>Chakra Angel

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“Chakra Angel” by Primal Painter

In response to the crazy weirdness I’ve been feeling for WEEKS, I thought I’d do a little evaluation of how my chakra system looks right now.  I created “Chakra Angel” a few days ago with the intention of seeing what the heck’s up.  Frankly, I’m tired of feeling all discombobulated. (This is my word today, so I might have to find a reason to use it again.) (Why is it my word? I dunno, it’s just a weird word…..discombobulated… hee!…who came up with that one, I wonder?)

I see a huge crown chakra at the top, nice, I’m glad to see that.  One thing I usually don’t have a problem with is a good strong connection to the Source, you know, God, the Universe, a Higher Power..  Sometimes I get all discombobulated (hee) with my Higher Self, but the Source is almost always a constant.  

I’m surprised to the see that the sixth chakra,  the second from the top, is smallish and dark.  I always fancy myself as being an intuitive type, but according to this, my perceptions are…….discombobulated.  

The throat chakra, well I’m not surprised to see that one compromised.  I’ve always been an internal type of person. Sometimes I don’t say what I mean, or I mean things I don’t say or I don’t say anything at all. Instead  I’ll fume or bury or pretend.  Not exactly the ideal scenario, not that I want to yell and scream….or do I?   

The heart chakra, not bad.  What a surprise! Cool! Two weeks ago that puppy would’ve been closed up, maybe not even visible, so there’s been some progress. Awesome!

Wow, the yellow solar plexus, the third, is HUGE! What’s up with that I wonder? The third chakra is about self identity, how I see myself, how much do I believe in myself, how confidant I am.  This is a good sign…but maybe it’s too big, too open?  A third chakra that’s too open can cause stomach and digestive issues from not feeling safe in your environment.  I don’t have any of that so maybe I’m good..

The second chakra is  not looking too bad. Good deal.  I’m glad the work I’ve done on the second chakra is holding up although it’s slightly out of alignment.  That’s easy enough to fix…. Visualize each chakra in perfect alignment with the others, listen for thoughts popping up as to why it got out of alignment in the first place.  

The first chakra is looking a little puny. I’ll do some more work there. Extending down from the first chakra are the start of some decent grounding cords but they don’t seem to be too strong.  I’ll work on those, too, as I do have a tendency to float away into la-la land. (but, but…I  love la-la land!)

A new way of diagnosis, cool!  Did you see the moon face at the bottom of the angel?  Did  you know that you can actually airbrush with Gimp?  How fun is that?! I’m going to start doing more hidden faces, images, and figures.  I love art that has surprises!  I’d really like to learn how to use the “layers” tool so I can superimpose  photos onto each other.  


There’s some kind of tool, or computer where a person can actually hold a pen and draw on the screen instead of the clumsiness of using the mouse.  (I’m terrible at drawing with the mouse!)   Anyone know what those things are called?  They probably cost a gajillion dollars or maybe even two gajillion dollars, but sure would be fun!


Well, I’m off…. Maybe someday I’ll learn how to put page tabs at the top of this blog and include a chakra guide.  I forget sometimes that not everyone is familiar with chakras, Reiki, and other energy work terms.


Have a good one!!


Laurie

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>Artfire Daily Collection

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“Spiraling Up” by Primal Painter

I’ve felt strangely verbally stifled for the past few days.   I think it has to do with the creative process kicking in and that seems to negate the desire to do computer related left brain kind of things.  Creativity is very nonverbal for me, it’s abstract and in my head,  my eyes, and my hands and doesn’t have much of anything to do with words and certainly not links and other crapola. Actually, when I’m embroiled in a creative frenzy, the computer seems like a chore and me no likey chores. 

Also, it’s spring for cryin’ out loud!  I have a garden to get ready to plant, phlox to transplant, red tipped photinias and Heavenly Bamboo to plant, yard to mow, flower beds to clean up…..Bizzeee bizzeee bizzeee.

I love my tall purple phlox.  They get green early, stay green late, have beautiful aromatic flowers that last a long time, and spread like crazy.  I transplant some every year to different parts of the yard.  I may have to name my place Phloxville….Welcome to Phloxville, Where Purple Rules….  (Wow, strange mental meanderings, maybe I should have stuck with the verbal stiflement! lol)  Did I mention the smell of the lilac bushes that’s permeating everything right now?  How could I possibly focus on computer stuff with that wonderful aroma in the air?

