Sale on canvas prints! Use code ABCXYZ at checkout for a special discount!

Blog

Displaying: 21 - 30 of 67

  |  

Show All

  |

Previous 1 2

[3]

4 5 6 Next

Crazy Christmas Cards

December 7th, 2019

Crazy Christmas Cards

The holiday season is here and has inspired me to dig through all kinds of fascinating family memorabilia. Beyond getting all misty eyed at how quickly time has passed, and secretly checking out how many wrinkles may or may not have happened since “back in the day”…. it has suddenly come to my attention that I am definitely not Normal! I mean, A Revelation! Like a giant rubber mallet to the head! Who knew? I’m laughing, obviously. I knew. But I guess I also kind of thought people were kidding when they told me straight to my face? Oh dear! Apparently I really just didn’t care… It’s tough being a misunderstood visionary genius. You never know what we weird artist types will do. Check out these wild and crazy and definitely *inappropriate* Christmas Cards from years past:

For more images and active links go to: https://aefraserart.blogspot.com/2019/12/crazy-christmas-cards.html

For more appropriate Amy E. Fraser holiday cards and gift ideas go to Aefraser.com

Holiday Cards

December 6th, 2019

Holiday Cards

Create a holiday to remember! Amy E. Fraser Holiday Cards are the perfect way to share blessings of times past and in the future with family and friends.
What holiday activities are more traditional than sending cards to loved ones, friends and business associates this time of year?
You can choose the perfect card! Check out these standout designs... Or choose your own design from AEFraser.com. Personalize your holiday cards with a special greeting. Remind everyone that you're thinking of them with unique innovative Fine Art Cards.
Shop the entire Amy E. Fraser Art collection for more gift ideas to make your holiday the best ever! Christmas only comes once a year! So deck the halls and spread good cheer by sending Holiday cards and gifts to friends and relatives.
If you are stuck on a greeting, try one of these short and simple greetings:
Happy Holidays!
Enjoy the Holidays!
Warmest Thoughts and Best Wishes!
Joy! Joy! Joy!
Merry Christmas!
Merry & Bright!
Happy New Year!
Baby, it’s Cold Outside!
Our Warmest Wishes!
Love, Peace and Joy!
Shine Bright this Holiday Season!
All the Best for a Joyful Season!
Cheers to a New Year!
For more Amy E. Fraser art cards and gift ideas go to Aefraser.com
For Card Examples and active links visit: https://aefraserart.blogspot.com/2019/12/holiday-cards.html

Monkey Business

December 5th, 2019

Monkey Business

Once upon a time in New York City a 17 year old, small town country girl had a very crazy summer. By day she attended a prestigious summer art program at Parsons School of Design...
By night she and the other naughty summer program children went on amazing adventures. The only rule for school was that you had to make it back to the 12th street NYU dorm (Loeb Hall) by curfew. If you did not, parents received a call, bad boys and girls were kicked out of the program and sent back home. There was a 24-hour security desk where you needed card access to get into the building and the safety of your dorm room. All of the students were required to sign the log and the high school age children at the Parsons Summer programs were under strict curfew.
So of course, teenage mentality determined that the "logical" work around was to stay out all night and sneak back into the dorm during the changing of the guard. That meant me and that adorable young lady above spent a few scary nights wandering the city streets until dawn, or passing out on park benches when we were too exhausted from running away from scary weirdo's. In between the giggles, stupidity, stark fear, and clubbing, there was the occasional photo shoot. The photo shoot in this example involved a monkey. My friend was a budding photographer and that meant that we would go out hunting for interesting city moments to capture. Obviously I volunteered to be her scantily clad model. By the way, she grew up to be a world renowned sculptor and photographer.
Just so you know, looking back from a mother's perspective, if those young ladies were my children I would have grounded them for life! What we did was incredibly naïve and irresponsible. We were lucky to have made it through that summer alive. So if you are reading this son, do as I say! Not as I've done. Ok then, that's all for Monkey Business, just randomly sharing...
What? Some fabulous writer out there is going to need these delightful tidbits to add fluff to my artist biography someday. I mean I did promise people I’d be famous. There’s still time... I hear Old Ladies have replaced hot young male artists as the new "Darlings" of the art scene. I'm prepping early for my big Re-Entrance! Best of luck to you and your life adventures, remember, you are never too old to be Fabulous!

