What mediums do you like to use for your paintings?

I prefer mixed mediums.

What would you say influences your art the most?

Me.

Where do you find your inspiration for your frogs series?

Family, friends and celebrities are my subjects. I look at photos of frogs and cartoon images come to mind. People’s laughter at the art shows also inspires me to continue creating them.

Where did you get the idea for the Florida series?

I had 11 different art series in the works and hadn’t been selling well at my shows. All the tropical artists were selling well, so I decided to give it a whirl but I wanted a different look from the others.

How often do you mix mediums in your art?

I had been salivating for over a year at the videos that some artists were doing of their artwork and how they created it. I wanted to do this in the worst way, but had no video equipment even though I had researched on what to get.

Someone told me about this website called YouTube and I immediately jumped in and started making some really terrible videos using my cheapo vid cam. The sound was atrocious and the video was supremely bad, but I was instantly hooked. My son showed me the basics and I made a habit of recording a video every Saturday morning.

It was a major production and I sometimes would do 33 takes. We finally figured out that my 5 megapixel Nikon camera would allow me to take 7 minutes of video with good sound. Except the voice and the video didn’t match, but I cut my head off in the videos so no one would know.

Then Ccswhimsies on eBay told me about Windows Movie Maker and I began making slide shows of my art and others, as well.

Do you have any special plans for your YouTube videos in the future?

Indeed I do. I am now setting up separate accounts in which to store the other artist videos. I want these videos to continue circulating in YouTube for many years to come. This is the wave of the future and this free marketing venue is unlimited in its potential.

On the next pet contest I will be trying a new idea to see if I can’t increase the amount of traffic viewing the contest video. My goal is to become a well-known personality on YouTube with thousands of subscribers and lots of art sales.

I think being on tv would be fun, too. I like having lots of friends without having to get out of my pajamas. Okay, so being on tv would require different attire from pajamas. I can do that.

How did you get involved with $$$VIM and our artists?

Somewhere along the way, I got invited to join the VIM group. I think I have been a member there for over a year now? It’s a GREAT group of people. I have found almost all the eBay artist groups to be fabulous. Full of friendly and helpful people. VIM is fabulous.

You've done some hard work trying to help promote other artists, how does this make you feel?

I have a very active imagination. My initial thought on the contests was that it would be a perfect way to get more eBay artists active on YouTube. I like to think that the contests helped to get more of the eBay artist community into YouTube…I hope it did, anyhow.

What's been your most successful contest to date?

The Pet Video Contests.

You've begun offering the prizes yourself, do you find this to be easier to manage the contests?

Yes, it has shortened the length of time between contests. I don’t have to spend hours every day going thru eBay art groups to get people to enter the art contests. This saves a LOT of time that I can now spend in YouTube networking.

Could you tell us how your prize winners are chosen?

I have a panel of 3 judges that make the final decision on the top 5 in the Pet Video Contests.

I grab other friends wherever I can to help me review the video entries and give me lists of their favorites. These all get compiled and reviewed. It easily takes 5-6 people to do the judging process. I, personally, view every single video that is entered in the contests. We had 186 entered in the most recent contest.

So when Pet Video Contest #6 begins, I am trying a new method of choosing a winner. Rather than using the judging process, I will rely solely upon the viewers voting for their favorites. One vote per Account.

This should increase the traffic to the video as entrants will want to send the link to their friends and families to get more votes. My job then will be to count the votes and my judges can take a vacation!

 You can visit Deborah at these places on the web:

 YouTube-  http://youtube.com/profile?user=debcoart

 Her Website-  http://www.debcompany.com/WelcomeToMyWorld/

 Her Blog- http://www.debcompany.com/Blog/index.htm

 Her eBay store-

   http://stores.ebay.com/D-Company-Art-Gallery_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

  Deborah Company, Pictured