changes

I've been thinking about my blog lately.  just... what do I want from it other than a way to document my growth as an artist.  for one thing I want it to be easier for people to know what I'm doing with my art.  am I selling it?  hoarding it?  giving it to family for them to have store in their closets?  I'm not sure if readers know at the first glance of my site.

I also want people to be able to go to a page on my site in order to find out more about me; who I am and what I stand for.  I think it's important for an artist to make a connection like that.  right now I just have a silly quote about my kids being grown and me 'playing'.  I'm not playing anymore.  I'm getting down to work and my web presence needs to show that.

Lucy likes to help with my blog posts

I'm seriously thinking about what I could add to my site to help me sell my original minis and from my society6 shop.  I'm not yet to the point where I'm comfortable packaging larger paintings to ship to collectors, so will have to keep sales of larger works local for now.  maybe a 'where to find my art' page to see where I'll be setting up at art fairs or another show at the library or something.  that will come later, when I actually have shows and fairs lined up.

sweetie and I are also thinking about branching out to other online storefronts that sell merchandise with your artwork.  we're currently thinking redbubble would be a good fit because they have different merchandise like dresses and scarves, onesies and kid sizes clothes, postcards and other stationary, calendars and spiral notebooks!  I think it would be good to have multiple outlets to choose from.  maybe one is having a sale when the other isn't, or you want a certain item that one store doesn't have.  we're still in the checking it out phase, but pretty sure we're going to jump on it soon.  one thing I don't like about the stores I've checked out is that they don't identify the artist on the back of the notecards, but that seems the case everywhere.   I worry about 'just doing it' because it's double the work for sweetie getting my images online.

and I'm stalling about getting into instagram and other social media, even though I've heard good things about the amount of people who could find your work and start following you.  I know nothing about the terminology or how to set things up and I'm still a stuck-in-my-ways old lady when it comes to technology.  I'd probably still be on myspace if the kids didn't make me an account on FB years ago!


I'm reading a book right now called "Art Money Success" by Maria Brophy.  it's an easy, delightful read and makes you take an honest look about your needs and wishes as an artist.  it has assignments to do and tells you to come back to the worksheets every 6-12 months to re-ealuate what your needs are.  have your dreams changed?  have you succeeded in your previous goals and need to make new ones?  it's been pretty helpful for me to sit down and find words to describe my artwork.  I'm hopeful that when someone comes up to me and asks me questions, a little light will turn on and I will be able to find these words that I have stored in my brain about my work as an artist.


so, changes are happening within my world and they may soon be showing up via changes in how my blog is set up.  I'm hoping that sweetie will help me figure out how to do more than just type blog posts, so any further changes I will be confident in doing by myself.

until later,
Jenny