For more images and active links go to: https://aefraserart.blogspot.com/2019/12/monkey-business.html

Humble Beginnings

December 4th, 2019

Humble Beginnings

Every Artist needs a good origin story. Your tale is what makes you, you. Your life from beginning to end, influences your art. As it should. Because if we are good at our craft, we tap into those emotions and incorporate them into our work in ways that make our viewers feel what we have felt. This involves the dreaded skill of “introspection”, the ability to perform an honest self examination of one’s own feelings, thoughts, and motives. It’s difficult, human’s aren’t pretty, and feelings are gross and messy. Life experiences always involve emotion. Where we come from and how we grew up, shape the core of who we are, how we see the world. How we imagine others see us. We carry within us all of the joys, successes, heartaches, trials and tribulations of our formative years.
It used to be that the world was a smaller place, people were prone to staying in the towns where they grew up, as their parents did, and their parents before them. From the moment you were born, you were judged, labeled and categorized, not on your own deeds, but those of your forefathers. Your life was limited by your family name and history, financial and social status and all of those other random factors, binding us at birth. This is still true today of course, but now the judgments of others are quieter, much more politically correct. And if that doesn’t work, you could always move away and reinvent yourself?

So what were my “Humble Beginnings?” I was born to a couple of kids who got married right out of high school. My mother was 20, and my father 21 when I was born. We lived in a small trailer, parked on the edge of my grandfather’s sheep pasture, in Norwich, Vermont. I do not remember much about my early years, but I did grow up understanding that even though my homes changed and financial standing increased over the years, many people of our small town would always view me as a poor kid, stereotypically low class, branded as “trailer trash”. I believe that while I didn’t understand class and social structures then, that I did form an understanding of my place within society and knew I was considered less than. And yes, this does in fact form a chip on one’s shoulder, if you let it. There is more to the origin story, obviously, but I’ll save all of that juicy dark drama for the Biography.

In summation dear reader, the point I was attempting to make is that I believe we should celebrate our origins, no matter how humble our beginnings. We should not deny our experiences, because they made us who we are today. You don’t have to put up a plaque next to your elite college degrees that states you were once considered Trailer Trash, but you could. Who doesn’t love a good Underdog Story? You are not what other people label you. You decide the course your life takes. You are responsible for your future and how you shape yourself, not your friends, parents, or grandparents. You get to decide who you are. Be proud to be you! All of those people who would judge you are self loathing losers, don’t let them rain on your parade. Just be true to yourself and let the haters hate. You will be the one winning it in the end!

For more Amy E. Fraser art and information go to Aefraser.com

For more images and active links go to: https://aefraserart.blogspot.com/2019/12/humble-beginnings.html

David's House Loon

December 1st, 2019

David

In my last post I discussed creating Art for a Cause as in the example of the United Way Poster Winner. Another way in which Artist's are often asked to make a difference is through donations of our work to fundraising auctions. I have been honored to participate in many worthy charities over the years but one of my favorite creations for a cause was The Exalted Beauty Loon for David's House:
The Exalted Beauty Loon by Amy E. Fraser
The Exalted Beauty Loon is a hand painted wooden loon decoy by Amy E. Fraser. Painted in luminous metallic glazes in warm shades of antique copper, bronze, and gold, this intricately decorated Exalted Beauty Loon was created for a fine art auction fundraiser featuring local Vermont and New Hampshire artists in support of David’s House.

“David’s House is the dream of a little boy named David Cyr who passed away at age five after a three-and-a-half-year struggle against acute lymphatic leukemia. Built so that families can remain together when it is most crucial, David’s House provides a home-away-from-home and support for families with children receiving treatment through the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.” Learn more at: davids-house.org

The Exalted Beauty Loon is designed and hand painted by Amy E. Fraser. All images copyright Amy E. Fraser. All rights reserved.

For more Amy E. Fraser art and information go to Aefraser.com

United Way Poster Winner

December 1st, 2019

United Way Poster Winner

In my recent post “Young Art Entrepreneur” I discussed how I officially started my first art business at 17 years old, however, what I didn’t mention was that I had already had a long and illustrious career as a famed local artist. Well, perhaps I alluded to that in my “Artist Biography 2010” and maybe also when I shared the award winning Bear With Me Logo from Kindergarten in “Artist Biography Advice”… Did I also mention that Artist’s often have large Egos and an over inflated sense of Self Importance? Yeah, that sort of thing happens to geniuses, it’s rough. Anyway, some Egomaniacs manage positive impact with their art, as was the case with my First Place United Way Poster from 1986 (age 13). Here is a look at it from a newspaper I found while touring memory lane with my son this past Thanksgiving break.

