Back home safely and I want to thank all the great artists that I met in North Carolina and in Florida. These two art organizations were amazing and I hope I see many of these wonderful artists in the near future. Next workshops will be back in Florida, the last week in January and the first week in February... more info to come.

Next Thursday the 8th of November there will be a Lakes Region Watercolor Guild meeting and Frankie Johnson from Mainstreet Art Center - 20 E. Main St., Lake Zurich, IL 60047  will be the demonstrator.

In the last month and a half I have taught over 7 workshops/classes totaling over 140 students and I have to say I loved every minute of it. I have taught over 34 years and I am now feeling like I am really getting through to my students and they are really getting it.

In the last 2 weeks, I had close to 40 students that just blew me away with how they were handling my teachings. I have never gotten such a wonderful response to my lessons. As a teacher who loves seeing my students get really good at painting, I am honored to be part of those artist's growth. I am so happy about it that I want to tell everyone which is me tooting my own horn and what I want to write about in this weeks newsletter.

When many of us were kids our parents, at least I know for sure mine would teach me not to gloat, brag, boast, or put someone else down as to make yourself look better. These kinds of teachings I also tried to instill in my kids. Now I have come to realize that I am teaching my students to break those rules and start tooting their own horn and brag about their accomplishments.

Years ago I had a hard time tooting my own horn, it felt wrong to show off and brag about one's self. I then met 2 ladies who both worked in public relations and in promotions/marketing. As someone who always watched other people getting into local papers and getting the spotlight, I always wondered how this happened. Were these kids and adults so good at something or did they do something so special that people would come to them to show and tell their stories? I thought it was luck for these people to get in the papers and get noticed by the press. I then learned it wasn't luck. I was taught by these 2 professionals that it wasn't luck and that it was what their jobs were all about and that they are in the profession of helping others toot their horns.

Before you can toot your own horn let me say you first need to get busy working on something to toot about. For us artists it is our work. Start putting together a body of work and while you are putting the work together you can start tooting. You may want to have an end goal about the body of work planned so you can brag about the end goal. When you have that work done, no matter if you like or don't like all the work, start tooting and start promoting. Now a days with the internet at our finger tips it is so much easier then it was years ago. Best of all social media and websites of newspapers, magazines and TV stations are all easily excess-able and most are free.

Once you have something to toot about you have to stop being an artist for a little bit and start being a writer, public relations person, promoter and photographer. Start writing those press releases and taking good photos of your work. Some artists don't like doing this and don't feel right about tooting their own horn, so to them I say find someone that will do it for you, maybe a spouse, a friend or someone you can hire, get someone to toot your horn. The newspapers, magazines and TV reporters don't come to you, you have to go to them by writing press releases. Start getting your work noticed by showing everyone how good you are.

Go ahead show off your stuff!