New Collage: Alpaca

Got some newer collages available now, one of which is the Alpaca you see here. These have been available only as the little prints I include in every Etsy order. Now they are available in my Etsy store...

Latest news and new work...

I have been staying super busy keeping the Etsy store running, but I do have some new work. Here's a new dog, an Irish Terrier. I also have a Tri-color Springer Spaniel. Schnauzer and Corgis are next. Hope to have many new dogs in time for the Holiday season.

Thank you Target!

My family loves Target. Can you say "discounted Halloween stuff"? As a retail store, they utilize a lot of great graphic design and designers, so I always enjoy browsing the store.

Now I have another reason to love Target. Thanks to Little & Company, a design firm that does work for Target (They do those cool gift cards), some of my work was featured in the latest edition of Red, a Target-produced magazine, in an article on Etsy. This edition is the campus edition and is distributed through nationwide college campus newspapers. It goes out to approximately 1 million college students.

Also featured were Etsy members Sugarloop and Tinymeat. I am honored to be included with these 2 amazing Etsians.

100th Post, and more monsters...

I finally made it to my 100th post on this blog! As irregularly as I post, that has to count for something. Here's a resolution to post more often.

I have 2 new monster prints available. They are available at Etsy.

The BOGO sale is still going on, and keeping me pretty busy during daylight hours.

In other Etsy news, I got my first Treasury yesterday, and had a chance to help showcase some of my favorite artists on Etsy. It actually is a lot of fun making a Treasury. You can view mine here.

Monster Heartbreak

I have long wanted to do something with monsters, and finally have started with the first in a series. "Monster Heartbreaks" uses some of my urban textrues with a simple illsutration style. I am still figuring out exactly what this series will be.

You can find this at Etsy.

BTW, the BOGO sale is still going on. Details in my store description.

ACEO ATC Backgrounds...

Some of my collage friends begged me to make some of my urban textures available as card backgrounds for Artist Cards Editions and Originals and Artist Trading Cards. So, I did.

These were a lot of fun to make, and I can't wait to see what people will do with them.

$7 gets you 9 backgrounds on which to build your next great masterpiece. There are 2 sets to choose from. Each texture is a composite image made from at least 3 urban texture photographs that I have taken.

Available on Etsy.

Art Greeting Cards now available...

I mentioned cards early this year, and finally...they are becoming available in my Etsy Store.

Right now, I am starting with a Pick your Mix set of 4 from the Fido Series. You can pick 4 of the current breeds I offer. I will be adding more sets of my choosing, and an option to Pick your Mix from almost every image I offer.

These cards are made by me, using hand-tipping (pasting) to apply the fine quality print to each card. Set of 4 envelopes included.

Cards are blank inside and have a small URL for my shop on the back side.
Your recipient can frame the art later if they want. These are the same high quality prints and papers that I sell in my shop, just sized for greeting cards.

Do I really want to bring another robot into this crazy world...?

Well... of course I do! Robots need love too!

This series was without one single lady robot, as was pointed out to me by way of a request, so now Doreen makes an appearance in the Etsy shop. More to come, and maybe a robot dog, too!

I love New Yorkie...

One of my most frequent requests for my Fido Series is the Yorkshire Terrier. Finally done, and on Etsy. This was a good exercise, as long hair was not something I had done yet with the dog series, so some stylistic figuring out was required. This will make a Sheepdog and some other dogs lots easier to do.

Poodles...

This is by far the hardest breed I have done! It took several days to get the hair on the top of the heads right. But they are finally done and available on Etsy.

Waking the sleeping giant...

Years ago we jumped onto the world wide web with thegoldengallery.com. It was pretty much a portfolio site for our gallery. People in a hurry could briefly visit the brick and mortar gallery and then go to the website later if they liked what they saw.

Problem was, they couldn't buy directly from the site. This was pre-Paypal. Well, after years of laying dormant, we are going to re-launch the site, hopefully soon. It will feature my work, my mother's work, some of my grandmother's knitted scarves, my dad's audio CDs, and my son's and daughters' artwork. We will also have some of our long-time employee Melissa Manley's metalsmith work.

The re-launch may coincide with our 30th Anniversary celebration (more on that later) in November.

You can see the beginnings of the new homepage here.

1000 orders...

Last week, quietly and with no fanfare at all, I passed 1000 items sold in my Etsy store.

So today...TA-DA! Fanfare. Thanks to everyone who has purchased a print from me over the life of the store. I am planning a customer appreciation sale in the near future.

For now, you can take advantage of the BOGO sale going on in the Etsy Store.

Custom Art for Kids - Mot and Dot

About 5 years ago, my wife and I collaborated to make a cute little fairy princess print for my daughter. Then we ended up making them for our friends' daughters.

Everytime we made one, I would think that customized characters for kids would be a cool way that parents could get art for their kid's room that meant something special to each kid.

So...in typical John W. Golden fashion, I let the idea stew for 5 years until some nudging in the right direction by my wife brought about our new collaboration, motanddot. We have a growing collection of little characters that can be personalized for your little character.

Check them out on motanddot.etsy.com

Time for more BOGO...

It's time for another BOGO sale. See details in my Etsy Shop description...

