So far so good! 4 of the artworks in my Odditorium exhibit at Caplan Art Designs sold! 3 sold before the official opening! The exhibit is virtual but the gallery still had an “opening night” – as I wrote in my last post it wasn’t the same kind of party as pre-pandemic ones – this opening was careful of everyone’s health. I stayed home for several reasons: I’m deaf and can’t lip read when people wear masks. Also I really don’t want to pass along or get this virus, plus the Gallery wanted to minimize the foot traffic and stay safe.

So the night of the official opening both the Gallery and I monitored websites and social media. They monitored from inside the Gallery. I monitored from my studio. Thankfully there weren’t any technical glitches. That was a big plus!

The biggest bonus of all is that deaf – me actually got to “hear” (read) what people said about my work! The responses to my videos were also surprisingly pleasant- I made those videos in what I call “living dangerously mode” meaning I did the videos knowing that I don’t hear well and could quite easily mess up the sound recording aspect. So I was willing to fail spectacularly at making videos….and I didn’t fail! People liked them! One person even said they liked hearing me talk and that video was a great vehicle for me and I should keep it up!! 😮 That’s certainly something to consider!! Possibly best of all is that I heard from quite a number of people that my artwork-and the videos- cheered them up!!

As a result I am excited and encouraged to keep on keeping on and I appreciate that more than I can express in words.

In fact I was so excited that I started right away to brainstorm ideas for fine art for the future exhibits that are already scheduled for 2022!

Below is a quick look at all of the Odditorium art. More details on my portfolio page.

I signed 6 copies of my Odditorium book. 2 of those went home with people who visited the Gallery Thursday. This exhibit will continue through September.

During the same time of the Odditorium exhibit opening my coloring book poem How To Draw A Dragon went live on Storyberries! There is both an ebook and an audiobook version that is a slightly different from the print version of my book. The Storyberries ebook has the text typed rather than handwritten. This was done for ease of searching as I’d talked about in a previous post. One page was also wonderfully colored in using digital methods by someone at Storyberries!

I learned from the folks at Storyberries that it is possible to digitally color an ebook. If you use the notes function on your iBook and an Apple pencil you can color. Also if you use an app called Procreate you can take an ebook and color it. I am not speaking from firsthand experience here I’m just reporting what Storyberries tells me is possible with my How To Draw A Dragon ebooks.

I’ve done digital art – spent years doing digital art as part of my graphic arts career in the distant past – but I used other kinds of software. I’ve done a bit of digital art on my smartphone with a different app but frankly, I prefer getting my hands dirty with real life inks and paints.

Besides the version on Storyberries if you want to color digitally you can download an Apple iBooks copy of How To Draw A Dragon here.

For a printed and bound copy of How To Draw A Dragon click here.

I’ve also made a way you could download a pdf file and print the pages you want to color using your own printer and real life color pencils. For that click here.

Since this was another busy week it was easier to reheat magic beans and put them in a tortilla with veggies and cheese. Given the recent disturbing news out of Texas I was inspired to try Penzey’s Justice spice mix on my bean burritos. I like Justice.

My weekend was spent resting. But of course I drew in my sketchbook and wrote. There’s a new children’s book taking shape in my mind. I’ll tell you more next Monday. Till then keep sprinkling Justice on the beans.