Rio Grande Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Last show of the year, it has been one hell of a long year, racked up 38 shows, seen a lot of stuff, met a lot of people. Put about 27k miles on our van, shredded a belt, got a chip in the window and might need batteries and tries before we hit the road again. But other than that we are going strong and will be eager to take on more come March.

This one in Albuquerque seemed like a good place to stop since we had 2 more back to back shows with this one, but we couldn’t afford one (we weren’t doing so good in Minnesota when the fee had to be paid) and the other we didn’t get into. So instead of heading west we are content with staying in Texas and working. Sorry Arizona and SoCal you wont be seeing us this year.

Before heading out we had a pre-thanksgiving party, with a little less than 40 people at the ranch. Then we washed all our clothes, filled up all our tanks and hit the road. We drove all the way to Carlsbad, NM and stayed at a Wal-Mart then got into Albuquerque late afternoon Wednesday and did a little work.

Setup on Thanksgiving day was easy, we were parked about 50 feet from the door, which was where we stayed all weekend. We had power so that was great, although we had to fight a bit to get water but the sloppy spot worked well. All the organizers were so helpful and kind, it even seemed like they all knew my name and who I was (could be I wear t-shirts and a hat with my logo on them). Coffee and coffee cake was aplenty and the building looked great.

Black Friday or as I refer to it as "Nemo Friday" cuz black nemo just didn’t sound right -  Well the lines of people were waiting by the door to get in, the rain held a few people back but people did show up on time. If felt like the early ones knew what they wanted and they were just looking for their artists. However a lot of people I talked to were looking to see new art and not the same ole same ole. Seems we fit that bill and even got a few sales. It did slow down a little after lunch but we did alright. Its cold outside but warm inside. We did our part by buying homemade bread, goat cheese and noodles from the food section of the show. How did you support the small businesses during Black Friday?

Black Saturday or what the online community is calling Small Business Saturday - We start off with frozen water in our van, I didn’t think it messed up anything, it just didn’t let the water run. Luckily no rain and the sun came up. We had a steady flow of people walking in and out of our booth, nothing exciting but nothing disappointing. The other artists all seemed to have mixed reviews of the show, some were banking it topping past shows and some weren’t doing as well, one lady left a day early since she was heading toward the worst show in her life.

Don’t call it a Black Sunday but we got more of the same action from Saturday - We did have a good sale late in the day and a great commission of the Leaning Tower Of Pisa which put us in a good place, still we could have always done better. Best part was load out was super easy and we were outta there before the sun went down.

When talking to other artists we got a lot of “you need to build a name” type talk. Which makes sense in general and when I see people walking in the door walking over to someone buying a piece then walking out it seems to really hit home. To become one of these artist who has a strong following and collectors who make sure to buy a piece or two from their favorite artist every year is mighty powerful. However that takes years and years of work so you might find us back at this show next year building on the foundation we laid out this weekend, plus a few other shows in New Mexico and Art Attacking Arizona (we will make the Southwest love us) is still pretty high on my list. So till next year, its back to Texas and back to working for now.

Fiesta Farm And Trail Rides

As many of you already know we took on the task of drawing the illustrations for a children’s book one of my collectors wrote. Hannah came up with this beautiful lay out and sketches for the way each page is going to look. Then we went over to a good friend of ours who have the perfect little boy to use as the model for the boy in the book. We live on a cow and goat ranch so we have all the cows and goats to take pictures of all day all night. Down the road was a horse we stopped by to see but we needed more.

When we started looking at our pictures we found nothing was right and we started to think we should be taking more pictures and studying more about every animal we are using in the book. (you folks do know its about a boy on a farm right?). Then the best idea we have had since the beginning of this book, a petting zoo. How could we have overlooked this one?

So with a little help from Google, since I haven’t heard a word about MC Hammer’s search engine, Hannah found Fiesta Farm and we set sail to get the rest of the animals.

We showed up and the lady in charge tells us she was getting all prepared for all the kids to get outta such a big van, sorry but it was only us two. I was really surprised to see a llama just walking around but the little girl grew on me. I focused on the younger animals since I wanted them to be about the age the kids reading the book would be, about 2nd graders I hear, but art lovers of every age will be able to enjoy it as an art piece too. We spent about two hours going from space to space taking 100’s of pictures of pigs, chickens, horses and bunnies. Then we sat around making sure we got the shots we needed then we took even more pictures. We might have just gotten the whole thing done, wont be able to tell till we set them up after our last show for the year.

Ok well this book is on its way, can’t wait to see this sucker done. It has been put on the back burner all this leg of the tour, 4 months is a long time to be waiting to work on something. But its on now, so stay tuned!

Road Pages

As you folks know I am always looking for ways to better myself and to make my time here in this world as productive as possible. Well today as I was sitting here in the passenger seat as Hannah drives and I thought to myself should I be doing something? Well? shouldn’t I? I can’t draw cuz my circles would come out all jacked up. I could whip out the sketch book or I could write by hand but I really don’t want to take my eyes off the road just in case, I really don’t want to miss the ride. The journey is what its all about, right? So I pulled out the computer to do a little free writing since for the most part I don’t need to look at what I’m typing, yup learned how to type in high school.

