The one I’m currently working on has a tight deadline, so I just wanted to give a quick update. I truly hope I can do this work justice. I’m a little verklempt, so until I return…please, talk amongst yourselves. I shall return to delight you further soon enough.

"Braxton County Monster" ©Kathy Ferrell, 2011. Corel Painter.

My gallery has been honored with “Editor’s Choice” over at Digital Artist magazine’s website! On December 14, the piece above, “Braxton County Monster” was named their “Image of the Week”, as well! This is another of my illustrations for myWV.net.

The gallery…if you should want to visit and like or comment. I’m not too proud to suck up.

Kathy Ferrell’s Gallery

Probably the most entertaining website in the Mountain State…

myWV.net – WV Info, News Aggregator & Social Network

Read my tale of the famous monster!

Braxton County Monster or “Phantom of Flatwoods” – Flatwoods, WV 

©Kathy Ferrell and “Big Cup O’Blog” (blog about Cup O Swank Studio), 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kathy Ferrell and Big Cup O’Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

my first Rage comic. What think you, Art Fans? Day job in jeopardy yet?

“American Industry” ©Kathy Ferrell, all rights reserved. Adobe Photoshop & Corel Painter.

I’m happy to report that I’ve made great progress this past year toward increasing my “net presence”. You can type “Cup O Swank” in a search engine, and you’re gonna find me. This year I created a real online portfolio for the first time, and became involved in respected websites dedicated to my profession. I learned to take advantage of analytic systems to track the traffic on my portfolio. In other words, I know who’s paying attention. And who’s not.

I’m not hugely famous. I’m a little bit known. I make a living. I’m very proud of that. When my son was small and I was raising him by myself, I drew literally thousands of illustrations for activity books and such like. Didn’t get famous, but I was home with my son every day, and I earned a decent living. He never saw the inside of a daycare, nor knew a hungry day. Those facts give me the right to talk about this.

I learned so much about Huntington, West Virginia and how it relates to working artists over the past several years. This has been bothering me for a long time, and I think this is the right time to talk about it. If any locals read this, it’ll only make them angry. Truth be told, it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever see it or hear about it. If they do get angry, what’s going to happen? I suppose the social season will find me a pariah.

 My first few early sales had me so excited that I wanted to involve myself with others in the local art scene. Most of the following institutions will remain nameless. Not necessarily in chronological order, these are just a few of my observances and experiences over the past several years…

1. I tried to discover why the public transit system did not go to the large and publicly funded Huntington Museum of Art, so that people (especially kids) could have more access. That went nowhere, and the Museum remains cloistered on a distant hilltop, far removed from the masses.
2. I became a financial supporter of the Huntington Museum of Art. Toward the end of that year, I received an invitation to a Christmas event. Someone at HMOA had used a very crudely done clip-art choo choo train for the invitation. I didn’t donate anymore.
3. I paid fees to join a co-op gallery. I attended a few meetings, being very quiet and observing. Activities consisted of a great deal of “bringing of covered dishes” and actual party games. Members were asked to line up in order of height and birth origin, and for another game, members were instructed to place a paper plate on their head and “draw a tree on it”. Not once did I ever hear mentioned how to increase sales of art, or attract clients, and the only discussion of business at all consisted of reminders to “Get those dues in so you won’t stop receiving the newsletter”. I let my membership lapse.
4. I observed a gallery open on the corner of 4th Avenue and 9th street. Right next to oil paintings, you could buy fountain soda and cheese puffs. The gallery closed after a while.
5. I observed another gallery open just down the block from that one. It looked good, I got excited, and through a level of detection that would be the envy of Sherlock Holmes, I was able to discover the phone number. Repeatedly, by both phone and letter I requested a prospectus or even a blurry photocopy of their policies regarding gallery sales, presentation, commission, percentage. I never received any written material, and the gallery owner seemed surprised I’d even want such a silly thing. As far as I know, it’s still in business.
6. I began to search on the net to learn how these representatives of Huntington’s art scene were using their resources to help their members reach out to the rest of the world. The paying world, specifically. Covering the entire city, I found only a handful of effort, and 85% consisted of horrendous looking websites that hadn’t been updated in years. 10% consisted of websites that were at least regularly updated and did not make you want to stab out your eyes, but the focus of most of these seems to be on very vague emotions that are felt when “being creative”. Honestly, the people who are posting on these only rarely show you any actual art that they made. They like to show you photos of them holding a brush, though.
7. I learned that here in Huntington, W.V., Twitter is a complete mystery. I learned that Facebook is for communicating only with people you know very well personally and see face to face on a daily basis, even if you publicly state that you are on there for “networking”. Facebook should create a new specific site for Huntington. Maybe they could call it, “Who You Kin To?” as that is the basis for all social interaction here.
8. Finally, in the 21st century, there is still consistent, habitual copyright infringement in all manner of ways all over this place. It’s standard practice in my town to simply take an artists’ work and use it freely, even removing their signature or insisting that they don’t sign if they want to be paid. It has always been thus. And it does no good to argue.