 

Have you heard about Artfire’s Daily Collection email they’re sending out….daily?  It’s pretty cool, actually.  You have to sign up to receive it (there’s a button at the top right of this post where you can do that) and you’ll be assigned a number.  With each Daily Collection, they’re awarding the person with the matching number a $100 gift certificate to spend in any Pro shop of their choice.  It’s pretty good odds, I’m thinking

If you’re a collection maker, now would be the time to get one made.  Think of the exposure if yours got chosen for the daily email.  Wow!  With Artfire, there’s nothing saying you can’t include your own items as opposed to Etsy where it’s frowned on.  I haven’t been there long enough to know if people actually include their own things very often, but I think it’s a great idea.

Here’s a cool Artfire Collection put together by Richard from Prankearts.  It’s called ‘Blue Dreams”

#widgetcont p{ padding:0; margin:0; } .title_brown, .title_brown a, .title_brown a:link, .title_brown a:active, .title_brown a:visited, .title_brown a:hover { color:#dfa754; font-weight:bold; }.title_charc, .title_charc a, .title_charc a:link, .title_charc a:active, .title_charc a:visited, .title_charc a:hover { color:#333333; font-weight:bold; }

Blue Dreams

Curated By: Prankearts

ArtFire.com

Indie Design

Pretty isn’t it!  I love blue!  Thanks to Richard from Prankearts.  Be sure to check out his Artfire Studio, he does some really beautiful impressionistic style paintings.

Later,

Laurie

>Artfire’s 45 Day Success Guide – Days 11 and 12

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“Metamorphosis” by Primal Painter

I’m still  working on Artfire’s 45 Day Success Guide. I’ve gotten several energy art prints listed in my Artfire Studio,  and also in my Etsy Shop, but I’m still short of having the recommended number of 40 things listed according to day nine of the guide …….40!!! Holy cow, that’s alot.  I’m starting to think that a big key for success is having a high number of things  listed.

I’ve managed to get 21 things listed, so that’ll have to be good enough for now.  It takes quite a bit of time to list things I’ve noticed, even on Artfire.  Having duplicate listings on Etsy requires that the titles and descriptions be 30% different from each other or google will ignore one or the other of the listings.  So for those of us who have shops in both places, give one of those duplicate listings a different title, and write a new first paragraph.  30% is quite a bit more than I was expecting to have to change. Gah!

Also, something else I discovered, on Artfire if applicable, list multiples for your items.  Apparently, when you re-list an item, all of those links and SEO that have built up over time disappear and  you have to start over from scratch.  So listing multiples will keep your links alive for a long time, and that’s a good thing. I’m wondering if frequent re-listing on Etsy loses your links and that’s why google search percentages can be lower on Etsy. Re-listing helps with on-site category searches, though, but I’m starting to be suspicious that the Etsy re-listing strategy isn’t google friendly. 

I’m on day 12 now, although I groan loudly at the requirements for social media and may not do it.  For me, twitter is easier than facebook, just a quick little blurb and you’re out.  Artfire and Etsy both make it easy to do. Facebook seems like a popularity contest that I’m losing……and I don’t like to lose! 

At first when I was doing the facebook thing, I was spending way too much time on there, commenting, shout outs, link love, and I got a ridiculously high number of shop views and hearts.  No sales, though, and I was spending quite a bit of time there for no sales….time that I should have spent in the studio.  Plus, you have to keep up the effort or you’ll lose people’s interest.  It can turn into an addiction, I think.   I understand how it would be beneficial though, and I’ll probably try it again at some point.  

Now Etsy is starting to be more like facebook every day!  Have you noticed that now there are “like” buttons on your etsy pages? Geeze….. 

Here’s a little summary of days 11 and 12:

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Day 11

Your Daily Checklist

Five New Products listed in your ArtFire Studio  (good grief!)
Three Posts on the ArtFire community Forums   (I’ll try….)
Three Tweets sent from your Twitter Account   (I can do that…..)
Two Posts on your Facebook Fanpage Wall    (Oh maaaannn, nobody will even notice)
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Day 12
Social Media Day Two

We encourage every seller to maintain both their ArtFire blog and an offsite blog (with different material). While this may seem overwhelming, but committing to two blog posts a week (one on each blog), will provide you with the benefits of being an active blogger and keep your readers coming back as long as you post regularly.

