August
15, 2002 Issue
 |
| August
is the month of shooting stars. As a girl in Wisconsin, I learned
that from my Mom. We would walk out into the mellow evenings, after
the mosquito threat had simmered down, and gaze up into the deep midnight-blue
heavens. The stars glittered as sequins on a velvet evening gown.
"See those three stars in a row?" Mom would say, pointing up into
the southern sky. "That is Orion's belt." Turning to the northern
view, she indicated the Big Dipper, and how the outermost star on it's
"bowl" always pointed directly to the North Star. "The Little Dipper
pours into the Big Dipper." was her explanation of the position of
the familiar constellations. On really dark moonless nights in the
country, I came to know how the Milky Way got it's name. It is a
band of stars so distant and so in-numerable that at first glance it looks
like a large bucket of milk had been sloshed from north to south across
the zenith in the summer night. I saw Cassiopeia's Chair and The
Seven Sisters. And, Oh!, the glory of the shooting stars. We
would find a place in the tall soft grass and lie on our backs watching.
My eyes would burn with the looking. I dared barely blink for fear
of missing any one of them. "Oooh, did you see that one?" "Look
at that one!" The silvery and golden slashes of brightly burning
globes, trailing rapidly fading tails, was worth the long wait. In
memory, this experience equalled the fourth of July fireworks. One
August night, however, stands out as clearly as a photograph in full color.
I was eight, maybe nine years old. Mom had been washing clothes and
hanging them to dry on the clothesline in the back yard. It was well
after dark when the last of the load was dry and ready to be taken in.
As I helped Mom put the clean fragrant laundry into the basket, I looked
up at the night sky, like I always did. Suddenly from east to west
in the southern sky, a brilliant ball of luminescent glowing green, fell
across my vision as if in slow motion. I can't tell you how long
it lasted. I don't recall if Mom saw it. It froze in my memory
like a special gift. Since becoming an adult, I have learned that
shooting stars have a VERY scientific explanation. The Perseid meteors
are due to small fragments of comet debris that the earth passes through
each year in the month of August. The different colors are due to various
minerals in the rocks that burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. Some
give off a visible green glow. And the shooting stars?
They are still shooting stars. Always were, always will be.
Next Issue: Diamond Head: A Lighthouse Trek |
|
|
|
Gone Global
|
| It has been my dream
as long as I can remember to be a "famous artist". How one becomes
such, is the challenge and reward this life has given me. I
knew the first thing I had to do was to perfect my craft. I chose
oil painting as my media, and the ocean as my subject. I then set
about to learn from the very best teachers, all that I could absorb.
(see previous e-zines for more detailed information). Once the skills
had been developed, the next step was to let people know about me.
I learned to meet the public at mall shows, outdoor arts and craft fairs,
and through private get-togethers in the homes of friends who sponsored
showings of my latest works. Soon it became apparent that to reach
a larger audience, I would need to do national advertising. I chose
publications that were appropriate to the media; Southwest Art, Stepping
Out, American West, and several other nationally published magazines.
I arranged for radio and television interviews regionally.
"Soon it became apparent that
to reach a larger audience, I would need to do national advertising."
These efforts resulted in the sale of my originals
not only in the United States, but in various locations around the world.
The occasion presented itself to travel and participate in showings in
Florida, Nevada, California, and Oregon, to name a few, and to see O'ahu,
Hawai i, where the water is such a beautiful aqua that it took my breath
away. (The sunsets are glorious!) My artwork went to
Japan, China, The United Kingdom, and Europe. By then I had begun
to have limited editions made. That was a wise decision because more
people could enjoy my images of the sea at a reasonable price. (And,
my name would become known by a greater scope of the world's population.)
Then one day a wonderful thing happened.
The internet exploded onto the scene. My husband, who had been in
the computer business all of his career, recognized the vast potential
for an artist with this
|
|
|
media. He immediately set about to build
a website for my work. We invested in increased computer power, a
scanner, printer, and digital camera. Within a year's time the site
was ready to be launched. On my birthday, July 5th, 1997, Carol Thompson
went global. There was, however, no time to sit back and wait for
the results to roll in. The site required fine tuning, continual
updating and refining. I continued to paint new canvases which were
added, along with any newly published prints. The first statistics
to come in showed a remarkably diverse sampling of the visiters to my website.
Countries I had only read about in geography books were represented.
There were military groups, (the U.S.Coast Guard; presumably looking at
the lighthouse pages) universities, non profit organizations,
and government employees checking out my site.
"The first statistics to come
in showed a remarkably diverse sampling of the visiters to my website."
As the information super highway grew, so did
the opportunities for expanding my global horizons. We discovered
a new venue for selling art. It is called ebay. Ebay is an
auction site that is open to almost any product at any price anywhere around
the world. Besides bieng an excellent place to market the artwork,
it is an ideal way to advertise. For a mimimal amount of outlay,
I can reach a world wide market of people interested in specifically what
I have to offer. In the past two plus years, I have shipped prints
all over the world. Folks who live in isolated areas, or small towns,
can shop via the internet and within a week or less, receive a Carol Thompson
print, ready to frame any way they choose. The response has been
phenomenal. I am still awed and, of course, grateful for the technology
that enables me to see my girlhood dreams coming to fruition.
|
|
|