Those are just a few, and they are frankly the kinder observances. My point in sharing these things is this…

Many small towns similar to Huntington got hip years ago to the fact that working creatives are an invaluable resource for a community, especially in a down economy. They tend to be civic-minded by nature, and their ideas have been utilized to increase tourism and bring in revenue all across the country. I see success stories all the time about this. I wanted to be one of those people. But that just isn’t going to happen, and I’ve got a living to make.

For years, I’ve tried to share what I know with my community. From the more blatantly ignorant I’ve been met with open laughter and actually been mocked to my face. From the more “genteel”, I’ve heard lectures on “who they are in this town”. Yes, yes, I know. You are indeed a mighty big fish. Have you heard of the internet? It’s new.

There’s a whole world out there, Huntington. And it’s passing you by. Again. When I give you my card and you tell me a few days later, “Oh, I looked at your portfolio!”, No. No, you didn’t. Analytics tells me so. But every other state in the union does look. Regularly. And Australia, Germany, France, England and Canada. (Thank you, especially, to England & Canada, btw. You know who you are, and I am truly honored to be working with you).

Huntington is my birthplace. I was raised here. I really want this town to do well, for the good of everyone. It used to be a great place to do business. Maybe someday, it will be so again.

My father had a wonderful way with words, and he often told me, “Kathy, you ain’t learned nothin’ from a mule that kicks you twice.” And after 12 years in business, I’m sick of the taste of hoof.

So as 2011 fades away, faithful readers, raise a glass with me to my only New Year’s Resolution. As of midnight tonight, I am officially resigning my post as self-appointed Art Ambassador of Huntington, West Virginia. Godspeed, gentlemen.    

©Kathy Ferrell and “Big Cup O’Blog” (blog about Cup O Swank Studio), 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kathy Ferrell and Big Cup O’Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

But I haven’t forgotten you, and I thought we could all use a breath of Spring, so here’s a quick look at an oil painting I’m trying to finish before the crocuses peek up from the snow!

I call it “Letter to Holland”, it’s 16×20″ on canvas. I’d say I’m half finished.

Here are some details…

 

"Home for Christmas" ©Kathy Ferrell 2011. Corel Painter.

Here’s my latest. I finished it today. It’s a little picture of me coming home tired after a long day of errands. I was trying to capture a feeling of Winter twilight.

I’ve been very sad today. For the first time in 19 years, my son isn’t going to be home for Christmas. He’s a brilliant young man with a great future, and he’ll do well. But I miss him terribly.

So…what to do? My choices were:

A. Look through his baby album and take to drink.

or

B. Do what I always do…work. Work, work, work.

Artists, writers, poets, musicians…

When you hurt…work.

When you love…work.

When you laugh…work.

When you fail…work. And work some more.

Looking forward to the New Year, I thought I’d give a new WordPress theme a try. This is “Comet”. Opinions are welcome and valued! Some of my previous posts might look a little weird with the new theme. I’ll try to go back and edit for clarity as time allows. I just thought the previous theme was a little hard to read.

