Dennis

I'm learning. I'm learning how "not so smart" I am. With blogs, and e-mails, and instant messages, and forwards, and gigs, and bytes and uploads and TIFFS and JPEGS, it's all rather overwhelming. Now I know how my grandparents felt, the first time they tried to program the VCR (which was Betamax, by the way) I gave them for Christmas one year!

I just got off of the telephone with Anne (who owns Perfect Postage.com by the way), and she has once again, come to my rescue. I should elaborate....

I've been "creating" art for a few years. I did it to relax. I created, to let my brain go to other places. I expected compliments from friends and family, which I eventually recieved, You know the kind? The "Oh, that's nice Dennis.." kinds of compliments. But, when strangers started to take notice and request, "Hey, could I get a copy of that? Only bigger?". Then of course I was ready to quit my day job and call myself an "Artist". The work I create could be considered rustic, rural, unique. I'll let others be the judge...

Thankfully, I didn't quit the day job, but I did heed the advice of a few people, and sought out someone to help me create a web site, to display my work. After all, I am not close friends, not even buddies yet, with any gallery owners. .. Local or otherwise. Though there's one here in Omaha that has been helping me out, I'll save that story for another time. My sister, Colleen, who lives in Kansas City offered up an introduction to Anne. "She's done some cool stuff..." my sister stated. And that was enough for me.

"First, I have to have art to put there" Anne explained. I tried e-mail. I tried burning CD's and sending them. I even made a trip to Kansas City to hand deliver some of the invaluable CD's. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn't. I do beleive it took us four or five months (I'm not exaggerating!!) to overcome the problem of getting the art to her. Then, there was the issue of the "narratives". I'd send 'em. Anne would post 'em. Then a day or two later, she'd get a call. "Can't you move that last sentence over just a tad?" Or, "Why is that word misspelled?" Anne would explain that she was posting my narratives in the exact manner in which she was recieving them. What is that they say? "Garbage in. Garbage out."

Thankfully, Anne has the patience of Job. I'm sure she realized early on that she wasn't dealing with the sharpest pencil in the drawer when it came to my knowledge of websites and transfers and file sizes and all of that... I just wanted to be able to create, and hope people liked some of it enough to buy it! the web site; dennisbuckman.com is up, running and ready to go! Yippiee!!!

Todays telephone call? "Hey Anne? This is Dennis. Hey, I started this thing... A blog? You know what they are, right? Well, I'm having this problem. I thought I could do this myself.. It says I have to edit my page and update my profile and upload a picture and....." I could hear a certain "sigh" on the other end of the phone.... An hour or so later, here I am! The rural Artist, living in Omaha, hoping he can sell enough art work to buy that motor home he's always deamt of, so he can go back to traveling and creat more art... Writing about it, on the Internet! As deal 'ole Grandma used to say, "Who woulda' thunk it?"

Thank you Anne for your patience and your expertise. I know in this writing, I cannot give enough credit to you for all that you've done for me. But look!!! I'm blogging! I'm getting smarter with every telephone call!!!