Censorship as a Marketing Tool

I've been surprised how much fuss there has been lately on Etsy about censorship. I have no problem with someone not wanting to see certain things. That's fine by me.

I really didn't need to see that poor dead bat in that Twinkle Twinkle... piece, but if someone wants to use dead animals, bones or recycled fur or leather in their work, I have no problem with them doing so. I don't feel the need to be their jury. My wanting to cry when I saw it was my problem.

My husband MJ does pin-up art as well as many different types of illustrations and I realize this is something that can upset some people. I think his work is beautiful and others might be offended. I understand .

I wonder if it would be a good idea if we did have filters so we could screen out things we don't want to see. Deviant art has a system of filters that are simple to use and I use them myself when I want to bypass something.The on-line community is so huge and diverse that finding something you don't like is pretty much guaranteed. I don't think getting hundreds of thousands of users to agree on a set of rules is the only thing we need. Search tools that work and can be set to filter out the things we want to see or avoid are really needed.

The idea that sellers are trying to get things banned so that they will have a better chance at selling their work was brought up in one of the censorship threads I was reading. It's an interesting idea and I see it as a definite possibility. The worst problems I've had with someone objecting to my work was a doll/plush maker. I just decided to take it as a compliment and move on.

It's sad if fear of competition plays a part in another seller trying to get certain art banned. So many people on Etsy are new to selling and to the Internet and trying new things is scary. I used to hide my dolls in a closet. It's taken me several years to be able to be proud of my work and be able to accept all of the comments, good or bad, that have come my way. So I understand fear, but I don't understand attacking others to overcome your fear.

I hope that Etsy makes the "not" function more obvious for inexperienced Internet users if they don't set up filters. The idea of a new member e-mail packet with helpful hints that is automatically sent when a person joins Etsy might also help inexperienced people. But I guess in the end, time and experience will hopefully help people develop the confidence a person has to have to be successful.

A New Idea

My husband has been after me to write stories to go along with my Pet Shop of the Old Ones animals . I've decided to experiment with creating the stories and possible illustrations. I want the book's format to be like a binder or workbook that can have pictures, charts and extra diary pages added to it.

I created a separate blog to create a possible diary page here
I don't have any illustrations done yet, so I used pictures of my actual sculpts on this page. http://thepetshopoftheoldones.blogspot.com/

I'd really like some opinions. Thanks for your ideas in advance.

They Work by Night...Or at least some of us do

I'm a night person. I like to work between 2pm and 2 am the most.




I seem to work out my most difficult design problems late in the evening. Sitting quietly and meditating or doing something totally unrelated to my sculpting often brings a possible solution. But figuring out solutions to design issues in my dreams doesn't happen very often for me.

I used to keep a notebook by my bed, but it wasn't much of a help. I don't sleep for very long, but I sleep very deeply. I even get up and do things and even have conversations with my eyes wide open, but ... I have no memory of any of it. During these times, I filled the notebook with artistic gems like stick figures with word balloons that say "Cookies are good."

Working late at night also gives you the chance to catch old movies and have quiet time to yourself. Of course a movie like They Drive By Night is only good for the chance to see Bogart and to watch the rest of the cast chew through the scenery. I'm not sure why, but I was watching this movie when I came up with my first HexCat design. Maybe it was a gut response to the dog I was watching?

Desert Sunsets-Living in a place that you love

I love the Mojave Desert. The bright sunlight, the hot sand,

the crazy Joshua trees, the onion fields, the crows and even the ravens make it an unusual place to live.

Driving around on a hot summer day, you can see old, abandoned, sunbleached buildings, a thousand rainbows when the onion fields are being watered and tiny chipmunk-like creatures racing everywhere. I 've even seen the occasional roadrunner and red tailed hawk.

I like the sunsets the best. These paintings done by my husband MJ shows a little bit of how big the sky seems out here and the decrepit abandoned buildings. I grew up in Ohio so sometimes I miss the trees, but with huge skies like these... I adjust.

