Rebranding: Iridia Creative will soon become IrisCat Designs!

This is a short heads-up that I will soon be rebranding this business to IrisCat Designs — with hope that the new name will be more memorable, sticky, easier to say, and more evocative of what I do.

IrisCat Designs

Window painting for the holiday season: four things to consider

This is my third year in window painting business, thanks to Mr. Chris Fadness who trained me in this trade in the fall of 2007. Since then I have developed unique methods of window painting art, through trials and errors, and through experiences with many businesses and residences in the Portland metropolitan area. I am fortunate to be in a place where there are not many competitions, but there are a couple of well-known window painters. My methods differ significantly from the ones utilized by my competitors.

Some of the advantages in my method appeal to local business operators who would like some window painting done for special events or holidays. When selecting a professional window painter, instead of doing it yourself, there are several things you want to consider.

1. Why do I want it anyway?
Like trees and wreaths, window painting has become a seasonal tradition of sorts for many businesses. While it is a year-round operation, I receive most inquiries during the months of November and December. This year I have instituted a “peak-season pricing” system (Nov. 20-Dec. 20) to prevent overloading on my schedules.

Window painting is kind of like a temporary mural. It simply attracts people’s attention. Humans are often products of habits, and even if your business may be at the same storefront for decades but many people just walk by in front of your shop and never notice you exist or what your business is. Window painting often brings people out of the routine and brings their attention to your business. Often I design the painting to lead passers-by to wonder about your business (for example, a winged angelic car pulling a sled for a Subaru dealer), so they would think about what my clients do.

It also builds a sense of community. Window painting adds your business to an overall neighborhood scene, and gets people to talk about you as a positive part of your neighborhood. Even though it may be just a bit of warm-fuzzies it promotes, but business involves a lot of customer’s emotions, and warm-fuzzies can greatly enhance your holiday season earning capacity.

2. What kind of paint is it?
Some window painters in the area use permanent paints (such as acrylic or even house paints) for window painting. While this is great for permanent signage, it is a pure nightmare if you are just looking for seasonal or temporary decorations. Removing permanent paints off your windows involves heavy scraping (can cause damages to the windows — just as the owner of the Postal Annex in South Portland discovered last year) and use of toxic chemicals (paint thinners, if inhaled, is poisonous and smell of the chemical can linger inside your building for some time) that can be harmful to the health of your employees and customers, as well as to the environment.

My window painting method is designed specifically for temporary or seasonal use, and requires no scraping or dangerous chemical for removal after your sale or the holiday season is over. While the paint becomes opaque (which means one can see the design from both inside and outside, keeping your shop from becoming dark) and solid without discoloration for about six months once it is dry, it can be removed with lots of warm water and typical household window cleanser (such as Windex). Also it saves you money as you would not need to hire a professional cleaner to get rid of the window paints.

3. Use of negative (transparent) spaces is part of the art.
Many window painters try to literally fill up the entire windows with paints, sometimes with big block of white or black paints. As trained artists know, what is not painted is as important as the painted areas. For a storefront window, the negative space serves an important role of keeping your windows function as windows. If your business needs visibility through a window for security reasons, it makes no sense to fill it up with paints. Likewise, especially some of the permanent paints used by a few window painters can block light and make the space inside semi-dark all day long (which may require extra lighting indoors, resulting in a higher electric bill and carbon emission).

4. Original designs are kings.
It is your storefront. It deserves to stand out from the crowd with a one-of-the-kind, only-one-in-the-world design specially made for you. It is also important to know that some painters, without authorization or license, paint copyrighted cartoon characters or something that could easily be mistaken for them. You could be held liable for any copyright infringement.

Would you like to see how it is done? Would you like one done for your storefront, office or home (a great fun for kids — I had a client who asked me to paint fairies and a snow princess — my original creation inspired by the Renaissance style, not the Disney kind — on her daughter’s bedroom window!) this holiday season? Stop by at the Postal Annex on Southwest Boundary Street between Corbett Avenue and Macadam Avenue, on Thursday, November 19 between 9 a.m. and when done (probably by noon). Any client who makes a reservation there and then will receive a 20 percent discount.

Read more about Sarah’s window painting and signage services

South Waterfront artist-in-residence to present an assessment of current visual culture

Michael A. Salter, current South Waterfront artist-in-residence, who considers himself an obsessive observer of contemporary visual culture, where graphics and corporate identities, signage and symbols, are used to communicate the culture of commerce, and these images wield tremendous power in the visual landscape we occupy.

• Photos from Salter’s recent exhibit in Belgium
• Event information from the University of Oregon Portland

Thursday, July 23, 6 p.m. at the University of Oregon Portland, 70 NW Couch St.

