Category Archives: personal

update… and, scooters!

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wow, it’s been a while since i wrote here last. sorry bout that, y’all. but ever since i made up my mind to go into the dog-walking/pet-sitting biz, it’s kinda all i’ve been doing. there’s been no time for making of art or craft. i pretty much have been walking dogs 9am-4pm every weekday, sometimes more, and pet-sitting on the weekends. and when i’m not actively caring for people’s pets, i’m recuperating from being out in this scorching heat all day. it does really take a lot out of a person. it’s been hectic, and i’m just now getting to a point where i’m learning how to tailor my schedule to have some downtime.

but i know it will get better. i will figure out how to have more free time, and how to balance out the work with the creative time and the leisure time. it’s a whole new world for me now. and it will just take a little while for me to figure it all out.

all this being said, i did actually find the time this weekend to make a fresh batch of scooter clocks, inspired by the fact that amerivespa – the national scooter rally put on by the vespa club of america – is in town here in nola this weekend. i had originally been thinking, months ago, that i was going to be a vendor at the event, setting up a booth over the weekend. but as my life took its exciting twists and turns, it ended up not really being possible. but then my friend mallory of missmalaprop.com said she had been asked to be a vendor, and since she carries some of my stuff in her online shop, i thought, well maybe i can give her a few things to try to sell at the event.

so i woke up early on saturday morning, before the heat got too bad, and whipped up a bunch of new scooter stencil clocks in different colors. (see pic above.) i have to say, it felt really good to be making something again. i had actual *fun* doing it, which was nice.

as it turned out, however, the organizers of the vendor area never got back to mallory to confirm her participation, so she didn’t end up doing it. so now i have seven fresh scooter clocks in various colors that have no way to actually be seen by the scooter-fanatical attendees of amerivespa.

so i suppose i will spend some of my time this lazy sunday afternoon posting these to my etsy shop. but if you’re interested in any of them before i get around to doing so, just email me. if you are local or in town for amerivespa, i can deliver. or, as always, i can ship to anywhere. $30 cash and carry. $8 more for shipping/paypal fees. (i charge $40 on etsy to cover the etsy fees too.)

hopefully i’ll find the time and inspiration to make some more stuff soon. stay tuned!

jazz fest funky lil’ art show!

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ok, so i have the info now about the opening for the art show i’ll be in during jazz fest:

creative outlet presents:

the 6th edition jazz fest funky lil’ art show!

2909 ponce de leon st. (corner of n. white).

opening event: friday, april 22nd, 6pm-9pm

open-house and porch party each night after jazz fest from 6pm – 9pm

featuring some fabulous lil’ art from these artists & crafters:

alice atkinson, whitney cato, yvette chapotel, nicole crochet, margaret coble, chris cressionnie, john d’addario, carina gale, chris kirsch, rachelle matherne, jeanette meyer, bud moore, laura rapp, alice redman, giselle robert, carol springer, valerie turgeon, and maybe more….

——

i’m so excited! i brought a whole bunch of stuff over to jen on sunday and i have a few more clocks to bring her tomorrow. the openings are always a crowded but really fun event, a sort of pre-jazz fest kickoff party. and all the art and craft is really reasonably priced – nothing is super expensive and all of it is really funky and different. much of it from artists who don’t do the gallery scene or even the market scene. always some rare and interesting finds to be had. come early to get all the best stuff, cuz stuff does sell fast!

hope to see y’all there!

busy season.

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god this month has gotten seriously busy.

just a reminder… crawfest is THIS saturday! i just checked weather.com and it looks like it’s going to be cool, breezy and sunny – a beautiful new orleans spring day with 0% chance of rain. that is music to my ears. and speaking of music, did you look at the lineup? rockin’ dopsie, baby boyz brass band, roots of music & rebirth brass band, and anders osborne! those are just the ones i’m excited about – tons more great music on three stages this year. yeah. look for me with the other art vendors – including my friends rachelle of greenKangaroo, mallory of miss malaprop, krissy of kristina renee jewelry, and christine of avantgarbe – in front of the lbc on the quad. (and don’t forget, it’s byob – they don’t sell beer out on the quad – but you can’t have glass, only plastic.)

