Why do I blog? What is the return on my blogging investment?
I have long wanted an Art Barn Studio.
I found the barn, nestled into a knoll, with tall, old trees close enough to cast shadows on it in the late afternoons, early mornings. But it was attached to property already taken and not likely to come up for sale for a long while. (I asked.)
I built a dream around that barn. Reconstructed it in my mind, with a fireplace and wet bar, desks for computers, table space for friends to bring their art supplies and create. Windows — lots of them! — with small panes, French doors. Leather club chairs to snuggle into, before the fire. Lots of coffee to brew and sip…
Okay, in my mind’s eye there was also a small half-bath for convenience.
It was a large barn. And in my dream it became a cozy meeting place, welcoming and friendly. Where workshops could happen, and artists and writers could share and learn.
The benefit to all of us would be a community of learning and sharing and growing friendships.
The community of life-learners would be the return on my investment.
Money — or rather, not enough of it — is the reason the dream remains a dream. But I don’t sit idly, waiting for it to materialize.
I open my home to other artists who want to come paint with me. I visit and contribute to painting forums and blogs. I take classes online and locally. I show my paintings locally and online, submit to contests, and search for revenue opportunities that relate to my work, online and off.
And the last few months I’ve opened my Over Coffee Blog… a cozy place to come, to share, and to learn from each other. We — the blog, my visitors, and I — are all growing.
There is a scheduled happening in Chicago the first few days of May, called the SOBcon09. Successful and Outstanding Blogs Conference of 2009.
My blogging instructor and mentor Bean Fairbanks is raising funds to go. I’ve helped in a small way, hoping she reaches her goal so she can learn from the 20 or so speakers who will be there, participate in the mastermind groups, and bring it all back to her students. (Of which I am one, for life I think. She runs a blogging studio, and I like being there for all the reasons mentioned
above.)
I entered this painting — which I named Sisters – into a contest sponsored by Phyllis Stewart at the Innographx Forum. There were 30 entrants in the portrait division and this won 1st place. Phyllis provided the photo and we were allowed to paint it anyway we chose.
I drew it first, in Painter X with a digital pencil, then painted it with Real Bristle oil brush, water blender, and charcoal.
I wonder, do you have a dream unrealized? One that didn’t materialize quite as you expected, yet is in some other way fulfilling you?
Coffee’s on — and tea kettle’s whistling.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
You have created your own heartwarming, virtual Art Barn Studio right here Barb
I love your painting, you have amazing talent and congrats on the 1st place!
Anita
My dreams are constantly evolving in relation to my abilities. I want to teach AND I want to learn as long as physically possible. I love to meet new people and travel. Thank you for helping my dream of SOBCon09 come true!
What a lovely post, Barb! I can just see that barn … because it’s here at Over Coffee! I think it’s the Barn of Fulfilled Dreams. (Fulfilled, but nearly always in a way quite different from the way we expected!)
You always inspire me! Look, I brought a bag of magic fortune cookies to have with our coffee…
What an exceptional, personal and inspiring essay. This really stands out. Congratulations on first place with Sisters. Beautiful. Karol
Oh God, I didn’t even check on the contest this time – have been away from the inn far too long. Congratulations! It is really a beautiful piece!
Your barn sounds so inviting. My dream house is something like that: full of friends and open spaces. I can almost see the rooms, complete with the colour of cushions and texture of sliding panels (long story). Unfortunately, this is way impossible for us right now, and likely to remain so, for there is no way I can get that kind of space anywhere in this crowded city, not even if I were to win a lottery!
Is there any dream which is fulfilling me while still remaining unfulfilled? No, I don’t think so, but I see that this is one way I could change my perspective and make it so.
I hope everyone has a “barn” they dream of. I know I have one. It doesn’t look like yours, but it feels like it.
My dream is going on right now, in the form of a photo contest. It definitely isn’t going as I had planned, but I think when it’s all over at the end of the month, I will have learned something. Right now, I’m just disappointed.
Congratulations on winning the protrait contest. I love it………………:)
Thank you Anita… I bought the domain name MyArtBarn.com and will hold it until I see how to use it virtually.
Bean, I share your dreams. I say share instead of teach, since I’m not officially listed as Teacher anywhere, anymore. And I will keep learning. My young friend says with a degree of awe, Did you know the more you learn the more you realize there is to learn? I nodded and smiled. It’s a great milestone for the young to reach. Life can’t be anything but exciting from there on.
Hi Valerie. Yumyum… licking the cookie crumbs off my fingers. Slurp — the coffee. Thanks! I agree dreams don’t always pan out the way we originally think, but that too is growth. At first it’s just the blocking in of shapes and values, adding color and detail as we go. Keeping the determination and sense of adventure always.
Thank you Karol — we all inspire each other to the next thought or painting, don’t we?
Sonya, a lovely description of your dreamed-of home. Have you ever heard the story of the man in the hospital, next to a window, who shared the visions outside that window to his roommate? There was a dividing curtain, so the roommate couldn’t see, but he saw inside his head.
When the first man passed on, the roommate asked if he could move to the window-bed. His request was granted, and a new roommate was put into his bed, beyond the curtain.
The man now next to the window looked out and saw only a brick wall, with just enough room for daylight to brighten. But nothing else.
His new roommate asked Please describe to me what you see? And he did — blue skies with a couple billowy clouds, kids and their parents playing in the park across the way…
All the things he’d been told when he couldn’t see, he saw mentally, and now he shared them with his new roommate.
No one can limit your dreams…
Hi Lisa! I have visited your site and will go back. I loved the poetry I found there. Anyone living in your area would enjoy reading and seeing your posts.
I wish you well with the photos — keep submitting! Then you too can be happily surprised when the second-place holder emails you a congrats.
Submit and move on. Take the next. Submit to the next contest. That’s what I’m doing too. 
Thank you all for coming by! And also for your good wishes on my painting.
Barb
Beautiful painting, Barb. I just knew I’d seen you somewhere before. Innographx! I found that site looking for smudge painting tuts and glad I did.
Bonnie
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