I have been working with the lovely peeps at Ashdene  for 9 years and their are many thousands of my designs being enjoyed in people’s kitchens around the world. I’m amazed at how many times I have been out and about and served a cuppa in one of my own mugs.

This project was super-exciting because it was my own concept and I got to design the packaging – that’s a big deal in the Licensing world.

I work with some wonderful companies in Art Licensing arrangements. This is where a business is given the Rights to reproduce  artwork on their products. You see Art Licensing everywhere – Anne Geddes, Wyland, Kelly-Rae Roberts are a few other artists who License their work. In return, the business or ‘Licensee’ pays a Royalty for each item the artwork is reproduced on.

When you see “All Rights Reserved” as part of a copyright description, it means that the Artist is aware of their copyrights and is calling the shots on where and how their artwork is used.

I actually have my Art Business Class ( ABC with Jane Davenport! ) under development. I’ll  be covering Publishing, Licensing, Exhibiting, Trade Shows, Online and bricks-and-mortar Stores, Blogging, Manufacture, Online Presence  AND remaining creative and true to yourself. I have so much to share on all these areas of being a modern Artist!

Do you have any burning Art Business questions? Would learning more about these issues be of interest to you?

Let me know your thoughts below… I have 4 mugs to give-away for the most  interesting responses.

Don’t forget to let me know which is your favourite Hug Mug so I know which one to send you if you win!

And one lucky person who joins one of my workshops this month will get a whole set!!!

So, if you have been hesitating about joining an online class, let this be the little incentive that pushes you over the edge.

xoxox

Jane

An Art Journal Q&A by Dawn DeVries Sokol

click here: http://www.createmixedmedia.com/blogs/journal-fresh-jane-davenport

I met the delightful Dawn at the Play retreat in January, and we organized this interview as she was heading back for Artfest… So I had to reign in my RAMPANT jealousy and answer her questions without wailing that I wanted to be at ARTfest every 2 seconds…

Dawn is the author of the book that introduced me to Art Journaling… 1000 Journals, plus many others. She is certainly an Icon rockstar in the Mixed Media world!

I enjoy doing interviews, they give a moment for reflection that can be really helpful to my process and offer a little insight.

Create mixedmedia.com is an amazing resource and I love being featured on it- *puffs out chest with pride*

…and here is a little lusciousness that flew out of my pencils for My Flower Fairies drawing class as part of Joynal...
…love my job…

These are the first three :

I have loved playing with them!

I used them for the first time in my Frolicaholic Journal for 21 Secrets

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My clever and beautiful Joynal student Ivonne made Jane Girl tissue paper for our collaging assignment! (Teachers Pet? You betcha!!

I’m sorry, but it’s just darn cool to see my work being enjoyed and inspiring peeps.
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 Look at the loveliness made with them for the Stamping Bella site by
Linda Heavens  ( www.heavenscreatedthis.blogspot.com)

I mean, too gorgeous right?

• These stamps are unmounted – so you can decide if you want to mount them on wood or use as a ‘cling’ stamp
• Deep etched, high quality, red rubber.
• Made by the famous Staming Bella !
• To order click here: http://www.instituteofcute.com/jane-stamps/
  To order the stamps in the Northern Hemisphere:click here 

Soooooo, the winner the set is……

The doors have been flung open, there is fairy dust glimmering everywhere, the fairies are giggling …or is that me and my awesome students? Oh how I love them!

This week we are starting on altered books to create our Joynals… and I asked to see the books people have found – ooooooh…. what fun!

My art-free hiatus is well and truly over… I’m covered in paint and smiles.

Well, I have a video due up at 5pm, and I decided to re-record everything because… well… I just felt like making a whole other Joynal! wheeeeeee… online workshops rule – all the energy and fun – love it!

xoxox    Jane

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You can still join in the fun of course! Earlybird Discount runs out on May the 5th… after that you can only access the discounted rate if you are a one of my Alumni!

click here

I’ve been ‘on the road’ for the last month with huge, back to back exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne. Early starts and late finishes leave little ‘me’ time, little creative energy…and I start to worry about not being ‘creative everyday’.

I’m sure, what I am going through isn’t at all unusual. All arts professional need to take time to work on the ‘business end’ so their career continues to flourish and move forward. Being out of the cocoon and connecting with collectors of my work is essential. I have a chance to see what I have created with fresh eyes. I glimpse the legacy I am creating over my lifetime.

So, taking a step away from art making is a bit of a rush. For me, it’s a solitary process. I need space to create. It could quite easily be described as a rather selfish endeavor. So a step into the Outside World and to be in amongst crowds of people is a good thing.

At an exhibition, the prime focus is on me and my artwork of course. Being the centre of attention, public speaking, demonstrating what I do by painting live on stage takes a type of courage that is born of ‘just doing’. When I engage with people, I can feel the energy pouring out of me, I’m one of those ‘you have my undivided attention’ people. It’s exactly like creating art and at the end of the day, I’m pretty depleted and I need to rest to refresh and refill.

I also get to meet many of my online students and that’s a really magic moment for me, to hug someone I have come to know online through their art . There is laughter, much sharing of journals, sometimes there are tears. It’s emotional and the highlight of my days out in the ‘real world’.

So when I am ‘on Tour’ I am doing very important things. But I do leave behind being an ‘Artist’. I just don’t get to it… I may do a bit of painting, a smidge of journaling here and there. I pack all my art stuff and hardly look at it.

And yet I know that my students are squeezing their art into their days somehow. In amongst motherhood, jobs, partners, renovations, illness and life in general.

So am I letting myself down by not pushing myself to keep creating while I am on tour? Should I be planing my days and structuring ‘creative time’?

How do you feel when you go on a creative hiatus? Does it make you worry, or feel guilty? Does a little part of you whisper that you may ‘forget’ how to be creative if you don’t keep at it?

Or can a little break be a good thing? I come back into my Studio and see un-completed paintings with fresh eyes. I see all of my supplies anew and want to open up every draw and see if my pencils missed me ( they did!).

Other times, it can be difficult to get back into the swing of things… I find that’s when attending a workshop is particularly helpful! To surround myself with other artists and learn some new skills. It can be a perfect creative kick-start.

Joynal starts on Monday and I am madly busy with all the admin preparations that entails. There’s still been little time for creating artwork for myself…but! I go into fairy mode tomorrow! And I can feel the excited anticipation of ideas that have been formulating in my mind for the past 6 months… things I want to draw, to paint, to teach. I like to expose the secrets of what I do. I like sharing my creativity. I love the challenge of breaking down what I create into its essential elements. I love sharing in my students creativity.

Even when I’m not creating art… I’m still always an Artist at heart. I feel it deep down, through and through.

How do you find time for Art? And when you don’t, how do you feel?