It looks like I had very strong opinions about eighty’s excess and shared this through (hopefully good humored) sarcasm. The question that appears on the top of the poster is “Is this you?” The poster then illustrates a wide variety of vain and opulent characters drowning in loads of money and proceeds to ask “Don’t you think you could give us a – (hand)“ word ending next to the United Way Hand. So perhaps not expertly executed, but well intended. This is one of my early thought provoking concept pieces meant to cause shock, discomfort and get a reaction. It was the beginning of Amy E. Fraser’s Awareness Art as my friend Laurel so cleverly labeled it. This was art for a cause, art with meaning and intent, art meant to make a difference… because art can be a powerful tool for healing and change if used wisely.

For more Amy E. Fraser art and information go to Aefraser.com


Granite United Way is a nonprofit organization that makes strategic investments in our community that help others Learn, Earn and Be Healthy. Our impact covers more than 80% of New Hampshire and Windsor County, Vermont.

Granite United Way has the expertise, trust, and scope to bring together stakeholders like local nonprofits, government, businesses, private foundations, and volunteers with the common goal of delivering total community impact.

Granite United Way believes that every one of us has the power to be a change agent. We are committed to removing barriers and creating opportunities for people to make a positive impact in our community. We are more than a fundraiser, we are partners in change, working with a broad range of people and organizations to identify and resolve pressing community issues.

Granite United Way's commitment to transparency and efficiency has been recognized at the national level and of the highest accolade, by both Charity Navigator and GuideStar, organizations that ensure charities are held to standards of excellence.

We work closely with volunteer leadership to invest donor dollars to help our community Learn, Earn and Be Healthy. By focusing on these investment initiatives, we are helping people in new and strategic ways. Great things happen when we Live United.

Give. Advocate. Volunteer. LIVE UNITED. Learn more about Granite United Way

For more images and active links go to: https://aefraserart.blogspot.com/2019/12/united-way-poster-winner.html

Be Someone They Can Envy

November 29th, 2019

Be Someone They Can Envy

Many fascinating discussions have happened over the years with my best friend, we met when I moved to New York City in 1992 and have remained close ever since. She is a deep thinker with very specific opinions on pretty much everything. She is a leader, a trendsetter and against all things mainstream. This is a woman who knows who she is, what she wants and what she’s talking about. She’s always been this way. I’m not saying we agree on everything, we don’t. I’m also a woman of strong opinions. But when it comes to asking her for advice, I know she will have a definitive answer. When it comes to her thoughts on social media, she believes one can not maintain an audience unless they become someone the audience will envy and want to emulate.
Unfortunately for you dear reader, I’m probably not that person. My exploits on social media started in 2000. I’ve been making mistakes publicly ever since. I was naive and didn’t have a plan when I started dabbling on the internet. I, like most people then, did not have a concept of what the internet would become. We had no idea the impact of the medium or how far reaching our words and images would go. Without fully realizing it, the world (well beyond our friends and family), was invited into our personal lives. I know I shared my wedding, the birth of my child, they watched him grow up, they saw his first days of school, class projects, holidays, Halloween costumes... all of it. It was happening in real time through my blog, Facebook and website.
So while you should not follow my path, I can now offer you the wisdom of decades of experience. In typical Mom fashion I suggest you do as I say, not as I’ve done. I’m older and wiser now. I can tell you that my best friends advice is key for you up and coming social media mavens. FYI. The credentials of best friend? Not only is she gorgeous, ageless and perfect in every way, she was also a trend setter for a popular New York fashion magazine for many years and a fashion stylist to the stars. She is currently wealthy, living comfortably in the country, raising two beautiful babies, running a successful property management company on the side and still practicing her lifelong discipline of ballet. She's Amazing. So listen to her! Figure out your brand before you begin your entrance into Social Media. A business plan is a very good idea. Know your market, your end goal, and then, only then, when you have all your ducks in a row, are you ready to launch yourself into the social media sphere. Remember, Be Authentic but also Be Someone They Can Envy! The followers will follow. Good luck!

