Diane Clancy's Art blog Diane Clancy creates vibrant paintings that feature color and vision to inspire and uplift people. Says Diane, “I feel that I am very blessed to have this opportunity to express myself through paintin Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 19 0 25 2675

Articles from Diane Clancy's Art blog

Kwanzaa 2007-12-28 08:30:57 Two days ago I mentioned that day was the first day of Kwanzaa, December 26 to January 1, a 7 day celebration started in 1966. Kwanzaa is for the African American and Pan-African community to celebrate their heritage and reinforce positive community and human values: a celebration of family, community and culture. I find it a very moving, welcoming, uplifting observance from the ones I have attended. Violet Mist, Digital © Diane Clancy A core part of Kwanzaa is the 7 Principles: (NGUZO SABA (The Seven Principles) taken from the site of Dr. Maulana Karenga, founder of Kwanzaa, link above) Umoja (Unity): To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race. Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves. Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and to solve them together. Ujamaa ...

Featured on 2 Blogs 2007-12-27 08:17:11 I was asked by Collin De Ruyck to be a featured artist at Your World Gallery. Yesterday’s post is welcoming me to the blog and today’s post is one I wrote introducing myself and my art. I hope you will consider checking out this to see another resource for artists. I am pretty excited that someone likes my work enough to feature me!! There is also an interesting story about how Collin got into art in his own life (in the section World Artists across the top). Aqua Rising, Digital © Diane Clancy I am also on a list of the 50 Awesome Blogs on the techXtreme blog. Abhinav Sood is a very knowledgeable young man from India who can run circles around me with technology .. so it is a fun connection to have! I met both Abhinav and Collin on BlogCatalog where there is a lot of networking going on. BlogCatalog also has a place where you can list all your other social networking sites so people can find you easily. If you go check me out, please contact or friend me where you are & ...

Two Things Challenge - Tidy/Ends 2007-12-26 09:20:11 I like to enter the 2 Things Challenge each week. This week is Tidy and Ends. It was hard to come up with an idea, but at least the execution was easy for me this week! So thank you! I hope you like my entry. Tidy Ends, Digital © Diane Clancy Today is the first day of Kwanzaa, a 7 day celebration started in 1966. Kwanzaa is for the African American and Pan-African community to celebrate their heritage and reinforce positive community and human values. The 7 principles are wonderful - perhaps tomorrow I will list them .. I have been very moved when I have gone to Kwanzaa celebrations!! ~ Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: 2 Things Challenge, Kwanzaa, African American, community, values ...

Joyful Christmas 2007-12-25 09:46:17 Today is Christmas ~ many people celebrate this holiday around the world ~ in honor of Christ as a symbol of love, peace, forgiveness and holiness. No matter what your thoughts are of Christ as a man and religion, I bet we can agree that holiness, peace, love, forgiveness, kindness and joy are wonderful ~ and that we can all use more of them. Here’s to a celebration of joy and peace to each and every one of us in this whole earth that we inhabit together. Here’s to remembering we ARE together in this ~ with each other, and with the earth! Indigo Radiance, Digital © Diane Clancy ~ Diane Clancy ...

Enjoy This Season 2007-12-24 16:01:33 I hope you are all enjoying this season … no matter what you celebrate. Bringing light, peace, joy and love into the world is something most of us can agree on … no matter our spiritual, religious or political beliefs. So here’s to more love and joy for us all!! Green Mist, Digital © Diane Clancy ~ Diane Clancy ...

Illustrator Friday - Horizon 2007-12-23 14:42:58 Illustrator Friday has a challenge every week. This week is Horizon. This is a pretty straight forward interpretation … for those of you who follow my blog, you know I like my bubblescapes … This is my horizon. Green Dusk, Digital © Diane Clancy Horizon The horizon is always there You may see it, or not But it is there The Horizon beckons Calling us onto new journeys And new adventures. The Horizon is About Possibilities, Potential and What Can Be Please join me in Reaching for The Horizon ~ Diane Clancy ...

Actually Printing the Cards 2007-12-22 11:18:17 Today is World Peace Day! Here is the link to learn more about this great day on the winter/summer solstice. This is to encourage each of us to spend some time today in prayer and meditation for world peace. A great idea to my mind!!! Plum Sky, Digital © Diane Clancy In this journey of printing cards to get to licensing my artwork, I have now chosen Modern Postcard as my printer. If you want to see more of this odyssey, it is in the last several posts. The size of the cards was a decision I needed to make. They had a very reasonable price for cards that are 4.25 x 6.” Their prices (at that time anyway) were very high for 5 x 7″ cards. There are printing concerns regarding the initial paper size each printer uses. For Modern Postcard, they waste a lot of paper with the 5 x 7″ size card. So that made my decision about the size! Given that I like control and input in how I do things, I wanted to make the file up myself and not use one of their templates. I bet you ...

Two Things Challenge - Sweet/Star 2007-12-21 13:26:04 I like to enter the 2 Things Challenge every week. This week it is Sweet and Star. This is my entry. This was deliberately made easy for the holiday season … but I spent hours working on different directions to get the one that flew the best. I worked in 5 different programs before I came back to this … And I tried to find stars that I could do like the bubbles … but it didn’t work … so it came back to this. Check out the other entries … I need to too. Sweet and Star, Digital © Diane Clancy Here is the painting without the extras … this I will put in my portfolio for licensing and prints. I am back home now so I will be able to catch up on YOUR blogs!! Thank you for staying in touch with me! Blue Moon, Digital © Diane Clancy ~ Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: 2 Things Challenge, portfolio, licensing, prints ...

