I still feel really good about the decision, but there have been some things that are nagging me.

Nagging item number one: I still have my vintage-inspired art over at Etsy. The shop is still listed as Inkblots and I have yet to change it. The artwork there is mostly collage and I don’t think I want Inkblots to have anything to do with my collage work. I keep waffling about making changes and putting it off because it’s just one of those decisions that I don’t see as crucial, but I’ve realized that the longer I keep delaying, the less sure my footing will be as I move forward. I want to have a solid body of work, not a little of this and some of that and yeah I do that as well and maybe if you’d like this I could do that. It’s confusing for everyone, including me.

Nagging item number two: For whatever reason, I feel a big need to clean up and clear out. On January 1st I started a program called 8 Weeks to a Less Cluttered Home that I saw on Pinterest. (If you’re as addicted to Pinterest as I am, you can find me here.) This has been absolutely amazing for my frame of mind. I found a bunch of unused bath products under my bathroom sink and donated them to Dress for Success, an organization that helps women who are re-entering the workforce. I sold a few books that I haven’t looked at in years. I recycled some printer cartridges to help the local raptor center. It feels awesome!

I also have assigned a cleaning task to each of the 5 days of the week. Today, for example, I clean the bathroom counter, sink, and mirrors. Yesterday I dusted. The idea here is instead of spending an entire day cleaning at some point, I clean a little bit each day. Instead of making it a huge chore, it’s just a little thing on the to-do list. And I made my own cleaning supplies so it’s cheap and easy. (Seriously. Pinterest. Best. Thing. Ever.)

So….now that you’ve heard about what’s been nagging me, my addiction to Pinterest and my cleaning schedule, I’m guessing you’re saying to yourself:

What does this have to do with art?!?

4 years ago this June I did an art fair out in Vail, Colorado. Long story short, I wanted to try something new and it didn’t go as I hoped. The art that I created for that show adorned the walls of my studio and now that the studio is gone, it sits in bins and cabinets in my apartment and in my storage locker. I have some of it for sale on Etsy, but for the most part the collection has been unseen.

As part of beginning the process of cleaning up and clearing out in addition to moving forward, I’ve decided to start marking the artwork down and finding new homes for it.

Want to be part of it? Follow me on Facebook for more details!

Good Luck!!

Good Luck!!

Good Luck!!

Right before Christmas I received some puzzle samples from Buffalo Games, the company who licenses my artwork. I got more than I was expecting, so I thought it would be fun to have a New Year’s giveaway!

Quick little background for those who don’t know: last year I signed with Buffalo Games to license my collages for a series of puzzles. So far the puzzles are of Times Square, Chicago, and Bourbon Street. I believe sometime in the next few months they’ll be releasing Las Vegas (a different collage than what I have here on my website). The puzzles are available at select Barnes & Noble locations and on Amazon.com. I was also told that they’re at select Joann Etc. stores, however I haven’t had a chance to go to any of the stores here so I’m not 100% sure which stores they’re being sold at.

Here in Minnesota we’re hitting that long part of winter where it’s pretty stinkin’ cold and it’s more likely we’ll stay inside than go out. What better than a puzzle to keep you busy! I’ve put together the Times Square puzzle myself and it’s pretty challenging. I was able to do it with a friend over an entire day of pretty much constant effort, so I’d say for people that only want to spend a couple of hours each day, it’d probably take you a couple of days to finish.

Here are snapshots of the boxes:

So here’s how the giveaway will work!

Starting Monday January 7th, I’ll post a link to a blog post of the selected puzzle to be given away that day (hereby known as the puzzle page). You’ll find that link at the end of this page, so check back to get the new link each day. There are 3 puzzles, so the giveaways will be on January 7th, 8th, and 9th.

To enter, all you have to do is guess a number between 1 and 99 and write that number in the comments of that page.

One guess per person per household.

I’ll be choosing a number via an online random number generator each night at 10pm and posting the winner on the puzzle page. If you’re the winner, I’ll be contacting you via email the following day for information on where to send the puzzle! After I hear from you, you can expect your puzzle in 5-7 business days.

