Since I started painting last July, I’ve completed seventy five paintings. Fifteen of them are in oils. I began painting in oils just before Christmas. In the beginning I had given away many of my acrylic paintings to family and a couple of friends. They were so impressed with my new found talent, that they just had to have some to display in their homes. Naturally, I was humbled by their want to display my creations and their response, once they saw them. Acrylics dry quickly and putting on a finish coat to preserve them didn’t take too long. Oils, on the other hand can take up to a year to totally dry. Putting on a sealer is not recommended for at least six months. They are unfinished and in the mean time, I keep painting new ones.
I have sold several of my acrylics to neighbors and other friends. They approached me looking to acquire some of my paintings after seeing them displayed in my family and close friends’ homes. I knew then and there that my paintings were something that I didn’t just want to give away for free. Paint supplies aren’t cheap and the time and effort involved in creating them should have some value to the public. I already have some future orders for my oils once they are sealed and dry from folks other than family and friends. I could have given them away, but if I had there wouldn’t be any value to what I do. It would have been demeaning and my efforts worthless. They would have just wanted more free stuff at my expense.
When I began my journey with paints, the thought of selling my art, never crossed my mind. All I wanted to do is find out if I could do it and do it well. I was curious to see where this new thing might take me…nothing more. I really didn’t have any thoughts on what I was going to do with the finished paintings and the idea of an art burning party did cross my mind. I had no value to what I was doing except in trying something I’ve never done before. The value came as soon as folks began wanting my art. That’s when I had to set the price on art, to give it value.
Many artists/bands in this case, on music sites such as Sound Click or Sound Cloud, simply give their music away as a free download. What they are telling the public is that they don’t value what they do nor about the music. I learned years ago that the only time someone comes back to my music page was when I uploaded a new tune and had a free download. Once they had It, there was no reason to come back until I posted a new tune. I don’t know about you, but it takes me several weeks to write and prepare one tune for a recording session. There is a lot of time and effort invested just with one tune and I’ll be damned if I’m going to give that away. One or two free samples/downloads is my limit for the most part. As for the rest, I have to set some value to what I do as a musician. I've even made a few bucks doing it this way and have plenty of listeners and followers stopping by my music page at Sound Click just to check out my music.
The music business has really gone down the toilet in the past years and it's getting more difficult for musicians, full time musicians that is, to make a living at it. The big problem I've noticed is that young bands are willing to play for free just for exposure not realizing that they have fucked it up for everyone else trying to make a living at it. Sure a club or a bar owner is going to want someone to play for free, after all they have nothing to lose and only to gain a few more customers. In the long run bands playing for free are screwing themselves at the same time for future gigs for money. Let's face it these bands are saying that they have no value for what they do and are making the club/bar owners a little richer at their own expense. Stupidity
Showing posts with label musician. Show all posts
Showing posts with label musician. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2016
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Kicking it up a notch or two
I'm a musician that needs a challenge or two to get my rocks off. I pretty much thrive on creative challenges whether in music or in other aspects in life. When I can't seem to get it musically, I find it in other areas. One aspect of creativity in my life has to do with woodworking. It's still something where I can learn from my previous works. I'm not saying that I can't learn anything new from music but after 5.5+ decades of being a musician, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of new creative ideas any more in any of the genres let alone jazz that has kept me challenged for most of my musician career.
I have no idea where this creative form of woodworking came to me from. I built some cabinet speakers for my guitar amp way back when I was a teen ager. I did get involved with remodeling in the 80's and about 5 yrs ago built a toy box for my grandson. But, nothing was ever so intriguing and fun to do until an elderly neighbor lady asked me to build her a simple bird house. When I was finished with it a few hours later, I told her that I would build her something a little more elaborate when I had a chance. After that everything just seemed to fall in place as I built one complicated bird house and then another. Before I knew it I had built about a dozen, each being more complex than the previous one. I had learned something new and had the balls to try something different when something didn't workout the first time. That's the way I learned to play jazz. When one thing doesn't work, you try something different until you find something that works. Anyway, those few bird houses got me started in building outdoor furniture which became another source for creativity.
When I was a re-modeler I learned to go with the flow. There were times when a job would be so difficult and to get things done, I had to fight my way thru because, things just didn't workout as it was supposed to according to the plans given to me. I learned to listen to the house because it would tell me what it needed and how to do it. Using that idea, the jobs went much easier and the job came out better than the original plan. In music, I began using the same idea, letting the music lead me in the direction it wanted to go. To do that, you need to listen to it, no...I mean really listen to it closely. Listen to the chord structure and the melody and then let it take you where it wants to go. Don't fight it. It's just not worth the effort and it'll sound like crap.
