Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Thing-a-week: Chocolate edition

What's on my easel today: a large (2.5 ft tall and 4-ft wide), acrylic painting. Unfinished.

Like so many North Americans, I'm a pretty terrible sugar junkie. My sweet treat of choice? Chocolate. Chocolate chips, chocolate cookies, chocolate-themed coffee drinks...the list is long. So, for the month of March, I've decided to ditch this vice in an attempt to reduce my disturbing dependency on chocolate and reduce my sugar intake in general.

I've always known I had a bit of a chocolate problem, but I think the reality of the situation hit me over Christmas. My sister, visiting from Victoria, commented on my stash of chocolate in my desk drawer. It seemed odd to her, that someone who worked at home would also have a secret candy stash in her home office.

Well, Ceara, I see your point. Hence this chocolate-free month! It's something like Lent, but without the religious motivation. This is entirely a self-centred endeavour. Especially since I'm bound to be more than a little grumpy for the first little while.

We'll see how the art practice is affected. I may ditch my 'bubbles' series for paintings of cupcakes and chocolate cakes. Mmmmm....cake...

A quick recap of my week: Lots of painting. My thing-a-week is the large, unfinished piece above. It's coming together rather slowly, but surely. My colleague, Mike Kendrick, spent a day at the museum drawing neat stuff for his thing-a-week, which you can view here. I like his style. I need to do more sketching myself, and hope to attend some figure drawing classes soon.

Weirdly, I think I'm most excited about some admin stuff I did this week, namely setting up an account at Image Kind. Now, it'll be possible for people to purchase prints of my works online, without having to go through me. The company even provides framing, which is a neat option if you don't feel like fussing with this yourself.

There are several high-quality paper options and I've ordered a sample kit to see them myself, so I can recommend the best options to interested buyers.

I'm also in the process of sorting out my Etsy storefront, newsletter, and new websites. Both my writing site (inkslingermedia.com) and art site (crawshawcreative.com) will be getting a facelift in the next couple of months. I'm thrilled that my art site will include 'buy now' buttons on all of my pieces, allowing people to easily purchase artwork without the hassle of contacting me.

As for the Artuponrequest.ca contest, I find out if I've earned a spot on Alberta billboards tomorrow. So, I'll let you all know the verdict, either way. I'll be crossing my fingers and toes for the rest of today...thanks again to everyone who left a comment and asked their pals to do the same!

2 comments:

  1. So... my chocolate stash surprise was a bit of a wake up call eh?

    I suggest hitting up some green tea to curb the cravings. After a meal when you want a lil' somethin, having some green tea really seems to help that. I have absolutely no idea why that might be but I've tried it a few times and it really treats me right. I recommend the toasted rice type.

    Kluvubye

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  2. Heh, thanks buddy. I'll give it a shot. :) First thing in the morning has always been brutal for me...I instantly crave caffeine and sugar. So, maybe I'll brew me up some green tea!

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