LEO SAID

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ Leonardo DiVinci

A PRETTY GENERAL SUBJECT

I’ve been bouncing between the commercial side of life and the art side of life. I love them both, but given the choice, well, there’s a lot more creative freedom on the art side of life. Of course, there’s probably a lot more self criticism too.

While the art side of my life is part of my profession and while I’m thrilled and humbled at the same time for the works displayed in town, besides submitting work to art shows, there’s not often much call for it. Art is somewhat finicky. But yet, it keeps coming up when I think there’s little business for it.

I’ve recently had two requests to display work in local venues (which will be announced at the time of their hanging), and I’ve had two requests for charitable donations of my work. When people are asking, that’s an honor.

The latest request came from the local chamber of commerce asking for a silent auction donation for the Annual Awards and Chamber Gala. They had previously asked for a silent auction donation for another event. That piece (The Door) auctioned to a woman who decided to provide feedback.

On a side note here, artists can be quite needy. We sit in our little comfort zones, be it in front of a computer screen or a canvas or a sketch pad, or behind a guitar or a camera, and our work is our baby and we want the world to ooh and aah our baby. We’ll never tell anyone this. It’s our dirty little secret. So when Anne (thank you, Anne) sent me a note about the response of those she gifted the photo to…well, she didn’t realize the gift she gave to me with that note (or maybe she did). You can read some of it here (seriously, it's the little things in life).

The hardest part of donating or displaying art is choosing which piece or pieces to share with the world. While we artists want the world to ooh and aah, we also fear they will boo and hiss or tell us quite simply that our baby is one ugly thing. You really have to have a thick skin to be an artist of any kind. The problem is I know what I like, but I don’t know what or if someone else will also like it. So it’s a tough choice. I try to stay local (and general) on things like this. Okay, I pushed it a bit with The Door. The Door comes from the Pushing the Edge gallery, which is my gallery for total fun; darkroom madness. I personally love that photo. I don’t know if it’s the memory of discovering the door itself, the fun I had with personalizing it or what, but I’ve always liked it and thought it a bit too far off for someone else to like. Then I show it (originally at Eileen’s Bakery - YUM!) and suddenly I’m getting feedback.

Oh, so that’s the trick. You have to show the art to get the feedback. Kidding. While The Door is a historical building piece in Fredericksburg, it’s still a very general piece in subject matter.

I guess you could say I took the same road with the Gala silent auction. I decided to donate Cannons at Chatham Heights. It was a hard choice (it’s always a hard choice), but we Virginians love our history and I love shooting cannons (No! Not real cannons…shooting…with the camera. Real cannons make too much noise.). I wanted to donate another piece of local history, and cannons, well, in Virginia they’re a pretty general subject. Though, with a touch of darkroom magic to give it that Civil War feel, the two cannons at Chatham Heights tell their own story.

CANNONS AT CHATHAM HEIGHTS

Hope to see you at the Gala!

THE DEATH OF FACEBOOK

The great thing about being a fiction writer is playing God. And a special delight is killing off characters. There are those characters you really don’t want to off, but for the sake of the story, it must be done. Then you have the real bastards you can’t wait to kill.

For me, that was Facebook. Yes, I killed my Facebook account. After two years, I realized it served no beneficial purpose for my personal or my business life. Yeah, it was great to keep up with family, but considering, that’s more personally done with a phone call or an email. And depending how personal it is, really, would I want it shared on Facebook? I’m sure you’re not at all surprised how personal some people get on Facebook.

Then there’s the other end. You know, really, no offense, but I don’t care what you’ve made for dinner or that your kid got an A on his science project; and I don’t want to see the funny cat You Tube video. I originally created an account for conversation with family and friends. I realized all too quickly there’s no such thing as an intelligent conversation on Facebook.

 I tried the turnaround; tried to market business on Facebook. Not a great success. I personally don’t think anyone gives a rat’s ass about your business on Facebook unless you’re giving something away. No, that’s not a testament of resentment for not creating a great Facebook business page. That’s a testament to the number of friends I lack. No biggie. I’m not trying to sell my business to my friends.

So I killed it. I killed Facebook. No remorse. In fact, it feels great not to have the pressure of posting something fascinating. It takes away the anguish of not wanting to post my photos (didn’t care for Facebook’s terms and conditions regarding photos). The biggest benefit – I’m getting a lot more work done.

Now, all of this doesn’t mean I’ve given up social networking. I’ve just moved on. I still hang around LinkedIn. That, too, has its advantages and disadvantages. I’m there, I keep up, but I’m not playing the collector’s game. If I have something to post, I post it. If I meet someone I’d really like to connect with, I connect.

The other place I’ve been hanging out is Google+. There’s been a lot of flack regarding Google+ and Facebook. Sure, Google+ doesn’t have the same following as Facebook, but it sure has a lot of interesting people. I like the idea that I can connect with people who are sharing relevant information without having to make a request. I like the fact that a lot of photographers and creatives hang out on Google+. I like the circles concept. Yeah, I know, Facebook did something to appear more like the circles, but I didn’t want to get into it. Google+ seems more user friendly. And honestly, I don’t care how many people have me in their circles; no pressure to post if I have nothing to say. I feel like Google+ will become a good SEO tactic (and a quick reminder, I know nothing about SEO and search criteria). I think, in the long run, it may be a better connection to potential clients.

Yeah, I killed Facebook. If for no other reason, for the sake of the story.