Put more social in your media

"Get over it!" That's what Randi Atwood, the platform editor of the Tallahassee Democrat, told about 20 of us gathered around a table at COCA (Council on Culture and Arts) headquarters on Gaines Street last Tuesday night.  It was a workshop for the art community on Developing your social media voice. .

I need to get over being kind of backward when it comes to social media.
Did your mother admonish "Don't be pushy!"? Mine did.
Today Pushy is good, says Randi. Push your ideas, your merchandise, your art. Shy people lose!
Accept anyone who wants to be your Facebook friend. Like. Comment. Share. Video your technique. Dare your friends. Ask audacious questions. Climb onto today's bandwagon. Don't hold back.

I have some friends and cousins who refuse to do Facebook. They're afraid of people snooping on them. Or they say it feels like work, and they've had enough of That! OK for them. Peace be to them.

I love communicating, and want to use what's available. But I do remember a nice clackety-clack typewriter. Love that sound!

Straddling two worlds, I went to Randi's workshop hoping to learn why (after seven or eight years doing it) I don't write my blog more often. Should I? What good is it? Also, I wanted to know if I should post the same pictures of my art on Instagram and Facebook. Isn't that overkill? How do Facebook and Instagram differ?

I found out that social media is good for selling: myself, my pictures, my ideas.
I'm kind of programmed to step back, not forward. So this is a stretch. But I'm doing it. Thanks, Randi!

Randi is the future. The future is now. Here are some highlights:

1. "Blogs are not social media," OK, Randi! I get it -- My blog doesn't offer the immediate give-and-take that defines social media. So I should say how a blog can help me, and then decide whether to keep it up or not. (I'm keeping it, obviously.) And really, one reason I don't write my blog more is that I love my iPad, but the blog works best if I create on my Mac. Got to keep the Mac handy. I'm not really selling anything, which is a big reason for blogs. However, I like to assimilate my thoughts in writing. I like to record my techniques: which paint did I use?  ... details that make it easier next time. Also, recipes I love! Maybe album-style family events. I love to make things, and not just for me. Mostly, I love to share: my thrills, creations, food.  I'll let the blog work for me.
2. Don't use all the venues -- Concentrate on a couple-- say Instagram and Facebook -- and get really good. You shouldn't be on everything. bye-bye, Twitter! 
3. Don't be boring. social media is a conversation, not an annual report. (Or maybe not a news story either, which is what I seem to write. Or poems.) Write like you talk. Chat. 
4. Social media is all about give and take. It's a conversation, remember? Someone says something, someone else responds. I thought writing was to read. Wrong! Your thoughts will live! Maybe come back to haunt you.
5.  Randi says don't use exclamation marks in excess. Or maybe never, if you want to look really grown up. 
6. Facebook loves algorithms (Didn't I get A's in college math? Then why am I so blank about this? Oh, years have passed, you say?). Anyway, algorithms determine who gets to see your posts. Algorithms like videos best. They eat up videos and spit them out everywhere. Next, the Algorithm Monster likes pictures and comments. And Shares, of course. If you get lots of Shares, Facebook loves you. In other words, the farther you make your posts spread, the farther Facebook makes them spread. So make an effort. Respond to people. Ask them to respond to you. Beg them even.
7. And if you're marketing something -- the Orchid Show say -- you should know about Boosting. My techno-friend Randi recommends it. Strongly. Look into Boosting. It means you pay a little -- say, $20 -- and get to tell Facebook where to go. Literally. Facebook will send your post to whoever you say. It takes a little work. Look it up. Google it: Boosting.

There's more, but that'll do for now."At'll do" ... as Grandma Frey used to say when we'd had just enough of this for now.

Everglades, ever glorious

Everglades = swamp = glorious

We drove through the Everglades Monday, from Miami to Cape Coral on I-75.
Shortly after I took the photo above, the grass turned to cypress swamp, tall trees with trunks that get plump where they meet the earth. Cypress are coniferous, but they are denuded in winter. I drew them as we passed through.

Series: Heroes, not judges

I can't be as good as my heroes: Picasso, Beatriz Milhazes, Thornton Dial, Matisse, Agnes Martin ... 

list of heroes on my bulletin board

On this subject, William Stafford (below) is speaking to me, and maybe you. Never mind that his art is writing. 

Stafford's inspiration, also on my bulletin board

So I'm going to make stuff, having fun.

