It works! I think.
Okay, this fumbly-bumbly jumble of words, overly-long run-on sentences, and parenthetical asides is actually a test of the new blog feature on my web site. If all goes well it will also be the first official posting (because we might as well all explore this brave new world together). That’s not to say there won’t be some tweaking and editing and alterations before the final, official publication but this will certainly (hopefully) be the gist.
And why a blog one might ask? Particularly since not so very long ago i never entertained the notion. Of course not so very long ago (end of last year in fact) i never entertained the notion of a web site either, so i guess this is just the next natural progression step along the process. Basically, even tho i work drawing pictures i am fascinated by the written word. I love to read and i absolutely adore books (which probably explains why i always wanted to be an illustrator) and in my spare time, when i don’t have a book handy, i like to write. While some folks knit or play golf or fashion little animals out of pipe cleaners for relaxation, i enjoy writing. Letters, journal entries, lengthy diatribes about art and philosophy (why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings – that sort of thing) on the computer or in my trusty 3-ring binder, i love the look and feel of words. Ah, but i digress (which, warning to the casual reader – i do frequently)… i was attempting to explain about the blog.
Basically it started out simply to be a little additional feature of the web site where Someone (have i mentioned i have an AMAZING team of web wizards and computer geniuses who do all this work for me because i am a complete dinosaur when it comes to modern technology??) could post up-coming book signing events, new art projects, and related links and articles about said projects & events. Then it was suggested that if i had a blog i could do it myself, with the added benefit of having a little place where i could wax poetically about my work, or art in general, because just about everything i ever draw has a story behind it – which i will tell at the drop of a hat.
Either the illustration itself has visual elements that need explaining, or there is an emotional backstory about the project where i came unglued, burst into tears, and drove everyone around me completely insane whining how things weren’t working out. With the blog i can have the best of all possible worlds combining basic News & Events information AND writing! Sharing all that psychological, creative artist-angst, baggage with the world (or at least those poor souls who inadvertently stumble onto the site looking for the other Laurie Klein of which, apparently there are several).
So with that explanation (and cautionary warning) aside allow me to publish this puppy and see if i did it correctly. Whether i did, or didn’t, eventually we’ll work the bugs out (my computer friends are the most patient understanding folks in the world – either that or when i call i simply sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher, “Waa, waa,waa,waa” and i’m mistaking their glazed look with sympathetic understanding). So to those unsung heroes – Mark, Cass, Shaun, & Bill, who designed, built, maintain, and otherwise take care of all this (and send me bills) i dedicate this – my very first blog entry, on my still very new web site – to you. Thanks for everything, i truly sincerely could never do it without you!
So, as The Doctor [who] would say… Allons-y!