Watching the clouds journey across the sky and seeing them leave huge shadows as they glide on the winds is one of the things that convinced me I had moved to an amazing place.

I always knew it!

http://www.blogthings.com/
whatarethechancesthatyouvebeenabductedbyaliensquiz/ This confirms it for me! I always knew that I was different...heck look at the stuff I create.

Actually, I took the test and it said there was a 32% chance that I had been abducted at sometime in my past. It also said that if the aliens were to come back that I'd be one of the first picked up.

I was sure I was an alien when I was little. I have cerebral palsy and have limited use of my right hand and leg. I knew I was different, but my parents never really explained in detail what was wrong with me. So in my little 5 yr old way, I was left wondering about myself.
I've always known that I was adopted and I always thought it was cool. If I got teased about it at school, I always said..."My parents picked me over everyone else. Your parents got stuck with you!"

One of the things my Dad and I did every Saturday was watch The Three Stooges and Warner Bros. cartoons together. This is how I found the answer to "Why am I different? problem. The cartoon ROCKET BYE BABY came on and there was Mot the little Martian baby who accidentally got switched with a human baby when Earth and Mars rotated very close one night. I mean it was so obvious to me then! I was a displaced Martian baby!

I was so happy with my new found identity and waited and waited and waited to turn green and grow a pair of cute little antenna.

YEAH, I know that it was not to be, but being me on a bad day leaves me feeling pretty alien still, but not in a good way. When I'm creating though, I'm Motta and the world is good.

Old Tv Shows, Maturity and 60's/70's Men

I never saw a lot of the "adult"shows when I was a kid. I has a steady diet of Gilligan, Bugs Bunny, Granny and Jethro Bodine. So anything of a more adult nature just went right over my head. I lived in blissful ignorance for years.

TV Land gave me quite a rude awakening when I watched Mary Tyler Moore for the first time since I was 10. When did Sue Anne Niven become a bitch who slept a round? In my little pre-teen mind, she was a nice lady who had a funny round bed .

Who knew? Everyone but me obviously. Now I find the show even funnier. It's interesting that the writers wanted to ground the show in what it was like to be female in the 70's, a lot of it is still relevant today.

Another show that seems strange to me now is Hogan's Heroes. The show itself has a weird premise, and knowing about Bob Crane's dark side and murder, it makes his womanizing on the show kind of creepy. But obviously that's an aspect I'm bringing to the show because I know a bit about the actor's personal history.

As I've gotten older, I've become more interested in shows with a lot of mystery and intrigue . I never saw Mission Impossible when I was a kid.
It probably went over my head and was on after my bedtime of 9:00pm. Well, my husband MJ saw MI as a kid and picked up the first season on DVD. Oh my, am I hooked! I loved the first season a lot. I love the second season too, but as much as I like Peter Graves, I really adored Steven Hill. In the first season, Steven Hill was the MI team leader and was a better actor than Peter Graves.

The stories from both seasons are good, but I have to admit the ones where they go after old Nazis tend to be my favorite. The one show that I really enjoyed and laughed at the most was called The Legend. The MI team goes to Argentina to stop Martin Bohrman from starting up the 4th Reich. At one point they find out that the Bohrman figure is just a dummy....oh my this prop is so bad even for 60's TV standards. I started referring to it as Charlie McNazi.
But overall, this has become a favorite show of mine now and I look forward to collecting the rest of the seasons.

One thing I have noticed though as I watch old tv and films is that I like how men looked in the 40's through the 70's much more than a lot of the younger male actors of today. As much as I may like...say Johnny Depp for his acting abilities he doesn't appeal to me as a male(I find most younger actors too feminine looking)..... not like Gregory Peck or Bogart or Alan Ladd or Robert Redford even. Maybe it's because I'm older?

Obviously, this has nothing to do with art or making dolls per say, but I listen/watch DVDs while I work and on occasion what I listen to does give me ideas. And when you work alone like I do the sound of a movie or a show is company.