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By Hannah, 37 contributed posts
View all Hannah's posts. About the author: Hannah West is an artist, web designer to artists and creator/editor of the Southern Oregon Artists Resource and its companion blog, Art Matters!. She also serves on the board and maintains the blog for Art Presence, the artist organization of Jacksonville, Oregon, located in the Art Presence Art Center at the corner of Fifth and D Streets. Most posts you see from her will have originated from the Art Presence blog...See her listing in the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
I just got back from a short visit to Palm Springs. While I was there, I visited the Palm Springs Art Museum, and after seeing my recent work, they invited me to have a trunk show in the Museum Store! I’m so excited! Please join me on December 2-4, 2022 in this beautiful city and consider the fabulous jewelry I’ll have available. There’s a lot to enjoy at the Museum, including their Persimmon Bistro and Wine Bar. So click the link below to explore their website and plan a day of art & culture around my Palm Springs Art Museum trunk show. And soak up the compliments along with the sun while wearing your sparkling new Wendy Gell jewelry!
By Hannah, 37 contributed posts
View all Hannah's posts. About the author: Hannah West is an artist, web designer to artists and creator/editor of the Southern Oregon Artists Resource and its companion blog, Art Matters!. She also serves on the board and maintains the blog for Art Presence, the artist organization of Jacksonville, Oregon, located in the Art Presence Art Center at the corner of Fifth and D Streets. Most posts you see from her will have originated from the Art Presence blog...See her listing in the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
It’s important to keep your copyright notice updated from year to year to protect your intellectual property and your reputation, and it’s that time of year. If you don’t know how to change the copyright notice on your website or just don’t have time to figure it out, please contact me at [email protected] or call 541.899.2012 to request this change. It’s quick and easy, so it’s inexpensive too. Happy New Year!!
By Hannah, 37 contributed posts
View all Hannah's posts. About the author: Hannah West is an artist, web designer to artists and creator/editor of the Southern Oregon Artists Resource and its companion blog, Art Matters!. She also serves on the board and maintains the blog for Art Presence, the artist organization of Jacksonville, Oregon, located in the Art Presence Art Center at the corner of Fifth and D Streets. Most posts you see from her will have originated from the Art Presence blog...See her listing in the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
Updates on Website Security and Free SSL
Securing your website is increasing in importance to the point that soon your site could be disregarded by Google and avoided by visitors if they don’t see the familiar “https://” with a tiny padlock icon at the beginning of your url. Last year Google announced that websites secured with Secure Socket Layer encryption, or SSL, are getting added favor from the search engine company, increasing their rankings in search result pages at google.com. A number of recent high-profile security breaches such as the one at Sony Pictures demonstrate the possibility that any site can be hacked and illustrate the business-halting disaster that the ensuing data loss can cause. The little understood hacker phenomenon, combined with our fascination with the idea of artificial intelligence, has inspired numerous movies on the subject since the birth of the internet, with the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo released in 2011, The Hacker Wars released last year and Black Hat (Chris Hemsley) leading several new ones slated for release in 2015. Television writers have also explored the phenomenon in many shows, my own personal favorite being “Kill Switch,” one of the most thought-provoking episodes of The X-Files and possibly an inspiration for Transcendence (Johnny Depp). Such fascination reveals how little most of us actually know about what hackers do and how they do it, even the filmmakers, as most movies do not represent hacking with much accuracy. Nearly none of them show the ethical side of hacking — those we can thank for testing sites for vulnerabilities and helping design software to protect the rest of us from that shadowy threat we know nothing about aside from its existence. And of course there’s Anonymous, a group of hackers who seek social justice via computer-hacked threats. Most of us — that is, those of us who do not operate ecommerce websites that conduct credit card transactions online — have been able to get away without SSL up until now, but clearly that era is ending. As responsible citizens of the internet, we all need to step up to the plate and secure our websites to protect our investment in the site itself and any data it may contain, but also to give our visitors confidence by demonstrating our commitment to protecting them from “drive-by” malware infection. Taking these measures will help us retain (and hopefully boost) the search engine rankings we work so hard to gain.
