Report from Art to Art Palette

Pat Rayman and a friend drove more than 100 miles to attend the book-signing at Books & Co. last Thursday evening. She wrote a lovely commentary on the event for Art to Art Palette online magazine. The photo of the Books & Co. staircase gives a much better impression of this fantastic bookstore than the small image on my photo pages of the signing. Erika, the woman she describes, is seated in the front row in a print dress. She's a very interesting person, whom I've met before and enjoyed discussing color with.

Books & Co. signing last night

This was a very special occasion. Twenty of the 21 artists from Ohio who have work in Confident Color showed up for the Books & Co signing. We had a good crowd and a fine time, with artists signing each others' books, as well as those of store customers who came for the talk and signing. I so enjoy watching artists interact this way. Some hadn't seen each other for a long time and others only knew each other by reputation. Here's a photo layout of the event. A big thanks to Books & Co., who always make book signings a pleasure. Our hostess, Julie, was very helpful.

Color Talk

I gathered some charts and fabric samples this morning to use in my brief talk at the Confident Color book signing tomorrow evening. Bookstores sometimes call these events "readings," but I can't imagine reading an art instruction book aloud to a group, can you? The "program" part lasts about 15 minutes, so it isn't a formal talk, just a short show-and-tell with a few questions. Then I'll sign books along with some of the 20 area artists whose works appear in it.

The site is Books & Co. at The Greene, which is a huge, elegant two-story building in an upscale towne center that is fairly new here. Books & Co. started out as a tiny Little Professor bookstore in Town and Country Shopping Center about two miles from my house. A special corner in the back had a lovely sitting area, where an amazing selection of art books were shelved.

Eventually, Joe and Anna, the owners, dropped the franchise and operated independently as Books & Co. From that small space, they expanded continuously, until they became the crown jewel of the center. People drove for many miles to shop at Books & Co., and still do.

This is one of the few local bookstores where national figures and bestselling authors come for book signings. (The store is now owned by Books-a-Million but continues to operate as Books & Co.) Sharon Roth has managed these events for many years, including five previous signings of my books. This is my first at The Greene, where we'll be on the upper level, so it will be a new experience for me. I can hardly wait.

Confident Color coming to the real world

The books are shipping at last. Amazon.com has them, too. Yay! I've shipped and distributed pre-publication orders and signed contributors' copies the past two days. I've been sashaying into the post office with a luggage cart piled with boxes of books to ship. I can feel the glaring eyes of other postal patrons drilling holes in my back. I think I shipped 25 yesterday and 45 today. Another dozen signed, sealed and delivered to the post office tomorrow ought to finish the job.

Today the Artists' Showplace in Dallas is hanging the show of work by artists in the book. I can't wait to see it a week from Friday at their reception.

Then, less than a week later on Thursday, October 16, is my book signing at Books & Co. at The Green in Dayton. This will be my sixth signing hosted by Sharon Roth at Books & Co. She manages the events and they're always a delight. Stop by if you're in the Beavercreek neighborhood at the store at the Green Town Center.

On pins and needles

That's where I'm sitting, waiting for my advance copy of Confident Color to arrive. It's still a couple of weeks till "book-in-house" date, but in the past I've received an early copy well before that. I may as well relax. I'm beginning to think the pub date may have been changed to a later date. Looks like I'm the last to know. The Artist's Showplace is planning a book and exhibition event October 10 when I'm in Dallas for a Creative Color Workshop October 6-10, so lots to look forward to in the coming weeks. And, I've scheduled a book-signing October 16 at Books & Co. at the Greene in Beavercreek, Ohio.

Today I'm tying loose ends before I leave in the morning for Fish Creek, Wisconsin, and The Peninsula Art School workshop (see below). I'm looking forward to it. The weather report looks good, although I couldn't ask for more than we're getting here right now. It's sunny, cool and dry, not very typical of Ohio in mid-August, and it's wonderful.

My Hithergreen class began a new term on Monday with a full class of 25, all but three returning students. This group has bonded as friends and are so much fun to work with. The topic of the day was combining ink line with watercolor washes and they did some good pieces. They have two weeks to play with it before we revisit the subject when I return from Wisconsin. I'm excited about their response to this technique, which is new to nearly all of them. This little sketch, 4" x 6", began as a color-scheme mingling. With a thin piece of bamboo from a placemat as the drawing tool, I dipped into Bombay Black India Ink and scribbled spontaneous lines over the dry washes to represent flowers and leaves.

And, finally, the Watermark Gallery booksigning.

Okay, okay, here are the Shoes!

By popular request, here is a detail photo of the shoes I bought for my book-signing. I'm surprised at how many people mentioned this in their emails about the photos. This is the only photo that shows the shoes. The shoes are cute with a wood-stack 2-inch heel--dressy, but very comfortable. I hope everyone is satisfied now!

Books & Co book signing

Here are a few of the photos from the book signing, thanks to Sylvia, Barb and RGL. My email looks like a good time was had by all.

