Shamrock with Knotted Background plus What Happens When You Spend Too Much Time on Etsy

note: copyright watermarks do not appear in actual image.

I was uploading the above image on Etsy last night after a full, exhausting day. It is a greeting card on off white, vanilla colored card stock. Then I went to bed. This is what happened:

I dreamt that Etsy charged me $85 to upload the image of the shamrock. I contacted them on the phone and said: "My understanding is that a listing is 20 cents, not 85 dollars!"

The woman on the phone told me that there was nothing she could do and that I needed to talk to my bank representative. So I waited in line at the bank and finally talked to a teller. I was passed off to a number of bank employeees. Every time I was passed off, I got more and more angry (as if they were doing it on purpose to make my life miserable... which is about how I feel about banks these days, especially the ones that have been bailed out, that they create circumstances to keep/make the general populace in debt in any possible way, especially through deregulation and through convincing the government that they are too big to fail).

Finally when I got to an employee that could give me some answers (an employee in a tight business suit... it was so tight, in fact, that it hugged her knees together so that she couldn't move them apart at all: not even sit in a natural way, but off to one side). She got on her computer and told me that the reason that the listing was 85 dollars was because I had uploaded a huge picture.

"But, it's a greeting card! And I can't make 85 dollars on a greeting card! I just wouldn't upload such a huge image when the product itself is so small!"

And then she turned her monitor around to show me. Just one pixel of the image took up the whole screen and you had to scroll like mad to see the whole image. In fact, you couldn't see that it was a shamrock at all because all you saw was one huge pixel after another.

Of course, I was laughing when I awoke and so was everyone else in my life. "That'll cost you at least $1,000 in postage to send that shamrock!" someone said. "Also, you'll need a tractor trailer truck to move that shamrock!"

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Purchasing our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby

Wedding and Anniversary Custom Art Archival Print with Two Trees and Two Doves

Note: the copyright watermarks do not appear in the actual art. You may have to zoom in to see what it really looks like.

This is a piece I have been slowly working on during my phase of painting very detailed pieces. The detailed pieces are still not completed, but I managed to complete this one.

It is a series of custom prints that I am working on just for Etsy. I had been browsing the site one night and saw a number of tree and dove art pieces for weddings and anniversaries and most were stark graphic depictions in 2 - 3 colors. I thought I'd try a more painterly approach and see what happened. The sky is actually painted seperately from everything else because I wanted to try a number of sky colors. I'll be posting those versions soon in the same place.

The piece is indeed up in my Etsy shop here. I notice that it is getting more views than usual, so maybe Etsy is a wedding store? A place where people buy gifts? Who knows. It's my first on-line store experience aside from CD stores and my website store and I'm still trying to figure out who the community is.

I have been sick with the flu for awhile… huge necessary detour… and this art piece seemed like a good one to take a chance on as my fever was diminishing (with a few symptoms lingering). I just didn't feel comfortable delving into pieces that are taking a long time to design and complete and where a wrong move could derail months of work.

It's not a masterpiece (as so many gifty things aren't), but something that may have appeal in that community.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)
My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Purchasing our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby

Owl in a Heart and Mediaeval Heart II, 2 Original ACEOs

Owl in Heart ACEO (tiny original in ink and watercolor, paper size: 2.5" x 3.5", image size: 2.25" x 3.25")

Mediaeval Heart II ACEO (tiny original in ink and watercolor, paper size: 2.5" x 3.5", image size: 2.25" x 3.25")

Note: the copyright watermarks do not appear in the actual art

These are both up for sale at the moment in my Etsy shop. This is probably the last of the original ACEOs for awhile as I have a lot of bigger, more ambitious art projects I am trying to finish. We (Saratoga Faire) are also in rehearsals for The Dance Flurry Festival.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Purchasing our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby

Knotted Hearts with Knotted Backgrounds, Mediaeval Heart Original ACEO and Art Opening for Barbara Idleman

First up: Knotted Hearts with Knotted Backgrounds (note: the copyright watermarks do not appear in actual art)

These are my newest pieces. Shown are 3 variations, but there are more. I have them at a few shops and online at my Etsy shop.

They were a take-off on my Knotted Shamrocks with Knotted Backgrounds. I thought this idea might translate well into heart designs too. I hope to have some prints out there soon of two of these designs. Right now they are in greeting card format.

Second: Mediaeval Heart I. This is my first original painting ACEO. It was a challenge to paint and draw so small. But I enjoyed it and I liked the fact that it didn't take an endless amount of time the way so many of my other pieces do. The smallest pieces I have painted are 5 x 7s. This even seemed small at the time because previously I had only been painting very large works, the smallest of those being 18 x 24. There is a first time for everything. The design is original even if the title alludes to the Mediaeval period. This is for sale in my Etsy shop because I just couldn't figure out what brick and mortar galleries to display it in and this was the fastest, easiest way to put it up for sale.

I am working on some pieces that are taking an endless amount of time and have a lot of intricacies. I hope to have them finished sometime this winter (if at all possible) and will post as soon as I can. In the meantime, I might be playing with some smaller works.