My own website www.soartists.com (The Southern Oregon Artists Resource) was attacked by malware early in 2011. The entire site was taken down and its companion blog, Art Matters!, had to be reconstructed. Fortunately we did not receive any reports of massive spam attacks or anything else that indicated a loss of critical data for any of our listed artists or visitors to our site, but it was a painful wakeup call that directed my attention to the importance of internet security. As a result, all my clients with WordPress sites will see at least one and often three or more security plugins. I set these up to notify me when unauthorized attempts to gain access to the admin portion of their websites result in a “lockout.” This keeps my email inbox quite busy. For those clients who do not have WordPress sites, I recommend a security overhaul to install some basic code that will help protect their sites until they are able to purchase a SSL certificate that will encrypt all activity to, from and on their websites, making the “transactions” that include visitors’ activity invisible to hackers and ever-watchful malware bots looking for opportunities to inject malicious code on vulnerable websites.
So what has kept us all from investing in a SSL certificate that would protect our sites and their visitors? Most of us have a tendency toward complacency, clinging to naïve thoughts that justify inaction. One I hear often is “Why would hackers want anything from my website?” Trust me, it’s nothing personal. If you are not engaged in ecommerce, they probably do not want anything from your site itself, but like parasites they are always looking for “hosts” from which they can silently conduct their mischievous and often damaging activities. In early 2014, a client for whom I needed to create a website on a very restricted budget opted out of security measure “for now.” By Thanksgiving, her site had been blacklisted by Norton Safe Web and had to be cleaned of malware before it could be reinstated. I breathed a deep sigh of relief that we caught this before Google had blacklisted her, as their reinstatement procedure can be much more time-consuming. Still, the process wound up costing her an unexpected sum for cleaning and submitting her site for reconsideration as well as installing security measure that would prevent future infections—no fun for either of us, yet a relief once it was reinstated. For those who chose to look into a SSL certificate for their website, the dealbreaker has most often been the price. SSL certificates have been expensive, and the lineups of less expensive to most expensive types of SSL were not only confusing, but discouraging, making us feel that if we invested in a “minimal” (cheap) SSL certificate, it might not be effective and therefore a waste of money. But there is good news! A couple of days ago I received a little/big gift from one of the security companies whose plugins I use–a link to an article in my inbox with good news for 2015 – SSL will be free, and much easier to install, as of Q2 2015! Following is the source of the information reported in this excellent article. I strongly suggest you read both articles!!
Vital personal and business information flows over the Internet more frequently than ever, and we don’t always know when it’s happening. It’s clear at this point that encrypting is something all of us should be doing. Then why don’t we use TLS (the successor to SSL) everywhere? Every browser in every device supports it. Every server in every data center supports it. Why don’t we just flip the switch?The challenge is server certificates. The anchor for any TLS-protected communication is a public-key certificate which demonstrates that the server you’re actually talking to is the server you intended to talk to. For many server operators, getting even a basic server certificate is just too much of a hassle. The application process can be confusing. It usually costs money. It’s tricky to install correctly. It’s a pain to update.Let’s Encrypt is a new free certificate authority, built on a foundation of cooperation and openness, that lets everyone be up and running with basic server certificates for their domains through a simple one-click process.Mozilla Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., Akamai Technologies, Electronic Frontier Foundation, IdenTrust, Inc., and researchers at the University of Michigan are working through the Internet Security Research Group (“ISRG”), a California public benefit corporation, to deliver this much-needed infrastructure in Q2 2015. The ISRG welcomes other organizations dedicated to the same ideal of ubiquitous, open Internet security.
The key principles behind Let’s Encrypt are:
Free: Anyone who owns a domain can get a certificate validated for that domain at zero cost.