All the rules and particulars

When you comment, please put your preferred email address in the comment form as that is the email I will be contacting you at to request your shipping information. In the event of duplicate guesses, the person who posted the winning number in the comments first will be selected as the winner. If multiple guesses are made from the same person, the first guess will be the only guess considered. If the winning number was not guessed, the number that is closest to the winning number, either above or below, will be selected. In the event that winning number was not guessed and two people have guessed numbers that are closest to the winning number, for example, the winning number is 60 and there are guesses of 59 and 61, the person who posted first will be declared the winner. If you’re the winner, please make sure to add hello at giesla dot com to your address book so my email to you requesting shipping information doesn’t go to spam. If after contacting you I don’t get a reply within 48 hours, your guess will be disqualified and I will choose a new winner based on the rules above, so make sure to check your email! Shipping will be via USPS. Buffalo Games, Hadley House Company, and all puzzle resellers are in no way affiliated with this giveaway.

THE LINKS!!

(will be active on the corresponding giveaway day)

Giveaway Day #1

Giveaway Day #2

Giveaway Day #3

The family photo wall. What an awesome idea to devote an entire wall to your family.

But…

How are you going to frame the photos?
Are they going to be all the same frame or a mix of eclectic frames?
What if you can’t find enough of the same kind of frame?
Are you going to hang them in a grid pattern or some other design?
Will you take up the whole wall or a part of the wall?
If it’s only on a part of the wall are you going to have the design anchored above a piece of furniture?
What if you want to rearrange the room?

It’s enough to give you a headache, right?

By the time that’s all decided, the focus is more than likely going to be on getting through the project than it is about the family. Not to mention that now you need to pick out your favorite photos to hang up!

I often tell people when they’re considering a custom collage that not only does a collage get the photos out of your albums and onto the wall, it gives you the chance to display more photos than you probably ever would in your home in one beautiful piece of artwork.

What if you could have a photo wall without buying a single frame or pounding a single nail?

What if you could display more than an entire album’s worth of photos without having a massive wall to hang them all?

I never asked myself these questions until a client proposed a project for his lakehome:
a family photo collage wallpaper.

After the client met with his family to gather over 250 photos and clippings from several photo albums, some of which dated back to the late 1800′s, he met with me and we sorted through everything. In most instances clients send me their photos, but when we’re working with fragile/old photos and a large quantity, it’s easier to meet in person. We discussed what could be narrowed down as well as what the significance was of some of the photos so I could begin to visualize placement within the collage. The concept was to have a grayscale collage that looked like a soft pattern from a distance but revealed family photos when viewed closely.

After about 65 hours of work which included scanning, photo restoration, and the creation of the collage, everything was in place and ready to print. I brought the almost 5GB file into the printer and later that week approved a small color proof. The lakehome is about 2 1/2 hours north of the Twin Cities, so on the day of installation I drove up to meet the installer and the client to make sure everything went smoothly and to document the process.

The installation went smoothly but….

…the print was too big.

And it was GREEN.

Like mint chocolate chip ice cream green.

When I photographed the piece, though, it looked fine. What my eye saw and what the camera saw were two different things. The client was dismayed & I was baffled. I acknowledged that the print being too big was my fault as I had no idea how much bigger I needed to make the piece in case the measurements were off, but I had no clue why it was green. I know things can change from screen to print but this wasn’t even close to the same.

I assured the client that I would redo the piece as I never consider a project to be complete until the client loves it.

This required me to make a few trips up to pull the piece down and repair the wall. Ever pulled down wallpaper? It’s similar to that only it’s more like a giant sticker. It required a heat gun and a ton of patience.

In redoing the piece I learned that grayscale prints shift significantly in different lighting situations and that it’s one of the most difficult things to recreate. Imagine trying to create grey with 4 colors of paint. Pretty tough, right? That’s essentially what the printer is doing. Add to that that the collage was in a room that had a wall of windows so there would always be a lot of light and a lot of different kinds of light. Unfortunately that meant that it was going to be next to impossible to get a consistent grey look to the piece. It was disappointing, but one of those things that you just have to accept. I only wish I would’ve known that before I started!

