The past four months have been a whirlwind, a wonderful whirlwind though. I left a job and started a wild life of art that I never would have done without a kick in the butt. You know that saying, ‘When God closes a door, he opens a window’? When I dived through it. Here is the thing with that saying, you have to be in a place to first notice the window and secondly be willing to go through a harder exit. First I had to heal and know that I am good enough and worthy to be appreciated. A hard journey especially because I thrive on external motivation. I could never be good enough growing I wanted to be good enough for my family and accepted and it followed me to my adulthood, until I put my foot down and started caring about what I felt about myself instead of getting validation from others. The more i grew, the more my circle of friends that have supported me. I am thankful for how they have believed in me, showed up, shared my stuff, checked for updates, or made purchases.
So what have I been up to? Well, there are Vendor shows. I started before the holidays and got out so many Christmas gifts and more. I get to slow down a little on them but still get out a couple of times a month, especially to sell holiday-related items. My main product happens to be greeting cards, so I can make some for every holiday. I also get to bring out my art to share and whatever I happen to be making at a time.
My next event is going to be at The Cozy Cottage on March 2nd. I also keep a stock of greeting cards and various art on a shelf there as it is an awesome little store for local artists. Consider shopping there for your next gift, a cute little place to visit if you are local, but also sells online and ships.
Sometimes at the events I have lots of sales, sometimes they are slow. What they always are, are amazing networking opportunities. All the people I’ve met, the new opportunities that come up, and the friendships have been so great. And that external motivation that I needed before, comes at every time and place that I put myself out there. How crazy to think that it took, me believing in myself to get the initial thing I thought I needed. Sure I love the compliments and all, but I don’t need them.
Another thing I’ve done is classes. Teaching is and will always be a passion of mine. I have no desire to return to a classroom in a school, but I love the homeschool classes that I get to teach and choose how to. I have always started teaching additional art classes there. I love step-by-step at for the kids. I also have my watercolor workshops at The Cozy Cottage. I love teaching so much that I have even interviewed to help others with their classes. Keep an eye out for those to pop up on my schedule. I spent 7 years teaching these classes and I loved it. I love getting to choose when now. I am also partnering up to help Mobile Masterpieces as a backup instructor. Melissa has amazing classes locally. I might be at some of them.
The best way I have pushed myself this year is by accepting that I can do a commission. I always said ‘no’ because I did not want to mess up something for someone. I went along with not believing in myself. We aren’t doing that anymore. If I say no, it is because I don’t have the time. It is quite possible that I do not have the time to find someone else or be willing to wait because I have a waiting list for many things now. I have even gone as far as to take a commission for crochet. I do not what is going on, but I embracing this life and appreciating all of you who have and continue to support it.
Now that I am better established locally, I am going to work on my reach and online presence. Instagram is easy for me, but Etsy has been a struggle for me. It is time for me to focus, but you can help me with a favoriting the store. Follow on Instagram if you haven’t already.
I have also just created a REDbubble shop with some of my designs.
Any other time I find is going to my book illustrations. The words are all written and I am a few pages in on illustration, but it feels like there is so many more to go.
I am looking forward to seeing where else the art takes me this year. Thank you for taking the time to appreciate it with me.
