Val Gal

As you see from the title of my Facebook event (facing the Holidays Solo at https://www.facebook.com/events/317495455431238 ), I am facing the holidays pretty solo. I have had some people drop by the Rose studio, my living working space. And now I am taking time to tidy up. I bought myself one great big present to put under the tree. It took a lot of courage and thought before I chose it. ANd there it stays on my holiday display waiting for Christmas morning to unwrap. And I have been raiding the thrift shops for holiday season stuff. It is at this time I find all sorts of great colors and fabrics that I can wear during the year. As an artist color, texture and pattern are very important to me. My funds are meagre so I have to get stuff from vintage sources because the stuff I like, if it was bought new, would, for the most part, be very expensive. thank goodness people don't like to throw out quality merchandise. (I don't). And thank god people like to celebrate with ...

As for more long term production goals I will be going for a plan of maintenance rather than growth. In others words I will concentrating on the certification of my already existing body of work (this is instead of concentrating on creating new work).    I have found a program to watermark my work rather easily.  My machine saves the document with a really long number. It seems to be a registration number which means that the work would be documented with this company, it is a Windows app and that is all I know about it.  So I don’t know what I should do. If I should maintain a file with the registration number or not. Meanwhile I can use the program rather easily to identify my work.  This brings me to another issue. Should I use my name or an email? I have to think about it.  Making a watermark the same as I am familiar with is something that to have to think of as well. To me a watermark is very transparent and actually takes up all the space of...

Financial Plan The financial situation still remains pretty much the same. So far no sales. Possible directions I will going in the foreseeable future involve the payment of small fees.  I have been checking out the art resources available to see what to do to upgrade the situation.  RAAV.Org REGROUPEMENT DES ARTISTES EN ARTS VISUELS DU QUEBEC has increased their membership fee to $120.00. InfoEntrerpreneurs said that they have a legal clinic but there is a fee of $65.00 an hour.  I have also contacted Yes (Montreal Youth employment Services). They have services available for entrepreneurs and artists of all ages but I must attend a workshop first.  Then I can access their legal and counselling clinics if I pay a onetime fee of $30.00.  Finally I noticed that I have a pretty thorough online backup of my photographs with Sony PlayStation but the line that says the name of the photographer is always left blank.  So I will be checking out how muc...

If  the quality of my artwork is established how do I defend myself and the fruit of my labor?  Artists create luxury goods.  These are goods that are to be marketed for exceptional places.  So they have exceptional demands on things like living arrangements.  They need large enough spaces or comfortable enough spaces to practice there are at all. For example in simple places, art for art’s sake is frowned upon and so is any artist who is just an artist.  Creating art which is just beautiful and does not help the day to day living is frowned upon. Artists in poor communities like myself are expected to find extra means to physically defend themselves.  For example I lived in a troubled, inner city neighborhood so that I could be close to the many cultural activities of downtown Montreal.  My house was poor and for most of the time there was a relatively adequate system of defense.  But the minute the presence of affluent competitors...

I continue my new project called Art as a Present.  First of all I have started a facebook page for this purpose (go to https:// www.facebook.com/ArtasaPresent /).  I will be mailing Art Fabian Company Patrons and Friends  presents from a Company collection.  Maybe it will be an original artwork on a card through the regular mail.  Or perhaps a four by six inch photograph from the Valuable Gallery collection.  Some people will get an online work update from  the company that will feature a private selection of prints chosen for that month. It is not the most pleasant feeling to give out artwork but since I am not selling at least the works will circulate  instead of staying hidden.  Perhaps this feeling of unpleasantness is for the better.  I have all the documents from my parents estate comfortably installed in the Rose Studio. So there is really no reason to mail valuable works of art for no cost at all. (as a matter of fact I p...

