Rants and Raves - Career management
A casual blog reporting on the life and times of Caroline C. Blaker
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Having a baby - in like, 5 seconds
Hi Friends,
As many of you know, and some of you do not, I'm due to deliver a baby boy in about 12 days. I've been doing my best to stay active and busy during this time - sorta "business as usual" approach - but as you may be able to imagine, some of the physical limitations that now govern my decisions are making me tired, restless, and less able to push forward than in previous days. I've got an extra 30 lbs limited solely to the frontal abdomen that are consuming resources, weighing me down, throwing me off-balance, you name it. The good news is, it's only temporary. The other good news is - the joy of being a first-time parent for me and my spouse is just around the corner. In the coming days before I go to the hospital, I will expend as much energy as I can find to do art, this website, keep you updated on everything, etc. I just don't know how long I have, and I want you to know that I think about writing to you every day. I'll be a mom in a minute, and a whole new lot of topi...
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New website design is live!
Hola everyone! I'm pleased to finally be showing you the design I've been working on for months for this brand-new look and feel for carolinecblaker.com. In the spirit of "The cobbler's children never have new shoes," often does self-serving work of professional web designers and developers go un-delivered. We are not always our own best clients. Suffice to say that some upcoming events, including the shedding of an old web server and a baby due date fast-forwarded this project on my list. It's now live, at least in a skeletal, many-features-coming form. I know, I know, "Yeah Right!" Actually - many features that you cannot access are already installed - but there are reasons why they're not live yet: like they're not flushed out visually, or they need a tiny bit more development time, or going live to avoid a complete shut-down of the site was more important in the interim than their addition to a dev to live environment site. For those who don't speak geek - I've set myself up to be...
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New carolinecblaker.com is in development
This website is my first website. As someone who builds websites every day in a high-demand environment, I have a fondness for this one that supercedes my love for my work (which I LOVE a LOT.) In the past, it has been the canvas for my development skills. If you have been visiting for more than a few years, undoubtedly you remember it being riddled with bugs, impossible to use, or just having one of those "what was she thinking?" moments. As it turns out this problem is systemic for artists, but I'm not just an artist. I'm a professional web developer AND artist. I have the time, the know-how, and the motivation to produce a superlative website to showcase and sell my art work. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. Aside from personal vanity, I do have motivation for the work I'm doing for this website. Lately, I've noticed that despite my fondenss for this website, I hate updating it. Yep, you heard me - it's a pain. When the last iteration of the design was built, it was the eas...
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Support an Artist While Spending Nothing
Many people feel that supporting an artist beyond compliments and verbal encouragement is out of their reach if they dont have money to buy artwork. While the best way to support an artist is to (buy art and) support their livelihood, here are a few things that are free, that make a huge difference to the artist you would like to support. Share their work ~ Do you have a Facebook account? Twitter? StumbleUpon? Guess what - if you said yes, you also have a network outside of the reach of the artist you would like to help, and chances are your network and you share a lot of common interests, so why not this artist? The options are endless here: share one piece, their portfolio, their blog, their events, their entire website, their facebook page - and the list goes on. Dont know quite what to share? Ask the Artist! Volunteer time or skills ~ If you live near an artist this is easy - hang a show with him or her. Help set up a studio open-house, or just go to the artists events, ...