Category: Events and Happenings

I Gotta Feeling That Tonight's Gonna Be a Good, Good Night!

This video was filmed in Chicago, but it characterizes the feeling that I have as I write today from New York City! I am here for the Shorty Awards Ceremony, which begins tonight at 7 pm EST.

If the Shorty Awards judges go solely on the number of popular votes in making their decisions, I don’t have a chance. The guy in first place has many more votes than I do.

But if they consider the love and enthusiasm shown by my followers, I would have won it a million times over.

Somewhere along the line in this quest for a Shorty, it stopped being about me. It started being about all the folks who helped me get to the Shorty finals and to New York City.

I take all of you with me. Please live vicariously through my tweets (Follow #bztatnyc on Twitter), as you are here with me every step of the way.

No matter what happens, today is gonna be a good, good day, and tonight is going to be a good good night! It is all because of you!!!

Thx for the adventure!

Life is an Adventure!
BZTAT

BZTAT is going to the Shorty Awards in New York City!

Artist BZTAT at work for recent Paint-a-thon

I have the BEST friends from all around the world!

First I asked them to help get me into the finals for the Shorty Awards in the Art Category. As an emerging pet portrait artist whose business has been built by leveraging social media, I thought that being in the Shorties would help advance awareness of my artwork.

My friends came out in a big way!

I came in third place in the popular voting, which is one component of the overall judging for the award.

Then I asked them to help me raise money for the trip to New York City for the Shorty Awards Ceremony. As an  artist and  creative entrepreneur starting a new business,  funds are very tight for extra things such as travel, and I couldn’t do it on my own.

Including donations, proceeds from a 12 hour Paint-a-thon, and new commissions, my friends helped me raise over $1400 for the trip!

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!

I will be meeting up with a number of friends in New York with whom I have come to know through social media but never met face-to-face. Most notably, I will be meeting @FrugalDougal‘s staff (Shorty nominee for the Nonprofit Category), and @Yoda_the_Dog‘s staff, who is the tweeter for @VAStateParks (Shorty nominee for the Government Category).

@FrugalDougal‘s staff is traveling all the way from the UK for the Shorty Awards!

The ceremony is Wednesday evening (3/3/10) from 7 -11 pm EST. Be sure to follow my tweets on Twitter with the hashtag #bztatnyc during the ceremony and throughout the whole trip.

I plan to post many photos and chronicle my trip on Twitter for those who helped me make the trip. I hope you will join me on the adventure!

In case you were wondering, @BrewskieButt and my other cats will be well cared for while I am away. I have a sitter checking in on them and the studio to make sure all is well during my absence.

New York, here I come!!!

Life is an Adventure!

BZTAT

Cool Brew Ice Adventure

Cool Brew ice Sculpture
"Cool Brew" ice sculpture by BZTAT

I wrote last week about this year’s First Friday Ice Festival in the Canton Arts District. I am just now reaching a point in my recovery where I can write about it. I was pretty sore and achy after 3 hours of rigorous work in sub-freezing temperatures.

I have decided that, should I decide to do it again next year, I will:

  1. Spend some time to really learn about what I am doing.
  2. Obtain my own power tools and honest-to-goodness ice carving tools.
  3. Get my body better prepared for such rigorous work.

All that said, I believe this year’s effort was a success, despite many challenges.

Somehow, I managed to burn through 3 different chainsaws. I rendered two old electric ones totally useless, and I used up all the gas in a gas-powered saw.  Sheez!!!

Ice sculting

At least all fingers and toes are still intact.

We also had problems with lighting. The Canton Development Partnership graciously provided some high powered lights to illuminate my work. Problem was that they were too high of voltage for my studio’s electrical system, so we had circuits blowing all over the place.

Somehow we managed, and the sculpture of my cat Brewskie Butt, entitled, “Cool Brew” came to be.

My sculpture, however, was only one small part of the many things going on in the Canton Arts District for the First Friday Ice Festival. We had master carvers, other Canton artists, the head chef and owner of Iris Restaurant, and culinary students from Canton South High School all carving ice creations.

We also received some wonderful press about the event. Here is an article from the Canton Repository (front page no less) in which I was quoted. Check out the photos for all the other fabulous ice creations around town.

Special thanks go to ArtsinStark and the Canton Special Improvement District for bringing so much energy to the First Friday events!

Life is an Adventure!

BZTAT