Automatic: The entire enrollment process for certificates occurs painlessly during the server’s native installation or configuration process, while renewal occurs automatically in the background.
Secure: Let’s Encrypt will serve as a platform for implementing modern security techniques and best practices.
Transparent: All records of certificate issuance and revocation will be available to anyone who wishes to inspect them.
Open: The automated issuance and renewal protocol will be an open standard and as much of the software as possible will be open source.
Cooperative: Much like the underlying Internet protocols themselves, Let’s Encrypt is a joint effort to benefit the entire community, beyond the control of any one organization.
If your website needs attention to security or you want to get a SSL certificate and you’re not sure what to do, please contact me at [email protected] or call 541.899.2012 to discuss your needs and what I can do to help. One of the primary lines of defense is simply keeping your WordPress installation, theme and plugins updated, and backing up your website regularly so you can easily restore it if a disaster does happen. I know you’re busy and have other priorities on your mind and your schedule, so let’s talk about an inexpensive annual contract that will allow me to do that for you so you won’t have to!
By Hannah, 37 contributed posts
View all Hannah's posts. About the author: Hannah West is an artist, web designer to artists and creator/editor of the Southern Oregon Artists Resource and its companion blog, Art Matters!. She also serves on the board and maintains the blog for Art Presence, the artist organization of Jacksonville, Oregon, located in the Art Presence Art Center at the corner of Fifth and D Streets. Most posts you see from her will have originated from the Art Presence blog...See her listing in the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
Irish Spring, abstract painting by Patrick Beste, besteart.net
I am delighted to welcome abstract artist Patrick Beste of Ashland, Oregon to the group of clients I help with website maintenance and updates! We just did a rather substantial update to Patrick’s website besteart.net, making a few modifications to the site itself, updating the information in his Home, About and Exhibitions pages, and adding several new paintings to his Art Work Galleries. Please visit Patrick’s site to see his new works!
By Hannah, 37 contributed posts
View all Hannah's posts. About the author: Hannah West is an artist, web designer to artists and creator/editor of the Southern Oregon Artists Resource and its companion blog, Art Matters!. She also serves on the board and maintains the blog for Art Presence, the artist organization of Jacksonville, Oregon, located in the Art Presence Art Center at the corner of Fifth and D Streets. Most posts you see from her will have originated from the Art Presence blog...See her listing in the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
I am delighted to announce a new website completed for Judy Marshall, who paints in watercolor under the name Judy Buswell. Her former site needed a complete revamp, and we converted it to WordPress so she and her husband can manage it themselves. Judy’s work is so lovely, the majority of her pieces being delicate watercolors of flowers and gardens, and it was a joy to work with the images while creating her new site. Why wait to read my writing? Visit www.judybuswell.com today! You can always come back to see what I have to say after feasting your eyes on her watercolor paintings.
Judy offers greeting cards and prints of her paintings, as well as some original paintings on her website, with a simple purchasing strategy – email the artist to order. I think this is wonderful as it requires personal contact between artist and art lover, something many artists don’t realize is an exciting part of buying art for those who love it. There is a contact form on each of the pages with items you can purchase, and the images are large and…gorgeous…particularly those of her more recent paintings. Visit www.judybuswell.com and order some of her pretty Christmas cards today!
Today Judy came to my office for a coaching session on blogging. She will be posting new works on her new blog, and posting about her daily artistic activities when she goes to visit family for a few months next year. I think this is an exciting development, as Judy loves to write almost as much as she loves to paint, and her followers and those discovering her for the first time will be able to learn more about her passion for painting and see works in progress. She wasn’t hugely confident in her ability to do this, but I found her to be a quick study and was not at all surprised when she called me a couple of hours later to tell me she had already been playing with the text in a couple of posts. She sent me some very kind words later…
“Thank you, Hannah. You are a very good teacher, and an even better web designer.”
