Com...' Putering

In some exciting news, I canceled my Alice in Wonderland show for 2013, and released my series to the public for sale. After my last post, I think it was clear I was doing some business-soul-searching, and I'm confident I made the right decision. All the paintings have sold, except one. I know I need to get moving and continue on with the series, but there is also something freeing about letting the show go. It would have been a mistake, plus now I can do Alice paintings but also some of the Fairytale ones I've been dying to get started on!

The flip side to being able to create art when you have an art business, are the weeks you have to spend chained to your computer or spreadsheets instead. Tomorrow is Friday, and I'm sorry to say that I haven't had a paintbrush in my hand even once this week.

Frankly, it's depressing me. Blah.

On the other hand, I did get a lot done besides selling the Alice series. I shifted my print and shipping business over and partnered with Fine Art America (I'll still offer personally signed prints when I do exhibitions and shows - basically wherever I am in person, but for online sales this was the way to go.) What's good about this, beyond being able to offer quality prints of my paintings in multiple formats, is that I can also offer my fine art photography as well. When I was running Kyra Wilson Photography in tandem with Kyra Wilson Studio, I kept them separate. After shutting down KWP, I had all these wonderful prints that I used to sell, and no venue in order to do it.

I was a little amazed to see how many I could find to offer on a quick pass (almost 80), and I know I have more to go through. I really did a lot, and I know I plan on still taking photographs going forward. There are some things that are just meant to be in photographic form! (And then maybe turned into a painting!)



So, I'm pretty excited to be able to offer my photography prints once again! I've also been working on cleaning out and fixing my Zazzle store, but it's still a bit of a mess as of yet. The products are there, but I haven't quite figured out how to get my store to display correctly. I may be burned out today on it, it's probably time to walk away! Either that, or I've become Zazzle-impaired. My head is just stuffed to overflowing.

I was able to get my white rabbit (Tea Time) prints up in my print shop,


but I also am offering a different version of the print. I don't know if any of you have seen storybook illustrations from antique books, but this looks just like a bunch I have seen:




Isn't that cool? I ordered a print of it for myself (and one of the regular ones, since the original will be shipping out to its new owner. I'm a wee bit attached to it.)

Anyway, after running numbers through my accounting spreadsheets, and online rearranging and all sorts of programming and web-editing? I think I'm fried. I need art therapy. Tomorrow - I shall paint!  PAINT, I say!

Duh Moments, and U-turns

Sometimes you have to repeat a "Duh" moment multiple times in order for you to grasp the point. Or, at least I seem to need to. It'd sure be great to be one of those people who totally "got it" the first time around and made changes accordingly, and always moved forward on the right path. Instead, I seem to be one who revisits past dead-ends, you know, just to make sure.

I recently picked up my work from a shop about two hours away. It was at the urging of a friend who was also showing there that I contacted them in the first place. It's been a while since I branched out locally, and I thought why not? But the reason I stopped showing locally was that I just don't seem to sell locally. Tourists come here looking for artwork that features cows and barns. While there is nothing wrong with that sort of artwork, it is not my sort of artwork. I sell well online, and even overseas, but I don't sell well where I live.

So on last Thursday when I went to pick up my artwork and prints, I wasn't overly shocked that nothing had sold (they're a sort of souvenir art shop.) I just simply don't fit with the Vermont image. I can shake that off because sales on the home front (online) have actually been pretty good, but it's made me rethink my strategy for next year.

Part of my strategy when I reorganized my art business over a year ago was to work in a theme, build up to a show, and then move from there on to the next theme. At first I had planned on one major show a year, and I knew people were looking forward to it with plans to come in from out of town even. But then I realized that I was painting slower than I anticipated because I was actually reaching a new level with my paintings. OK, time to adjust... a show every two years! Yeah, that's the ticket! That was the new plan.