then, after crawfest is put to bed, i have to get together what i’m giving my friend jen for her funky lil art show which runs through jazz fest. i gave away my postcard that had all the info about all the other artists who were gonna be on display, so i can’t list them all here, but it’s a LOT this year! there’s always a really eclectic mix of styles and media, from fine art to folk art to jewelry and other diy craft. i will have some stencil paintings, clocks, signs and tshirts available for sure – maybe even some totally new stuff if i manage to get it done by then. the opening is on friday the 22nd from 6-9pm, corner of ponce de leon and n. white over by the fairgrounds. you can’t miss it. i hope to see you there.

and then it’s jazz fest! i spent monday and tuesday of this week out at the fairgrounds volunteering in the signs barn for the jazz fest art department, which was a lot of fun. everyone in the area was super nice, and my task as a volunteer was to block-print these bizarre window-coverings for the dressing room trailers on big sheets of paper (see pic below).

my back and hamstrings are still sore from bending over working on the floor for hours! but playing with paint is always fun, and it was mind-blowing realizing just how many signs of various types go into marking and decorating the space that is jazz fest every year. maybe next year if i’m still hustlin’ i’ll apply for a job in the area. i am signed up to do more shifts next week with them, but it looks like i’ve got some dogs to walk during the times i was supposed to be volunteering, so i think i will have to bail on the free work in favor of the paid work.

which leads me to the thing that has been keeping me most busy the last few weeks: wags by mags! yes the website is finally launched, though very basic. i have business cards on order. i have a twitter account. and a facebook page. i even listed it on yelp.com. and the response thus far has been great. i’ve gotten a few new clients and lots of positive feedback. i think i may have finally stumbled upon something i can do, do well, enjoy, and make money at!

so yeah. busy busy. but busy is good.

i hope to see many of you out and about either at crawfest or jen’s art show/jazz fest porch parties in the coming weeks!

 

putting it out there…

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one day last week i got the sudden itch to make myself yet another website. i’ve been thinking for a while it might be nice to have a simple page for myself that was not about my art and craft, but all the other things i do and have done. sort of a calling card for all my side-gigs and other so-called professional life. (as it were.)

much to my surprise, i had a free domain registration with my hosting service, dreamhost, who i love. i’ve been using dreamhost for years and years and have never ever had any problems with them (knock on wood). i highly recommend them if you’re ever on the hunt for a hosting company.

anyways, half a day later, http://www.margaretcoble.com was born. catchy, isn’t it? i thought about trying to come up with some snappy business name or nickname but since i do so many different things and none of them are full-fledged businesses, it just seemed easier to make it a vanity site of sorts. it is, of course, all about me.  😉

you’ll notice a few things are missing now from this artbymags.com site. i moved the non-art/craft menu content over to the other site. this blog will still cover just about anything i want to talk about, but i am going to try to talk more about art, craft, my various creative projects, and my process here. and i guess if i end up having anything to say about, oh, dog-walking or digitizing vinyl records, i’ll say it over there.

for now, it’s just basically a business card site for me, very basic and not meant to garner loads of traffic. just a sign-post on the information highway. and now you know.

refocusing.

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after months of feeling like i’d lost my way and lost all inspiration, finally things seem to be shifting a little for me. i had a day full of energy and firing on all cylinders yesterday, which seems to happen so rarely to me now. (not sure if it was the extra cup of coffee or that big chunk of salmon – brain food! – i cooked up the day before, but i haven’t had such clarity in a really long time. it was nice.)

so i think i’ve decided to recommit to the art life. i was on the verge of abandoning it entirely, but i now am feeling new inspiration and a desire to buckle down and get serious about it. so in the coming weeks, i will be tweaking this website a little, moving some of the less art related stuff over to my new domain, margaretcoble.com (catchy, eh?), which will serve as more of an overall personal and professional site. and in so doing, i will refocus this site more on my art and crafty life and process, with the intention of making this blog more interesting to read. (and hopefully update it more frequently.) i might even shoot some video or make a podcast or something crazy like that!