It shouldn't hurt to have heroes! 

Series: I'm ready to have fun

Around here there are red dirt roads that wind into the countryside off the main highway. They seem lonely, but they lead somewhere. Maybe they are even more purposeful than the paved ways. I love them..

Lately I've been on a dusty, lonesome path of my own -- setting myself a clear goal, then following instead another way. I think I've arrived at my destination -- a series more compelling than the one I'd originally proposed. 

Surprise! I don't like to follow rules. If I have them, I tend to be slavish, which in art is self-defeating. Of necessity, a series imposes rules. That's why I've decided not to make a formal quilt series, even though several months back I convinced myself it would propel my artistic development. (You must have once promised yourself to do something "good" for you.) 

As you know, instead of quilting I've been painting in our shed

 and falling in love with Artists as I read their biographies: Agnes Martin, Picasso, Cy Twombly. They make me feel impossibly uncertain. You might call that an accidental series of flower paintings and another series of inspirational readings. But it's not what I intended. It's what I love. 

On the way to making a series of art quilts I've discovered I like to work intuitively. I want to make a mess.  I want layers, and I love moody. Words too.

So I'm promising to take myself lightly. To make drawings with thread and then paint them. To see where this goes.

Series: Looking for surprise

It's been a long time since I "started" a series of quilts. I had clear plans but got detoured by painting. I love it -- I've been painting every day but haven't made a quilt. Painting the way I do (the messy hands technique!) is forgiving, fun, and intuitive. If I don't like something, I can paint over it. This makes a rich, layered piece.  I can't plan how the end will look. This makes it surprising and fun. I don't expect all my paintings to satisfy me. Some are "mistakes" that lead to improvement.

Quilting, for me, is the opposite: You don't intuit, you measure and plan. You sure do hope the quilt turns out, because it takes so long to make it. It's satisfying, yes, but I've got to admit I like to paint better.

I want to make quilts, but I want them to surprise me. There are lots of "intuitive quilters" who lay down fabric as I do paint. This doesn't appeal to me. I must incorporate paint with my fabric.

Also -- I've learned another thing: I want to make art that speaks of my life. Flowers are gorgeous, but I love best the flowers and butterflies I've made recently; I learned of a friend who was cutting herself and she wrote of The Butterfly Project, an incentive to cease the self-destruction. I want to let my passions touch my art.

My 2015

All year long I make a list, noting highlights big and small. 2015 was crescendo and gorge and lots of ordinary changes.

1. In April Clark's brother Rig died.
2. My quilt Beach Dream was in Southern Exposures show at the Ruth Funk.
3. I sold some art -- people LIKE  it!!
4. Turned 70.
5. Vegetables and fish -- eating better, not exactly by plan
6. Kitchen renovation -- a magnetic knife rack in a sunnier room
7. Bud & Angel go -- What, you don't know the names of your vehicles? 
8. Traveled. Visited family in California, Clarkston, Cincinnati and Columbus. Visited NYC for Picasso show.
9. Fell in love with painting. Doing it, I mean.
10. Purse returned by NY taxi driver -- stupid me to forget it. But I'm almost glad I did -- his kindness and honesty revive my hope for 2016.

Mom's leek and potato soup

Mom's recipe card

As the weather chilled, I wanted a comforting soup, and what could be better than Mom's creamy leek and potato soup? I still have her recipe card, and it warms my heart to use it. When I told the women in the family what I was making, they wanted the recipe too -- in her handwriting. So I copied the card and glued the recipe to fresh index cards, which I sealed with matte medium. They love having the recipe, and -- even more -- this dear memento of Mom, in her own script.

Mom's Leek and Potato Soup

3 to 4 cups peeled potatoes, sliced or diced
3 cups thinly sliced leeks, mostly white part
1 1/2 quarts homemade chicken broth (canned is OK)
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 to 3 T. soft butter
2 to 3 tsp. minced parsley

Simmer vegetables and broth together, partially covered, until vegetables are very tender. Mash the potatoes with a fork.  (I use an immersible blender.) Season with salt and pepper. Set aside, uncovered, until ready to serve.

Reheat to simmer just before serving, then add cream and butter. (You can skip cream and butter, but it will taste different.) Heat -- do not boil. Decorate with parsley.

*Before mashing vegetables, cook until you think it is the right consistency. If too liquid, cook it down before mashing.