The best we could do is print multiple samples, tape them up in the room so it could be viewed in different lighting situations, then choose the one that was the closest to what we were looking for.

After correcting the size and color and printing the collage again, we were ready for the second installation.

The widest the pieces can be printed is 48″ so I worked with the printer to divide up the collage so there were the least amount of seams across the wall. The first step of the installation is to tape up all of the pieces to get the alignment correct. Since walls are rarely square, this ensures that everything lines up correctly on the edges and that the piece won’t skew too much up or downhill during installation.

Next is the actual installation. The installer peels back parts of the backing a little at a time, trims it off, and adheres the vinyl to the wall. It’s an incredible process to watch because it requires constant smoothing to make sure it lays flat and there are no wrinkles or bubbles. The material is the same that is used in vehicle graphics and it’s designed to be durable and UV resistant.

Using an X-Acto knife, the installer cuts around the switchplate and outlet covers so they blend in.

The Completed Piece

 

Detail Close-up

While this is much more permanent in your home than framing photos on a wall, it doesn’t have to be. It would be possible to adhere the collage to panels that could be installed on the wall so it could be removed and moved if necessary. I like the idea of it being more permanent, however, because it makes the house more of a home. It says, “this is our family and here is where we gather and grow together.”

I could recount all the details but instead I’ll tell you of just one that leads up to where I am today.

I named my business Inkblots because everything I created in the beginning was handcrafted and inkjet printed. Inkjet printed = created with blots of ink = Inkblots. (Technically it’s drops of ink but Inkdrops sounds weird.)

For the first few years, my name was itty bitty on my business cards. I don’t even remember if it was on my website. Inkblots was always visible first and foremost. After a few people asked me where my name was on my cards (which caused me to feel ridiculous pointing it out with my fingernail), I made it a bit bigger, but not nearly as big as my logo.

It was obvious the logo was noticeable when I met people that would say to me, “You’re the Inkblots girl!”, or when I received emails from customers who wanted to order one of my “inkblots”. I have never called my collages inkblots, but I can’t blame my customers. It only makes sense that someone would come to that conclusion because I was putting so much emphasis on my business name.

Customers were confused and I was confused. Here I am trying to grow as an artist and there’s something quite fundamental holding me back.

Myself.

It’s no secret that Giesla Hoelscher looks really intimidating to pronounce. It’s actually said just how it looks. Gees-la Hole-sure. 4 syllables. It’s also no secret to my friends and family that I hate introducing myself to people because it can be so exasperating.

“Hi, I’m Sue.”
“Hi Sue, I’m Giesla.”
“Keesla?”
“Giesla.”
“Deesla?”
“Giesla, with a G. Geese. La.”
“Oh! Giesla! That’s really interesting. What does it mean? Where does it come from? Why were you named that?”

Sue’s friend joins the conversation and she wants to introduce me.

“Joe, this is Gahleese. I mean Jalisa. Umm…I’m sorry, what was it again?”

I try to be pretty patient with people because I know it’s not a name you hear everyday. There’s a learning curve involved. But quite often I get emails to Gielsa from people who have known me for quite awhile. I just received mail addressed to Giesla Hoechsler from a retail shop I’ve worked with for about 8 years. Enclosed in the envelope was an inventory sheet and check for Geisla Hoelscher.

I understand typos happen. I know it takes time to remember how someone spells their name. I also know it takes about 5 minutes or less to go through emails or Facebook or Twitter or whatever you have to figure out how someone spells their name so you can address them correctly.

In my mind, if I don’t get a name right after a period of time I’m conveying that you’re not worth my time and effort. If I send off an email to Jennfier instead of Jennifer, it means I’m too busy to care about details. Your name, the thing that identifies you, isn’t worth more than a thought of “whatever, close enough” to me.

