​Instagram tends to be a happy place, devoted to image scrolling and tending towards the inspirational. You can follow friends, artists you like, cos-players, dress makers, car collectors, gardeners—there are loads of random topics to make you smile.
 
Instagram is built primarily for smartphones. You can see your account on a desktop system, but you can only post to Instagram via your smartphone, unless you pay for a service that posts for you, or use a complicated workaround.

Facebook is the biggest dog in the social media yard. It’s probably the most popular platform right now. While you may have personal reasons for not joining FB, it is currently one of the easiest ways to reach new collectors. A smart social media plan can reach hundreds, if not thousands of pairs of eyeballs. Remember that FB has right around 1 billion users. That’s quite a potential audience.

When I follow a business page, FB (mostly) feeds their posts into my newsfeed, especially if I’ve engaged with them on their pages in the past (this is why engagement with posts is so important). Engagement can be simply saying, nice work! on one of their posts. Or it can be a question for them to answer. Always answer comments on your posts. (You can block people if you get a nasty commenter. Your page is your space.)
 
The upshot: Facebook is still the leading way to advertise your artwork. To effectively advertise and sell your art, you need to create a business page.
 
How to make a business page on Facebook
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-business-page-guide/

The difference between a personal page and a business page www.outboundengine.com/blog/facebook-business-and-personal-pages-the-differences-dos-and-donts

www.thrivehive.com/why-you-need-a-facebook-business-page/

​Facebook marketing strategies
https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-marketing-tips

Part 1 in a series about artists going online
Other parts in this series: 
Should I show my art on Facebook?
How to Instagram

One of the things we’ve learned during the current crisis is the importance of taking your business to the internet. In March, as the shut-down began, businesses that made a nimble pivot to online were able to mitigate the damage caused by the shut-down. Even as we tentatively open businesses, customers who are leery of shopping as they did before COVID-19 spend more time (and more money) online.
 
The business of art is a business just like any other. Artists need an audience of collectors and a great way to reach those collectors is online—in fact, until we are able to safely open the country, online might be the only way you can reach collectors. And online takes your art show, which was probably local, and gives you the opportunity to make it national, if not international.

The complications of Covid have impacted another long term commitment that Anne and Will oversee: Summer Art Camp.
 
Five ears ago Anne and Will took over Summer Art Camp, a low-cost way for local kids ages 4 to 16 to learn about the arts. Sponsored by the Mokelumne Hill Community Historical Trust, Summer Art Camp had been nurtured by Ed Cline, and Anne and Will were receptive to his vision of the future.
 
Ed’s dream had been to make it a fine art camp with music, dance, theater, and art, so Anne and Will set out to expand. “A couple years ago we were able to find a drama teacher and a music teacher,” she said. The core of what Anne teaches at the camp is visual arts. “I concentrate mostly on modern art,” she said, “although we have done things like portraits made by painting with vegetables ala Archimboldo, a Renaissance artist.. I’ve taught about Renaissance art. I teach everything from drawing to painting to collage.”
 
This summer—Covid Summer—presents a challenge. Traditionally Summer Art Camp meets in the Moke Hill Town Hall, where they have room for around 70 kids. “But this year because of this new normal, we can’t meet in the town hall,” Anne said. She’s working on art kits made up of inventory they’ve been amassing over the years from donations and careful purchases. “If anyone wants an art kit this year, there will be no charge,” she said. “I'm putting together kits for 30 kids. Each kit will have watercolors, some drawing, and we like to focus our lessons on particular artists.” The kits will be distributed through Mokelumne Hill Elementary and Toyon Middle School.  

For ceramic sculptor Marlene Bradford, the nation’s isolation order during the time of Covid-19 has been a time of introspection about her art. “It’s been great having the time,” she said. “I enjoy working by myself. Although I also enjoy having company.”
 
This enforced time-out came just as Marlene started to pull back from perpetual activity. For the last seven years, she’s been a popular teacher of clay sculpture at Quyle Kilns, where she has instructed many in the skill of how to roll, knead, bend and convince clay to take animal and human form. But recently she gave up teaching regular classes, preferring to teach small groups or individuals on request. “I’ll be 87 in June,” she said. “I don’t have the energy I had before, or the patience.” 

When you take a class from Marlene, you tap into a life dedicated to art. She has always been an artist, and she returned to college in her 40s to complete a major in art. Clay is her first love.  “I like the way it feels. I like being able to move it around and change it back and forth and create my ideas using the clay.”
 
Her ideas, brought to life in clay, bring smiles to viewers. She still has a big presence at Quyle Kilns, where ceramic faces and animals peer from the walls, smile mysteriously, and catch your gaze and make you smile. Making the viewer happy is what Marlene intends.
 
She doesn’t strive for strict accuracy in her animal sculptures.  Instead, she tries to express her feelings about them. “I really want to bring joy through it, and have people enjoy looking at my pieces.”

