good morning campers......what a fabulous day it is today!!!.... everyday can be a fabulous day!....well one of my grandkids just got glasses....she's so excited about them......so now that's 2 grands with glasses...they both look so cute...........i remember when i was back in elementary school how i wanted glasses.....they were so groovy on everyone....but alas i had 20/20 vision and beyond.......when the eye doc would say read the lowest line on the chart i could read the "made in china" line........not so much now....
         the first time i realized something was amiss with my vision was when i was painting the kindergarten mural for am davis........my vision would kind of go double when i was really concentrating....and i'm like..."what is going on?"..............i go to the eye doc and they say "you have a little nearsightedness....or is that farsightedness?.....not sure, but it's the one where you don't see close up very well....it's kinda like fiction or non fiction ....or left brain or right brain....what's so bad is it's just 2 things you are comparing but i can not remember what is what for anything.....i even made up that thing where you make something up to help you remember...what a minute...............mnemonic devise....but maybe that's not it......cause i would say not true for non fiction?.....not sure if that's right ....hold up a minute again....no it's the opposite...not false......which is like a double negative and very confusing.......you think it would be easy to remember 2 things, but maybe not...........i have played guitar since 3rd grade and i still can not remember the names of the strings......well i know both e's and the a........but after that i always mess them up.....it's just 6 strings..........it's like doing story problems, which i have talked about before......the 5:00 train leaves the station at 12, and carried 9 tons of blah blah blah........i've already zoned out..........my neighbor tells me this when she talks taxes to me, or anything to do with money....what?.....i just zoned out on myself.........she says "why am i talking to you about this, you have already left the building"........it's not that i have left the building, it's just the way the sun was lighting up the dust speck that was floating near her head made me think of incorporating that into this painting i was working on........anyway.........
           but back to the vision thing.......so back then i just needed readers....which helped alot!.....what a difference in being able to paint! and read!....woo hoo.......... now the eye doc said i need real glasses.....not strong just a weak prescription..... cause now i have the other of what i had before......basically both sightednesses....or both non sightednesses?.....so after dragging my feet and things are kinda blurry out there and it would be nice to not be squinting to see far away......... i decided to try the bifocal glasses....instead of having 2 pairs of glasses to keep up with i would just need one!.....makes sense........well when i got them i  about walked into a wall when i put them on....besides making me extremely dizzy.... how can anybody see out of 2 inches of glass.....cause when you look straight ahead its all good, but look down and you fall over or run into things until you look up again which starts the dizzy proccess all over again..........how do you see the world???........i took them back and got the 1 vision glasses....much better...... but not being used to wearing glasses all the time, they ended up on the top of my head cause i would think they were the reading glasses.......and there i am squinting to see far away again, till i realized....oh put my glasses on.............it's been quite a journey getting used to wearing glasses.........but i can say that "wow i can really see stuff now!"........i can even see the exit sign before i pass it and go...oops that was my exit......."oops that was my exit"......

            so while reading glasses help you to read,
            and seeing glasses help you to see,
          remembering the difference between 2 things,
          is trickier than it should be... 
         two leaves the station at 1,
         and 1 leaves the station at 2,
         good bye to you,  1 and two,
          was this non fiction or completely true................?

