A new website is launched!

Art-life is many things, and is never ever, as I have come to learn, simply about thinking about and making art.

There is a lot of other work that has to be done if you actually ever want to share your work with people - either nearby or far away. This would seem to include, but not be limited to, pricing work, photographing work, writing up artist statements, creating exhibition schedules, writing applications for exhibitions, writing articles for journals, creating logos and with compliments slips, stationery, blogs, websites, newsletters and a range of other items.

I have been rather quiet on the making side of late - still finding my way forward again after my mum died - but I have been busy designing the look and feel of a new website and providing loads of words and images into the new site, which has been created and built by Katie at Phoenix Design.

So, without much further ado, I'd like to introduce you to my new fionadempster.com website - my formal and more professional presence on the interweb.

I am thrilled with how it has worked out - of course we have little things still to tweak and the odd correction to make, but generally speaking it is in fine shape to share with the world.

Ta da!

The images on the landing page. If you hover over the image you discover a category of my work - artists' books, calligraphic art, letterpress, women, peace and war, off the page, commissions, pas de deus and recent highlights.

And this is the top of the page - the header and the menu as well as most of the images above!

My artists' books portfolio page.

And clicking on Beyond Books and Burning you get to this sub-portfolio page.

Similarly, my women's page.

Click on Time for Change

Then if you click on an image, you get an enlargement, showing the detail beautifully.

 A portion of my Exhibitions page (found under Places)

A portio of my Workshops page (found under Events)

And another new feature - a page where you can see my last ten blog posts and what they are about.

Probably I have done enough show and tell here and the best thing to do is head over to fionadempster.com and have a wander for yourself!

It has been a time-consuming and at times tiring few weeks as we focused, and decided, and wrote, and re-sized and named photographs and worked hard to find the best layout and colours and look.

It feels like a milestone has been achieved. It was time to renew and refresh and I love the square imagery throughout, and that the site is optimised for mobile phones and for tablets. Katie was brilliant to work with and I couldn't recommend her highly enough for artists' websites. The new site builds on the previous one, but just takes it the next level.

Barry has created a whole new website as well (barrysmithart.com) which is also worth a look - so many beautiful shiny things!

I am really happy - the site feels new and fresh and me. Bubbles all round I think!

Website re-vamp and a shop...

Barry and I have been beavering away here and there, now and then, to try and update our websites. We like the idea that they are a place where people can see the best of our work, and get a real sense of who we are and what we do.

We haven't been particularly good at the updating thing we realise, but in the past few weeks have spent many hours uploading new photos, re-arranging the 'portfolios' of work and generally freshening things up.

What has been really good about doing this, is that we are now both quite comfortable and familiar with the software.  I think one of the things that kept us from updating was that we weren't all that confident; so we didn't, and we didn't keep improving our skills so we could feel more confident...and so the silly cycle went on.

But now we both feel confident to go in and do a quick tweak or add another image and that feels good. Almost as comfortable as blogging!

Another nice thing about talking about the website and what would go on it, was that it really clarified for us who we are and what we do.  What are we known for? Where are our passions? How does our work come together in a  group or collection?  We talked as we drove to Goondiwindi and back (twice), we talked on our morning walks, and we talked over a glass of red at the end of the day.  It was a really helpful process to clarify things.

So please pop on over to my website either here or through the link on the sidebar and see what you think. Barry's website can be viewed here.

The other item of associated news is that we have been working with a friend of a friend to develop an online shop each as part of our websites where people could buy some of our work, and we are thrilled to say we are finally live!

This will of course be a work in progress - what sort of things, what sort of prices etc, but its an important step for us and we look forward to seeing where it leads. If you ever see something that you like and it's not in the shop to speak, we now also have the capacity to make sales and receive money using paypal, so we can always explore options.

My shop can be found on my website here, and some of Barry's beautiful pieces can be found for sale in his shop here.

Phew! Time for a little lie-down I think, or maybe a glass of bubbles...

A new website!

Today is an auspicious day. After much investigating, researching, exploring, and testing of ideas and options, our new websites have gone live.

My brother and his partner helped in the initial install of software templates, I went on to design and build them, and we got help from a friend's friend to manage the last little bits that had me frozen in fear. I am really pleased that we were able to design and build them for about 3% of the cost we were quoted to have them built for us.

We have been trying to think through and analyse how we wish to use the different platforms that are available for  sales and promotion of our art.  Our new business identity and cards are important for face to face encounters and for leaving with people as reminders of us and our work. Our blurb books are good to leave with galleries and the like to flick through our work in hard copy. Our blogs are brilliant ways to build connections and have conversations about our art; and our websites are the places where we showcase our work in one place.

At least for now that's how we are thinking about it!

You will find a link to my website at the top of the right hand column - just click on the image and away you go. You can see Barry's website here.

In the end, we decided that when you visit an artist's website you want to see their art, so that is the focus of our sites. We also wanted them to look professional and I think we achieved that as well. You can also link back to this blog from the website, so we have tried to keep our worlds connected.

The other reason today is auspicious is that 5 years ago (the day, Friday) we left our safe and secure jobs in the public sector and escaped to our mountain top. It was lovely to launch our art websites and see how much we have done, how far we have come since we left. Oh, and the other auspicious occasion - it's our wedding anniversary!

Feedback and suggestions for improvement are welcomed - I expect we'll be tinkering a bit in the weeks to come.

©Fiona Dempster, Silences

A facelift for my blog!

After talking to myself about it for ages, pondering, and then tentatively exploring possibilities and options for quite sometime, today I finally sat myself down and said "you have an hour to redesign your blog"!  And I pretty much did within the hour.

I was too scared to publish it at first, but then played for another hour and got it to where we are now. Phew.

I am not sure it is finished - lots of opportunities for fiddling and fine tuning I think, but the new look is trying to bring together the identity; and make things look a bit similar.

I mentioned we had new business cards, the website is underway here; and the soft grey is going to play a part in an ongoing way.

I have also introduced myself to tumblr, courtesy of Robyn Gordon from Artpropelled; who wrote this post which got me intrigued (enchanted, besotted, addicted...).

I think about tumblr for me as a modern day version of cutting out images from magazines and sticking them in my book.  My archive page is restful and soothing (for me) and each of the images speaks to me. Quietly.

Burnt text ©Fiona Dempster