(Two blog posts a week, one on each,  that doesn’t sound too bad……)
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Your Daily Checklist

Three Posts on the ArtFire community Forums (We’ll see…)
Five Tweets sent from your Twitter Account   (5 tweets now?  Gah!)
Two Posts on your Facebook Fanpage Wall   (noooooo)
One Blog post on your offsite Blog  (Done!)
——————————————————————————–

If you go to the Success Guide  there are all kinds of helpful links for each day plus more in depth  suggestions.

Well I’m off to tweet something,  maybe I’ll post something in the forums, (I’m not sure about that), and I may drag myself kicking and screaming to facebook.  I think I’m nervous about getting addicted to the popularity aspect and then feeling up or down based on the number of comments, impressions, likes….  I even read somewhere that some people are getting facebook depression because they aren’t getting noticed like some of their peers.  That saddens me…..

My success at following the success guide doesn’t seem to be too successful so far!

Have an awesome day!

Laurie

>My New Strategy

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“The Beginning” Digital Abstract Energy Art by Primal Painter

I’m going to start putting the new things that I’ve listed on Artfire here in my blog complete with links, blah blah blah, all that SEO stuff.  I’ve decided I really need to make a push to generate sales because I’m tired of treading water (oh and I’m broke).

For someone who’s really laid back, I can be very competitive.  I seem to have lost that competitive oomph for the last few years, but there was a time when it was a driving force for me.  Of course, after achieving the goal, I would get bored and have to start from the bottom with something else.  Hopefully that won’t happen this time, but yesterday, I was excited to feel  that little defiant surge of “if other people can make x amount of dollars per month, so can I” attitude.

There are two main things I’m going to do.  First, I’m developing new products. The funky art pendants which I’m making with mini wallet sized prints of my digital energy art are really cool and affordable.  Plus, I’m incorporating my prints into ready to hang wall art.  I’m not talking frames and mats, I’m talking airbrushed embellished wood “mats” to enhance the presentation of the print in an affordable way. 

I don’t know about other people, but I’d be more inclined to buy prints that are ready to hang as opposed  to matting and framing them myself.   I’m thinking that presenting them differently from the other prints out there might set mine apart.

Second, I’ve decided I’m going to try Artfire’s 45 Day Success Guide.  I’m not the most self-disciplined person in the world, so I thought maybe if I announce that I’m going to do it, I’ll actually stick to it.  Gee, wouldn’t that be novel! 

The first week is mostly getting your shop set up and a getting a few things listed, so I got to jump to day 8 which is about writing in the provided blog.  (Really?  Another blog? Oh maaannn…..) Actually, they say that if nothing else, just write an introduction post about yourself and your artwork,  plus include a link to your main blog, so I guess I can do that. 

Melinda, from Inspiration Earth did a feature on me a few weeks ago, and I was thinking (with her permission, of course) that I would use excerpts from that interview as my introductory post, providing links to her blog and  her Artfire shop  Inspiration-Earth.  Melinda’s questions were so insightful and thought provoking for me, she really was the trigger for me pulling together my intentions into written form. Thanks Melinda!

Another important thing that was mentioned in this success guide, is how important it is to get as many products listed as soon as possible.  That way, your products will be indexed by google much faster and will show up in a google search.  This is different from the Etsy strategy of listing one thing here and one thing there in a futile effort to be seen at the top of the listings (for a whole, what? 5 minutes if that?)

Other important strategies, tweet your listing, post a link to your new listing on facebook, put a link on your blog, add it to stumbleupon, kaboodle, and something new called pinterest.  I haven’t actually checked out pinterest yet, but I’ve started doing the other things.  Oh and post in the forums three times a day. I tried that yesterday and got Nuthin’…no views, no nuthin’!

So we’ll see how it goes.  Such a beautiful day today, maybe I should wait to start everything tomorrow…..oh nooooo, get a grip, Laurie, remember the word “BROKE.”

Have an awesome day!

Later,

Laurie

>Proud To Be A Purple Lover

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Purple Passion

Curated By: Prankearts

ArtFire.com

My wall sculpture “Psychedelic Starburst” was included in this awesome  Artfire Collection called “Purple Passion”, curated by Prankearts.  Be sure to check out Prankearts studio on Artfire, he has some really cool paintings.