This sale has no set end date, but it is subject to end without notice.

This is a great time to get some holiday shopping done early...

Soapbox Derby...

I have always loved soapbox derby cars and the roundness of the racecars of the 1930s. That's what inspired these 4 collages of some racers that I designed. These are new and really have a masculine bent to them.

Available at Etsy...

More birds...

I have added two more birds to my catalog – A Red Wing Blackbird and a Wren.

These can be found at Etsy.

Memories of New York...

Another Spring Break trip, this one with a college Sociology Class. Was way into photography by then, and New York was full of texture. I was beginning to move away from close-up abstract photography to more recognizable subjects.

This one is called New York Windows No.1, and is updated here for the Rovinato Series.

Available on Etsy.

Memories of Paris...

During My senior year of high school, my sister was spending her junior year of college in Paris. We took a family trip to visit her over my Spring Break. At the time, I was rather disagreeable, as I wanted to spend my Spring Break the way high school seniors do.

In retrospect, it was an amazing trip. My dad took a lot of photographs. My interest in photography was yet to blossom, and I was extremely jet-lagged.

Fast-forward to now – I have the slides my dad took, and a style that I think would fit a collaboration. So, I have added some of these images of France to the Rovinato series.

Available at Etsy.

No...Sleep...Til..Brooklyn!

The Brooklyn Art Project, a social network for established and emerging artists, recently held the Battle for Brooklyn, a competition for group members. Folks submitted a few images of their art for other members to vote on. The top 3 vote-getters will be featured in the Brooklyn Art Project group show in Brooklyn on Sept 28, 29, and 30th.

Enough folks voted for Hello Friend for it to come in Second in votes, so it will be at the show. I'm excited to be included in such a great group of artists as the project, even more so to be chosen to be in the show. Thanks so much to everyone who voted for my work and participated in the contest.

If you're in the NYC area, come on out and support the project at 45 Main Street in DUMBO Brooklyn, studio 1040. Friday 7-9pm, Saturday noon-5pm, Sunday noon-5pm.

Border Collie....and Dogs in Ohio

I finally got around to finishing up this sweet little border collie. Many thanks to Sistergray for requesting this breed and her help in completing the image. This one is available on Etsy...

Just sent 25+ various dog prints to Columbus, Ohio for an event there called Best in Show. The Mahan Gallery will be handling my work there during the event. Several other artists are also particpating, and it looks to be a great event with a great purpose.

Here's the skinny:

"Best in Show" -- special one-day exhibition in German Village

Saturday, September 22, 12–5pm

The Mahan Gallery is pleased to host a special one-day exhibition at Kight Studio 551, located at 551 South Fifth Street in the German Village district of Columbus, Ohio.

“Best in Show” features work that uniquely depicts and honors our canine companions, celebrates their loyalty and promotes the well-being of man’s best friend.

The artists participating include, Megan E. Brown, Elizabeth Chrisman, Mandy Geisler, John Golden, Carol Lew, and Karen Rumora. A portion of the show proceeds will be donated to Columbus Dog Connection to help them continue their work placing abused and abandoned dogs into loving homes.

So...if you are in the Columbus area, please go by and support this worthy cause!

English Springer Spaniel

One of the dogs I have known the longest is our old buddy, Ridley, the English Springer Spaniel. While he wasn't the model for this, I finally have a print in his honor.

This one is available on Etsy.

New Lunastrella

It has taken a while, because I use some really old technology to make these images, and the computer I use for these has been sitting in a climate-controlled storage unit
because there is very little modern software that it can run anymore. So I use an old software that is not supported by the newest system software. Trouble was, I could not find the mouse for this computer, and it won't take a USB mouse. So, I found a subsitute mouse, and am letting this old workhouse chew on some new artwork for your viewing pleasure.

I have been wanting to do these two subjects for a while, and they are available on Etsy.

Featured are an old Super8 camera and and old school boombox.

Oh Internets! Why do you taunt me so?

The good news is that I am almost caught up with shipping (as in, the orders that should go out today will go out tomorrow). The bad news is that only hours ago, I was current with shipping (as in, the orders that should go out today were going to go out today). Seems like a series of little glitches (as in, a certain payment handling site won't let me handle shipping, or my ISP quits working when the payment site finally starts working) have conspired to put me a day behind no matter how much I do to try to get ahead.

I can't complain though, wouldn't be doing this at all if it weren't for the internet. Cold, hard vixen that she is.

Tomorrow will bring everything back to where it is supposed to be, and lots of art will be making its way to its new owners.

New Collage work: Magpie, etc.

Got some new digital collages available over at Etsy. The Magpie, the collector of shiny things, and something I think with which a lot of craftspeople, especially found object and texture lovers like myself, identify. Certainly not because it seems to be the crown jerk of the bird world :).

Got some cool old animals beside birds this time too...

Shown (clockwise from top left): Magpie, Camera, Armadillo, Alpaca, Mockingbird)

The BOGO Sale is done...

By the time all is said and done, 272+ (not counting sets of) prints will be shipped out from the BOGO sale. I am running a day behind getting packages out, but none the worse for wear otherwise. Just about everything is printed, and hopefully I can get all the packages finished up tomorrow and everything will ship out Monday.