Artist Business Circle

I'm really excited about this upcoming Artist Business Circle that I'm facilitating, inspired by Cay Lang's Book Taking the Leap: Building a Career as a Visual Artist.


Artist Business Circle
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Need help launching your career as a visual artist?

We’ll begin this circle by dreaming big and sharing those dreams in a safe, supportive environment. The sessions include:

• Creating artistic goals and a workable strategic plan to make your dreams a reality
• Practicing self-introductions that pique another’s interest
• Discussing the importance of a mailing list and an artwork inventory record sheet
• Learning a daily practice to discover your mission as an artist
• Discussing your work as a tool to develop your artist statement
• Developing business cards, a resume, bio, letterhead and invoice
• Researching and developing a list of ten places, which reflect your personality, where you’d like to exhibit and sell your work
• Discussing the value of blogging, the effectiveness of a website and selling online

Including guest speakers: Michele Pred and Dona Turner

About the facilitator: Leah Virsik is an artist with a passion for bookbinding and repurposing everyday objects. She brings a marketing degree, a wide variety of resources and a love of research to this circle. You’ll also find her on the Alameda Women Artists board. Learn more about her at www.leahvirsik.com.

Dates/Times: Nine Tuesdays from 7:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.
Sept 9, 16, 23 Oct 7, 21 Nov 11, 25 Dec 9 & Jan 13, 2009
Location: Frank Bette Center for the Arts
1601 Paru Street, Alameda, CA 94501

Register Online Now or call 510-523-6957

Questions? Email: leah at leahvirsik dot com

Cost: $150 (FBCA Member) $165 (Non-FCBA Member)
Plus guest speaker fee: $25 or less*

*Total speaker fee will be prorated among all artists.
Minimum sign-up for class is four artists.

Photo: Tom Virsik

Kudos to our Wedding Staff

I have incredible memories of our wedding… intimate, personal and filled with lots of love. We hired great people to help put on this event and I remember walking into the lodge and feeling well taken care of as our photographer, Megan E. Hanson, greeted us with her cameras. Sheryl Black of L'Aubergine Catering and her crew were busy setting up and Reverend Robert Shively was waiting for us. Actors from Woman's Will were busy rehearsing and Mel Speed of The Music Company was hooking up our sound system. I can't say enough of all the people we hired.

I had the bright idea of using Tom's iPhone to stream our music and it turned out that when we hooked it up to the sound system it didn't work. Megan E. Hanson came to the rescue by letting us borrow her iPod. It just so happened we had some similar music in common. Sheryl Black and her staff were amazing. We continue to get compliments from our guests on how good the food was. I had a hard time enjoying eating during the wedding but Sheryl packed up sample plates for us and when Tom and I got home we ravished through the leftovers. Crème Brûlée has a significant meaning for both of us and Sheryl went out of her way to make this special dessert for us.

My friend Cheryl referred me to Mel Speed at Fura Bodyworks. He gave me my Monroe piercing. When I went in to talk to him about music for our wedding, he had a ton of recommendations from all of his experience with weddings. He is a fabulous resource and has such a positive attitude. He also does wedding coordination and although we didn't end up hiring a coordinator, I definitely considered him.

Mel referred us to Reverend Robert Shively who was incredible to work with. We had him over several times for dinner and really got to know him. He asked us what tone we wanted for the wedding and we responded with a desire to have something serious and playful. I wanted people to laugh and cry. Reverend Robert Shively brought his warmth, his humor and his genuine spirit to our ceremony. A friend of mine said she and her husband would have definitely hired him for their wedding, if they weren't married already.

It was really important for us to have whole families and kids in particular at our wedding. I wanted to share the story of how Tom proposed and he suggested we hire Woman's Will to tell the story. They put on an absolutely beautiful production of Edward Lear's The Owl and Pussycat incorporating us back into the ceremony. Our congregation and especially the children were mesmorized by Woman's Will's performance. This was especially obvious in my brother's video. That episode of quietness warmed our hearts.

