If we are friends on Facebook or Instagram, you will be aware that I have been painting lately. I’ve been painting postcard-sized water colours which began as a purely abstract exploration of a horizontal line.
I was doing this to help myself get into the headspace of the Canadian/American artist Agnes Martin. While I was performing Morag Northy’s play 17 in Taos, New Mexico late last year, my interest in Agnes’ story was rekindled and I am hoping to write a play about her next year. (She ended her days in Taos and they have a beautiful gallery of her paintings at the Harwood Gallery.) One could say that in creating these postcards of horizontal lines, I have already begun the process.
Since I started posting them, I’ve been asked by a number of people if they are for sale. At first I wasn’t sure, but circumstances have made me think that it would be very helpful to me if I could sell some of them to friends who are supportive of my various artistic endeavours.
Specifically, my little publishing company B House Publications has no money and I am out of copies of my award-winning novel The Piano Teacher. In the past, the costs associated with printing the book were very generously covered by my brother, Tom. Well, Tom passed away last year and no one has stepped up to take his place and help me. A number of people are asking for the book and I have no copies left.
You can see where I’m going with this.
Essentially, I’m looking for help to reprint the novel, and at the same time keep myself afloat until I hear about a grant I applied for this summer (AFA) or until I return to Abes College to teach in August.
So, yes, the cards are for sale. They are original paintings, not prints. They are painted on cold pressed Winsor & Newton paper. I believe that a big part of their charm is that they are small (4” x 6”). Nicely framed, they would add a certain charm to your living space without taking up an entire wall.
I know what you’re wondering: how much? Because of the larger purpose of this sale, to reprint The Piano Teacher, I am hoping that some of my friends who are rather heavily monetized will be prepared to dig deep and be generous. I realize that my fellow artists from any field can’t afford to do that, but I would hate to say no to anyone, so basically I’m going to take it on a case by case basis. It’s a sliding scale, as they say. Make me an offer, and we’ll take it from there.
I donated one card to a silent auction recently and it sold for $200.00. I painted another at Rumble House the other night and it sold for $50.00. A third card was traded for a huge bottle of Belvedere vodka which probably sells for around $100.00. Just to give a rough idea.
Because they are postcards, I am happy to personalize them for you on the back. I’ll even send them through the mail like an ordinary postcard if you like the idea or seeing how the wear and tear of postal delivery would alter the painting. Otherwise, I’ll mail it to you in a protective envelope. Or if you’re in Calgary, we can get together and I’ll give it to you in person. For those of you who have already asked to buy a painting, get in touch with me and we’ll get ‘er done.
As for what they look lie, you can see a good number of them on the left side of the page from my Instagram feed. My idea is to get you one I think you will like from the cards I have created.
So, that’s my plan. If you’re interested, best to send me an email at eugenestickland@gmail.com and we can enter into strenuous negotiations about price and delivery, etc. etc.
Has an author ever before sold paintings to pay for a print run of his or her novel? It’s an interesting question. We may be making history here!
Whether we are or not, it would be very helpful and welcome for me to have some support to get The Piano Teacher back on the shelves and have a little left over to get on with other writing projects this summer.
Thanks for reading. Thanks in advance to those of you will actually buy one of these little beauties.
As many of you know, I wrote a novel earlier this year titled
Display of notebooks and pencil at Reid’s Stationers
The Piano Teacher.
Now that it’s Christmas, I hope that you will consider putting it on your shopping list, either for yourself or someone special who likes Canadian Literature. (Not to mention your kid’s piano teacher!)
I know many people who seem to value my friendship on the strength of the fact that I’m a well-known writer. (You know, on top of my good looks and engaging personality.)
Yet, I think it’s entirely possible that some have never seen a play of mine, or ever read my column in The Calgary Herald (too late for that now!) or heard me read my poetry or anything else, for that matter, other than my occasional witty Facebook status updates.
Well, now’s your big chance to change that, and all it will only cost you $20.00.
As you may know, I’m a big fan of shopping locally and supporting locally owned businesses. So, other than online, here’s a list of places where you can find my book in Calgary.
To begin with, it’s for sale at Shelf Life Books (4th Street and 13th Ave. SW) and on Saturday, December 12 from 3:00 to 5:00 PM I will be at Shelf Life to sign copies for you. (I’ll likely head over the The Blind Monk Pub on 12th Ave just west of 8th Street after that, so if you can’t get to Shelf Life, you will likely find me there. I’ll have some books with me. And we could have an eggnog together!)
Other books stores in Calgary that are carrying the book are Owl’s Nest in Britannia Village and Pages in Kensington.
After a recent feature on the CBC on Caffe Beano, where I wrote most of the novel you can once again buy the book at the café (on 9th Street, 10 steps north of 17th Ave. SW). If you buy it there, you might see me hanging out, and I would be happy to sign it for you.
You can also buy the book at Reid’s Stationers on 17th Ave. across from Western Canada High School. The folks at Reid’s have even put together a little museum-like display (pictured above) of the notebooks I wrote it in and the pencil I used to write all 70,000 words.
The creation and maintenance of a culture only works if the works of art created in a community are experienced by members of that community. As you can imagine, I feel the same as I feel about my book as I do about other elements of our culture, from fellow authors and their books, to live music, (and there are many wonderful venues in Calgary), to live theatre, to art galleries – you name it. There are many opportunities to support local artists, especially at Christmastime.
Whatever our medium, that’s why we do it — to share it. If it costs a few dollars to acquire it, well that only goes back into the pot so we can keep creating more. And hopefully, on it goes.
I hope you have a good holiday season. In your search for the perfect present for the loved ones in your life, please don’t forget to support the people who are your friends and neighbours. Including me!