The Book Signing

At last it all came together. I didn't have the red shoes called for in Annette's comment below, but the ones I wore worked better with the outfit. The Little Artist helped Grammy get dressed and loved the twirly skirt. Fashion matters aside, the event was a huge success, I think. I got to Books & Co. about twenty minutes before seven and the seats were nearly all taken--25-30 people. They went back repeatedly for more chairs. By the time we began, the seats were filled and people were standing in the aisles. Sharon Kelly Roth, who runs the book-signings, estimated about eighty people were there. I gave a brief talk, then the artists began signing their pictures in the books while I signed at center stage. They had such a good time gabbing with each other. My good friend Virginia brought a bouquet of roses for the signing table. Leonard and Angela helped set up the flip-easel for my talk and Virginia passed out the nametags with the artist's name and picture from the book (with page number) to make signing easier. Renee introduced me--she has been there for most of my book-signings and does such a conscientious job. The audience was filled with artists, current and past students, friends, relatives--and a lot of people I didn't know--who all seemed very receptive to the occasion. It was wonderful. Thanks to all who came to celebrate the publication of The New Creative Artist with me. I'll share photos tomorrow.

Shreveport photos

Bob Horne took a series of photos at the book signing and put them on his and Judy's blog: Shreveport signing Click the "slide show" banner at the top of the page to see full-screen photos. Thanks to Bob for the photos and to Judy for setting up the signing.

Shreveport Book Signing

I'm told that the signing went really well. Eight or nine artists came and signed books until they were sold out--forty or more. One person said she thought they could have sold a hundred. Yippee! Cover Girl Cheryl McClure was there, having driven over from Texas in 100-degree heat. Sounds like a good time was had by all. I hope the one here goes as well on Thursday.

The New Creative Artist BOOK SIGNINGS

Sunday, August 13, 2-4 p.m. Barnes & Noble, 6646 Youree Street, Shreveport, Louisiana. Area artists will be present to sign their pages in the book. Read article.

Thursday, August 17, 7 p.m., Books & Co., 350 E Stroop Road, Kettering, Ohio. I'll give a brief talk on the myth of talent and area artists will be present to sign the pages on which their artwork appears in the book.

Sunday, September 10, 1-4 p.m., Watermark Gallery, 115 Water Street, Tuckerton, New Jersey. Area artists will be present to sign their pages in the book.

The Art of the Press Release

Years ago, when I was active in most of the area art orgs, I served on several boards as publicity chairman. Back then it was extremely difficult for a visual artist or local art group to get into the print media or on TV. It was partly because the arts editors back then had a bias toward the performing arts and didn't think local visual artists or groups had anything going for them. But also because the groups in question didn't do a very good job of PR. I helped to turn that around by working up a list of one hundred media outlets that covered the arts, including small weeklies from surrounding communities. I also established a press-release format to be used for all events. That seemed to help at the time. Now, our local papers are more involved in promoting visual arts, partly because of the interest of the editors themselves and partly because of the advocacy of the Dayton Visual Arts Center (DVAC).

My publisher has a PR person who was given my bio and information on The New Creative Artist. He told me he has an extensive media guide and there is a procedure for putting out publicity on a new book release. I have no idea what this means. So to be on the safe side, I decided to send out some publicity of my own regarding my book signing next Thursday, August 17. I reduced my original list to about forty newspapers and sent press releases on the signing, including a background of the book and a brief bio. I should have sent them out about a week sooner than I did, but couldn't get to it in time. Nevertheless, I'm hearing reports that notices are appearing here and there in the suburban and small-town papers. There was also a brief notice in the Dayton Daily News this morning. I targeted one arts writer in that paper with a more detailed package, but I haven't heard from her. The Shreveport artists have gotten more publicity than the author has in her own home town so far. Well, maybe there will be something over the weekend. Ya nevah know.

I'm getting excited about the event, working on a brief "audience participation" program that should be fun. Then I'll sign books and the artists will sign the pages their illustrations appear on. We did this with the original book and I frequently had students in my later workshops who treasured their books and took them to demos and workshops so artists in the book could add their signatures. So far, seventeen artists have said they'll be there and I expect a few more than that.

Artists signing books in Shreveport

The Shreveport Times has an article online about the artists' book signing at Barnes & Noble on Sunday, August 13 in Shreveport, Louisiana. The writer, Jennifer Flowers, interviewed me by telephone last week. She has written a good article, telling how I select art for my books and describing some of the art and artists. Cheryl McClure, the cover artist, will be there to sign books, along with the other area artists mentioned in the article. Wish I could be there, but at $1000 for airfare for an overnight stay, it can't be done. It's going to be quite a party. Don't miss it if you're in the area.

Autographing books

Today I started signing The New Creative Artist books that are going out to artists who contributed artwork for it. There are 105, including those whose work was carried over from the original. That's a lot of books to sign! I decided to take my time so I don't make mistakes or get writer's cramp. Ten artists picked theirs up by this morning and I've finished twenty more. They're all packed, labeled and ready to go to the post office in the morning.

I don't quite understand what the fascination is with an autograph, although I'll admit that I usually ask authors to sign if the opportunity arises. I've always signed contributors' copies since my first Exploring Color was published in 1985, but I did two signings at North Light--1985 and 1990--and couldn't personalize the message because it would make shipping too complicated. In 1994 Virginia Lee Williams and I signed and shipped our book from her studio with a personal note in each one. I liked the personal touch. So I was upset when the publisher sent out contributors' copies for Exploring Color Revised without an autograph, because I knew some of the artists would be disappointed--as they later told me they were. I insisted on doing whatever had to be done to sign this new book. I finally picked up the books at the warehouse myself and brought them to my studio.

It isn't easy thinking of 105 different inscriptions for the artists, but at least I'm not in a rush. I'll try to get them done over the weekend so they won't have to wait too long for their books. They've waited long enough already, some for nearly two years.