You are invited!
I am displaying my work at the Annual Festival of Art.
Location: Senior College-Belfast at the University of ME, Hutchinson Center
See you there!
You are invited!
I am displaying my work at the Annual Festival of Art.
Location: Senior College-Belfast at the University of ME, Hutchinson Center
See you there!
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Blue Fog with Gulls, watercolor by Jo M. Orise |
Good news! I sold four paintings at the Aldermere Farm Art Show and Sale event, August 10, 2013! The Aldermere Show is a one-day, once-a-year event. My first showing with the Farm. Proceeds from the show are shared with the Farm, which is a non-profit organization. Always glad to help.
More good news, I am now displaying work for sale at the Brown Bag Cafe, Rockland, Maine for the month of August, and will be there for the month of September as well! Come visit! Take a painting home and enjoy your new window to an artist’s vision.
Presently, I am working on a few compositions in my brain and can’t wait to grab a pencil and brush.
Visit my virtual art gallery www.jomorise.com .
Be happy. Love your neighbor. Remember YOU are someone’s neighbor too.
Smile in your mirror every day.
Leave a comment.
After completing the July One-Man-Show, I was invited to join the August group show at the The Brown Bag Restaurant / Cafe, 606 Main Street, Rockland, ME. So come by again and take a peek, you may still have a chance to grab a painting for your home. AND, grab a sandwich or some of their great muffins, pies or bread. They have the absolute best baker and terrific chef. Tell them I said so.
I have a One-Man-Show for the month of August at The Highland Coffee House, Thomaston, ME. Sixteen works, a combination of originals and prints are on display. This is another great Coffee House—I only hang around really great places that offer ambiance and super food—for my delicate stomach and all. Wonderful coffee, pastries, sandwiches and lots of super entertainment. Shawn, the owner, offers weekly and artistic events from music to poetry, to benefit events. Come visit.
If you can’t make it, then visit my virtual gallery http://www.jomorise.com to see what I’ve been doing most of my life.
Leave a comment. Love to get feedback.
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Wow! |
Received an e-mail with an amazing offer!
“Dear Jo. M. Orise,
I’m the webmaster of wikigallery.org, the largest “Open Community” Fine Art Wiki Project in the world. We receive millions of visitors monthly. Our database of Fine Art images and articles is in the millions and we continue to grow daily. We are a nonprofit organization. This is your opportunity to take part in our project.
I visited your website earlier today and wanted to congratulate you on a creating a well presented and informative site. I would like to add a link to your website from wikigallery.org and wanted to know if you would be kind enough to link back to us.
Adding a link from wikigallery.org to your website will greatly increase your Search Engine Ranking in Google, Yahoo, Bing and other websites. A link from our site to your site will mean that your site will ranked HIGHER on these search engine results pages which will translate to more visitors and better exposure.
If you are interested let us know, and I will get back to you with the exact link information that we would like you to use. Please also let me know what description you would like us to use when we link back to you.
Looking forward to hear from you,
Victoria
wikigallery.org
Webmaster
Disclaimer:
Your e-mail ID is taken in person directly via visiting your website online. Please reply to this e-mail if you are not the right person to receive this e-mail message or if you have received this e-mail by default.”
Well, let me come down a notch—it sounded pretty good. Maybe it is a legitimate offer.
But why did it look strange? The e-mail—all text based. No graphics. From Wikipedia? In today’s world of social interaction, there are usually graphics, pictures—something to look at. As I read, I found a typo. Not very professional. There is a spell check and grammar check in all publishing software, and even in e-mail/web-mail software. Why hadn’t they been used? Is this another scam come my way?
The signature? Victoria, wikigallery.org, Webmaster.
Only a first name, Victoria. Victoria who? The Webmaster? Why would a webmaster write this note? Why not the Art Coordinator, or other such title? Webmasters create websites. Perhaps Wikipedia’s Wikigallery is on a very LOW budget. Somehow, I don’t seem to believe that.
“… Our database of Fine Art images and articles is in the millions and we continue to grow daily…”
Why would I want to be ‘buried’ in a million+ swarm of artist? For me—I have no patience browsing. One million+ options to choose from sounds oppressive. I’d lose my bearings and throw up. Sorry. :-(
What prospective client has that much time to shop for artwork? Easier to take a holiday and make the gallery circuit in a quaint art community somewhere on the globe, or better yet, go to an interesting artist’s web-page and talk to them. That has a personal touch. :-)
After an initial reading, I set the e-mail aside. A few days later I entered Victoria’s signature and company name at http://www.snopes.com . Well, well. What do you know? It was been reported as a possible SCAM in 2011. I never heard of it until now. So is it really a scam?
Check out this link from linkedin.com written by Laurie, April 5, 2011:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/GOOGLE-LINK-SCAM-3722095.S.49448023
Here is another link:
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1029012Â
Always check out the ‘stuff’ friends send. The Internet is NOT the book of rules or the bible. It is fallible—very, very fallible. Think about the writer: who, why, when. If it sounds too good to be true—IT IS! But this one? I think it is okay. What do you think?
Leave a comment below.
Thanks.Â
This is NOT my painting. Image of Owls Head Light Station in Owls Head, Maine, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
I’ve sold artwork over the Internet before, but this didn’t seem okay.
Michael has a problem in spelling his name correctly more than once. So, which is it Mike?
Grammar is not very good either. Salutation? A bit strange.
So I do what I always do. Contemplate, then act—what can I find out about Michael Silverberg at mmmoreef@gmail.com?
Any search engine will do. I got lots of information about Michael who has an alias was well.
Kathleen McMahon, artist, http://www.kathleenmcmahon.com/info/scammer-names.html has done a terrific job as an Anti-Scam Samurai. Visit her website and check out the long list of names scammers use. This is only a partial list.
If you get an e-mail and it doesn’t seem right, go with your intuition and do some research. It will pay off.
As a former computer science teacher, I developed an Internet Safety curriculum where I taught my students to question what they saw and read on the Internet. Compare what is said on one site with another. Check your sources. What is their motive? Are there lots of spelling and grammar errors. If it sounds too good to be true? Then it usually is.
Go to http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articles/business-of-art/scam-letter.
So how do you protect yourself and report those nasty scammers?
Here are some tips you can use to avoid becoming a victim of cyber-fraud as seen on http://www.fbi.gov/
Check this: http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/reporting_to_ISPs.php :
PS:I’m back with an update. I forwarded the e-mail to GMail’s link (as seen above) at 12:04 AM and got a robotic response at 12:05 AM.
GMail provided me with a choice of forms to fill out. It was neat, quick and easy.
You will need the message header so they can track them down.
Click on the ‘comment’ link below. Share your experience with scam e-mail.