So as we barrel down the road I type out what “The Artist’s Way” would call “Morning Pages”. I let it all out what I see (which comes in handy with the blogs I write about getting to a place), what I’m thinking, oh man if I’m not listening to music or talking my brain will keep going a mile a minute and sometimes I have a good idea, most times not. But if I am able to catch a good idea I might have a better chance in turning it into a great idea.

After a few miles say about 1000 or so I tend to rack up quite a long document filled with all kinds of crap. Then I read back and put spaces in between thoughts and start deleting stupid stuff and organizing them by same thoughts and try to get them under headings, most headings come from somewhere in these writings. It really does come out to be mostly crap or me going on and on and on about the same things I went on and on and on about a few miles back. I take about an hour every morning and sift though it all. No plan, no nothing, just playing around with the words to see if anything good can come from it.

Then after all that is said and done I start reading all the bits and pieces and try to make them flow and make sense. A lot of the time when something sounds right to me Hannah has no idea what I’m talking about. But somehow it all comes together and it gets posted for your enjoyment.

So is this BSing about what’s going on really writing? Is this how great writing is made? I don’t know but sometimes I find gold in these BSings and sometimes quotes can come out where you least expect it. I’m just trying to give my mind a break from its self. Ok writers out there, how do you write? How do you overcome being blocked? Share with us how its done.

Boerne Market Days In Boerne, Texas

We picked this show up last minute since we knew we couldn’t go too long with out having a show, after 2 weekends off we were a bit rusty. We had to relearn how to build our tent, we didn’t know what was going on, we got tired fast...nah we were fine. But it was good to be back in the game and meeting the public. I don’t know what we are gonna do after the longer break we are going to take in a few weeks.

This show being a “market” type show was a real "anything goes" but we knew that going into in so we didn’t bitch at all the crazy crap that was there. But just like people’s fair in Denver it had something for everybody. The crowd was pretty good on Saturday but we didn’t see much action. We were about ready to write this show off. The only good thing was that it was only 100 bucks to play and we broke even pretty quick.

However Sunday was a kicker, we had a collector come around and commission a ton of drawings, prints and Hannah’s can art. We sold another hand full of originals and a few necklaces which rounded this show off really nice. The weather warmed up a bit and had everyone out and about and loving every minute of it. The music was pretty good and not too loud so we could speak to the people that came in the booth.

So about the show, there were tons and tons and tons of vendors selling just about everything you could imagine. I was referred to as “the guy with the art” more than once by the other vendors. A few people who wanted to see art were pleased we were there too. The crowds seemed to have money and if they wanted something they got it. Set up and tear down was good, parking was great, all in all not that bad of a show, although we might not do it again but only cuz of timing not the style of the show.

On to Albuquerque to our last show of the year which puts us at 38 for the year. We checked the weather and its already cold over there, we might hit the snow, at least its an indoor show. We really racked up the commissions and we still need to work on our children’s book and I want to start thinking about what it is I want to do for 2012, its going to be our 10 year anniversary of art by nemo. I want to do something big but I haven’t got a clue what, would love any ideas if you good folks have any.

How Do You Keep Growing? How Do You Keep Getting Better?

I am asked by a lot of artists about growth and pushing the envelope and am often "ragged on" for being the type of artist who would kick out koi drawing after koi drawing because they sell. But the truth is I am always pushing myself in one way or another.

First of all, I work crazy hours which would drive the regular artists insane (well if something else didn’t drive them there first) then on top of that I’m on tour, oh yeah, not just a “I’m going to do 5 shows this summer tour.” Nope, a full blown “rock star” type tour with tours dates every weekend coast to coast. Sure I appear to make koi fish and humming birds every other week since it pays the bills and lately more pet commissions to fill the biggest gallery in the world and 2 annexes.

But growth doesn’t always have to involve changing styles or subjects, it only means you have to do something new to you, and learn from it; grow from it. Ever since my days in an architecture firm I would always say “the day I don’t learn something is the day I quit” so I’m big into learning and trying new stuff. From trying new subjects to trying new media to trying to set up our booth in new ways to see how people flow within it, to hanging art up in different ways and places to see what’s the hot spot.

But you know me, and that’s not all this blog is about, we have tackled some pretty important other things one can do with art, such as labels and licensing. And giving our try into drawing children’s books. It is interesting to see how far my work has come. We went from drawing nothing but black, grey and white women on only paper which we would have to frame, to multiple colors on claybord and drawing mostly landscapes. In my long exploration into drawing circles I have added the dots in a circle (aboriginal borrowed style) which I learned to do while drawing a "drawing a day" many years ago. I went back to canvas and playing with markers and paints and switching between them all and having the most fun I have ever had making my art.

