Virginia A. Spiegel

Joe Working (In An Election Year) 2

All three of the new Joe Working (In An Election Year) artworks are now up on my website.  Family, marriage, politics – it’s all in there!

A reminder that tomorrow (Friday, October 17) I’m celebrating my birthday month with my annual special offer for patrons and art friends.  It’s my once-a-year thank-you to all of you for another great year.

This year, I will let you decide what you would like to be on sale.  

Tomorrow only, you may choose any one piece of art at a 25% discount.  And I finally have a personal PayPal account, so shopping is even easier. Shipping is, as always, free for current patrons.

Visit my website and browse through my galleries of artwork and then tomorrow e-mail me with your choice at Virginia@VirginiaSpiegel.com

As a little bonus, I will feature two special small artworks, not on my website, here tomorrow.

Blog Action Day asks bloggers everywhere to publish posts today that discuss poverty in some way. The goal: By all posting on the same day we aim to change the conversation that day, to raise awareness, start a global discussion and add momentum to an important cause.

Quilts have a long history as vehicles for fundraising and compassionate assistance to those in need. If you have fabric, you can help!

One good resource is Jake Finch’s new book, Comfort Quilts From The Heart. Included in the book are “12 quick projects to take care of others.” Patterns are given for wheelchair quilts, quilted bed shawl with pockets and a walker bag as well as quilts meeting other specific needs.

The book also includes guidelines for groups making quilts, a resource guide for “Who Needs the Help?” and a section about fundraising with quilts featuring both Fiberart For a Cause and Ami Simm’s Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative.

In addition to the nationwide organizations accepting donations, why not think globally, but act locally? There are always local nursing homes, VA hospitals, hospitals, rehab centers, etc. who need quilts and other items made from fabric that can really make a difference in the daily lives of those in need.

You can also check online here (links to an organization providing fabric sleeping bags to the homeless) and at this Good Works page.

Fresh

It’s apple time!  My parents have an apple tree of unknown lineage and they were happy to give me a brown paper bag full of apples after baking and freezing 26 pies.  Their organic apples are perfect for making chunky applesauce – sweet and spicy. No wonder I love October.

Haiku count since July 14:  385

Of course, there is a new post on The Garbage Day Project today.

Don’t forget that tomorrow is Blog Action Day with the focus of the discussion this year on poverty.

Red Door, Feng Shui II 
Carol Larson

Above is one of the artworks donated by the invited artists for the 2009 Reverse Auction of Fiberart with 100% of the proceeds donated to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause.  The stellar line-up of 2009 artists includes:

Natalya Aikens
Gerrie Congdon 
Marjorie DeQuincy
Rayna Gillman
Carol Larson
Linda Teddlie Minton
Susie Monday 
Judy Coates Perez
Leandra Spangler
Roxane Stoner

The Reverse Auction will be a three-day event held in March 2009. The minimum donation will decrease each day; wait too long and your favorite artwork will be gone.  Previews of the artwork will be appearing from now until the Reverse Auction in March.

This is the fifth annual Invitational Reverse Auction of (Fabulous) Fiberart. The Reverse Auctions have raised over $21,000 for the American Cancer Society with the 2008 Reverse Auction raising over $8700.

It’s very seldom (make that never) that a computer book arrives at my house and makes my heart go pitter-patter.  But I was genuinely excited when Gloria Hansen’s Digital Essentials arrived.

The book is subtitled, “The quilt makers’ must-have guide to images, files, and more!”  That just about says it all, except that I would delete quilt. All artists can use this book because if you are an artist today, you must know about printing, scanning, photography, and using the web.  

So many of us use these tools without a good grasp of their capabilities and limitations and thus do not present the images of our artwork as well as we could.

Gloria Hansen, co-founder of GloDerWorks (a full service Web company with offices in the US and UK), is an expert in the easiest and most efficient ways to use digital tools in making and presenting our art.  

Gloria has always been uber generous in sharing that knowledge. If you subscribe to any online groups of which Gloria is a member, you probably have a file like mine marked “Info from Gloria.”

Well, delete that file because now we have the one-stop book. Have I ever calibrated my monitor?  Nope. Knew or understood the “canvas” part of an image?  Oh, oh, no.  Have I ever removed a piece of art from its background?  Big no.  Understood exactly what it was those entry forms were asking? Sort of.  Now you know why my heart went pitter-patter.

The book starts with the basics (files, resolution, color) and builds from there.  Step-by-step directions and screen views are given for all procedures for both PCs and Macs. “Working with images” and “Saving for the web” are the following chapters.  

The Reference section includes a clever guide based on questions. For example:  How can I size images and make thumbnails for them in sections? Following are a discussion of the various image-editing programs available, how to put a pdf on your web site, a glossary of terms, and an index.  

I’m very seldom so effusive about a book, but a book has so very seldom seen a need and met it in such a cogent and useful way.

Digital Essentials is available directly from Gloria’s website as well as the usual book outlets.