Choosing a Printer 2007-12-20 08:48:51 Recently, I have been posting about cards and licensing … you many want to read some of these recent posts. So, I have all my samples of cards from 8 printers with researched information from 12 of them. Modern Postcard is the printer that most local artists use so I need to either confirm them or beat them by some other printer. Green Seas, Digital © Diane Clancy The variety of samples is amazing! By the way, I still have all these samples … it seems if I am asking someone to send me their product, I should respect it and keep it in case the situation arises where that is the kind of printing I need. Some samples priced themselves off the map immediately. And most of those printers were clearly more oriented toward corporate business. I began to see the wisdom of the local artists who had chosen a printer with a specialization in artists. So that narrowed the field down greatly!! Another other big factor was the type of paper used and the printing method. One very ...

Cards for a Track Record 2007-12-19 13:58:57 This is a continuation of the post Cards and Licensing. To recap, I want to license my artwork to make it accessible and to create an income stream. So I need to show a track record of people wanting to buy my paintings. So, what to do? It seemed to me that cards were probably the best way to sell my images in an affordable way on my way to licensing. Chi Chi in Butterflies, Digital © Diane Clancy By now, some of you have realized that I am fairly persistent and committed in this process of building my career as an artist. So, if I am going to print cards, then first I have to research cards. How else does someone of my personality start a project? Remember a couple of years ago the card market was quite different than it is now. I looked through all the art magazines that I had - Art Business News and several other ones. I copied down all the places that advertised printing cards. I also looked in my computer magazines - Mac World and others. I now was armed with lots of places ...

Cards and Licensing 2007-12-18 16:25:28 I want to pass along the Nice Matters Award that I received. I am passing it along to Neda Doany at Papiers Collés Blog. Neda is a fantastic artist and an incredible writer. She also writes very thought provoking posts and is insightful and inspiring. But Neda also treats everyone well and with respect … and that is why I am giving her this well-deserved award. I do believe she has a few other awards (like Thoughtful Blogger) that she has not put up yet. Nice Matters Award When I first started thinking about how to get my paintings out into the Universe (without parting with the originals), not surprisingly I thought about cards. I still want to get my work licensed for two big reasons. #1 is I think that is an important way that my work can be enjoyed by many in an affordable way - many people like my artwork and licensing is a way that can be very accessible. Mother Watching All, Oil © Diane Clancy #2 is that licensing is a way that (potentially) I can kept receiving i ...

Illustrator Friday - Backwards 2007-12-17 14:49:06 Illustrator Friday has a challenge every week. This week is Backwards. As usual, there are many ways to interpret the topic. I have chosen to continue with using words on my Bubblescapes to represent ideas … it has been fun. I wanted to represent a mirror and then show the words backwards in the mirror … but perhaps we ARE the mirror. These colors remind me of a mirror too. I didn’t have time to do it more formally. And somehow the colors remind me of backwards too … not sure why. Backwards, Digital © Diane Clancy There is the obvious and the subtle When it comes to Backwards. The colors are Backwards here too … These colors are Backwards from my usual. Then there is the Helpful Backwards .. Reaching out for new ways And the Unhelpful Backwards … Insisting on Looking Backwards Instead of at Life Which do you Choose .. Every Moment. Again, I thought you might enjoy without the words too .. So here it is! by the way, I have several posts wr ...

Two Things Challenge - Hold/Value 2007-12-16 11:04:15 First I would like you all to know about Staci Rose’s interesting blog (http://stacirose.blogspot.com). She makes beautiful and creative jewelry and had some very interesting posts. She mentions me in the last week and it is a fascinating post about her. Staci was kind enough to give me a Nice Matters Award! Thank you, Staci! I appreciate this award very much!! Nice Matters Award After much thought and work, I have decided on my entry to the 2 Things Challenge with a focus on Hold & Value or Holders of Real Value. This one stumped me for a long time. Partly because I feel most of my artwork IS already about what I value. I want to be enhancing your spirit and raising your energy and vibration with my work. I want to help you align with the highest part of your being. That is what I value the most. So then I thought back to last week’s challenge and decided to go that route. By the way, each entry this week earns $10 toward charity.  You have until Wed to enter, s ...

Revisiting Consignment Shops 2007-12-15 16:55:28 Consignment shops vary widely. Once Susan suggested this little used clothing shop in a nearby town for me to put our cards into. She had scoped it out (Susan loves driving around … it helps her balance herself and feel free). We put our goods into the car, loading up boxes and baskets of cards and prints. Then we went off on an adventure! Sebastian in Butterflies, Digital © Diane Clancy I went in and poked around for a few minutes to get the vibe of the place to make sure that it didn’t feel awful or totally inappropriate for out work. I wasn’t real enthused, but Susan had taken the time to check it out and I want to support her choices. So, I introduced myself as I was spreading a sample of our cards. Intuitively I realized that letting my paintings speak for themselves is a powerful marketing tool. So I keep a sampling in a plastic bag to be able to spread them out like one would spread a deck of cards. Most people, not all, find something they like from my ...

Safe and 2 Things Challenge 2007-12-14 19:09:29 I am home again and safe. We are supposed to get another storm Saturday night or Sunday but it will probably much worse on the coast than here.  Thank you for you concern.  I want to share a great delight I had tonight … a friend who ordered 2 totes and a journal called me up absolutely delighted with her order!! They use totes a lot and felt they were very high quality … from start to finish … the whole experience … so I am delighted. This is totally copied off the Two Things Challenge blog that I participate in. I am still working on my entry for the week. It is a great opportunity (below) so I hope you will consider it! Totally copied from what Debi said: “A Twist and an Extended Deadline “I just received an email from the blog author of The Chronicles of Tewkesbury, and I am blown away by the idea she has concocted. “Be sure to do your post for this week’s 2 Thing Challenge and by your doing so the Chronicler of Tewkesbury i ...