When it comes to selling and marketing my art, the last few days have felt even harder, not better. It seems like the dead ends and disappointments are piling up faster than I can relegate them to the wastebasket section of my mind.
In despair, I wrote a friend and, riffing off a mentor's mantra ("The world needs your art!"), I wailed, "I think the world is saying, "We DON'T need your art, thank you very much."
But this afternoon, as I was filling a wholesale order, I suddenly got angry.
"I don't care if the world doesn't want my art! I still want to make it!" (I actually said this out loud.)
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized how silly they sounded.
WHO doesn't want my work?
Wholesale buyers. That is, the traditional wholesale buyers with a contemporary craft store who says they have trouble selling stuff that's priced at more than $50.
Are they my only customers in the world?
Heck no!
Of COURSE there are people in the world who want my art. I just have to figure out better ways of getting it to them.
Maybe I just need a vacation from wholesaling.
I decided to do all the healthy things I should do today. I went lap swimming. I went for a walk. I ate a healthy breakfast and a healthy lunch. Oops! How did that piece of birthday cake get on my plate?? I decided to only eat a very small piece. I was very, very brave when the carpenter reported that not only is the foundation sill under my studio rotted out and in need of replacement, we are also suffering an invasion of carpenter ants. (I only cried after he left.)
As I swam laps, good thoughts and ideas slowly seeped back in to my brain.
Why don't I let go totally of selling my wall hangings through stores and galleries for awhile?
If I didn't have to build wholesale pricing into my pieces, they could be more affordable.
And they could be smaller, to also keep the prices down. Smaller wall hangings would be fun. I could experiment with new ideas and treatments more easily.
I wouldn't have to learn how to use the mega industrial sewing machine just yet, and I could postpone the expensive new widget I need to make using it more intuitive (a sort of "rheostat" that governs the stitch speed.)
Suddenly the pressure eases in my heart. This might work. This might be where all my stress has been coming from.
For the next few years, I am going to focus on making smaller, less expensive wall hangings.
Oh, I'm going to make some big, incredible ones, too. I want to have plenty of work on hand for some solo show proposals I'm thinking about, and I want to be ready when the time comes to showcase these pieces to the world.
But I'm going to make sure that everyone who says they love them, and would like to own one, will be able to buy them more easily for the next 12-24 months.
Thank you, Bonnie Blandford, for your words of wisdom recently--"Not everything can be wholesaled." How right you are!
Is this a permanent decision? Probably not. But what I'm learning about this whole process is, sometimes you just need an idea to get you off the bag. Something that feels different, something that gets your heart a jumpstart. Something that gets you enthused and rarin' to go again.
Yesterday a good friend, Lori Simmons, asked me, "What are some EASY and INEXPENSIVE ways you can market and sell your art right now?"
Now THAT'S getting my creative juices flowing again!
