The Good News and Bad News and Good News
Lettuce sandwich 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24"
First, the first good news:
I think I have become a 2X Dolphin. Does that mean there used to be one of me, now there are two? Is my porpoise twice as strong?
I have been social blogging since 2007, and I have never had so much success (nor fun) as I have had interacting on Steemit. Success for me means attention and sometimes communion. Before Steemit, it was like taking a typewriter without paper into a pine woods, sitting down on a big rock, and typing archaic love, hope and dream noises to disinterested birds and squirrels.
Not here. It seems that there are human beings on earth interested in some manners of my expression. This is my first anniversary on Steemit. A couple months ago, @stef1 suggested I should be powering up once in a while. For mostly lazy reasons, I had little knowledge of how to gain traction on the platform. I took her advice, learned how to power up 100%, and have done so ever since. I will probably go at least another year like this and see where the current takes me, or us, ah, you know... the pod.
Bad news: My gallery/studio benefactor got cold feet. There will be no studio in the big city this year. A more persuasive and conservative businessperson must have got his ear. Most likely a father figure. “An art studio! For this guy? Are you nuts?”
I found out on my birthday that he was pulling out of the deal.
How depressing. ¡Que será, será!
When life gives you lemons, drink sour juice.
Good news:
Sometimes with one I love I fill myself with rage for fear I effuse unreturn’d love,
But now I think there is no unreturn’d love, the pay is certain one way or another
(I loved a certain person ardently and my love was not return’d,
Yet out of that I have written these songs).
—Walt Whitman
On opening night of “How To Price a Painting”, I was introduced to a high(er) society couple who appeared to like my work. Last month, Amy, the better half, requested a family portrait as a gift for her husband Richard on his birthday. I am working on that now and will have much to say about the process in the near future.
The recent patrons of my art (from behind).
So to wrap up...
I’m a double dolphin who lost a prospect, yet gained a patron. And, you’re all stuck with me for another year. By next February I predict a very high Steem dollar and a seemingly painless metamorphosis to Orca. I hope the lot of you can find the time to create, engage and afford to power up. It’s a gas.
Happy Double Dolphin Day !
Enjoy this special #clubdolphin vote...
#club100 😀 🐬 🐬
I will! It’s like my birthday if I liked birthdays:)
Greetings Steemcurator01
I am heading towards club75 and haven't cashed out this month because of the same reason. My reports are maybe getting missed by your vote or if I am doing something wrong plz tell me. I have 13K+ SP right now and working to get the triple dolphin status ASAP.
hi guys
are you doings
Congratulations, your post has been upvoted by @scilwa, which is a curating account for @R2cornell's Discord Community. We can also be found on our hive community & peakd as well as on my Discord Server
Felicitaciones, su publication ha sido votado por @scilwa. También puedo ser encontrado en nuestra comunidad de colmena y Peakd así como en mi servidor de discordia
Thank you! It was lonely swimming all alone in the sea. Now there’s two of me!
Congratulations on achieving double dolphin.
I have been watching tutorials on Acrylic painting for few days. Your cover picture got my attention. I love it. May I ask what's this type of painting called? - Pop art?
I am naive at such stuff so pardon me for being ignorant.
Thank you! I owe it to the community on Steemit. People here actually like what I do!
Pop art I believe is more like Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Born out of the early 1960s.
My style changes often, which I believe is a good thing for art, though not helpful for achieving financial success:)
I do not draw before I paint. All rendering is done with a paintbrush. I love color. And painting has made me a more content person.
Those secrets revealed, I can say that I know nothing about painting. There is actually a school of “Naive art” where I fall in the last row as “super naive painter”:)
Please paint if it brings you peace. Two bits of advice once materials are gathered.
Breathe through the nose and dream!
Wow, that is brilliant news Ron, you are grown up so quickly, but this is your own achievement. Your posts are full of your soul, depth and honesty. I can imagine that @steemcurator01 also like it and gave you its support. I wanted to display here your double dolphin window:
I also would be curious about the portrait of the order of the couple, at least your description about your work process :)
Thank you!
And you’re the first person to ever say I had soul:)
I am fortunate to have the time to post, but also the financial stability to not need to cash in, (I wouldn’t know how to anyway. Not so easy from New York, U.S.A.).
