As another school year, my fifteenth here, has come to a close, I find myself thankful. These last couple of months have been truly hectic--I've had conferences and shows and student showcases and spring football to coach, too. While, in the moment, I may complain about the stress of juggling all of these things I am genuinely thankful for all of the opportunities these thing provide. I'm thinking of this thankfulness because tonight I'm heading over to the Cultural Arts Foundation Northwest meeting to review what I gained from the NAEA Conference, my attendance at which was funded by the CAFN's generous professional grant. This is a great organization that's been around since 1985 and sponsors things like the Poulsbo Arts Festival and the Art In The Woods studio tours in addition to helping artists, like yours truly, advance their career through their grant program. If you've never checked out this worthy organization, I highly reommend heading over to their page at: http://www.cafnw.org/
The NAEA conference gave me some great ideas and guidance for my professional development, as an artist--most of which I am only now getting the chance to start applying. I learned some important tips to help me make this blog site the best it can be, I learned about sites like Weebly, where I now have a site that is taking shape, little by little. You can see it here: http://jamesandrews-rt.weebly.com/
I also learned about some other resources for promoting my work, which I've been able to ask some local artist pals about, since my return. I now have a spot on Fine Art America where prints of my work are stating to become available. You can see that print shop here: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-james-andrews.html
I am working on installing a widget that will let me place the Fine Art America print store directly on my Weebly site and/or this blog page so that you all don't have to click through to fifteen different pages to find the content you want.
I'm always interested in your feedback on not only my work but how it is presented to you. If you find things easy to navigate and have a great experience selecting and buying a print, I want to know! By the same token, I want to hear if you experience difficulty with any of my pages so that I can address any issues as quickly as possible. I always want to make sure that you know that, among the many things I am thankful for, you are high on the list. I love the fact that I can communicate with you through my artwork, no matter how far away you are. So thank you---without you I'm just talking to myself--it's so much more fun to share the experience. :)
