Where I am right now;

I am changing the focus of my printing business. I plan to keep the customers I have now but I really won’t be pushing this aspect of business to grow.

My non-profit customers are very special, I’ve spent years cultivating the marketing & serving on boards, even doing websites (which I hate to admit because I loathe creating & maintaining websites with a passion).

Blogging about graphic design projects & some old stuff from my portfolio will continue HERE.

I really want to do less jumping for other people’s deadlines.  

Where I am going;

I am starting a series of paintings to mount a show in April 2011.  I am just writing that down as a commitment for the first time right here.  So, more on that on this blog as it progresses.  That will mean I can’t really sell these to take home before then, but as you witness them being done here, you may contact me with inquiries.

I will be honing my photography skills once that new camera arrives, see previous post.  You’ll see that here, too!

I am going to get into linoleum block printing, too.  This will make some exciting prints & products.  These sorts of things I will peddle on Etsy.  (Nothing for sale there at this writing, please visit back in a few weeks)

This is my vision.

art prints · block printing · Etsy · graphic design · painting · photography · printing · vision

I’ve been really bad about posting here!  Lots of things going on.  Fortunately, most of them good and aimed at being in the studio full time for art.

I am about to make a serious art investment, too!

Canon's new EOS 60D

See the serious specs and review here.

To this I will add a nice L series zoom lens that will be more than the camera body but well worth it!

Now, I just have to WAIT until late September.  I am not good at waiting, but I suppose this isn’t too bad.  The wonderful concertina that I play was made for me & I had to wait about 28 months for it!  However, that maker’s waiting list is now up to 48 months!  I don’t know how I did it!

I am also taking Alyson Stanfield‘s Blast Off course for the next couple of weeks.  Working on that vision of success for my full time art works!!

Lots happening!  Please stay tuned!

Alyson · camera · photography

Painting for real

Originally uploaded by flutecake

Another view of the studio, before the eMac moved to this table.

canvases · studio

Sounds funny?  Well, this is my effort online, anyway… keep graphic design there, talk about fine art over here.  Market both, in their own ways, with their own blogs.

Right now and for the foreseeable, I will keep the clients I’ve already got for design work & printing.  I’ve been pretty busy since making the decision to pursue fine art, though.  I didn’t really expect that too much, since there’s no salesman, anymore.  This word of mouth thing is pretty good!

So, in addition to getting proofs ready for political campaign pushcards, calling on client doctors’ offices and delivering envelopes to the college, I am making some time EACH DAY to paint.

jancolors graphic · Milo · studio

my Twitter bird for @Delfolk

…
Twitter is prose on the outhouse wall of the internet, read by people you hope will know you, now or in the future. Or maybe more like a message in the bottle. Where your bottle floats can be steered by eddies you can paddle a bit.

Real use of Twitter is not like Facebook.  You can use it on the web, your phone (even a ‘dumb’ phone if you have a text plan) or with some software.  You would never want to read the live Twitter feed of the whole world.  It would be like a big fire hose in the face!  Basically, you chose people who have things to say you’d like to read.

Please read the entire post at my Posterous blog!

I really think that it might be helpful to show local friends a little about Twitter.  The more local people get networked up, the better it will be for the community as a whole. Real time traffic, weather and news from real people!  But the business and social connections are the biggest boon!

Check out my Twitter feed HERE! Remember, join up and follow @jancolors!

(and if you want to know more about folk music on Delmarva, follow @Delfolk, too!)

delfolk · jancolors graphic · Photofunia · posterous · reblog · twitter

Scott Bourne writes over at GoingPro2010.com:

You can use Twitter to get photography jobs. There – I said it. It’s that simple. You can. How do I know? I’ve done it. You can too. It’s just like panning for gold though. You might have to bend your knees and spend some time working at it. If you expect it to come easy, keep moving. There’s nothing for you to see here. But if you’re willing to do hard work, Twitter might just be a way that you can score lots of photography business. Here’s how.

More at the link.

bourne · photography · reblog · twitter

I am in no way new to blogging.  I’ve been doing this internet-ages!

I had a Blogspot blog way back in the fall of 2002.  Sometime just before then, I was wirelessly, mobile blogging pictures & stuff.  Only the last few posts survive.  From July of 2003 on the PALM CAM website of mine (and #2, #3 – some broken pix, though):

I use a Handspring Prism with a Visorphone also with Eyemodule, a low resolution camera module for the Handspring.  Then, I FTP the picture for you to see using Eyemail and the page text is sent via palm FTP using VFSFTP- BOTH are bonnie applications from Ninelocks.  These pix have not been on a big computer and the html was edited right from a pda right to the web, cool, huh?

That is what a frightful geek I am.

McGiffin children back in 2003, a funnel cake, Delmarva Chicken Festival.

It was kinda live blogging. I was an early adopter of TextAmerica back in 2002 which was one of the first, if not the first MoBlog (it capsized in the wake of Flickr around 2006). I was using Palm for years (even before they made phones), until 2008 when I went over to the iPhone. Mobile phone pictures – once phones other people made after Visorphone, bought by Palm – paved the way for recording images quickly on the road.

Just like I was on Twitter in March 2007, there weren’t too many people I knew that would go there- SO EARLY.  Finally, some long distance pals of mine, and then my sisters, adopted it.  I used it slow & steady for years.  In the last 6 months, enough local people have started using it!  Now, it is useful like the people in the big cities have experienced for quite a while!  I am developing quite a good Delmarva list of Tweeps.

I hope this doesn’t sound too scary.  I really want to mentor more artists to use this social media fun with me!  Because, remember, this is FUN!

Blogger · blogging · Flickr · History · iPhone · Palm · twitter

Welcome to my new blog!  I am out right now shopping for a REAL template to display art and get you excited about my art!!  I am all psyched up because I’ve had a two day workshop this weekend at the Rehoboth Art League with author Alyson Stanfield for Shameless Self Promotion!

This is all about the FLOW of:

1. Art
2. Website
3. Blog
4. Mailing List
5. Email
6. Facebook
7. Twitter

Networking!!  Promoting my art, sharing the joy of what I make!!

Please join me in this adventure.

Link farm + widgets + style are works in progress, of course, in the meanwhile, my name is Jan Crumpley.  Email me —> jan (at symbol) crumpley.com (unless I add a better address soon, this one will always work)

Twitter @jancolors

Alyson · facebook · promotion · RAL · site · twitter