“The reason I say that is because there are many pieces of art that are not about joy. They are expressions of sadness and illness. That isn’t what I want to think about and express. I enjoy trying to reproduce the shape and idea of different animals. And again, I want them to look peaceful. With them I want to express some kind of good thoughts.”
 
Her portraits of people reflect not just a physical likeness but also the emotional personality of the subject. She honed her accuracy with acts of generosity. “I started having people I know pose for me so I could practice. I said if you like it I’ll give it to you. That’s how I got my technique worked out.” Her commissioned portraits of two doctors—Dr. Milton Ben Smith and Dr. Dante Albasio—greet people at Mark Twain Medical Center.

​Now sheltering at home, she spends time in her studio in Murphys working on a series of pieces intended for totems, large pieces of art that comprise animals, figures, and objects.
 
Isolation has given her a chance to delve more deeply into her work. “It’s a chance to concentrate on your own ideas and think about what you’re doing. Often we want to discuss things with other artists or teachers. This is a good time to really look inside of ourselves and try things and see if they’re going to work. And figure out how to do something, or what we want to do. What you want people to think about it.”

Like most of us, Mona Baroody, owner of Artsy-Parts in Arnold, didn’t expect a mysterious and lethal virus to upend the world so completely. But she is navigating our new reality with the blunt force of her creativity.
 
Mona opened Artsy-Parts in Cameo Plaza almost exactly a year ago as a creative community center. After dedicating four years of her life to the Butte Fire recovery, she said “I wanted to do something for myself.” Someone asked her, what would you do if you could do anything? “My answer was easy. I want to create all day and get paid to do it. I’ve always been creative and happiest when I was doing it. I also wanted to help other people feel the same peacefulness.” In the time before Covid, the cozy warren of rooms provided space for the community to drop in and spread out art projects, take art and craft classes, buy hard to find art supplies and exhibit their art work. The virus changed all that.
 
If an art store seems an unlikely business to survive the shut-down orders, you’d be surprised. Not only do times of uncertainty call for creative outlet to relieve stress, precarious times require an artistic temperament. Mona believes that all the traits and skills of an artist—creativity, inventiveness, thoughtfulness, flexibility—coupled with a positive outlook and hard work will help her weather this storm. At the same time, she can help her community too.
 
“I thought, how can I make this work for all of us?” 

Then people asked if she had material for making masks. “The most effective mask material is debated,” she said, “but the general consensus is that you want 100% cotton quilting blocks. That happens to be what one of my wholesalers carries.” She bought enough for the group and enough to have in stock at her store.
 
All of this has kept Mona quite busy. Time flies as she finagles orders for craft kits, origami paper, calligraphy pens, art supplies, and mask making materials. Customers pick up their orders outside the store, which Mona sanitizes religiously. At the end of her days, often after midnight, she said “I’m so busy I haven’t had time to figure out how I’m doing.” ​

​When her doctor could not get cloth masks to protect staff and patients, quilter Nora Carracedo of Valley Springs came to the rescue. After watching several mask making YouTube videos, she sat down at one of her many sewing machines and started thinking.
 
She designed her own version of washable masks made of all cotton material, with a pocket in the middle for a piece of material that’s breathable but still acts as a filter.
 
“I use my own pattern,” she said. “I made one for Sue (her daughter) and me and they worked great. Then I made some for the doctor, and they love them.” Her masks add a bit of brightness to a stressful time. “Some of them have flowers, some of them have polka dots. They’re not plain. They’re pretty,” she said.

​She’s perfectly suited to this need. Nora’s been sewing and quilting for most of her life. When she was young and living in Argentina, she started sewing for a local store to make extra money. “I made pants, underwear, and shirts for men,” she said. “I had to learn to make patterns because there were not many patterns at that time.” She sewed on a pedal machine and finished the clothing by hand.
 
After coming to the states, she sewed clothing for her children and herself. When the grandbabies started coming, she began making quilts. Sue recollects, “I remember my mother making a little bear quilt for the first grandchild.”
 
Nora is still making quilts for the grandchildren, as well as quilts for community members in need. Nora and her sister lead a team of quilters at the San Andreas Senior Center to make quilts for foster children, children with cancer, and comfort care for hospice. “We also donate money for the senior center, and low cost lunches for kids.” It’s a tight knit group, but they welcome others. “We have fun and we enjoy being together,” she said.

Dear community members,

The Calaveras Arts Council Gallery, in keeping with government health recommendations, will be closed to the public for the time being. We will be continuing with administrative work via phone, email and Facebook.
 
In addition, we regret that we have to cancel the 2020 Ride & Walk 4 Art event scheduled for March 22 and sadly anticipate that our last Ovations concert with Driftwood Consort on April 5 will be cancelled as well. We will be contacting ticket holders via email, phone or post. Please check our website and/or follow us on Facebook for updates.
 
If you have questions or need more information about refunds, please contact Kathy Mazzaferro at goldrusharts18@gmail.com or write to us at PO Box 250, San Andreas, CA  95249.

Thank you all for your understanding and support.
​
Kathy Mazzaferro, Executive Director