Merry Christmas.
Here’s a new take on an old Christmas song I heard the other day . . .
On Friday October 9 at 7:00 PM on the second floor of the Le Forte Centre at St. Mary’s University, located in Fish Creek Park in south Calgary, I will be reading from my novel The Piano Teacher. To bring some musical artistry to the even, my friend Morag Northey will be helping me out. Morag is one of the finest cellists in the land. We first worked together on my play Queen Lear, for which she created a musical score and performed every night in the original production of the play.
I’ve been involved with St. Mary’s in one way or another since 2005 when we took a small production of my play Closer and Closer Apart there one winter’s evening. I loved the “boutique” nature of the place — a small (but ever-growing) student population, small class sizes, excellent faculty. In my mind it offers a liberal arts education the way it’s meant to be done and I’ve been proud to be associated with the place these last 10 years.
So, if you want to check St. Mary’s out — it’s a beautiful campus off of Bannister Road near Fish Creek — and you would like a signed copy of my novel, and even the chance to hear me read from it, and of course hear Morag as well, please come by Friday evening.
So there I was, bleeding at the War Memorial in Kensington.
My front tire had hit a ridge where the pavement gives way to the planking of the Memorial and I went down in an inglorious heap. It truly was an inelegant moment in the history of cycling.
My first thought was of my ribs – I had a fall last summer and broke a rib on my left side (#8, I believe it was). Let me tell you, that hurt like stink. So I sat there and although my hip hurt and my arm was bleeding and my knee was bleeding and my ankle was bleeding, at least my ribs seemed ok.
Small mercies.
My second thought was of the precious cargo on my bike rack. This cargo was the point of the journey, after all. Ten copies of my novel The Piano Teacher destined for Pages in Kensington book store. The books seemed fine and so I breathed a sigh of relief.
But I remember thinking at that moment that this was a situation unique to self-publishing where you have to do everything yourself. Maybe, just maybe, when I finish my next novel I’ll shop around a little more seriously to find a publisher who would do such things for me.
Then there was a lovely moment as a person of the street came up to me and helped my on my feet and got my bike up and make sure I was all right before sending me on my way. It was a little act of kindness, generosity of spirit, that took some of the sting from my minor injuries and put things in perspective for me.
So my book is now available at Shelf Life Books, Pages in Kensington, Owl’s Nest Books, and Reid’s Stationers, all in Calgary. If you are further afield than this, you can order it from Blurb.ca which is a print-on-demand service that I use. They put out a nice product, their books are virtually identical to the ones I have printed at Blitz Print here in Calgary. (The direct link to Blurb is here: http://www.blurb.ca/b/6423475-the-piano-teacher)
If this seems too much for you, for whatever reason, let me know and we’ll figure out a way to get you a copy of the book.
I’m happy to report that The Piano Teacher was #3 on Calgary’s best sellers last week. (As of September 12.)
Finally, I have arranged to give a reading at St. Mary’s University in south Calgary, where I am the writer in residence, on October 9 starting at 7 PM, but more on that anon.
I hope you enjoying the transition from summer to fall. It’s beautiful here in Alberta, but as we discover year after year, all so brief. Enjoy the colours while they last!
We have a good problem, I suppose – there are currently no copies to be had except on-line through Blurb.ca. (I will provide the link below.)
A recent article on the book and on me by Eric Volmers in the Calgary Herald sparked renewed interest but alas there are no copies to be had in any of Calgary’s book stores.
I printed what I assumed would be enough copies to last through the summer back in May when the book first came out and was launched at Shelf Life Books. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view I suppose, we have exhausted that first run.
It was drawn to my attention that there were a number of typos in the book – sorry about that! We have now expunged those (or at least corrected them) and the book is back at the printers and we now eagerly await the error-free second edition. I would put the date for the book to be back on the shelf (as it were) hopefully around August 29.
I prefer whenever possible to support locally owned businesses, and so at this point in time the book will be available at Shelf Life Books, Pages in Kensington, Owl’s Nest Books as well as Reid’s Stationers, all in Calgary. That’s how it stands now, but that could change if other book stores decide they would like to carry it.
The book is also available through the Calgary Public Library. They recently ordered extra copies (through Blurb) to keep up with the demand. (Wherever you may live in the world, you can always ask your local library to order the book and they usually do. One book at a time is how it goes . . . )
But as I say, it is also available if you order it through Blurb.ca, which is essentially a print-on-demand service. It takes a few days for the book to arrive and it costs a little extra for shipping, but it is the same book you would get at any of the above bookstores. (I actually make a greater royalty this way, so please don’t be shy. It’s just like ordering a book through Amazon, only I don’t like what Amazon is doing to the world and so you won’t find it there. But that’s another story.)
The link for buying the book is currently rather wobbly, so the best course of action to take for now is to visit blurb.ca (or dot-com outside of Canada) and go from there. Thanks! (Ahhh, technology!)
If you would like to have a signed copy, then you just have to get in touch with me and we will find a way to make that happen. Looking ahead, there will be a launch/celebration of the book at St. Mary’s University in south Calgary where I am writer in residence sometime this fall.
And then all those other things I don’t know about yet . . .
So there you have it. Now you know what I know. Before I leave you with the link to Eric’s piece, I’d like to thank my designer on this project, Jackie Bourgaize, for her excellent design and patience and my brother Tom and his wife Alison for their immense support – without them, there would be no book, plain and simple.
And thank you as well to everyone who has bought the book so far, and for all the nice things you have said to me on Facebook and in person. It has been a very gratifying experience so far.
eugene stickland 