The Re-Design

Welcome to the newly designed and updated blog and portfolio for LisaMikulski.com. After days of ripping apart the old design and replacing it with something fresh, here we are, ready to kickass in 2013. I thought long and hard about re-establishing this blog and with all the recent privacy issues surrounding some social media sites, I felt that what I needed, perhaps what we need, is a space where conversation can be had in a safe online environment. Additionally, while I had created 2Sweden4love and believe it to be a very beautiful site, I always felt somewhat fractured writing there . . . and here.

Preparing your images for publication

Artists and galleries, you’ve been working hard. And one day a writer is going to call you. That writer might be someone like me. Someone calling to interview you for a feature article in a newspaper or magazine. That writer will schedule an interview to talk about your art and will take the next day or two to write up a thoughtful intelligent article promoting your work. That writer is also going to ask you for high resolution print ready images. Will you be ready? You had better be, because there is a great chance that you may lose an opportunity to show your best work to a wide audience if you don’t have goods.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve interviewed an artist or gallery and they aren’t prepared with high resolution quality print images to accompany the article. Not only will you need these images in case of fame, but you’ll also need them for advertising, direct mail marketing, postcards, and portfolio and exhibition requirements.

Finding a new channel

Phyllis Theroux’s The Journal Keeper – A Memoir is a delightful read. Like having a relaxing sitdown with an older more experienced writer, like talking with your mom or a beloved friend on a spring morning with a cup of tea. In fact, I find her words to be so inspiring that it’s difficult for me to read the book . . . each time I start, I’m inspired to rush to my laptop to jot down words of my own.

On page 40, Theroux writes about a trip to Charlottesville:

We walked around the University of Virginia quad designed by Jefferson. It is winter now, stacks of wood lie by each student’s door. The ivy on the serpentine brick walls is withering, the garden, laid out in pie-shaped triangles, are bare. Something in me doesn’t like to take the time to describe what I’m looking at: the slender student bent over her book in Starbucks, the little snow-suited baby waiting patiently to be scooped up by its mother in the restaurant, the bundled-up Tibetans downtown sitting before their table of trinkets and prayer flags. But another part of me wants to develop a more physically observing eye. This sabbatical from writing has given me the space and time to cultivate my eye for its own sake.

Sustainability for Artists

Sustainability. Go Green! Living Principles. These keywords and concepts have been circulating the news, business communities, and social media sites. But what do they really mean? And what do they mean for you? How can these concepts affect what you do and how you practice your life and career choices as artists, designers, photographers, business people and members of society.

Terms such as Going Green may sound merely like buzzwords, perhaps a passing trend . . . but I think it’s become apparent to the majority of us that people need to work together to make a difference for a collective good. I believe that most agree, we can no longer stand idly by and hope for the best without investing our own hard work and initiatives. We are the ambassadors of our planet.

AIGA CT Blizzard of Events

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AIGA CONNECTICUT

CONTACT:
Lisa Mikulski – Director of Communications and Public Relations
Email:  communications@connecticut.aiga.org
Web:   www.connecticut.aiga.org
Phone: 260.227.5472

Calling all designers, artists, entrepreneurs and students . . . check out our upcoming events at AIGA Connecticut. From a warm breakfast to Living Principles, we’ve created a blizzard of activity to inspire your winter days. All events are open to the public.