Happy Holidays!
So, I promised a plan for 2009. It’s still a rough outline – refinement necessary. But it exists, and that’s half the battle. The other half is execution. And that battle, my friends, will be laid out for you blow-by-blow on this blog as the next 12 months unfold.
Unlike last year, I’m going to throw in some personal goals, because they are time-consuming enough to effect my art productivity. Which is just a fancy way of saying I’m legitimizing my excuses up front.
- Show art at 10 shows. Same goal as 2008, and I almost made it… 9/10.
- For the local shows, get a booth to sell merchandise. This is far more profitable than just selling originals. And by keeping it local, I cut down on travel costs. For the far-away shows… only go to the profitable ones, and mail in art to the rest.
- Research new ways to merchandise. I want to build the business, and in a recession, people are more likely to buy art if it’s got a purpose (other than looking good on your wall). A few ideas so far: greeting cards, stickers, stamps. Would you pay for cute, 41-cent USPS cephalopods to send your bills?
- Get married. :D
- Learn Arabic.
- Try gouache on more supports. I’m becoming quite familiar with some, but I want to try more, like Colourfix board, Wallis, and Aquabord.
- Keep all the paperwork straight. I need to renew my business license and make sure I file those semi-annual sales tax returns even if I didn’t sell anything in the state of PA except for 3 days last June.
- Update the website into a portfolio. I have actually done some coding for this. It’s been on my list for a year. I’d better get it done soon or the personal accountability police are going to beat me with their nightsticks of righteousness.
- Ditto on the blog content and interactivity, and promotion on social networking sites.
Please share your goals too! And I’m open to suggestions on mine – especially the merchandising part. What have you had success with? What would you buy, especially in this tight economy?
HAPPY HOLIDAYS and have a safe New Year’s. Cheers to 2009!
Just a quick sketch for now – I hope to have a nice colored piece finished before Christmas. Happy Holidays!
I had to share this with you: Build your own squid! It’s hosted by the Te Papa Muesum in New Zealand, who did the web-casted dissections of the giant & colossal squids earlier this year.
Just click it and customize your new cephalopod. Mine already beat up a fisheries employee. >:D
So much fun! Turn your character into a cephalopod… Just $30 for an original gouache 5×7″ painting! E-mail me if interested.
Well, I have a bit more art to show you, but honestly, it’s been slow. Motivation is waning. It’s too cold for my fingers to hold the paintbrush. Life is so busy with holiday preparations. I have a cold. But the most legitimate excuse of all: meet Seamus!
I fostered him for a while before my life went nuts, and now he’s healthy and back in the house. He’s a joy to have around – sweet, affectionate, and friendly. He has FIV, like my other cat, but that just means he takes longer to get better if he has a cold. Which he does. I’m calling him Wheezy McSnotpants until I can no longer tell where he is simply from the breathing noises.
One of my Turn-Your-Character-Into-a-Cephalopod Commissions
In the beginning of 2008, I posted a list of goals for the year. Now, with just 4 short weeks left in 2008, I’m revisiting those goals to see how I did. I want to see how realistic they were (to help me set goals for 2009) and to see what was really important to me and my art business.
- Register my business by March
Done last February. Early next year I have to renew it.
- Redo this blog to greatly expand its content and interactivity
Um. Yeah. I have great plans, but when it comes down to it, I’d rather paint than write code. Maybe over Christmas vacation. I’d love to make this thing chock-full of good information and daily content updates.
- Trim my website into a portfolio
Over Christmas. I swear. This is easier than redoing the blog, and probably more important…
- Time all my projects with the new stopwatch Santa got for me
I did pretty well at this, especially for the big paintings. Knowing how long it took helped me figure out how much to charge.
- Complete the 100 Cephalopods project
I did, like, four. This goal was way too ambitious. It’s still on my list, but I think it’s a lifetime goal rather than annual. It’s too time-consuming and not very profitable.
- Promote my art on MySpace, Facebook, etc.
Waiting until I redo the website.
- Obligatory really vague goal: strive to always improve and learn
This one worked! I learned something new with each big project and maintained previously learned skills. That rocked. I highly recommend it. Focus on one small aspect of improvement for each project.
- Do 10 shows and/or conventions
I attended 7 conventions and showed art at 2 others. 9 total, pretty close! I may trim this down next year simply because I ran out of vacation days at work and haven’t visited my grandmas in waaaay too long.
All things considered, I think I did well! Next year may be tough, art-wise, because I recently got engaged (that wasn’t on my 2008 list) and am likely getting married in 2009. YAY! But! Business will grow. Damned if I know how yet, but it will… I promise. Hold me to it.