i took the above picture this afternoon in my outdoor studio (otherwise known as the back yard!). i’m working on a new series or set of stencil paintings that i hope are going to turn out the way i want them to. some will be on salvaged wood and cabinet doors and such, others will be on canvas. some will be straight up stencil paintings and some will be more mixed media oriented. i have a million ideas jotted down, but the process will take a while as it requires me making a LOT of new stencils, both of pop icons and objects as well as textures and patterns. i hope the results will be interesting and aesthetically pleasing as well as marketable. it’s not exactly groundbreaking or even highly original in concept or technique, but it is something that i want to make and express and will challenge me while hopefully also paying a few of my bills. it’s a good place to start. and hopefully it will lead to more interesting things.

one of my favorite soulful house songs has lyrics that say “you’ve got to move to create change.” i love that line. this is me moving. just gotta keep it up.

so stay tuned. and bear with me. thanks!

new year… now what?

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ten days into the new year and, well, there are no big distractions to keep me from trying to figure out the answer to my big existential question of the past year or so:  now what?

the saints are out of the playoffs, and i don’t frankly care who wins the superbowl from here on out, though part of me feels like it might be kinda fun to root for the big underdogs who beat our asses, seattle. the pure joy and excitement on the faces of the seahawks’ fans and players after our game ended last weekend reminded me of us last year.

and yes, it is carnival season now… but we’ve got a long slog until the first parade (krewe du vieux, on the 19th of february!). now that 12th night is over, there’s not much for us common folk who aren’t in a krewe to partake in carnival-wise until then. (aside from eating our body weight in king cake.)

so i suppose it’s time to get my brain out of holiday mode and start trying to figure out this next chapter of my life.

i wish it would be as easy as my horoscope says it’s supposed to be. susan miller says all the strife i’ve been having with money for years and years is supposed to ease up and get better. and in fact, i was supposed to come into some large sum of money just a few days ago! but alas, this has not happened yet. i keep waiting, but so far, nada. i mean, i got a couple of orders on etsy out of the blue… but come on. that’s hardly a windfall! in fact, if anything, things have gotten worse this month so far because all the holiday shopping frenzy is over. even things with magicmonkey have even slowed down as nita gets some work done in her house.

i won’t hold my breath on money falling from the sky.

so i guess it’s time to start polishing up the old resume (as if i actually have one!) and throwing it out into the world to see if it can get me anywhere. i’m still a little torn between trying to find some type of professional or career-y track type job that would pay nicely and possibly stimulate me intellectually in some way (though what would that be? see, the same old problems crop up because i still don’t know the answer to that question)… or just finding some kind of mindless menial job that pays enough to help me pay the bills but doesn’t tax me brain-wise or emotionally. might be fun to just work and play and have fun for a change.

god, i’m tired of thinking about all of it. i just want to have said job, whatever it is, and work hard and get paid and stop being stressed about having enough money to live on. in some ways, i sort of don’t really care what it ends up being. i just need it to happen. something. anything. some movement. some activity. i need to get out there. get out of my house. be around people. be a normal person. work. (i make a really good workaholic, actually, when given the chance.)

why is this so hard for me? no really. i really don’t understand it. i am not a stupid person. i am not generally a scared person. i am not afraid of people. or of work. i have done all kinds of work in my life. i’m pretty open to whatever work comes my way. i just want to feel useful. productive. participating in society. i want to have a life outside these four walls and my cats. i’m tired of working alone in my house.

that is my intention. i’m naming it. this is what i want for my new year. something new and different. simple, really.

wanna hire me?

🙂

but seriously. i wanna crowd-source this shit. if you know of any openings, gimme a holler. the only thing i’m not really terribly interested in is service industry. a) i don’t have any experience, and b) i think i’d suck at it. not motivated there. but i’m good at all kinds of other things. (here’s the closest thing to a resume that i have online, my linkedin profile. it doesn’t have a lot of the little side job things like dog-walking/pet-sitting that i’ve done but does have most of my “professional” experience.)

thanks y’all.