Tonight from 6-8pm I will be at my union office asking questions of a couple candidates for a city council position that will be opening up. Gonna be asking what their positions are on supporting affordable family healthcare, livable wages and affordable housing that service employees who work in downtown Seattle can afford so they aren't forced to commute from further and further out thus reducing their quality of life and clogging the freeways and highways in the process. Should be fun. Trying to create an amiable relationship as we have with others that we can build on in the coming years. It should be not unlike preaching to the choir. They are both good candidates and, according to someone at the union, it's too bad they have to be running against one another but there is only one position opening up.

Then Thursday we sit at the bargaining table again. We should be able to finish up the non-economic issues at this session so we can start hammering out economics such as future wage increases, affordable health care, vacation pay, sick pay, pensions, etc. I knew this would be a long hard fight and I'm prepared, as are the rest of us on the bargaining team, to stick this out to the end.

It just feels so good - after so many years of feeling like a total loser -  to be on the forefront of making a real difference for the good. Pushing that proverbial envelope yet one more time.

I'm feeling like a dunce. I misposted my new website addy. It should read www. timallendigitalcreations.com when it goes live. I'll let everyone here know when that happens. I just got an email from dot5hosting that my credit card was declined. That seems odd. I sent them additional info just now. Maybe I gave the wrong expiration date or something. Well see.

Well it's off to get a Seattle business license so I can participate in future artwalks. The $490 fee is gonna sting a bit but I gotta do it. It's the right thing to do.

I finally took the jump last night and will have a website for my artwork before long. With the responses I got from the artwalk last Thursday, I figured I better get my images available 24/7 with a website. I figure it will likely be up and running in a couple weeks or so. I applied for www.timallencreations.com. Hopefully this will take me to the next level with an even larger audience.

Checked out the Fremont Sunday Market yesterday and came away quite impressed with what others are doing using photoshop. I'm putting out feelers to see what else I could be doing to advance my artwork and may try more artwalks and other venues. Already have some images showing on a rotating basis at Local Color, a Cafe Vita coffee shop/art gallery in Pike Place Market. 

Just feeling very excited about the direction I am going. It's a wonderful ride that I hope continues for a good long while. 

Went down to the First Thursday Artwalk  in Pioneer Square  a couple nights ago with 20 matted images I had taken with my camera and manipulated on either my PC or my laptop using The GIMP (The Gnu Image Manipulation Program). An open-source tool like Photoshop but freely downloadable off the web. I didn't have a spare $600 laying about and, after all, I'm certainly not going to complain about the price of "FREE".

The images were all 8x10 images of the Seattle area (Space Needle, Ferry Boats, WA State Conv. Center, Pike Place Market, etc.) and given sort of a kalidescope effect using Fractals. They were all matted to 14x16 mats. I didn't sell any in the 4 hours (from about 5pm to 9pm) I was there but came AWFULLY close a number of times. A few said they really wanted my Conv. Center image and would be back later. None of them ever showed back up. Others asked if I would be there next month or if I was there every month. (It is held the 1st Thurs. of each month, hence the name "First Thursday") I told them although it was my first time there that I would make a point of returning next month and selling in future artwalks. 

 All this tells me I'm definitely doing something right. I have so much fun creating my art and have sold only a handful so far. But just the reaction I get - that "WOW! How did you do that?" reaction that I get is suffucient to keep me doing what I'm doing and the sales will come in time. And the best part is the interaction with the public and seeing their amazement as I'm explaining the process I use.

 And today I got my first batch of business cards with one of my Gimped images of the Space Needle and "Tim Allen - Digital Artist" and my email addy. I'm considering getting a website but I need to sell a few of my images before I can afford to do that.

Gonna try again to post something on Ebay. I was unable to post a picture despite using the correct size and all when I tried last night.We'll see.