Happy Caturday

download SVG
download SVG (line drawing only)

matter of running an artistic business

Although I still see myself as a somewhat principled person, I have over years learned to be pragmatic. Fortunately, I am now (finally) living my youthful dream of being a professional visual artist/graphic designer, after many years of detour. Often a prevailing popular misconception is that one cannot make a living out of arts. (Partially true, it is definitely a challenge.) But we live in the middle of someone’s artwork — somebody, somewhere designs your clothes, plates on your table, patterns on your wallpaper. Without art, we would be living in a plain, solid white world where everything is efficient and utilitarian but also very sterile. Think of a typical American jail cell and that would be your world (one of many ways to reduce prison violence and inmate mental health catastrophe is to really think of this issue; commissioning artists and implement some type of percentage-for-art program at every correctional construction would be a good investment that will in a long run save a lot of money and troubles).

Yesterday I was at the monthly Art Spark and got into a conversation. A certain individual talked how, in a totalitarian or Stalinist country artists do not have freedom to express themselves outside the official party ideology.

Whether communist ideology is conducive or destructive to art is up for a debate, and frankly I think it is a fallacy — or at least a red herring. In a supposedly uber-capitalist country such as so-called United States of America (supposedly, although I know otherwise — Americans and their businesses are probably a lot more heavily regulated by their government than people in many other countries) it is also true that artists do not have unconditional freedom. In a free market economy, what can be sold and what appeals to the customer is what would be made. This means in America, an economically thriving artist must be able to produce what pleases the commercial interest of her paying clients (this also holds true with fine arts that are financed by foundation grants and fellowships). Unless all what I do is doodle some nonsensical “art” in my own bedroom and then post it inside my own little closet (oh, what a joy of freedom!), that is, if I would like to be seen and recognized as an artist, then a certain degree of pragmatism is a must, and so is a business savvy.

Contact information changed

To reach me at Iridia Creative Productions use the new phone number, (503) icp8-Amy, or 503-427-8269.

* Amy is my middle name. In the past there was a bus driver who (without knowing this fact) kept thinking my name was Amy. I told her one day, “My name is Amy only in bed.” (She blushed. Cute.)

To send me a fax, continue using (206) 338-0417.

Must-have Linux software

The beauty of today’s Linux is the ease of obtaining software you need, as long as you are connected to the Internet. Unlike Windows, almost anything can be easily downloaded and installed with just a little line of text in the command prompt, or if you are graphically oriented, from Synaptic.

To install any of these simply open up the “Terminal” and type
sudo apt-get install nameofthesoftware

“nameofthesoftware” is the standard UNIX name for the software programs, as listed below.

Graphic design tools
* scribus = desktop publishing and layout
* gimp = photo and image editing (often comes preinstalled)
* inkscape = drawing
* xaralx = easier drawing, nice effects, has difficulty saving as a vector file; excellent if you are only making PNG files for websites.

Internet tools
* drivel = write in your blogs even if you are offline
* FireFTP (an Add-On inside Firefox) = file transfer protocol, install from Firefox tools > add-ons
* webhttrack = copies contents of websites for offline archiving and viewing, including all images and media; great if you travel and need ready access to certain online resources

Productivity/Office
* abiword = fast word processing alternative to OpenOffice Writer
* evolution = calendar, addressbook, task list and offline email reader in one (I like this better than Thunderbird)

Media
* songbird = kind of like iTunes, except for iTunes Store function

Other neat stuff I found

*stardict = an amazing multilingual dictionary that supports many languages. While it is on, you can highlight on any word and dictionary definitions/translations will pop up. Dictionary data files are available at http://stardict.sourceforge.net/ .

* aiksaurus = this is a text-line based thesaurus. To use simply enter “aiksaurus wordofyourchoice” in the terminal prompt.
* display-dhammapada = a saying of Sakyamuni Buddha. To use simply enter “display-dhammapada” in the terminal prompt.
* pyching = throw coins and read I Ching.
* bibletime = not just bible but also comes with e-book versions of classics like John Calvin’s Institute and St. Augustine’s Confession. The Bible in many languages and versions of your choice.

Testing Drivel

Drivel is an offline blogging editor for Linux that works under GNOME.

To install Drivel (the last letter is lower-case ell, not one) open terminal (bash or shell of your choice) and type
sudo apt-get install drivel

or from root
apt-get install drivel

To use WordPress

Use your WordPress username for login (not the name of your blog)
Enter password
Select “Movable Type” (do not panick if you don’t see WordPress)
Enter blog server address as http://yourblogsname.wordpress.com/xmlrpc.php
Of course yourblogsname is the first part of your WordPress.

A world peace and happiness solution

http://ping.fm/IyxqA

fax number changed

The new number is 206-338-2201. Do not send anything to 206-222-2077, as it has already been reassigned to another user. The number is for receiving faxes only.