Ever wonder what a bird house would look like that cost over $2,000.00? I built one for a friend of mine which would go for about $2,400.00. Yeah, it's definitely an art form and if I was being paid by the hour for my efforts like in a real job, I would still only make under $12.00 an hour. The, and we'll call it a miniature, work began on April 1st and was completed April 27. That's 27 straight days of work between 8-10 hrs a day continuously only taking bathroom breaks and lunch. Power tools would perhaps make the job a bit faster but there were so many small cuts involved that power tools were pretty much useless. Everything had to be cut by hand, either a hand saw (mini) and/or a utility knife. The wood in question was cedar. I love the look of cedar and it handles weather better than most woods..
After I built the basic box, I could now add the rest of the components of the house. You see, it was pretty cut up. It was not a typical box house. I glued strips of wood (cedar) over the 3/4" wood to create a siding look and then painted it. When I got to the roof, I decided to frame it out using wood strips I had cut for it with a utility knife. The roof sheathing I used was lauan. Lauan is a 3/16th" plywood that withstands weather pretty well also. Mostly it's used for a flooring underlayment. I used it because it was light enough and easy to cut with a utility knife. All pieces were glued using a waterproof white outdoor glue. When it came to shingling the roof, I made my own. There are many other factors also involved in building a $2,400.00 miniature which I won't reveal at this time but I assure you that the completed miniature/bird house is pretty f'in cool. Here's some pics that don't do justice to it but does show how cool it really is.
I have no idea where this creative form of woodworking came to me from. I built some cabinet speakers for my guitar amp way back when I was a teen ager. I did get involved with remodeling in the 80's and about 5 yrs ago built a toy box for my grandson. But, nothing was ever so intriguing and fun to do until an elderly neighbor lady asked me to build her a simple bird house. When I was finished with it a few hours later, I told her that I would build her something a little more elaborate when I had a chance. After that everything just seemed to fall in place as I built one complicated bird house and then another. Before I knew it I had built about a dozen, each being more complex than the previous one. I had learned something new and had the balls to try something different when something didn't workout the first time. That's the way I learned to play jazz. When one thing doesn't work, you try something different until you find something that works. Anyway, those few bird houses got me started in building outdoor furniture which became another source for creativity.
When I was a re-modeler I learned to go with the flow. There were times when a job would be so difficult and to get things done, I had to fight my way thru because, things just didn't workout as it was supposed to according to the plans given to me. I learned to listen to the house because it would tell me what it needed and how to do it. Using that idea, the jobs went much easier and the job came out better than the original plan. In music, I began using the same idea, letting the music lead me in the direction it wanted to go. To do that, you need to listen to it, no...I mean really listen to it closely. Listen to the chord structure and the melody and then let it take you where it wants to go. Don't fight it. It's just not worth the effort and it'll sound like crap.
Ever wonder what a bird house would look like that cost over $2,000.00? I built one for a friend of mine which would go for about $2,400.00. Yeah, it's definitely an art form and if I was being paid by the hour for my efforts like in a real job, I would still only make under $12.00 an hour. The, and we'll call it a miniature, work began on April 1st and was completed April 27. That's 27 straight days of work between 8-10 hrs a day continuously only taking bathroom breaks and lunch. Power tools would perhaps make the job a bit faster but there were so many small cuts involved that power tools were pretty much useless. Everything had to be cut by hand, either a hand saw (mini) and/or a utility knife. The wood in question was cedar. I love the look of cedar and it handles weather better than most woods..
After I built the basic box, I could now add the rest of the components of the house. You see, it was pretty cut up. It was not a typical box house. I glued strips of wood (cedar) over the 3/4" wood to create a siding look and then painted it. When I got to the roof, I decided to frame it out using wood strips I had cut for it with a utility knife. The roof sheathing I used was lauan. Lauan is a 3/16th" plywood that withstands weather pretty well also. Mostly it's used for a flooring underlayment. I used it because it was light enough and easy to cut with a utility knife. All pieces were glued using a waterproof white outdoor glue. When it came to shingling the roof, I made my own. There are many other factors also involved in building a $2,400.00 miniature which I won't reveal at this time but I assure you that the completed miniature/bird house is pretty f'in cool. Here's some pics that don't do justice to it but does show how cool it really is.
 |
| here I am with the miniature |
 |
| this shows the front of the house in an outdoor setting. notice the brick look. the green stuff is grass |
 |
| side view |
 |
| here's the back with a cedar deck and a screened in room |
 |
| you can see here how I laid out the roof with different length wood strips glued together |
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