Among the back end features of Judy’s new art website are search engine optimization, Google Analytics and WordPress site stats, security, backup and restore functionality, social sharing, and copyright protection via Digiprove. I always set up Webmaster tools with Google and Bing after finishing a website, submitting sitemaps generated by the SEO plugin, a highly respected piece of work by Yoast. On the front end is a magnificent presentation of Judy’s artwork with a beautiful premium WordPress theme, specially formatted pages with special galleries to showcase her artwork, a blog, and a visible copyright protection notice in the footer from Digiprove. The sentimental quality of Judy’s paintings does the rest better than I could…
Thanks to the attentiveness of Judy and her husband, this only took a month to complete, even with a number of other projects requiring my attention at the same time and they taking a couple of trips out of the area. Thank you so much for entrusting the renewed online presentation of your paintings to me, Judy!
By Hannah, 37 contributed posts
View all Hannah's posts. About the author: Hannah West is an artist, web designer to artists and creator/editor of the Southern Oregon Artists Resource and its companion blog, Art Matters!. She also serves on the board and maintains the blog for Art Presence, the artist organization of Jacksonville, Oregon, located in the Art Presence Art Center at the corner of Fifth and D Streets. Most posts you see from her will have originated from the Art Presence blog...See her listing in the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
Rainbow Cheerlites® candles are a Mission Candles exclusive!
Just in time for the holidays, we have finalized the shopping cart and the missioncandles.com Online Shop is open and ready for your holiday candle orders!
Many heartfelt thanks to Laura O’Bryon, Executive Director of Community Works, the nonprofit parent organization of Mission Candles and the Lithia Springs Program of which Mission Candles is a part, Jim Posey, Director of Education and Residential Treatment Services, and Jason Fauble, the Mission Candles Production Coordinator, for entrusting me with the renewal of the Mission Candles website and online shop.
I can’t say enough about how much I believe in this program. The testimonials of youth who have graduated the program tell the story of how effective it is at helping Ashland, Oregon youth who have experienced debilitating problems of one kind or another and educating them, providing work experience and other essential services, teaching appropriate and effective relationship skills, and turning out young men and women who are ready to become valuable members of the community. The Mission Candles component of the program is financially self-sustaining and a crucial part of the healing, empowering experience that the Lithia Springs Program provides.
I am equally excited about the candles that Mission Candles produces! They make 9″ tapers in a variety of colors to match just about any décor scheme and an exclusive rainbow taper for a lively look. Perfect for candelabra, menorah, wall sconces, candlesticks, and more. Gorgeous. Then there are the Cheerlites®. These “birthday” candles take the cake! These come in 3″ and 8″ lengths (have you ever heard of 8″ cake candles? Their existence was news to me…), in a wide variety of colors to suit any occasion (including Mission Candles’ exclusive rainbow, and metallic gold and silver!), and can be used for holiday centerpieces and other décor applications beyond the kitchen. Not only do they come in a dizzying array of beautiful colors, but you can also opt for one of four different glitter finishes (something I had not seen before and fell in love with) – multicolor glitter, gold or silver glitter, and opal glitter – a subtle and beautiful accent that adds extra sparkle to the table and the eyes of those around it. I am enticed by the thought of delicately sky blue candles with opal glitter to send our daughters for their sons and grandsons’ birthdays, red candles with gold glitter for my mom, elegant metallic gold candles for decorating, and who can live without the royal touch of purple somewhere in their home? The prices are reasonable for such lovely and versatile options, and to celebrate their website’s launch they are offering FREE SHIPPING from now through January 1! I’ll be ordering some myself, and you should too!
Please visit missioncandles.com today and support this important social program with a purchase of candles…for birthdays, holiday decorating, gifts and stocking stuffers. Your friends and family will love them, and you will want them in your own home all year ’round!
