You can do it.

Once upon a time I was in my very first art show. It was terrifying and exciting and wonderful. I left the show feeling like I was on top of the clouds, flying around. My life's dream was finally coming to fruition after years of hard work honing my skills as both an artist and a business woman. Cloud 9 doesn't begin to cover it.

Once I stepped out of the show and packed up the car I stopped in my tracks and looked to my fiancee and told him, "This is what I want to do for the rest of my life." In the high of this night I went home and fervently began planning my next show. I sent the woman who had planned my first show an email. I guess I was hoping for encouragement, or even a bit of information on how to break into the business from someone who was really making it.

What I got back in response was so very different, though.

What she sent me back was that, "Artists can't make a living in Michigan." She went on to explain that no one in Michigan can possibly make a living in the art world, and that even making a go of it is borderline insanity. She said that artists are less than a dime a dozen.

A kick to the pants much? I read the email and couldn't even breathe. I'd felt like someone I barely knew had just told me that I was worthless and incapable. Besides! What did she know about me and my stubborn ability to do whatever I set my mind to?

I started planning doubly hard. I booked shows for every weekend of the summer, I got my art put up in galleries and coffee shops and everywhere else that I possibly could think of.

And I began to make it.

I'm not there yet. I'm getting there. Week by solid and sordid week I pull myself closer to making a living at what I love. Some days I feel like I can't do it. Like I must be crazy for trying, but in my heart I know that I can do this. I can make a living--a good solid living-- at what I love. I can be successful, and NO ONE has the right to tell me otherwise.

On being an artist in the age of the internet

I want to rant a bit right now, and I'm trying to reel it in so that I'm not too out of control on here. I won't lie to you, though, sometimes being an artist is ridiculous. I'm thinking in particular of being an artist and on the art of how much to charge.

Now, I know that most people are looking for a "hook up." They know that art doesn't always take a long time, though that's not always the case, and they know that I "just use markers" to color my pieces. What most people don't understand, however, is that each little thing adds up in cost and if I ever want to even break even on utilities, I have to charge what I do.

In this instance, each marker that I use is about $8 for the marker, plus the ink refills depending on how large the piece is. I probably use about 9-15 markers for each and every piece. I may not use an entire marker, but I probably use enough ink to justify one marker completely gone for each piece. So there's $8 spent on my end already.

Then paper. Because of the types of markers these are, I can't just use any paper I come across. I use Bristol. Not crazy expensive, and sometimes I can even get it on sale, but its still about $20 for a pad of 50. That's $.40 per page, plus a few pages in my sketch book getting it all together, and figuring out what I'm going to make the piece look like.

The ink pen is $5 each, and I probably go through 1 every other piece, so let's say $2.50.

Then I have to factor in the cost of prints, of paper for the prints, of packaging, of marketing, of table rent at shows, of gas and food for being at the shows, of making the necklaces, of bookmarks and keychains. Every single piece I make has the propensity to make a lot of money in merchandise, but each thing also comes with a cost of getting started.

When you ask me to "hook you up" it makes me feel like I'm not worth anything. It makes me feel like I don't deserve to at least break even on this endeavor of mine, and I just wanted to share that with you all.

Festival Season is Afoot!

For the past couple of weeks I have been completely stuck working on things that I don't want to work on. I enjoyed the shows (Anime Park and Michigan Comic Expo) but I had a lot of grunt work that I had to do in order to be ready for them.

After that, I had to focus on my exams for the end of the semester. I am at Denny's right now, I'm supposed to be studying, and I don't wanna. I'm taking a break just for a couple of minutes to give a blog post about it. Procrastination much?

Anyway, I have a bunch of shows in the works right now for the festival season. Most of them are small one day engagements in Detroit that I'd like to get done with, but I'm also looking at doing some of the big art fairs if possible.

This is a lot of hard work, but I'm hoping it will all pay off in the end!

Here's a picture of the new table layout that I was working on, pre-Anime Park.

What do you guys think? What could I add to it?

Weekend Woes

I have been a lazy bum this week. Last weekend I was insane and I did two different conventions in the same weekend, which is a new level of insanity for me. I can't believe that I thought it was a good idea, but in the end I'm glad that I did it.

The first day was April 13th, which was the day that we did Anime Park. We had a lot of fun at the show, which was held at Salem High School in Plymouth, MI. We had some really great sales, made a bit of money, and had a blast looking at all the other artists in the Artist Alley! (I will have to have a link party with them, because I got the CUTEST pikachu pillow that I have to rave about!)

I had quite a few commissions to do while I was at the show, which was super fun to do, and it kept me busy when people were off doing con stuff and it got slow.

I can't wait to go back again next year!

http://animeparkcon.webs.com/- To more information about the convention
Catstered Creations- Awesome Jewelry from a girl at the con! So CUTE!