It's All About Marketing

 Marketing is an art. Like any art it takes skill, but it also takes a certain degree of natural ability. There is a learning curve that can be pretty steep, if one hasn't got the knack.

Strawberry Festival was definitely one of those not so easy learning times for me.

I shared a booth with Marj Watkins, an 87 year old writer and self publisher, whose cooking column in the local paper has created a bit of a following for her. That's Marj, in red, and a friend Nanette Palowski (also an artist) in blue.


That's me. in blue and green. People on the Island know me by my twice yearly shows and by the preschool I used to run.

Guess who sold the most?

We both have a bit of a following. We both have attractive products. One of us is obviously more outgoing--and dressed to show up against a green background.

You guessed it. Marj sold 50% more than I did.

We both had a great time, visiting with friends, talking about our wares, and just being a part of the "scene".

Until it started raining and would not quit. No one wanted to try on wet scarves, and our books got wet. Some of mine got ruined.

Well, that's marketing!

Creating is Scary Business!

mixed media by Donna Heart

Creating Art is scary business. We leave the mundane world behind, with all it's demands and judgements, to enter the creative space. Sometimes that space is a cleared place on the kitchen table where we can spread out our paints, or a favorite spot on the couch with a sketch book on our laps. If we are really lucky (or have the tremerity to demand it), we have a studio--a whole room to create in.

It doesn't matter. A lap or a room, the challenge to leave to world of unwashed dishes and meals to prepare, the world of other people's expectations--that challenge is still there. That daring to step away from the mundane into the sacred is the same, and It it can be darn hard!!

So how do we do it?

 Donna Heart, in her blog Where Art and Life Collide, says:

" it seems then that dwelling on the mystical side of our art can bring us undone, and that has been key for me. "


The trick, she says, is to just begin. Do it. Once you start--wether or not you are "in the mood"--the muse will come. The fear will vanish.


I think it's like shifting gears (does anyone else drive a stick shift anymore?). It's tricky. It takes a bit of technique. I have my body trained to do it well after years of practice. Changing gears from mundane to creative takes practice too, and is a bit of a trick. 


My favorite trick is to fix myself a cup of tea and drink it in my creative space, with my sketch book at hand. 


What is yours? How do you shift gears from mundane to creative?

Spider Woman Story

It was Spider Woman who created the World.
"When the Universe was still so dark that not even shadows could be seen in the night, Grandmother Spider sat in her web in the Sky World"

so begins the story
The Goddess Speaks ...
THE WEB OF LIFE
by Spider - Taino Ti

I was searching for inspiration for an image of the web of life when I found the story. 

The image I'm working on honors a women's prayer dance,  a dance which honors and nourishes the unseen spiritual community we are all a part of.

One Who has Truly Mastered Life

a Zentangle

Long ago, I came upon something like this quoted from a business magazine. I changed it a bit to suit my own ideas (my gender, for example):

One who has truly mastered life
does not think wether she is working or playing
She simply pursues her vision
and lets others decide.

Zentangles

Spiral Flower Power

 Some zentangles. They are part of a project with Art42; I'm supposed to send 3 to Strawberry to exchange for zentangles by someone else.

 But I LIKE them! I don't want to let them go!

Especially the last one. It really expresses the time I had trying to get an important paper from the county last week!

Heartangle

A BAd Day in the City

Is is the Devil, or Just Plain Tiredness?

I've been feeling so Turtle-ish this week. So in my shell, reading instead of creating, not even trying to sell my art, to take the necessary product photos, or to apply to shows. Just can't quite figure out what is wrong with me.

Oh, wait, I did finally take some product photos today--93 photos of a dozen scarves. And Saturday I spent all day at the Saturday Market and sold two scarves and a card.

Still, when my business mentor at WACASH called yesterday to check in, I had been spending all day on personal business and most of last week as well, so I felt really......um.....like I've been goofing off. Mentally fogged. Overwhelmed  by what I have not accomplished.

Mark Silver's post,

Is It The Devil, or Do You Just Need a Nap?

really hit the spot. He points out that sometimes tiredness is resistance, and sometimes, it is just tiredness, and he gives some pointers on how to tell the difference.

SOMETHING is missing. I do feel unfocused, unmotivated.
Like I just haven't quite figured it out yet.

I looked at Diane Kappa's web site. Diane is someone my mentor suggested I contact, as she is a painter on silk, as well as a designer who licenses her work. Oh, my heavens, this woman has it together! Her web site alone gives me some ideas on how to proceed, even while showing me how very far I have yet to go!

A Prayer to the God/Goddess of the Green World

Madrona at the Beach
hangs at the Green Spot Tea House and Gallery

Dear God of the Green World, come into my being. Open my eyes to your beauty, my ears to your voice. Fill my belly with your love; My heart is filled with gratitude--but also with sorrow for the violence we do to each other. Guide my hands, my voice, my being, to express Your  Divine Healing Love in all my actions.

***

This morning the birds were my chanters, as though leading a prayer of thanksgiving. And when the birds were quiet, the trees seemed to sing.  The green world was alive and I could hear it, feel it --SO alive!