Even blogging here today is a push in a different direction, I have always wanted to be a writer and in some small way I am here writing my life away with out any restriction or hesitation. In my life I do exactly what I want to do, however I have to finish a sure selling humming bird before I try a new subject and if I want to do some crazy piece that I have no idea how its gonna come out it better have a koi in it so at least someone will love the fish enough to buy it. But that only means I have grown enough to be able to keep doing what we do and not have to go back to the daily grind of an 8 to 5 real day job. Sure we spend more time thinking about how the hell we are doing to pay this month's bills, but it never really seems like work.

The best growth for a successful art business is the kind that can’t be measured and happens organically without trying. The kind that you can only see after years and years of hard work looking back on how things used to be. We just work hard and we keep working no matter what, so if you wanna grow don’t actively try to grow like hanging from a bar so you can grow taller, wont happen, just do what you do and sure enough as your gonna get older your gonna get better. How do you do it? Do you set out to grow? Do you only notice growth after all the hard work is done? Do you even care?

How Much Can An Artist Do?

How much can any one artist do before people start to say “I’m tired of hearing about them”? I have known a few artists who work their asses off to build a name, do some stuff, get people to know who they are, then outta nowhere you stop hearing about them.

What happens to them? Is it that they just fall off? Do they think they don’t have to work anymore? Do they change their minds about what it is they wanted to do? Did they get some bad press? Is it that once you become a big fish in a small pond and you can’t swim around you die?

How much can you do? Have a show once a month? Donate art and attend the events every chance you get. Paint murals on the sides of businesses? Come out a few times in the paper and on TV. Work with the kids and teach them how to become artists. Start helping out other artists by currating shows. Get a TV show or some type of popular platform to broadcast to a larger following. Get your work in a few galleries and shops around town, show in every other café. Hang art in hotel lobbies, airports. Sell t-shirts and have almost everyone and their moms wearing your brand. Take out a billboard?

I have been wondering how much is too much? I myself don’t ever see us being too much in one place since we move around so much, but do I need to keep going back to states and cities over and over? When have I blogged too much about what I’m doing? When are people online going to tire of hearing about my art and seeing the same pictures over and over? I mean is anyone tired of Hello Kitty or Paul Frank? How about Ed Hardy?

I’m not saying I’m anywhere near these guys who are everywhere doing everything. I’m asking - is there a point when too much is too much and is it possible for someone in this day and age to get there? I have asked a ton of questions and I want a ton of answers. Then maybe I can provide an answer blog where I can sum it all up. Thank you.

There’s No Place Like Home

As you folks know I’m from Texas and so is Hannah, most of our family and friends all live in Texas, and yes of course all our exes live in Texas. I wanted to share with you all some of the places where we spend the most time while we are here. We are always on the look out for any place to park while on the road and a home away from home is always a nice find. I only blog about these things as a way to let you the blog readers and online peeps see if there’s anything in your life which might fit the bill.

First up is our “home home”. This is where we say we live if asked, we have a PO box here and we spend most of our down time here, it’s Comfort, Texas. Because of its ease and proximity to family, not to mention cool name, we choose Comfort as our residence. (I need to come up with a sticker using their slogan “I found Comfort in Texas”). Most of the farm/ranch type drawings I have been producing are in some way inspired by this place. Cows and goats roam freely around the camp grounds which are easy to photograph. There is just so much wild life around, trees, old farm equipment and as always the Texas Hill Country is lovely no matter what season your in, even drought. We try to get out and walk the 27 miles of trails as much as we can but there’s always something to do that involves the out doors.

Now on to our new home away from home away from home in Bastrop, Texas,

Bastrop is wonderful because of its closeness to Austin which is a city I have always been fond of and have always wanted to do more in but since our gallery closed we haven’t had much of a reason to go there, but now we do. The first time I had been to this area of Texas I fell in love with the tall pines and now we get to live among them. Looking up at tall pines when the wind blows is an amazing thing, however picking pine needles out of everything is not. If you heard about the Texas Wild Fires which just happened a few months ago you might have heard about Bastrop. It was hit pretty bad and it was sad to come down the highway and see all the burned up trees, then tragic to see all the left over’s of houses, trailers and cars that we remembered from before the fires. Many people lost everything and from what I saw around the area only a handful of houses were still there, although some untouched, I’m sure the emotional strain was at times unbearable.

We talked to a guy out there who was looking at our van and he said his wife and him lost everything and were thinking of getting an RV and hitting the road. I’m all up for the lifestyle change since we do the same thing as much as we can. The trees will grow back and people will build their homes again but wild fires are almost as common as wild flowers, its getting hotter and drier as the years go on. So here’s to some rain, but keep it to the week days cuz I don’t need another rained out show.

So in another attempt to put Texas on the map we bounce around to everything and anything we can find here, building our name and getting as many eye balls on my art as possible. When you see me in your town please ask where the most comfortable place in Texas is and I’ll tell you.