Tomorrow is the first day of spring. Unlike the other seasons of the Valuable Gallery we will not be starting a new seasonal exhibit.  Instead we are going to concentrate on refining one permanent collection.   The Corridor Gallery is to inspire calm and direction since the exhibition pieces are in a corridor which is on the way to somewhere. It is a gallery that encourages one to feel confidence as it leads the person back to their own space. I have been finishing some drawings from my Madonna on the Outside Collection. This inspires me to add a few black and white tableaus to the Blue Corridor Gallery.  You can own some of the pieces that been created by myself (including some from the Valuable Gallery).  Go to www.treasuregallery.blogspot.ca and see the selection. by Kathy Vivian Fabian kfabian.kathynotes@gmail.com

February 14, 2016 (To see how I am working on these sketches scroll down to the Saturday morning section of this article) I had been doing a fair amount of creative work in the week so Saturday I did a lot of organizing. The Art Moi Inventory app is getting easier to use. This encouraged me to really start finishing the Madonna Collection.  The Madonna Collection is a series of photographs and sketches that span several decades.  The Madonna Artworks were created in the 1980's but were never finished.  The Madonna photographs are being created right now.  This is what I was working on during the week. The Madonna artworks are mostly in black and white and were created during the musical era of Blondie and Madonna. This is when the two stunning women were much in the limelight.  They were also very much competitive in both music and physical appearance.  This is also a time when I decided to follow the art scene full time. It was my pleasure to f...

It all started when I wanted to change my small square image for the Winter Exhibition.  the task was supposed to take five minutes.  I would make a fresh collage.  Everything was prepared.  And just scoot the thing in.  All done. Unfortunately it did not turn out that way. First of all there was a Holiday Season decoration still installed on the picture.  So that had to come off.  And if I was going to take it off I had to film it.  This work was in the Rose Studio and the ornament was not just any ornament, it was chandelier inspired with real chandelier crystal integrated into it.  So I had to take a picture of it. And if I had to take a picture of it then I had to install the proper set up to that the light and shadows worked.  And if I took the trouble to do that then maybe I should film All the other ornaments from the Holidays.  And before I did that, I had to finish some with some new crystals that I had gotten. And w...

Superstitious?  What kind of rituals do you follow for good luck?  For myself, I like to take advantage of special times to see if I can reap good fortune.  For example, if I have something important to organize I am likely to do it on a Holiday or on Sunday. So planning this week's Studio work was a no brainer.  I had recently received a large amount of old jewelry from an estate. The choicer pieces had long gone and these were left.  They were supposed to be unsellable.  So I asked how they were organized. I said if you give almost them to me, I will organize them for you in the proper way.  But I was given them instead. The owner felt they were just cluttering up the house.  Luckily I have my jewelry collection. To get them they had to be quickly boxed and taken off the premises.  But once I brought them home, there was no time to organize them anymore because of the Holiday Preparations.  So this Saturday I took some time to c...

Hello dear Readers, Coping with Holiday Frenzy What do you to pamper yourself when the Holiday frenzy starts ? I went for a long walk to pick up some containers for my external hard drives.  You see I am into organizing and I want to have all my files easily accessible by the time the Holiday season is over.  As luck would have it by the time I was half way back to the metro I felt really tired.  Luckily there was a good restaurant, Nickels right at the corner.  I did the unthinkable.  Instead of getting some nuts and a drink from the grocery store I regaled myself on a French onion soup before I hit the metro.  It tasted so good I didn't even think it was expensive.  At the holiday season I always get tired in transit so I put away a little extra cash for food. It makes it a lot nicer. Saturday Studio Work: Speaking of the Holidays I am doing a lot of celebrating.  This week the Rose Studio is open to Art Fabi...

On Saturday and Friday I went down to the thrift shops to look for ideas for Holiday Season decorations.  I had a large amount of really fine stuff right in my hands when all of a sudden I took a clear look at my financial position.  Gingerly I put the stuff back and started thinking how to keep the costs down for Holiday Season spending this year. I came up with an idea to rely as much as possible on material that I print out from my machine. Cutting the work load also results in less spending.  So this year I am not going to do a special Holiday Seasons Exhibition. Instead I am going to start the winter exhibit a couple of weeks before the Holiday Season starts. At the same time I will be including hand made ornaments to decorate the images.  These images will be composed of store Christmas ornaments mixed with my art work. This is the idea I came up with so Saturday studio time was spent getting the Winter Art out of storage and looking for old card images t...

