Thursday, February 27, 2020

Oh so close! Update #5

Latest news about 100 Acts of Kindness - 4 days left to JOIN US! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1000woodcuts/100-acts-of-human-kindness?ref=7gs7uo

Sketches

First, check out the sketches top of the project main page! Our grand design will be butterflies being released to freedom and flight by a kind hand (or two, yet to decide). Your tiny block may be a butterfly wing, part of the hands, a flower, maybe a swirl in the wind...
3 versions of a possible grand drawing, picture it 6-foot wide by 30 inches tall

I hate marketing...

...but I've been promoting like a mad woman. Direct mail and messaging have been the best producers. So far I've only been kicked out of one Facebook group for excessive posting, LOL! We still have 3 live ads on Facebook and one on Instagram that are getting a ton of clicks into the project and a few are converting. I see a lot of new names and that's a great thing! Lately I have been contacting my best collectors, local galleries and art groups. If just one or two come through, we will be funded very soon! 
Still 5 days left and there is usually a spike in procrastinators at the end, so let's keep our fingers crossed at all times. With your other hand, if you have some artist friends on the verge of signing up, give them a gentle reminder to join us quickly.
That's it! Hopefully in about a week you will receive a "We're Funded!" email and we will proceed from there. The wood panels are here, by the way! So beautiful, I will begin cutting the panels to size this weekend.
Always fearless, Maria


Stay in touch!

1000woodcuts Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/1000woodcuts 
Maria's Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/maria.arango.diener 
Maria's Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/1000woodcuts 
1000woodcuts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1000woodcuts/videos

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Sketches for 100 Acts of Human Kindness

Eternally optimistic

We have 81 artists with 8 days to go in 100 Human Kindness collaboration print!
Today I added two new rewards for people who want to help but can't participate and I already started sketching some potential designs which will be 6 foot wide by 30 inches tall. Yes! the entire print is one of them!

It's a race to the finish from here, hopefully my exhausting promoting will get the project filled with happy participants and we go onward and upward. BE A PART OF IT! 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1000woodcuts/100-acts-of-human-kindness?ref=7gs7uo

One hand or two?

That is the question I posed on my Facebook Page and I'm getting some interesting comments! 

Stay in touch!

1000woodcuts Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/1000woodcuts 
Maria's Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/maria.arango.diener 
Maria's Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/1000woodcuts 
1000woodcuts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1000woodcuts/videos

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Project Update #4: 100 Acts of Human Kindness


100 Acts of Human Kindness
Thank you everyone for believing, onward and upward!
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Posted by Maria Arango Diener
Feb 19, 2020
Project Page Sign Up: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1000woodcuts/100-acts-of-human-kindness?ref=7gs7uo

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Thank you, it's working!

Thanks to everyone's efforts we are having a very hopeful mini-surge! Getting very close with roughly 12 days to go. Best way to share with your printmaking friends is directly, I'm getting some good results from direct email and messages and I really appreciate all of you enticing your friends into joining us.  I have gone a bit crazy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and my blog but so far I haven't lost any followers due to puzzle-project-indigestion. Also, we have people helping without participating, which is very generous; that's why they call it crowdfunding! 
We now have 65 backers and some artist-teams totalling 80 artists. And THAT, my fellow puzzle lovers, is enough for the project to go on whether we make funding or not in Kickstarter. More on that later as if we don't fund through Kickstarter things can get a bit messy. But don't panic! That's MY job, ha!
Bottom line...here is the Artist Official Headquarters, bookmark the page and I will direct you there when the time comes.

https://1000woodcuts.blogspot.com/p/100-acts-of-kindness.html

Onward and Upward

Always the optimist, I already bought wood! I had some left over from a past project but I ordered some brand new delicious planks of cherry plywood. For the project, this means we go on!
Delicious cherry ply sitting on my brave and hopeful press-bed

Monday, February 3, 2020

Project Update #2: 100 Acts of Human Kindness


Kickstarter

Past halfway point! I'm starting to doodle...
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Posted by Maria Arango Diener
Feb 3, 2020
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Thank you everyone! We now have over half of participants needed to make the project "a go"!
Please keep sharing, especially directly through email, text or direct message, if you have some fellow artists that are on the fence. Remind them of the awesome group deals and how cool the final prints are. Did I just dangle a verb?! Sigh...
Calendar of Events for everyone's info:
  • January 26 2020 - PROJECT LAUNCH WOOOOSH!
  • March 3 - Funding period ends
  • February/March 2020 - Blocks designed and cut by me
  • April 1 2020 - (at the latest) Single puzzle pieces mailed out
  • September 30 2020 - PARTICIPANT DEADLINE to return carved puzzle pieces with information filled out
  • October 2020 to January 2021 - I print assembled Kindness puzzle, photograph each image, gather info, send book to publish, send poster to printer...whew!
  • February 2021 - 100 Acts of Kindness woodcut print, books, posters and postcards mailed out
Anyhow, aside from that I am so convinced we are going to make it I started to doodle in my head about the final 4-panel work (maybe 5 if we have a rush-hour influx of artists!). This takes some thinking; the great City of the World was 5-panels side by side and it is the easiest to exhibit. On the other hand, the Peace Puzzle and the Fantastic Garden were easier to design because of their shape. 
Our Fantastic Garden was truly awesome and the most "puzzly" of our puzzles
I'm thinking along the lines of graphic whimsical butterflies let loose by a helping hand or hands, with the characteristic swirls you expect from a true Maria design. So...here we go doodling, I promise to share once I have something that actually looks presentable. 
Tell a friend! Thank you all and sharpen your chisels,
Maria

Update #1 WOW What a start!
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