Since I have dedicated these last couple weeks to posting solely on Steemit, I’ve noticed that I do not miss the other social media platforms. It’s a great place to share, as you well know.
I’ll have a good story about the family portrait to share at a later date. Itinerant painter, Ron Throop won’t let the community down:)
The patron asked that I stop by her high rise apartment to take the stretcher bars, 47 x 53", that were holding an unwanted painting. I pulled MANY staples, and after two puncture wounds, stretched new fabric over the bars. Then two coats gesso, and...
Well, here’s the progress. I still have about 25 more hours to go:
Hello Mr Double Dolphin @ronthroop What a mighty creature you have just become in a very short amount of time. Congrats! This is like the double espresso I would say, the same great taste just twice stronger. Thank you for not keeping us waiting long for your next post and treating us to many of your paintings and even musical performances here in WOX. So have fun contributing and I can’t wait to find out one day that you have become a triple dolphin. Maybe change your avatar in the meantime? Just a thought. I think it is cool to update it every now and then and it certainly is a great way to determine your loyal followers as you will figure out who will actually notice the change and when.
I am blushing.
Do dolphins blush?
I am glad you like my posts. I took myself off all social media and posting (except for here, glorious here) since January 20. Though I fear I overloaded Steemit with too much Throop information.
Avatar change, eh? Why not? Perhaps a two-headed dolphin:)
Better yet, a whale, to aim high!
Thank you kind @petface
Pale blue goes quite well with pale pink which is something most blond girls know. So dolphins blush if you ask me. I stopped posting on social media too for the sake of sharing my content here. Social media became the opposite of social as it actually is mostly about your own current circle. People use it to just be nosy and then gossip about who started a job where, who got a baby, what time somebody commented on something and what they were actually meant to be doing then. The customer service departments of many companies here in England started checking your social media accounts investigating your formal complaint. Christmas, birthday, etc. is when your wall floods with happy messages from people you no longer keep in touch with at all. Why do they bother? How much spare time they actually have? Some wonder but to be honest I couldn't care less. I have not deleted my social media accounts but I certainly do not waste time posting there. Last but not least I do like your new avatar @ronthroop I love the bright bold colours and it is perfectly framed as a Steemit avatar so very well chosen. To me this is a portrait of yourself. You look like somebody who embodies quite a few personalities but is aware of all these and wants the world to notice each one of them. This is a really strong message which I totally respect as not many nowadays know who they actually are.
Obviously you’re a writer. You take thought to pen (keyboard) very, very well. I wish I had this skill, talent, ease of expression. I feel the need to embellish ideas, feelings, dreams. That’s why I paint. I struggle with words. When I write I am tight. When I paint, I am light. I am an over-elaborater. Facebook does not approve, Instagram sparks envy, and Twitter is most often a verbal prison of catty, opinionated grumps. On Instagram, I catch myself scrolling zip-zip-zip through people’s posts, and realize I am liking inspired and wonderful artwork in 1.5 seconds or less on average.
Oh that won’t do.
I just don’t like myself on social media.
I also keep my accounts open. Facebook is the “go to” in my neighborhood for messaging local friends to upcoming events and parties. Likewise, I have “advertised” exhibitions and sold a few paintings through the Zuckerburg marketplace. (Though probably not worth the perpetual hassle.) Lastly, and this is most important of all, I have met some wonderful artist friends using these platforms of avarice. Everything in balance, right?
Your words are very kind. Uplifting. I haven’t finished my first dose of coffee, yet feel awake and ready to take on the day’s gravity drag:)
Thank you @petface !
Congratulations on achieving the double dolphin!
May I ask if it was difficult for you to achieve this? I'm at the very beginning of the journey and I'm wondering what awaits me)
It took me a year of posting as often as the muse would allow, and interacting with good people on Steemit. Also, power up as much as you can, when you can! Invest in the platform and returns are rewarding:)
Thank you for your valuable answer!
woww, this is a beautiful painting by your hand. I like it very much.
Congratulations on achieving 2 Dholpins.
Thank you!
And thank you again:)
Congratulations!!!🐬🐬
Thank you! It’s a good feeling:)
Beautiful, interesting , I like it :)