           sometimes i wonder about myself........be groovy

          good morning campers......well while watching art marketing videos, i started researching how to ship artwork....that's a big concern of mine because,  say i finally get my artwork up for sale, "i finally get my artwork up for sale".... and say someone actually buys something!!!....."yeah!".......well back it up....first i have to be checking my website everyday to see if someone did buy something or has asked a question about my artwork.....then if they want to buy it......now i have to ship it....how do i ship it??? ......so many questions and i am dragging my feet like crazy...my toes are so scuffed up......well not too bad at the moment.......but it's alittle overwhelming thinking i will have to keep up with this everyday and not procrastinate........i know myself and if i can procrastinate i will........but that's not really the professional way is it........and there's no better way to lose customers than to not realize they have contacted you or bought something they didn't receive, etc......yikes....i put so much pressure on myself....
          so one of the art marketing videos i was watching was talking about why not to become a full time artist...always a good motivator!.......and it ended with something like complacency is death......lovely......but i guess true also......if you are not creating and marketing your work, you're not making a living......and let me tell you that waiting around for the phone to ring, does not work....well unless you want a solicitor to call you....that works...they call all the time....i actually tried to sell my artwork to a solicitor once.....i asked them to ask all the people there, if anyone needed a mural......they haven't called back.....i guess they weren't expecting that.....and i guess they didn't need a mural.....but anyway, i perfected that marketing strategy of waiting for the phone to ring.......it's kind of a lousey strategy.......
        but..... some things i have learned are,  to keep it simple......which works for me.....so just go with 2 or 3 social media places and do them well....so i have instagram.com/bobbismurals/  and facebook.com/bobbismurals/ (by the way in case you wanted to check either or both of those out....hint hint)..........i believe i spend more time on instagram than on facebook.....but there's alot to be said about spreading yourself too thin.......i started out doing this social media and that social media and forgetting that i had those and others.....that doesn't get an audience, which is what i'm after in order to sell my work.....i gather.....i'm not after gazillions of viewers, well i wouldn't turn them down, but,  i'm not even in that ballpark....i'm in the dirt patch down the road......which is kind of a good place....ya know that little shop on the corner that people stop in......and we chat about life and art and sit in bean bag chairs and have tea.....that could be dangerous cause as soon as you sit down in a bean bag chair your tea spills all over you and hopefully it wasn't hot tea......ask my youngest about hot tea spilling on her....it wasn't much but alittle is more than you need.....and aren't bean bag chairs so fun when there is a small hole in one, so whenever you sit down it shoots out little stryrofoam beans.......which are all over your house .... and you never get rid of them...... i believe they multiply when you sweep....or really they crawl up in the bristles of the broom and hang on till the appropriate time to jump off..........but anyway.....someplace low key, comfortable, welcoming and friendly.....kind of like the meg ryan movie about the bookstore.....that's a great shop.......there is a book store in german village in ohio.....it's the grooviest book store, i believe it's like a block long, but it was a house or a couple of houses, so when you go in there are all these little nooks and crannies where you can go and hang out and read....it's great......not sure if they are still in business, but a great store.....
         so while looking to find the right balance between a million views or 3.....it helps to know that along the way there are friends and family to encourage you, viewers that leave positive comments and the fun viewers that leave not so nice comments, solicitors that call constantly and a thousand and one videos on how to ship artwork............but all in all i'm in a subjective field, where everyone has their own opinion of what they think or like in art.....and i just have to be okay with me and my artwork.....and take everything else with a grain of salt.....preferably salt at the beach!.....be groovy!

         howdy do campers......well my 100 days plus 4 ( i did not add correctly...what's new?, and so my 100 days ended up being 104 days)....so 100 days plus 4 are going well....im taking some liberties with my art.....yesterday was fabric day...actually patch my jeans day.....i feel like i was using the sewing machine to draw with so that was counted as a day......
     speaking of patchwork jeans.....well no one was, but i segued ....segued looks so strange....segway looks better but that's a thing you ride......which i have and is very bizarre and fun.......focus....so who patches jeans anymore?.....well i do....but it used to be the thing to do, but now the thing to wear are  leggings......they are really comfy, but not great to patch.....too funny.......i just imagined someone wearing patched leggings.......probably me.......not really working............ so way back you would get these rectangular patches that were sewn or ironed on....no kids, not like a piece of iron on your jeans,..... it's that contraption that used to be used all the time by mom's everywhere.....iron out wrinkles in skirts, shirts, dresses, in my mom's case, sheets, towels, curtains, etc....or in my case, grilled cheese sandwiches.....yes virginia you can iron grilled cheese sandwiches on the ironing board,.... prepare the grilled cheese like you normally would then wrap in aluminum foil and iron on both sides.....amazing and really fun.........and for you carnivorous people you can make it a ham and cheese,  or for you vegans a tofu and vegan cheese.....that's really good.......... but where was i....wait, i'm right here....ha ha ha .....i make myself laugh all the time......i'm not really sure why people don't come by anymore....hmmmm........
         back to jeans......so these patches would be sewn or ironed onto the knees of your jeans even before you wore them.....to keep your jeans from wearing out so fast......cause, i always spell cause, casue....had to correct it............anyway....... you only had so many jeans and they had to last the whole year....if you grew, which we all did....material got added to the bottom...or everyone asked you why you are wearing high waters.........like you had rolled up your jeans cause you're wading through water, but you didn't roll them you just wore jeans that were too short...anyway.......well my hubby wanted to get some jeans, levis to be exact, but there are so many numbers...501, 502, 505, etc....and then what fit and cut do you want?....flare, boot cut, low rise, high rise....not a skyscraper, ....narrow leg, loose fit, curvy.....well not my hubby,....or me......relaxed, really low rise....which is kind of redundant....low- rise........what color, etc.............how bout just a pair of jeans.......and now it's not a pair of jeans it's just jean.........which is what i'm called by my relatives, and my mom when she's mad at me....bobbi jean....a good southern double name......
            but back to my 100 days plus 4, so fabric art is a thing and really art is subjective so anything you do could be construed.....very wild word.....as art.............like i just made art with the dots....."i felt it was a very existential reality that affirms the dot's existence".......what?.......right.......really i was just thinking......but yeah art can be anything.....and i've been getting some inspiring info from art marketing videos.....so i keep moving forward....ever so slowly......and even though i was supposed to be selling my artwork by april 1st...joke on me.....i'm pushing to have a way to sell my artwork by the end of this month!.....yes that's right i said it.....october 31, i will have my artwork up for sale........yikes........better get a move on.....
         so moving on...... art marketing is going well......my hubby did get some jeans.....the pictures below will be photos of my art jeans....some i can still wear and some are only patches with a little bit of jean left....or jean right......but not jean write....cause she was sewing....on day 25.....be groovy!
​ps- happy 12th birthday o 
         