It was August 8, 2008 yesterday and a big wedding day for many people. Listening to the news of this made me want to get married again. I'm so grateful to have such special wedding memories. The intensity of Tom's touch and the way his voice cracked with emotion as he spoke his vows touch me deeply. I am very lucky and appreciative of Tom. Thank you love for being such a great part of my life!

Photos above by Megan E. Hanson: Tom and I, L'Aubergine Catering and Woman's Will

Purple painted lamp and other fun things

My mom gave this previously white lamp to me years ago and I've moved it from place to place hoping to paint it. I finally got to it with Tom's help. He not only helped with the painting but also with the encouraging… encouraging me to finish… it's very helpful… and I feel much more productive with finished pieces. I also started using my great $10 sewing machine for the edges of the velvet.

The light purple is milk paint which I have previously mentioned in this blog and the dark purple is just acrylic with some gloss medium. This glossy/matte contrast was inspired by Sol LeWitt's exhibit at the SFMOMA years ago.

I've been busy today, working on stuff… This morning I did a bit of web design. I'm designing Alameda Women Artist's new website. It's so much fun. Slowly, it's coming together, the css and xhtml, but it's making sense and I'm learning which is the extraordinary part.

I'm going to take my bike in to get it tuned up for next week's Oakland Museum bike tour.

Hammie: Installed in Our Garden!

"We're the house on the corner with the giant purple and mirrored fish head on the lawn," as Tom likes to mention. Hammie is terribly fun and was a joy to create with Tom. Plus, it's nice to have him done. The yard is in process. We're looking to plant Blue Lobelia around the bottom of Hammie, as if he's coming out of the water, as suggested by a couple of friends. Tom just recently added the purple fountain grass in the back.

A lot of things are getting done. We're putting art up on walls, I'm working on finishing up decorating a lamp that I've had for years. It feels really good and kind of amazing: being so productive and creative. Our home is coming together… I enjoy the planning process. We stained an old mirror frame that I've had that works really well with our bedroom furniture. It's no longer "mine" anymore and the collaboration feels very fitting.

Online Training Recommendation + More

I've been hiding out a bit… from writing lately… working on developing a site design for Alameda Women Artists. It's funny how I've been working on this site development… I've worked on it, shown it, put it down, come back to it, shown it again, put it down, come back to it again and then it clicks. Just a friendly reminder that process takes time and other people's input can be very valuable, especially when it's a project for a group.

I'm on the board now for the AWA and am really enjoying them. I had suggested we listen to an interview by Alyson B. Stanfield of Peggy Klaus on her book Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It for our meeting last night. I have listened to it almost three times and what really stood out for me is how well Alyson B. Stanfield brags about herself in a natural, conversational manner. She mentions her own book and how it relates to the interview. It's of value to the conversation. I think when we don't share or brag about ourselves it's never known what impact there would have been. It reminds me of this quote from Martha Graham to Agnes de Mille which is also mentioned in Carol Lloyd's book Creating a Life Worth Living.

I'm having a fabulous time on www.lynda.com for $25 a month every chance I can get. Great creative inspiration and online training. I'm working through the coding movies now and am looking forward to their WordPress movie as well.

Thank you Tom for the prodding for me to post.

Trees and fish

Speaking of trees… Tom and I picked up our first tree to plant, a Bloodgood Japanese Maple… such emotion for me about planting a tree together… a marking of becoming an adult. Pretty cool. His name is Mo…short for momiji, how the trees are known in Japanese.

And we've been working on Hammie…



And I found a milk paint recipe that worked well. I'm working on painting a lamp so once I get that finished I'll post the photos here.

Trees in Oakland

Ever since we moved into our place I've been hoping to remove all of the extra concrete that surrounds us. I figure it'll happen eventually… but I found out that the City of Oakland has a tree planting program where they'll plant sidewalk trees for you and cut your concrete. Wow, who knew?

Here are more links: Jane Brunner and an article.