Busy!

 a large sound from a tiny place
mixed media on paper 6x6"
© 2012 Megan Chapman
$35

Dear Readers,

Last week, I mentioned that I had been busy making many small works for all the holiday shows and  that 11 pieces of the new small works had sold. I even decided to make another group of small works, this time 12, 6x6" squares. I enjoyed pushing the series and I am beyond thrilled to report that as of now 41 of my new small works have sold! I am very very happy and very thankful for this. The world has a strange way of working out sometimes.

There was Black Friday, Shop local Saturday, Cyber Monday and this Saturday and Sunday the NWACCC Holiday Bazaar and then next Thursday and Saturday are East Prospect Exhibition and I have been invited to participate in a the snowflake salon : biennial winter invitational 2012! Two of my small works are traveling to Philadelphia to be in this group show... busy busy busy!

My project is full steam ahead, never say never! There are only 22 days left to give. Learn more here and please donate if you can and help spread the word. No amount is too small and all donations are tax deductible. If I don't raise the whole amount all donations will be returned and it will be back to the drawing board for me... but it is not over yet!

There are probably some other things to report, but for now the best thing for me to do is rest up as I continue this flurry of activity and savor the sweetness of people appreciating, enjoying, and buying my work. After seventeen years of working as a professional artist I never thought it would be any different from exactly how it is. It is feast and famine, ebb and flow, the smartest thing and the most dumb all rolled up into one. I love it and I won't stop. Every opportunity is golden if you look at it in the right light.

Thanks for your support. Until next week, keep fighting!

My favorite journey

my favorite journey 

mixed media on paper 5x7"
© 2012 Megan Chapman $30

Dear Readers,

For those who celebrated the holiday, I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving!  I spent the day with my parents and had a lovely meal. I am truly thankful for my life, my work, my friends and family and of course for those of you who tune in here and read about my art life. This blog has been showing up here most every Friday for over five years and we have gone through a lot together. Thank you for being a part of it all.

There is a lot to cover today, so let's get to it! Firstly, my fundraising campaign marches on! We are almost in the 4th week of the campaign and I have reached the 34% funding mark! I am grateful to all those who have given. I couldn't have gotten this far without you and your belief in me and I am grateful to the Artists2Artists matching fund as well. There are still matching funds available so please make your donation stretch by giving today. If I don't raise the funds by midnight December 22nd, I will receive nothing and your tax-deductible contributions will be returned. There are only 29 days left! Please know that no amount is too small to give and I would be happy to have you as a part of this experience. Please spread the word about my project as well, every little bit helps. I am grateful for your support. Thank you!

 In other news, I have been busy making small and miniature works for the upcoming holiday exhibitions and markets. This work continues to explore my love of vintage book paper, this time in the form of a World Atlas from 1947. There are twenty small 5x7" works are created on 140lb, 100% recycled, acid free rag. These simple works celebrate clean design, using a sewn stitch where I would normally use a pencil line and with only specific areas painted white to allow the beauty of the old print colors to shine through. I wanted these works to feel clean and fresh for winter with a dash of hope for the spring! These elegant works are 5x7" and should easily fit any off the shelf frame. These are original, one of a kind pieces of art and will be signed, titled and dated on the back. I have also created thirty-one new miniature works that are on 140lb, acid free Strathmore watercolor paper and are just 5x3.5"

These new small works seem to have struck a chord with patrons as I hoped they would! I have already sold 5 miniature works and six of the 5x7" sized ones simply by putting them on facebook! I will soon list them on Etsy and then take them to the Holiday Bazaar on December 1 and 2 and then they will be at East Prospect Exhibition as well. They are very affordable, at only $30 and $15. I believe in original art for all and it is through my small works that I am able to connect with so many patrons.

Northwest Arkansas locals, this will be the last week to catch my exhibition, Silently and Still at St. Pauls Episcopal Church as it comes down at the end of November. There are ten paintings on view there and they are for sale. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing, payment plans are available!

For folks in and around Little Rock, Arkansas you can find my work at Boswell-Mourot Fine Art. Please pop by there and check them out!