By Hannah, 37 contributed posts
View all Hannah's posts. About the author: Hannah West is an artist, web designer to artists and creator/editor of the Southern Oregon Artists Resource and its companion blog, Art Matters!. She also serves on the board and maintains the blog for Art Presence, the artist organization of Jacksonville, Oregon, located in the Art Presence Art Center at the corner of Fifth and D Streets. Most posts you see from her will have originated from the Art Presence blog...See her listing in the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
Eagle Fisher, Original oil painting by Lori Garfield
Great news! I just got a call from artist Lori Garfield with her approval of the new website I created for her. A couple of small adjustments and she’s ready to fly!
Lori was fantastic to work with, organized and on top of any requests for additional material or other input I sent her way. For that reason her site came together very quickly, completed in two weeks from the day we set her up with a new hosting service (she had free hosting at WordPress.com before, but we wanted to expand the possibilities beyond what they permit on their site) until the final tweaks that marked its completion today.
We built her new site on the WordPress platform using a very nice responsive theme I just discovered, called Fifteen, with a few customizations and using Jetpack mosaic-style galleries to display her art. I love that masonry look, it’s a great way to display a portfolio of artwork that varies in shape and size. Implementing the SEO by Yoast plugin, security plugins, and sharing capabilities put the final touches on her website that make it search engine and human visitor friendly.
Lori is a wonderful animal artist, creating her pet portraits, wildlife paintings and more in oil on canvas. She is a giver, and a portion of all her art sales goes to various animal non profits, so any purchase you make from her, whether an original oil painting, an archival quality giclee print, or a commission for a portrait of your pet, you will also benefit the nonprofit animal organizations she supports.
Lori is not limited to animals as an artist, and you will find some gorgeous landscapes and human portraits in the galleries of her paintings. Please visit Lori’s new website to view her lovely artwork, and consider leaving a comment with feedback on her paintings and her new website, sharing her site on your favorite social network, and giving a gift of art to someone special who loves animals this holiday season for a double blessing! www.lorigarfield.com
By Hannah, 37 contributed posts
View all Hannah's posts. About the author: Hannah West is an artist, web designer to artists and creator/editor of the Southern Oregon Artists Resource and its companion blog, Art Matters!. She also serves on the board and maintains the blog for Art Presence, the artist organization of Jacksonville, Oregon, located in the Art Presence Art Center at the corner of Fifth and D Streets. Most posts you see from her will have originated from the Art Presence blog...See her listing in the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
I am so proud to announce the launch of Community Works redesigned website! It went live last Saturday evening and has already had a lot of visits, as one might expect from a non profit community service website like this. Please like Community Works on Facebook and visit their website to see the amazing work they do in Jackson County for abused women and victims of sexual assault/rape, abused children and families who are dealing with/recovering from severe trauma, homeless and runaway youth, and so much more for some of the most vulnerable and hurting people of Jackson County’s communities.
The programs this organization operate rock! Best known and with a great reputation for the Dunn House Shelter, many don’t know the name of this non profit that provides compassionate and effective help and support for women escaping abuse/domestic violence, or that they provide services for women, children, youth and families seeking to recover from sever traumas and connect them to resources that can help them further. Please visit the new website to learn more about the organization and its programs, volunteer and/or contribute to their work with a tax deductible donation, see their upcoming events and more!
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and this Friday at 4pm they are sponsoring a Walk to End Domestic Violence in Medford. Wear purple and join us at the Medford Courthouse to raise awareness of domestic violence!
Between working on Jennifer Faith’s website and this one for Community Works I have learned more than I ever thought I’d want to know about domestic violence. I had no idea that one in every three women around the world will suffer abuse and violence at some time during their lives. This statistic is consistent no matter what country, culture or religion you consider, and those women of faith are in the worst position of all since these patriarchal organizations tend to encourage the men and advise the women to keep silent and not try to leave under the threat of offending God. Most of the time the stigma of domestic violence and the fear of their abuser (and the fear of angering the God they love) keeps them silent and trapped in a situation that will only get worse and could even cost them their lives. Women who do finally work up the courage to make their escape still are not safe.
