The Lay of the Land . . .

A Guide to What's Where at the Santa Fe Art Cafe.

No, that is not me playing the guitar. I do play folk guitar, but that still isn’t me. This beautiful vista is on the road to Bean Blossom, Indiana, and was taken on my Fall road trip this year. But the reason it is sitting on top of this newsletter is that I needed to illustrate my subject - which is giving you the lay of the land of our Santa Fe Art Cafe - a Guided Tour, if you will.

After 22 active years online - following my monkey mind around, I found myself sitting on a mound of mishmash. What a tangled web creative people can weave! I had to get this organized and all in one place.

Those paid platforms like Teachable did not work for me. I needed something that could be both freeform and consolidated, and not stuck to a template design.

So I went out and gathered the parts I needed and put them together on my own site. My Art Cafe has different sections, but they are all plugged into the SantaFeArtCafe.com website. So, if you are ever confused about what is where, just return to the Cafe where everything is labeled and linked, and easy to find on the Cafe “Menu”.

Here’s what’s on the MENU:

You are reading the Newsletter right now. If you have subscribed (free with just an email and password), you will receive this in your email whenever I write one. I am not setting a schedule at the moment. My newsletter is hosted on a site called SubStack which is very different from other newsletter hosts, because you can leave comments, and all the issues are available on a blog-like page that is reached by clicking or tapping this Newsletter button at SantafeArtCafe.com. At the bottom of each edition of this newsletter in your email is a link to go to the Cafe Menu, where you can click that button.

Substack is a platform where writers and artists can create publications with much more content (even Podcasts!) under a separate paid subscription (usually $5 - $7/ month). I am not doing that yet, but I will soon go back to publishing magazine type content - more in depth and informative, and that content will require a Subscription. It will be in addition to the current free newsletter, and not a replacement for it.

Community is different from the newsletter. It is a private Group that works just like a Facebook Group but has nothing to do with Facebook. You use an email and password to join this space too - hopefully the same ones so you will remember them. The Community is hosted on a place called Peerboard.com. You get there by clicking or tapping the Community button at SantaFeArtCafe.com. This is a free membership and you can post and comment to your heart’s content - on artsy subjects, of course. There is a second section for questions and feedback from students who take my classes. The Community opens in a new browser window. Just close the new window to return to the Cafe. I will post in the Community too, but I will not be driving it. Whether or not it is an exciting place will be up the members who post and comment there. Build it and it will become an exciting place.

This section contains FREE content. Short video or PDF classes, tips, techniques, photos to sketch from etc. Click Return to Menu to go back to the Cafe, or hit your browser’s back arrow. All content in this section is hosted on my Dropbox site, so it can be downloaded. Dropbox will open its own window, so just close it to return to the Cafe.

This section contains my online classes that are purchased from the Cafe. They are self paced and you can download and keep all the lessons. These classes are also on Dropbox where the lessons are downloadable and Dropbox will open its own window.

.The Marketplace is the gateway to my Shops. All of them use a common check-out and shipping charge. The Glass Palette is where my handmade art supplies can be found - glass palettes, paint boxes, etc. The Skydog&Chevy Shop sells cards and prints featuring my illustration and will soon include artwork from some friends as well. The Main Courses shop is where you purchase my online workshops. The fourth Shop is for Registration for my live Retreats held in Santa Fe. Click or tap Return to Menu at the top of any page to return to the Cafe.

I hope I have made it more clear what everything is and where it all can be found. At the end of this paragraph, bottom left, is a direct Link to the Santa Fe Art Cafe website, so you can test drive yourself around. Have fun!