A New Homepage! kevinwoodson.com
Tuesday, October 3, 2006 at 08:03PM 
The Journey Continues...
After years of internet adolescence, I feel like my
artwork has finally grown up and joined the online world!
I'm proud to announce the all-new, redesigned kevinwoodson.com!!!
This
home page is the flagship site for me as an artist, writer, illustrator,
and blogger. It is the center of gravity for a growing community
of sites that include links to my online books; a rapidly-expanding family of artists, authors and designers; and resources to help book, art, and flower-lovers everywhere enjoy the world we all share.
Artists and Web Sites
For years, we've all watched as many different artists
Watch out for the Bird in The Rain in Kevin's watercolor galleries
found their own niches in the world wide web. Artists have
responded to this new medium in ways ranging from automatic,
unconditional embrace, to the unequivocal shunning and denial of
cyberspace.
Personally, I think the emerging online world presents a lot of new opportunities to reach out to many different people. There are so many new ways to display and sell art pieces, it's all very exciting.
Although I always wanted to be a part of this internet thing, especially during the dot.com era, I never could quite figure out how to present my work.
I
think I got my first online account sometime around 1995, and was
amazed at all the stuff you could find out there. And sadly, my
own personal online efforts, like so many others' was purely gratuitous.
My first two sites, which were so forgettable I've almost forgotten them, were just online versions of the little cardboard file-folder portfolio of photocopied paintings that I carried around. Thankfully, site one and site two were hosted by a company that went out of business and no evidence exists.
Following the demise of that hosting 
Roar! The prowl of the night jaguar...account,
I wised up and by a stroke of incredible luck bought the
still-available URL of my name. I do feel sorry for the other
Kevin Woodsons out there who have contacted me, lamenting my beginner's
luck, but finders-keepers!
The original kevinwoodson.com was a 
Jazmine and the Magic Store, one of the many notebook images on Kevin's Watercolorsblank 'under construction' page for years before Ryan Carey finally helped pull me into the new world with the site 'Kevin's Watercolors.'
Launched in 2002, Kevin's Watercolors (hosted at kevinwoodson.com) was an online gallery of my notebook illustrations.
The French Lady is at Kevin's WatercolorsAlthough it was gratuitous, in the sense that it wasn't selling or promoting
anything, it was an extremely popular site. Because I travel a
lot, I wanted a way for people I met briefly in my travels to get to
know me — and the site Ryan built was perfect for that. In fact,
the site is still live today — as a 'mirror site' at kevinwoodson.com.
The New kevinwoodson.com: Not Gratuitous
As I've continued to grow as an artist, I've had many more good ideas for
It's a total Circus at Kevin's new home site paintings and story books, and my hopes and aspirations have grown as well.
I want to use my talents to write and illustrate children's picture-books with simple stories and simple metaphors that can change a child's life, and maybe even change the world in some small aspect. I'm driven to do that, more than anything else, by the stories and characters that won't stop coming out of my head. They are impossible to ignore, and even without a publisher, I still create the stories.
A website is a perfect medium for someone like me who wants to design and promote online books, search for agents and publishers, and connect with similar artists around the world.
Once I realized what I wanted, designing the site was a piece of cake. And, to my surprise, it's not just one site, but an entire online community of sites. Kevinwoodson.com is definitive, but by no means complete. It also links to:
Kevin's Bookshop: an online store of self-published books. I use this site to publish 
less-traditional
books, books that don't follow plot and wording guidelines of the
mainstream presses. You can go there and purchase books today
(printing and shipping is handled by Lulu.com)! The price is
comparable to Amazon, and the quality is excellent.
This Blog! For up-to-the minute (or the week...) coverage of the general mayhem of life in Kook.
Aunt Imelda's Dinosaur Stew: Yes, every traditional book will eventually 
have
its own site. Aunt Imelda is special, and will be its own little
community, linking AIDS foundations, artists, and children around the
world. (coming soon! auntimelda.com — be sure to check back)
Matthew's flower site and blog, 'Life in San Francisco:' These links have 
Matthew's Flowers! This and many more are on Matthew's flower site.always
been here at this blog, and are now linked into my artwork sites
appropriately. The best inspiration comes from the man I love!
Reader Comments (8)
While I am wasting my time looking for a job and stuff in unbelievably cold mid-West (it was snowing yesterday! It is away too early for snowing, if you ask me), you have created such a wonderful web site! Thank you for sharing your works with rest of us.
Anyway, I saw the call for proposal for children’s story book contest on UW paper the other day, which a Japanese publisher is having every year, of course, everything is written is Japanese so perhaps Matthew can read the call for proposal for you? Maybe you guys know about this already, but if you haven’t their web site is:
http://www.shinpusha.co.jp/event/contest/ehon14/
Best,
Simon
Thanks for the encouragement! It must be the influence of all those books we read growing up. By the way, I'm enjoying Carey's Gulley and his masterpiece quite a bit. Thanks for the latest reading material! I may even learn to write in Irish...
No way! Is it snowing already? Before Halloween? Oy Vay -- better reserve those Hawaii tix early this year, this is going to be one challenging winter. Better put that surfer costume away this Halloween and build a snowman instead.
Great tip about the contest. I've found a few already for entering the Flower Boy, but hadn't heard about this one. Cross your fingers!
Contgratulations to your wonderful new site. I quickly looked at the site, but it has so much amazing and fun stuff, and I will never be bored to check every single piece. It is a such a warm, wonderful site, and I am very happy to see all your work including your first children's book. It is such an honor for me that your share all this with your blog readers.
Congratulations again, and thank you so much for being such a wonderful inspitations to all of us.
Amazing…you wanted Origami Christmas tree last year, and it grew in to this!
I rceived 3 (!) bookmarks last week.
Not only they are beautiful but there are THREE of them!
Thank you very much!
I'm glad you liked the new site! Like with so much artwork, even thought you create it and like it, when you put it out there, you never know if anyone will appreciate it or not...
Looks like you've removed all my worries about this site! Thanks, Hiro -- your encouragement is what I need to keep on going!
It's amazing how many folds this Origami Christmas Tree has! That's one great thing about Origami -- you fold and fold, but until you're done, you never know exactly how it's all going to come out.
Thanks so much for being so inspiring and supportive, and Matthew and I are very glad to hear you liked the bookmarks. Happy reading!