When people give me the “whatever” brush off, it makes me want to call them a random name that pops into my head or intentionally misspell their name just to try to make a point.

It’s made me want to hide behind a business name for 10 years.

While Inkblots was a fitting name for my business in the beginning, as time passed and my art changed it no longer fit. I’ve realized that I chose to keep it because it was a way for me to be Inkblots and not Giesla. I recall actually breathing a sigh of relief when I got a business checking account and could tell people to make their check out to Inkblots instead of Giesla Hoelscher. But then I got checks made out to Inkspots. I got mail to Ink Blots or Ink Blots Art.

I wasn’t making things easier by hiding behind my business name, I was making my life more frustrating. I was frequently trying to explain one name or the other. I tried to convince myself that I was getting upset over nothing because in the grand scheme of things a little thing like people constantly having trouble with my name doesn’t matter.

But it does matter. No part of me is an insignificant detail, even the part that looks difficult to pronounce. There is no need for me to be apologetic about my name because some people are unwilling to learn how to spell or pronounce it.

It’s time that I stop being afraid of 4 syllables, and the first step begins with the thing that has harbored my fear, my business.

In the upcoming weeks I’ll be working on changing my website and business cards to feature my name and not Inkblots. While Inkblots isn’t going away, I’m going to reserve the use of that name for my design work, like my Stay Curious manifesto and any other graphic design that I do.

You’ll still be able to get to my site from inkblotsart.com, however the new domain will be giesla.com. Many thanks to my friends and fans on Twitter and Facebook for helping me debate the pros and cons of my new domain name!

For everyone out there who has had to repeat themselves or been called something not even remotely close to their name, I empathize completely. It took me 10 years to finally be comfortable with my name as part of my business, and I’m happy I made the decision. It will allow me to do things that I was holding back on because I didn’t want to do them as Inkblots, I wanted to do them as me.

If you have any stories you’d like to share about your name woes, I’d love to see them in the comments!

After waiting all September for the leaves to change, I finally got a beautiful day in October of 2011 to make the trip up to Collegeville. I first stopped in St. Joseph to take photos of St. Ben’s and after 3 hours made the short drive to St. John’s. Unlike St. Ben’s, St. John’s doesn’t have a monument with the school’s name so I initially used a photo of the Abbey as the central focus of the collage. As I progressed with the collage, though, I just didn’t care for how it was turning out so I started fresh. Towards the end of my trip I went down by Stumpf Lake and took a photo up the street towards the Abbey. It’s such a striking drive that I thought it was a better central focus as it really showcases the beauty of the campus. Because it was nearly 4pm when I arrived at St. John’s, it was a race against the sun to get all of the photos I needed as the fall light was waning later in the day. While I really felt rushed, the early evening light really lit the campus beautifully and I got some great photos.

Click here to view a photo of all print options

I heard the campuses of St. Ben’s and St. John’s were beautiful in the fall so I waited until the leaves turned to head up to take photos. I really enjoyed the landscaping and green space at St. Ben’s and found it to be such a tranquil place to wander. It was great seeing some classes outside on a beautiful October day instead of cooped up in classrooms. The highlight of my trip was speaking to one of the sisters who was passing through the chapel as I was admiring the sun beaming through the dome. She told me she had photographed the dome numerous times and said that the ceiling used to have paintings of Benedictine women. I wasn’t able to find any photographs of the paintings, but I did find in photo archives that the dome windows used to be stained glass but were removed because they made the chapel too dark.

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Admittedly UND wasn’t really on my radar as a college I needed to capture until my friend told me that by the end of 2011 they would be eliminating the Fighting Sioux nickname. Since I know that this would be a part of history and could forever change the campus, I made it a point to make the trip. I have to say that Amtrak isn’t the most efficent way to travel when you’re on a tight timeline (I had to get there, get the photos and get back in 30 hours), but it was better than a 10 hour round trip drive. I got in at 7 am, took photos for 5 hours and headed back home at 2 am the following day. I am happy to say that I now know first hand why so many people requested I photograph the Red Pepper. It’s really a place you have to experience!

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