        
        

      Howdy all you fabulous campers!....well it's october so halloween decorating is in full swing....or has been in full swing......also my 100 days of art is going well....actually doing it...yeah me!......especially when i can combine
halloween and my art....
       so my daughter, the oldest twin, loves halloween.....and last year i had told her that she needs some sort of monster climbing over her fence because you can see it from far off.......so last year we had made some cardboard eyes and fingers....didn't have alot of time so it was a rush job......still looked cute.....but this year i said we needed to go bigger.....so after looking online at different chicken wire sculptures.....we made a chicken wire monster......with fingers too..........now what i wanted to do was have the monster climbing over the fence......but with only a total of around 7 hours....my ideas got scaled done abit........we got done what we could get done.....
      the start of the monster was us trying to figure out how big to make it......i had already painted 3 eyes for him....dollar tree has some big clear plastic serving bowls at the fabulous price of $1 each....gotta love dollar tree.....ya know in japan their dollar tree is called the 100 yen store.......great stuff there!.......so back to the  eyes.....so i painted them like i painted my dino eyes, from the inside and they turned out great.......i'm trying to get the picture in the text for you to see....
     i remember doing a post on chasing around the image as i tried to put it in the text....it's happening again.....arrrggghh....and now the text formatting has gone ca -flooee....that's the technical name for when your text goes crazy......i don't think it's happening today...
       anyway   so here we are ....well there we were actually....but we were trying to figure out how to start the monster.....let me say making an armature before you start is way better than making after you have put alot of chicken wire in a shape and it's not holding it's shape......live and learn.......so after multiple starts and restarts and numerous people now helping hold the shape we get the head kind of done........the armature is now in and somewhat stable inside the monster....he's holding his own...yeah.....we secure the eyes in the monster.......get the first part of the nose done....i wanted him to be sort of a kilroy type monster.....ya know the nose hanging over the fence and the fingers gripping the fence........it was an old cartoon type character.....so we needed him to be propped up more or laying on his back to finish the nose......anyway.......so my daughter and i are getting to the tired part .......ya know the part where we are getting tired of each other......i have my idea....she has her idea......i gotta say that her way of attaching some chicken wire did work a little better than mine.....sometimes my vision is not as clear as it could be.....kind of a cloudy vision that works itself out through alot of trial and error.......and painful cuts and scratches ...because chicken wire is sharp.....who knew??
       now my daughters' like, "what are we covering him with?".....hmmmm....my original idea was shower curtains or cheap plastic and then spray paint them.....but since we didn't have that with us and it's getting dark and we are trying to hold it together with our frustration of "it's not done yet???".....i say "how about cobwebs?...they should stick to chicken wire real easy!".......let me say that unless something is rough....cobwebs don't stick to it........but they do stick to anything and everything else....our gloves, bodies, hair, feet, tools, etc.....just not chicken wire......so let's cut the chicken wire in areas to attach it!!!......after many more painful cuts and scratches....that did not work much better.....then we thought how bout that gauzy fabric....like cheese cloth but cheaper.......we put that on first....but it didn't stick much better either.........then an idea hit us.....or that might have been the chicken wire.....but..... eureka.....spray glue!!!!!......
      the fabulous properties of spray glue......you spray and it glues....wonderful......so now we have gauzy fabric glued to chicken wire with cobwebs glued to that and our hands and fingers glued to each other and cobwebs glued to our clothes and feet......but the monster looks great!!!!.....
      still need arms and legs....like i said we had to scale down.....so fingers it is.....well 3 fingers, cause we were kinda done and it was starting to rain.....
        the next day, it's really raining now and we finish 5 more fingers, attach noodles for hair.....pool noodles are the best...you can use them for anything.......so fun..........now with the help of my son-in-law and hubby we have to attach it to the fence....in the rain....and the wind.......no problem.....electric power tools in the rain....so much fun.....
       all i can say is...."hallelujah the monster is secured to the fence and looking fabulous".....the whole fence might fall over in a strong wind but the monster  will stay attached to the fence!.......
        so the next time you want to make a monster for your fence ...i would say cardboard is such a great material to work with...not as painful.......and it's free!..............but ...making the monster made up 2 days of my 100 days of art....sweet!!!...be groovy yall !