I think that is about it, I am busy making art, trying to get funded, trying to stay afloat and fighting every day to live my dreams and not my fears. Thank you again for being part of the journey and going along with me on this path.

Love,
Megan

We are warriors...

Dear Readers,

Last week when I wrote, my project was 24% funded. Exciting developments in my fundraising campaign have happened since then. I am happy to report that I crossed over the 25% funding mark and my project was suddenly eligible for matching funds! The matching funds come from Artists2Artists, a nationwide match fund for artist projects in all disciplines. The Artists2Artists fund was created by artists, for artists. They have a 1-to-1 dollar match once a project is at least 25% funded and no more than 99% funded. They can give up 5% of the project goal. This is really helping move the project right along and gain momentum. I am now 32% funded! I want to thank everyone that got me to the 25% mark and enabled the matching funds to come into play. The last five donations have been doubled! I hope more people will take advantage of having their donations matched, it is a great way to make a huge impact even if you have little to give. I am appreciative of every dollar. I hope that folks who donate will take advantage of the perks that I am offering as well. I don't take your donations lightly and I do want to give you something in return. 

This week, I want to tell you a little about the history of my project and how it came to be. I had been aware of USA Projects for a while and a dear patron had mentioned them to me as well. I joined the site soon after that conversation, about a year ago. Late this summer, I logged back in and made some updates to my simple profile on the site and soon after I received an email asking me to submit a project! I remember being excited and scared. Creating a project seemed daunting and a big task that I wanted to get right. As I thought and thought about what I wanted to do, USA Projects kept following up and saying they were looking forward to working with me. Finally, with a lot of encouragement from my friends, I just decided to go for it!

From their website, "USA Projects is open to artists who have been recognized for the caliber and impact of their work by receiving an award, grant, fellowship or residency. Participating artists have been vetted by United States Artists and other esteemed organizations across the country." You can see why I would be excited to work with them! Once it was decided, I had paper work to fill out and a project to fine tune, a budget to create and perks and gifts to think about for my potential supporters. It was a long process. Then there was a phone interview and discussion of my ideas with Zack at USA projects. I remember feeling really positive after the phone call. I felt like he understood my scope and idea and what I wanted to accomplish. It felt so good to be supported in that way and walked through the process. Next up was creating my video to explain to potential donors what I was hoping to achieve. I was encouraged to keep it simple, short and to the point. It seemed like it would be easy enough to do as I am very passionate when I speak about art. It took me over a week just to create a 3 minute clip! I was so relieved when they thought it worked perfectly and complimented me on getting my project ready to go, and then bam! it went online and was out there for the world to see!

I love the new crowd-sourcing fundraising platforms and I have given to several artists, actors and musicians projects and it is great to feel part of something bigger than yourself and to know that you are helping an artist realize their dreams. Artists of all genres give so much to our communities, to the content of the Internet, to our lives and they work for free most of the time or close to it. I think it is so important to support these folks. I know I might be biased as I am one of those folks. 

I am so grateful for every dollar that has been donated to my campaign, because I know it is tight out there. I set a big goal and I know $13,750 is a lot of money. It takes money to create the art I want to create, to live and work, travel, research and have two exhibitions, one here and one abroad. I hope that everyone knows that I am very frugal and will spend every dollar wisely and try to get the most out of it and make sure that everyone is given their gifts on time and thanked appropriately. I know that I stand on the shoulders of giants and I have such a wonderful network of friends, family, fellow artists and supporters. I have mentioned it before but I do feel that I am part of a global network of artists and that we are all in this together. Thanks for every tweet, follow, facebook like and share. This is a grassroots effort. Only time will tell if I succeed in funding this project, 36 days to be exact...Please consider giving and joining me on this adventure! Thank you.

In other news, I have been making small works on paper for the two holiday exhibitions. Join me here on December 1&2 and then join me here on December 6&8. I really enjoyed created 20 new small works that combine my love of vintage paper, this time in the form of a 1947 world atlas, sewing (I used the stitch rather than pencil) and white paint! You know how I love the white paint...

Until next week, keep fighting. The world needs your art, your big ideas and mostly we need you to live your dreams.

It's all happening now

Dear Readers...

