I grew up on a farm in west central Minnesota, a mile from the nearest town of 300 people. We visited my mother's sister in Minneapolis often and, in my mind, urban life made my rural existence pale by comparison. I could hardly wait to graduate and leave small town life behind.

Fast forward thirty-five years. College, office jobs, marriage, the usual; except no children (by chance, not by choice). My husband's job layoff and subsequent heart attack turned our lives upside down. We found, without his income, we could no longer afford our city lifestyle. At the same time my mother, now 86, still lived on the family farm but had reached a point where she could no longer live there alone. We solved both problems by moving back home in December of 2006.

I envision this blog as a chronicle of our adaptation to rural life, as well as a home for my thoughts, opinions, memoirs, and maybe even recipes. ~January 15, 2007

This photo is courtesy of Gracey at Morguefile.com who is kind enough to allow this use of her photos for free. This is not a photo of the area where I live, but I chose it for its similarity. At some point I will replace it with a photo of our Minnesota farm. At this writing it is -10F so I will not be taking any outdoor photos anytime soon.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

BDT Studio is online

We have been back home on the farm for a while now, and my time has been spent scrambling to bring my internet business enterprises up-to-date before the Christmas shoppers start coming. It occurred to me that this blog is something I could use to help promote my projects. I'll start with my fine art gallery.

I've been using Photoshop for ten years now. It has served me well in many respects, including giving me back something I thought I had lost: painting. Many years ago I was in a chemical accident which left me highly sensitive to certain chemicals, several of which are necessary in the pursuit of fine art. In addition, I currently have no funds for art supplies and no good place in the house to set up a studio. Photoshop allows me to create watercolors, oil paintings, and some images that would be impossible with pigment, all without turpentine, fixatives and other things that would send my sinuses into a tizzy.

Before we moved, I had access to high-end printers and artist-quality papers, and my employee discount made them affordable. I have found an online replacement of sorts in ImageKind.com which allows me to upload my images and offer them for sale to the public, including mat and frame options, at a decent commission. Three of my watercolors are now in my IK Gallery:





Poppy




Magnolia


I have several more to upload. Doing these paintings was one way I found to pass the time and use it constructively, when we were in Minneapolis so long this fall.


Posted by Barb T. at 1:22 PM

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