Handmade Gifts



“Psychedelic Startburst” A Wall Sculpture by Primal Painter

I really love purple, I just can’t help it!  I seem to include purple in practically everything I do.  Last year, I thought I would paint the trim, the shutters and the porch of the house in some nice grown up colors.  I did the railing on the porch with sage and cream which looked pretty and tasteful on this really nice house I saw in town, so I thought it  might work for me.

When I was finished, I felt so……ugh.  For the first couple of days, I looked at these colors with skepticism every time I went outside, but by the third day I noticed that I was averting my eyes whenever I walked up the porch steps.   Well, that’s not a good sign!  By the fourth day, when I would approach my “tastefully” painted porch railings, I’d start dragging my feet on the ground like they weighed 1,000 pounds and would actually moan and groan and throw my hands in the air.  These are not good signs!

So I hightailed it to the paint store, got a gorgeous purple, dark teal, and cerulean blue and proceeded to paint everything as bright as possible.   Oh yeah, that’s better!!  My friends think I need a painting intervention, but even they agree that sage and cream just aren’t me.   I’m sure my neighbors raised some eyebrows, but I’m used to that by now, as a matter of fact, sometimes I do things just to raise those eyebrows!

I painted my kitchen in some wild oranges and reds, which left some of my visitors speechless, (my kitchen glows when the light shines through the windows) but thought, well I’ll paint my dining room in some neutral normal color to balance it out.  I don’t even know how it happened exactly, but somehow, I ended up with a fuschia, maroon, orange and red pyramid on my wall. Seriously, I don’t even know how it happened, I went into a color trance of some kind….

I might as well face it, me and neutral tasteful colors just don’t go together.  I’m starting to become suspicious that I may never grow up.  Oh well, colors that make me go “Wheee!” are better than colors that make me go “ughhhhh” so to all those people with their raised eyebrows…….Take That!!!

Maybe I’ll put up some pictures after I tackle spring cleaning.  Oh noooooo, spring cleeaaanning!!!!!!

I won’t think about that right now.

Have a great day!

Laurie

>An Artfire Collection called "I Love Abstract Art"

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“The Portal“ by Primal Painter

I have alot to do today, but I was excited that one of my new digital energy art prints was featured in a collection curated by AsktheMoon from Artfire, so I wanted to share it.

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I Love Abstract Art

Curated By: AskTheMoon

ArtFire.com

I’m off to enjoy a beautiful 80 degree day!  I’ve started working on my art pendants and I got a new set of prints from adoramapix yesterday, so lots of work to do.

Have an awesome Sunday!

Laurie

Fine Art Paintings

>"Pandora" Digital Energy Art by Primal Painter

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“Pandora” by Primal Painter

I love the colors in this digital warpization of my wall sculpture “Expansion“.  It makes me think of the plant life on planet Pandora in the movie “Avatar”.  I’m mesmerized by the colors in that movie, not to mention the story line.  To me, the visuals make that movie, but I love the “good versus evil” aspect as well.  “Avatar” has that  plus a little romance. 

Ironically, the depiction of evil in “Avatar” is Corporate America (a reflection of the current state of America and maybe the world, in my opinion).  In this movie, Planet Earth is on the verge of extinction due to our own reckless stupidity, greed, and abuse of the environment.  They (notice I said “they” as I identify more with the Na’vi than the Americans) need a precious mineral that can only be found deep in the ground under the native Na’vi’s Home Tree. 

The Na’vi are peaceful beings that live completely in harmony with nature, and have energetic connections with the plant and animal life.  The evil corporation tries to annihilate them to get what they want, but the Na’vi  and even the wild creatures rise up against them.  This movie is symbolic in many ways and also gives an insight into how cultures might live in peace and harmony through a reverence for nature and acknowledgement of the energetic connections we could have with each other.

Gee, I think I want to watch that movie again today! It always seems to leave me feeling inspired, plus it gives me goosebumps and makes me all teary eyed when I see the Na’vi gathering in concentric circles with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them in order to magnify the energetic connection. I want to be like them. 

In other news, my daughter Andi had a little surprise for me today.  She sent me a link to a youtube video and told me to check it out.  This is what I saw…

  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM3p95Ck2AY

 

I couldn’t believe it!  How in the world did she know how to do that!  She never ceases to amaze me with her support and faith in me.  If only I had that much faith in myself I’d be a star, but I’m working on it.  Thank you Andi! I love you!

Well I hope everyone has an awesome day! 

Later,

Laurie