There is a lot going on! Firstly, I am very happy to report that my USA Project met one of my funding goals for the week! I was hoping to reach the 20% funding mark for my project this week and instead I reached 24%! So, now I have a new goal and am hoping to reach 25% funding by the end of the weekend! I am thrilled and very honored that some very lovely folks are pledging their support for my work and the journey that hopefully lies ahead.

If you haven't already gotten on board with my project there is no time like the present! It will take a lot of support to get me back over to Scotland in 2013 to research and create this new body of work. I do believe where there is a will there is a way and even though it all seems daunting I have to try to live my dreams and not my fears. Thanks again to everyone who has helped me on this path so far. I can't wait to share the journey with you. You can learn more here.

In other news, my studio was featured in Hyperallergic's column, A view from the easel. "Hyperallergic is a forum for serious, playful and radical thinking about art in the world today. Founded in 2009, Hyperallergic is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York." I really like their site and I enjoy the a view from the easel column especially. I like seeing where artists from all over the world work. So I hope you will check it out, it is a thrill to be a small part of it!

On the local front, I was asked to participate in the Community Creative Center's Holiday Bazaar! I will have all my small affordable original works on paper and panel as well as some of my limited edition prints for sale and perhaps some surprise new pieces as well! I am really looking forward to be a part of it! So, if you are local please come and see me! Nothing quite like supporting local artists and giving the gift of art for the holidays.

Also local and coming up soon, we are busy planning the next East Prospect Exhibition. The first exhibition was held in June and the next one will be Thursday December 6th and Saturday December 8th. We will have many of your favorite artists from the last exhibition and some new brilliant faces and new work! Just mark your calendars now and trust that it will be a great show that you will not want to miss! More details and updates to the site and the artist line up soon!

My exhibition Silently and Still continues at St. Paul Episcopal Church in Fayetteville through November so please check it out if you haven't already.

Okay that about wraps it up. I have some ideas for some new small pieces for the upcoming holiday shows. I also want to get back to my studio and finish up the line and map series and of course keep promoting and raising funds for my project. Never a dull moment!

PS. How about that election! I couldn't have imagined a better result. Thanks to all that voted!

Until next week, keep fighting. I believe we can do more than we think we can and be stronger than we ever imagined, especially when we work together and ask for help. It is not easy and sometimes life seems ridiculously hard but at the same time there is no place I would rather be than caught up in the struggle and fighting alongside you.

It's Alive!

Hello Dear Readers,

I am just going to cut to the chase, if you don't already know, I have launched a large scale project for 2013 on USA Projects called "The ghosts of the past exposed." This project will create connections in Scotland through a series of new works that combine genealogy, poetry and painting. I am very excited about it. It is a daunting and thrilling task to create a project on such a large scale. The project quietly went live on the USA project's site last Friday and then I officially launched it a few days later. I am so thrilled that my project is already 13% funded in the first week of the campaign! I have fifty days left to raise the money I need to create this new body of paintings and live and work in Edinburgh, Scotland for six months. All donations are tax deductible, please click here to learn more. If you can support my project I would be grateful and no amount is too small! Please feel free to use the buttons on the USA Projects site under the video to share it on all your social networks. This is going to take an concerted grass roots effort to help me create this work in Scotland and I really need your help. There are many gifts that I would love to give you for your donation so don't forget to choose one!

 In other news, I have a solo exhibition, "Silently and Still" that is on display through the month of November at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville. Arkansas. I enjoy showing my works in public spaces as you just never know who may see it or be exposed to original art for the first time. As always, I am pleasantly surprised to see how art transforms the space and at the same time fits right in. I am very fortunate to be asked to share my work in such varied spaces.

 Silently and Still

And that my friends is all I have to share with you this week. Again, if you can support my new project and share it with your friends and family I would be grateful. If you are local, please check out my exhibition at the St. Pauls Episcopal Church. If you are in Little Rock please visit Boswell-Mourot to see and purchase my work. For those interested in my small works on wood and paper please visit my Etsy shop, where you will find some new lower prices!

Thank you all for your support and your belief in me, my work and my vision. I can't do this without you. Until next week, keep fighting!

And don't please forget to vote (early if you can), volunteer and donate! Election Day is Tuesday November 6th!