Young Art Entrepreneur

November 27th, 2019

Young Art Entrepreneur

When I was a 17 year old senior in high school (back in 1991) I worked nights at a dance club (yes, with parental consent). The club/bar was called Scruples. There, a fellow waitress introduced me to her artist boyfriend, Aaron Fitzherbert. Aaron, a recent graduate from art college was looking to start an art business and asked if I would be interested. We became partners in a t-shirt business, focusing on the Zodiac for our image concept. Aaron designed one half of the Zodiac images and I the other. He taught me the skills needed to create a hand crafted t-shirt design. We didn't have print on demand back then, so I learned the process of silk screening and how to use an air brush. The final Zodiac drawings were silk screened onto the t-shirts in black ink and we custom painted each one with their own unique color combinations and details. We sold a crazy amount of t-shirts, between our friends and family, the people at the club, word of mouth traveled, everyone had to have one! It was super exciting! We even participated in a number of local craft fairs and had quite a bit of success with that as well. It was an amazing educational experience for a budding art entrepreneur. It was also a major boost to my self confidence and set the tone for receiving monetary compensation for my artwork from that day forward. Our t-shirt business concluded when I went to New York City for school but I took my newly developed business acumen with me and continued to make a profit from art sales while in college. That however is another night club setting, and story for another post. This (photo) is me (age 17-18) selling our Zodiac t-shirts at one of the craft fairs.
So that ladies and gentleman was my Art Marketing and Sales origin story. Hope your taking notes! I’m kidding! Found this picture while giving my son a photographic tour down memory lane today. I’m pretty sure he was horrified by most of it, but who can explain the complete and total awesomeness of the late 80’s early 90’s. Not me. Hope you all are enjoying your family this holiday! Happy Thanksgiving!
For more Amy E. Fraser art and information go to Aefraser.com
PS. Aaron if you ever come across this post, my older, much nicer self would like to say Sorry and Thank You for putting up with me and my obnoxious girlfriends. We were total brats! You were a brave and kind young man :)

Catalog Portraits

November 26th, 2019

Catalog Portraits

Exalted Beauty Medallion Portraits of Amy E. Fraser
These rather humorous "Selfie" photos were taken before I had a phone camera, so we get to call them serious Fine Art Portraits. These were created intentionally for the purpose of Exalted Beauty Medallion Art Marketing, expanding the Artist Brand, insuring the Name/Face/Brand recognition and the all time favorite, letting the customer get to know You, because remember kids, patrons are buying You the Artist!
These Exalted Beauty Medallion self portraits were created for and posted on the Exalted Beauty blog at the completion of each medallion collection. The Exalted Beauty Medallion catalogs provided the extreme close up of the individual pieces, but the portraits provided an example for the customers to visualize how the medallion would actually look on. Besides, my medallion ladies used to get a kick out of me playing dress up, it gave them something to pick on me about, providing a laugh, and yes loosening those wallets.
Best of luck to you and your Art Marketing endeavors! Feel free to share your trials and tribulations in the Art Biz. I look forward to hearing from you!
For more Amy E. Fraser art and information go to Aefraser.com

Scanography

November 26th, 2019

Scanography

Scanography also referred to as scanner photography, is the process of capturing digitized images of objects for the purpose of creating printable art using a flatbed "photo" scanner. Fine art scanography differs from traditional document scanning by using atypical objects, often three-dimensional. Scanography is the physical process of arranging objects on a glass platen to capture an image, similar in quality to large format photography. The process records extremely fine detail with a rather shallow depth of field and produces a high quality digital file. The most common use for Scanography is as a specialized tool for macro photography. For example, in the way in which I used the scanner to photograph individual Exalted Beauty Medallions. The purpose in this example was to provide the most accurate presentation of the product for online sales. Another common, more artistic use of Scanography is to capture collages of objects. The objects are arranged upside down on the scanner bed, and then captured. Often this process involves numerous adjustments before the desired image is achieved. Here are some favorite examples of my Exalted Beauty Medallion Scanography:

For more Amy E. Fraser art and information go to Aefraser.com

 

Displaying: 21 - 30 of 67

  |  

Show All

  |

Previous 1 2

[3]

4 5 6 Next