Problems with the justice system and the ongoing controlling behavior of their former partner results in another ugly statistic: 70% of the women who die from domestic violence are killed AFTER leaving their abusive partner. Women need help, guidance and support throughout all the stages of abuse until they are back on their feet and are truly safe from their abuser, and Community Works provides support for survivors as well as those still in an abusive situation.
You could very well know someone who is secretly hurting, and their life could be in danger right now. Please share the site with your network so they can find help without humiliation and you may save a life.
If you or someone you know needs help, call the HelpLine 24 hour crisis hotline at 541-779-4357 or toll free: 1-855-216-2111
Community Works: Strengthening Lives to Change Community – Strengthening Community to Change Lives
By Hannah, 37 contributed posts
View all Hannah's posts. About the author: Hannah West is an artist, web designer to artists and creator/editor of the Southern Oregon Artists Resource and its companion blog, Art Matters!. She also serves on the board and maintains the blog for Art Presence, the artist organization of Jacksonville, Oregon, located in the Art Presence Art Center at the corner of Fifth and D Streets. Most posts you see from her will have originated from the Art Presence blog...See her listing in the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
Yesterday I launched another website, http://mountainglenharps.com/! Proprietor Glenn Hill of Mountain Glen Harps handcrafts the most amazing harps, often hand carved, each one a unique a gorgeous work of art. His website had been on the internet since 1993 and needed updating to make it responsive so people can view it on mobile devices, as well as modernizing the look and presenting his incredible work more effectively.
We converted the site from html to WordPress, using the fabulous Divi theme from Elegant Themes. The Mountain Glen Harps home page is a great demonstration of what can be done with this theme.
Because Glenn is very internet savvy and had been maintaining his former site himself, he transferred most of the content and will be making changes to the presentation of the information. I, however, was the lucky one who got to redesign his home page, and I have to say I’m very, very proud of how it came out. Glenn liked it too, in fact his was the only email I’ve ever received that said nothing more than OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in 80-point letters! It’s always wonderful to see one’s clients so excited about the results of your work! Last week I also launched a newly redesigned site for his wife Laurie, proprietoress of Markwood Heavenly Strings & Cases at http://markwoodstrings.com/ All just in time for real life, too – Glenn and Laurie leave today for a big harp convention – the first they’ve been to in 8 years! We’re celebrating the launch of a new look and wishing them both the very best at the convention!
By Hannah, 37 contributed posts
View all Hannah's posts. About the author: Hannah West is an artist, web designer to artists and creator/editor of the Southern Oregon Artists Resource and its companion blog, Art Matters!. She also serves on the board and maintains the blog for Art Presence, the artist organization of Jacksonville, Oregon, located in the Art Presence Art Center at the corner of Fifth and D Streets. Most posts you see from her will have originated from the Art Presence blog...See her listing in the Southern Oregon Artists Resource to learn more and make contact.
Markwood Heavenly Strings & Cases proprietor Laurie Nielsen strings a harp
I am delighted to announce the launch of a newly redesigned website for Markwood Heavenly Strings & Cases! Many thanks to Laurie Nielsen for entrusting me with the task of modernizing her website so it would be responsive and prepared for the latest search engine requirements in time for the convention she’s attending later this month. I am very proud of how her site came out, and of the brief time it took to complete the work. And when you client says “It’s glorious” when telling me they’re ready to go live…well, you can only imagine how THAT makes me feel! Thank you SO MUCH, Laurie!
Laurie’s husband Glenn Hill makes incredibly beautiful hand carved custom harps and laser harps. Harps are the family business and quality with thoughtful, caring service is the name of their game. So, if you or someone you know is a harpist, please share http://markwoodstrings.com with them for the finest harp strings, harp cases & covers, computerized stringing analysis, harp stringing, and more!