©Kathy Ferrell and “Big Cup O’Blog” (blog about Cup O Swank Studio), 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kathy Ferrell and Big Cup O’Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

"Dagmar" (in progress) ©Kathy Ferrell 2011, 8x10", acrylic on board

I wanted to take a little time this afternoon and share with you my progress on my painting of “Dagmar” for the W.V. Division of Culture’s Historic Figures Exhibit. See the previous post for more information about my subject! I had a little trouble getting past the background. It really looked pretty muddy there for a while, but I pressed on, and now I like it. Those initial painting stages can be a horrifying experience sometimes. “Oh, God, why is it so YELLOW???!!”, that sort of thing.

My fans ask me, nay, beg me for more pics of works as they progress, so in the interest of magnanimous Christmas cheer, I give you this report on how the sausage gets made here at Cup O Swank. My art is quite similar to sausage, really. I aim for good taste in the finished product, but things usually look pretty tacky midway. Enjoy!

In the transfer step, I smudged it badly with my big Irish mitts. More work for me!

I used Corel Painter to loosely work out my color scheme. A real time-saver!

The first step in painting is to outline darks, to seal the carbon & keep it from disappearing into the paint!

Here's the part where I was utterly horrified. Husband listened to me rant for an hour, I had cocoa and pressed on. You can see my awful fingerprints.

At this half-way point, I'm ready for a break!

Until next time! More soon!

©Kathy Ferrell and “Big Cup O’Blog” (blog about Cup O Swank Studio), 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kathy Ferrell and Big Cup O’Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Filed under: acrylic, Appalachia, art, art exhibition, Artist blogs, Corel Painter, Cup O Swank Studio, Guyandotte, Huntington, Kathy Ferrell, Painting, West Virginia Tagged: acrylic, Appalachia, art, artist blogs, Cup O Swank Studio, Dagmar, Guyandotte, Kathy Ferrell, painting, Virginia Egnor, West Virginia, West Virginia Division of Culture & History ]]> http://cuposwank.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/yes-virginia-egnor-there-is-a-santa-claus/feed/ 3 cuposwank DagmaronEasel2Closeup4Blog BigIrishMitts4Blog Dagmar Color Test 1 DagmarOutlineComplete4Blog ColorLayinComplete4Blog DagmaronEasel14Blog http://cuposwank.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/dagmar-portrait-begins/ http://cuposwank.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/dagmar-portrait-begins/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:15:47 +0000 Cup O Swank Studio http://cuposwank.wordpress.com/?p=587 ]]>

"Dagmar One" Kathy Ferrell, 2011. Corel Painter

Things are a little frantic here at Cup O Swank, what with less than 9 days to create a painting for West Virginia Division of Culture & History’s “Portraits of Historic West Virginia Figures” Exhibit. Taking shipping time into consideration, I’ll have to mail the work out by the 23rd to ensure I make the deadline of the 27th.

Since I got to choose my subject matter, I had a hard time deciding. For an artist like myself, West Virginia has so many great people to paint. If I’d had the time, I would have painted two works, and included Ted Cassidy, who grew up in Philippi, West Virginia and was best known for his portrayal as Lurch on television’s The Addams Family. I still intend to paint him, just no time to do it right now.

Like most inspiration, I was suddenly struck by the perfect candidate for me. My portrait could be no one else but Dagmar, famous bombshell and fellow citizen of my hometown, Guyandotte, West Virginia. Graced with Amazonian proportions (5 ft. 11, 40DD) and a razor sharp wit, she is arguably the original “Dumb Blonde” comic. No one knew they grew’em like that in West Virginia, and she was fortunate enough to be in her prime when society (read that as “jealous, insecure women”) had not yet learned to cry “demeaning” and “exploitive” when another woman made use what God had blessed her with.

She was Life magazine’s cover girl in 1951, star of the variety show, “Dagmar’s Canteen”, and recorded an album with Frank Sinatra. The great photographer Alfred Eisenstadt, (he of the famous Sailor Kissing a Nurse in Times Square picture), actually traveled to Guyandotte to photograph her when she came home to visit her family.

Sixty years later, my little town is a wasteland of crime, drugs and decrepit burnt-out buildings. It was once a very beautiful place in more ways than one, and Virginia Ruth Egnor was one rose that bloomed here long ago. I hope to do her justice, and I’ll be posting photos of the progress as the painting comes along.