First Blog November 9, 2008

I wanted to finally come out from behind my paintings and make contact with everyone out there. I have never had my own blog. I was around when personal computers first arrived, jumped on the bandwagon and thought I'd found the keys to the Universe. I have always been a computer geek. Yet I have never had a blog.

So this is it.

I know my customers fairly well, some more than others, and I receive charming emails from would-be buyers and other (always generous) artists, but I have always wondered, over the past couple of years since I started selling online, who are you? You, the Anonymous Viewer. I see the numbers who Google me (and Etsy-me, and Stumbleupon-me, and goodness-knows-what-search-engine-me) and you're definitely out there. It's just so hard to imagine you all, what you think, why my particular paintings interest you. I gather you are fun-loving, not too serious, nor self-preoccupied, a bit child-like, perhaps even silly sometimes, because why else would you go to the trouble of looking at my art?

I just wanted to say, on this crisp Sunday morning in Ontario, five days after those amazing election results, that I think about you all. You give me a lot of satisfaction, just by checking me out.

It must be said that you are not the reason I paint. I’m not sure why I paint. It certainly isn't to acquire huge wealth. Or even small wealth. Or even enough to pay the utility bills. But there, it's my passion. I can't stop.

Painting can be a lonely occupation, like the writing process, and we need to come up for air every so often to see if there's anybody out there who is remotely interested in what we produce. So I go online and look up my "hits". I am grateful to report that there are lots of you. I'll probably never know who, but I wish you all well, and thank you.


Fran, November 9, 2008