A note about V. Notes

Hey there.

I wanted to send out a little personal thank you about V. Notes, this unusual and personal blog series of thoughts and ideas related to art.

Initially started as a way to give my painting students more information outside of class, V. Notes now has over 1,000 readers. Many subscribers are part of the Seattle Artist League, but we also have a growing number of satellite subscribers around the world, mostly fed by people like you forwarding the V. Notes newsletter emails to friends.

Every time I make a V. Note I get to learn about a topic, explore it, and share it with you. I love making V. Notes, and I’ve heard from a lot of you that you love reading them. I am told that V. Notes makes positive connections between artworks and ideas, and positive connections between people. I definitely feel more connected to more creative people through this series.

I have no shortage of inspirations for posts – I keep a list, and presently I think there are 3,659 potential topics on that list. I’m not short of ideas, the only thing that limits me is hours in the day. But isn’t that true for most everything we love to do?

Each V. Note takes an average of 4.5 hours to make. I realize that seems like a lot for some pictures and a few comments. Truly each time I sit down to type one up I swear it’s only going to take me an hour, but it never does. Though I’ve been getting faster and more efficient, I’ve also been improving the posts by having more original content and more complete information. For instance, I’ll look for multiple sources of information, and I’ll often research each artwork to find the artist’s name and year, because many artworks on the internet are posted without the basic information. All images are formatted, and pics from class are cropped and cleaned up for light and color balance. Even the shortest V. Notes take considerable research, thought, and formatting before I post them.

I have no intention of stopping V. Notes, and no intention of making it a fee based read. I make these posts because I enjoy every minute of making them, and I send them out because it feels great to share it with you.

Here at year’s end, I wanted to thank you for being a V. Notes reader. You are the motivating reason for me to do this. You make V. Notes fun and rewarding for me, and since each post gives me so much learning and joy, I can never thank you enough for your part in this.

If you enjoy V. Notes and would like to contribute, invite a friend to subscribe. I would love to see this grow. Thank you, and I hope you have a creativity rich 2020.

-Ruthie V.