick 6 for each MP member to answer in hopes for you to get to know the artist behind the works of art you will find in the Marketplace. 

Elaine Brady Smith

1. What advise would you give someone if they were just starting their art journey?  I would tell them that regardless of what their artistic intentions are, whether they plan to become a professional artist, relying on their art for income, or whether they simply just want to create for the shear joy of it, is to just keep soaking it all in. Practice your art daily. Don't become discouraged when you have a bad art day (because we all have them). Take classes. Read books about art. Talk to other artists about their art. And most important is never doubt your artistic abilities. Everyone has to start somewhere, and we are all at different levels of our abilities.
2. Can you tell us how your art has evolved over the years?  Wow, that's a tough question, as I have been through so many changes in my art career. I started out with a degree in Graphic Arts, but to be honest, I never really liked doing the technical stuff. I got into calligraphy and sign lettering for a while. I enjoyed the calligraphy but it was not my passion. I then discovered decorative painting and that evolved into a full time business painting old furniture. It was a real creative time because while other decorative painters were using patterns from other artists, I resisted and all my designs were original and my own. But I became bored and eventually began to seek out more interesting mediums. I tried Altered Books and soon realized that I really enjoyed doing the collage. I looked for classes and began to soak in everything I could about collage and eventually mixed media.  Collage, Mixed Media, and Encaustic Collage (working with a beeswax medium and pigments) have become my three passions and I don't think I will be looking to move on to another medium anytime soon!

3. What is one art supply you feel is a must have for you?  For me it has to be two things, a large tub of Golden's Regular Gel Matt Medium and a pile of antiques papers and photos!!! Everything else is just icing on the cake!!!

4. Where do your artistic ideas come from?  I could be looking at other art work and an idea will spark. It could be from some new materials I have gotten...papers, photos, etc. I also do a lot of journaling and lots of ideas come from compositions I've done in a journal. Most times I just start a collage with some coordinating papers and the ideas begin to evolve as the collage progresses.

5. What inspires your creative process?  Most definetly some good music! I have a 7 CD changer and I pop in 7 of my favorite CDs and play them over and over till I get something new to pop in. I am very particular about my music, so my CDs don't change often. I find that listening to the same favorites over and over puts me into a Zen like mode really quick, kind of like a subtle hypnosis because I am not really concentrating on the music. I also find that if I have a really good art day, listening to the same music the nex day puts me back in that same good art day frame of mind. I'd probably make a good experimental mouse in one of those science labs...lol.

6. What famous artists have influenced you, and how?  

   There are so many that I admire. Nick Bantock http://www.nickbantock.com/, Fred Otnes http://www.fredotnes.com/index.htm, Ann Baldwin http://www.annbaldwin.com/, Jonathan Talbot http://www.talbot1.com/, Nathan Margalit http://www.nathanmargalit.com/, George Mason http://www.georgemasonart.com/ are probably my top favorites.

 

 To see more extraordinary work Elaine has created visit her shop in the Marketplace.

Artist Resource: A Charming Exchange

The Marketplace is not only a place to highlight our shop members, but a place to share with you resources that we find of interest and what better way to start than with one of our very own MMCA group members, Kelly Snelling co-author of "A Charming Exchange" 25 Jewelry Projects to Create & Share.  Kelly and Ruth Rae have created a wonderful book filled with fabulous photos and Kelly's delightful writings.  You will find step-by-step photos to guide you through many of the projects.

With Kelly and Ruth's permission and blessings we share a little of how the book came to be.  Ruth and Kelly were strangers until the summer of 2006 when they met at MMCA.  They quickly bonded and Ruth decided to host her first exchange with a charm swap.  Kelly had never made any real sort of jewelry before, but when she saw the artists who were signing up to participate she jumped in too.  The charm swap was underway and Ruth created an online blog with photos and step-by-step-instructions for each of the charms being submitted for the swap.  Soon there were other charm exchanges springing up everywhere.  Following such a successful swap Kelly and Ruth decided the project would make a great book and as they say the rest is history.  More than 20 of the contributing artists have passed through the doors of MMCA over the years.  Be sure to check out current MMCA members, Lorraine George and Amber Dawn Goldish as well as Kelly's beautiful pieces they collaborated on.  The book is filled with creative energy and sure to inspire you.  Many of the techniques used can also be used for other art projects as well.

I received my copy of the book and quickly sent Kelly and Ruth a thank you both for mentioning MMCA and sharing our link along with best wishes for the success of their new book.  Shortly afterward I received two of the most sincere emails and again with their permission I am sharing excerpts with you.

Thank you, Debbie. I'm so glad you have gotten the book and enjoyed it!  We were quite happy to be able to point people to MMCA. Deryn and Lorraine are here now to take a painting class. We've been running around all day and I just got home. Lorraine and I were talking about MMCA and how life is so busy that we haven't been on there. The computer time is definitely limited right now. But I want to get on and catch up and see what's happening.

happy smiles,
kelly

Debbie I will say that you had a way of collecting a dazzling group of artist, I will be forever thankful for your group... MMCA was the start of me taking my art to the next level. Your time and dedication for pulling together like minded souls will never be forgotten by me! thank so much!

Happy Creating!

Ruth

For more on Kelly and Ruth and "A Charming Exchange" and how to purchase the book we hope you will visit their sites.

~Debbie~