Lastly: this is a picture that my friend, Ann Casselman (note copyright) took of me with my pottery & sculpture in the background and sent to me via e-mail at Barbara Idleman’s art opening at Hubbard Hall Projects. The show is called, A Vision in Fabrics: A Tribute to Barbara Idleman. There was also a wonderful write-up about her which made me cry. Barbara was a special woman, wise, tactful, friend to all. I wish I had a picture of her work or of the opening, but I don't. I always forget to take a camera.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Purchasing our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby

First Night Saratoga and updates on my website

This is a picture of our band, Saratoga Faire, at First Night Saratoga 2010 (© Ray Bedard). We played to a packed crowd all night and sold quite a few CDs. There are more pictures of our band on our facebook here.

This photo and other music photos of 2009 are also on my website here. You’ll notice that this link takes you to a blog page. I do my own website blog every January summarizing the previous year (in this case it is about 2009). I had been doing that for years before starting a blog here on blogspot in September. Note: the blog on my website won't be repeated here, so take a look if you'd like.

The reason I started a blogspot? I started selling on Etsy. I thought it would be a good idea to announce new work I was putting on Etsy (for on-line customers). This wasn't so necessary for my brick and mortar stores: I didn't feel it was necessary to post on my website (& in fact, I didn't think my website was all that important for the art side of my life, which is why all of the music buttons are at the top).

I felt that people who were interested in my art would go see it in the stores and galleries I have listed on my website. But having an on-line store is a whole other venture. My only exposure to selling on-line is through CDs (but unlike etsy, these on-line stores take care of the actual marketing and selling for me)… and also selling some art and just a few CDs via paypal off of my website.

When I was entertaining the thought of starting a blog, I thought I would only focus on my art for my etsy store, but then realized that unlike other visual artists, there would be gaps in my creations as I often get called away to perform, record, write music, rehearse, etc. So it was only fitting that I should blog about music too. Both are important to me, inspire me and define who I am (and a number of people have remarked to me that I can't just let my singing voice go silent in an art studio all day and night).

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Purchasing our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby

Hearts Within Hearts Knotted, one in may green and pink and the other in aqua and salmon

You may have to click on the pictures to see a less blurry version.

Note: copyright watermarks do not appear in actual art

Hearts Within Hearts Knotted is the title to 2 pieces.

These are two new designs I started in 2009, took a break from to practice and perform music and came back to and completed in 2010. They are available in my etsy shop and artfire shop.
I have a fascination with intricacies. It is noticeable in my 2-d art in terms of borders, hearts and shamrocks. In my 3-d art it is most noticeable in the borders of my relief sculptures and the rims of my pottery.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Purchasing our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby

Performing for the media (First Night kick-off) and The Victorian Streetwalk

My intention is to join my visual art with telling my tales about being a performing musician, but I can't seem to find the time at this juncture. So the little cropped pic of me with the guitar will have to suffice for now as the visual part of my story.

I was asked to perform for the media by the First Night office in Saratoga Springs, NY. As part of my general performance, I was asked to sing "Starry, Starry Night" as that was the theme for this year's event. This request came in on November 10 and I responded on November 11. This meant I had about 19 days (minus time around Thanksgiving) to "work up" the song. But, I was also practicing for two holiday performances, so I felt pretty stretched as holiday material isn’t something that is part of my regular repertoire. It always takes additional practice and rehearsal.

I found "Starry, Starry Night" vocally challenging (believe it or not!). I sing lots of challenging pieces like "Ave Maria", so I knew I could do it, but I knew I’d be in trouble if I tried to tackle and memorize the accompaniment too, so I asked Jim if he could do that part. This made my task a lot easier when the event finally came and I felt confident that I did a good job. We decided that since we would show up as a duo that we should use the hammered dulcimer in the performance too since there aren’t very musicians in this area who play the instrument.

We often use the hammered dulcimer in our holiday performances. It has a nice bell-like quality which is perfectly suited to holiday music and my vocals. In these performances, I play the classical guitar in addition to my singing.

I have played in front of television cameras before and the lights were fairly blinding. This is all right when I am singing and playing a guitar, but with the addition of the hammered dulcimer, this was of concern to us since Jim has to be able to see the strings in order to play his instrument (he uses handmade little wooden hammers).

We asked the sound guy about the lights and his brusque answer was to wear a hat with a visor and some sunglasses. But he was having a little fun with us because there were no lights, not a single one. Ha!

We played the Saratoga Victorian Streetwalk two days later (the same duo). The event and our venue was packed the whole night. The streets were blocked off and smelled like horses.

Many of our CD customers asked us who the other musicians were on our CD (feeling a little unsure of the musicianship of these "other" players when they weren't hearing them as part of our live performance). We had fun explaining that the whistle guy was across the street at Celtic Treasures and the violinist was down the street about a half a block at the post office and our recording guy was another half block across the street, etc. All the customers looked a little shocked. Most don't understand that many of the musicians in this area are like one big jamming family. In fact, our band formed at one of the biggest jam sessions in the north country, The Dance Flurry Festival.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Purchasing our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby