My dear fellow jewelers and creatives - I have the perfect solution for your desire to find inspiration and focus with your work this year. Come join me in the TADA365 Art Jewelry Group on Flickr.

_TADA stands for True Addicts of Daily Art. You can read about the history of the group here.
www.trueaddictsofdailyart.com/about-us.html

_You can see our daily progress in pictures and comments on Flickr TADA365 Art Jewelry group.
www.flickr.com/groups/tada365/

_For 2012 we are doing the following:

* Hosting 4 online shows on our website

* Sharing pictures of our art jewelry and adornments

* Encouraging each other to try new techniques

* Sponsoring challenges for motivation

* Informing each other of shows, challenges and book submissions

* Encouraging each other to use social media to gain exposure for our work

And that's just a start!

_Our website, www.TrueAddictsOfDailyArt.com was created to feature our group online exhibitions. The first of our exhibitions, Letters of Adornment, opened on September 19th, 2011.

Hurry and you can be in our second show,
One Year, One Piece : An Exhibit of work made in 2011

All you have to do is
1 - join the Flickr group - tada365
www.flickr.com/groups/tada365
2 - send a picture of your favorite work that you made in 2011 using this form.
www.trueaddictsofdailyart.com/jan15show.html

3. Then come and share more photos and comments through the year. We no longer expect pictures every single day..we've realized that all creating doesn't always translate into something that can be shown in a photo. But, we do stop in several times a week and get inspired and in turn, inspire each other.

We look forward to seeing your work.

Happy New Year to all my friends! I wish you the best of all possible worlds in this new year of 2012.

I woke up this morning, with a song in my head. New Morning by Bob Dylan. I hope you enjoy your new morning and new year!

Someone asked me when I first realized I was an artist. I think it started when I realized I have an artist eye. Like some people can hear music and know if the key is off, I can look at a painting and know if it’s working. I’m not bragging. I worked hard to be able to see this way. I honed this skill when I was making my living selling art and antiques in NYC. Since I didn’t have a lot of capital, I had to buy the best art for the lowest price. This meant mostly, buying unknowns and unsigned works. Many dealers rely on the artist signature. They look it up to see the value of the artist’s previous sold works. If the artist is not listed, or there is no signature, they pass on the work.

I couldn’t afford to do that. I had to buy the work based solely on itself. Not the history, not the name, just the work before me. But only, of course, if it appealed to me. If it was looked “right”.

I would see a painting at an auction and know it was right. I was always surprised when there was light bidding – sometimes no bidding at all against me. I remember once the auctioneer even making a joke about the painting. No one would dare bid on it then, except me. I knew it was good. I sold it a few days later for 10x what I paid.

This  happened so often that I finally realized, some people see it and some people don’t.

That’s the way it is with all art. Good paintings aren’t made to  match the sofa. And art jewelry isn’t made to  match the dress. Some people can see that and some people just don’t.

That’s just the way it is. We all see the world a little different. Isn’t that a great thing? I think it is a wonderful thing!

This week the TADA365 Art Jewelry Blog is featuring an interview that I did with Evelyn Markasky. Be sure to check it out. I talk about where I come from in metalwork and where I think we are all going.