 Autumn Quarterly:2015. Production By Kathy Fabian, C.E.O. and Principal Artist The first and Foremost goal of all Art Fabian Company work to to achieve financial success. Blogging My writing will focus on Money making projects such as ValGal and my Google Page My Clothes Right Now for Sale. I will continue my schedule of writing for a different blog each day.  I am trying to keep one month a head for blog posts.  Meanwhile if I find a better place to do something then I will leave the old site intact to leave a virtual footprint. I will slow down writing actual articles and concentrating on improving the presentation for the blogs. Each blog should have an example of art on it for sale.  I will focus only on stuff I feel that I really want to write about or on money making projects.  I will just polish up stuff that highlights just my creative work. I have a lot of blog articles now so they are actually not my main priority.  Organizing pro...

Happy Thanksgiving to All! I hope you enjoyed your day and will look forward to many things to give thanks for until the next Thanksgiving. Get the exquisite image on this blog post.  Custom Made!   You Deserve the Luxury. And you support the Artist. Write  kfabian.kathynotes@gmail.com   for inquiries.    The leaves are brightly colored outside.  And the days sunny. So I went into my archives to find some images with splendid autumn foliage.  Saturday I reserved for studio work .  I had been tidying up my collection of muses and had a few lovely ladies ready to star in my photographic extravaganzas.  The final element was the inclusion of the very expensive, very evident presence of construction in the neighborhood. I had a lot of autumn pictures but I wanted to showcase technology and machines.  As luck would have it we were having some road repair done right outside our house.  And voila I had the tree el...

Saturday I spent my studio time filming the exhibition pieces for the new Autumn Leaves: New City 15 exhibition.  It was actually supposed to take place opening day but the camera broke so I postponed it for this week.  Saturday I just filmed the pieces because I thought I would leave the publicity stills for the Sunday.  that would give me the time to check out all the adjustments that I would need to make when I posed for the camera. As luck would have it, however, we were having some really good filming weather.  And the last day that would be clear would be Sunday.  So I figured I would take advantage and film outside.  I wanted some poses of myself in the newly redone Lahaie park right next to our residence. I would postpone the pictures of myself with the art work for the following week. I waited for the best light of the day which I understood was two hours after sunrise or, more appropriately for my habits, two hours before sunset.  around ...

Saturday is Studio work day.  Since I had not done any photographing the opening last week, I started with the idea to film the work that is presently on display in Val Gal.  I had a brand new Optex PRT50 Summit Tripod to try out first.  The tripod was bought last Monday but I wanted to read the instructions and assemble it without breaking anything. So it stood carefully placed in its box in a corner of Rose Room.  Saturday morning was the first time I could bring myself to even attempt it.  I opened the box carefully and found no instructions.  A search on line to register the tripod bore no fruit.  the best I could was find it listed in the store products and sign up for the eletters on the store.  It said on the box, in big letters, five year guarantee, so I suppose I have to keep the store receipt.  There is no other proof of purchase. That done I figured that I would just have to go by instinct and what I had learned to do with the ot...

September 9, 2015 In the romantic novels the artist goes way up to his tiny attic on the very top of his house to create and be free.  Sometimes it has a great view of Paris.  Or sometimes the person is a writer who creates great novels and ideas. They both seal themselves from the rest of the world to do great things.  Well why not imitate?   I live in a woman's residence in a very small room. When I first arrived I imagined it as a womb.  A creative womb in which I would heal and rest and create great art.  I would sit on the bed cross yoga position with hands on my legs and look out the window and the blue sky. I would imagine I meditated.   I would imagine I was one with the blue sky. Well years have gone by and I no longer think of the room as a womb.  It became a small and impoverished cell for a while and then my imagination took over again.  I thought of it much like that attic. So now it is my studio in which I develop and fr...