Except that picking up my stuff last week made me finally ask the question of whether having a show here, in a state where my work does not sell well, was a good idea after all? It's unlikely that I'm going to build a following here. My customers are across the globe, and it just seems that perhaps a show here in Vermont was not a well thought out plan after all.

Oops.

Realizing all of that has put me into a serious funk. It's a bizarre feeling to sell three paintings in the same week that you pick up other work from a venue and find you have sold nothing. I had a split-personality art week. On the other hand, could the universe have made it any more clear? What works is extremely obvious, as is what does not. There's no waffling here, no grey area to argue about. I'm thankful for that!

Once I started rethinking the show, my first thought was "I wonder how hard it is to have a virtual art show? Is that even possible? Do people do that? Doesn't that sort of circumvent the whole idea that you can meet people and so on?" So, without much effort, I stashed that thought for something to revisit in the future. I don't know how I'd go about doing that anyway.

Alright, so what if I took my art on the road to cities with a higher population where I know some of my customers are near and did a show like that? Expensive. I'm not that successful yet, to be able to take a show on the road like that. Maybe someday.

But what about art fairs? The art fairs I have done, specially art focused (not agricultural fairs, or town festivals, or farmer's markets, etc) I have done reasonably well at. In my opinion, I was not even properly prepared for those shows either, so not bad considering.

The art fair idea has merit, and I'm going to follow it up (and figure out how and where I should be doing these shows is a whole new challenge.) I'm also going to be releasing my current theme of Alice in Wonderland for sale as I complete the pieces, rather than hanging onto them as I was for a big show. I feel it's the right thing to do for my business overall, and I already have several excited collectors who are happy about this development.

While I was reworking this show-strategy, I also looked into a few other business decisions, ran the numbers, and realized I have to do almost a complete u-turn on at least one as well that I should have caught much earlier. *face-palm* Suddenly I went from just happily painting along, to a huge to-do list that I find completely intimidating. Of course, I find my laundry completely intimidating too (I'm not entirely sure, but judging by the production levels I may have six children I don't know about, and possibly an extra husband or three.) I know well that a big list is simply a longer journey, and that every one begins with a step, and then another, and another.

My journey is just taking an unexpected turn!

So, anyone want to come over and do laundry with me?

September, Start it up!

I'm so happy to have my children back in school. They may not say it out loud, but I'm pretty sure they're happier in school as well. They get to see all their friends every day, and I get more time in my studio!

I'm working hard on finishing my white rabbit painting (I'm calling it "I'm Late!") over the next week, and I'm going to be able to put up another time-lapse video of this from start to finish. I've also been considering doing some videos from my studio where I am actually in them. Me, talking... on camera. It looks like it will happen!

I've also been thrilled that I've been able to start working on my holiday paintings! I'm all about Halloween right now, but I'm even thinking ahead to the winter holidays! I love any excuse to paint fun holiday themed paintings!

I put up a collection of paintings at a shop in Montpelier, VT called Inspired Creations. The shop is owned by two artisans (potter and jewelry), and is only a few months old. I brought them 18 of my paintings up there, and a slew of prints, and I got to visit the area which I hadn't seen in a while. It really is such a cute town up there, but I admit I had a hard time resisting the idea that the Ben & Jerry's factory wasn't too far away. I think ice cream may be my very favorite treat!

I'm doing more work on my Fairy series as well, and since it's open ended I can visit it whenever I want! I finished this painting of mushroom townhouses:

"Townies" by Kyra Wilson, Acrylic on 6x6x0.75 stretched canvas $115 (including shipping in the USA & Canada)

I started working a bit on a mini-canvas of a fairy, but I'm not certain I like it. I may have to switch to my oils so I can really capture the fairies I am envisioning (not to mention, work on a bigger canvas!) I always have a million ideas, and canvases lined up to be painted. The only thing I seem to lack is time!

I'm going to be paying more attention to this blog, because I think it allows for me to post more updates, with perhaps a bit more interesting content in them as I process different things and work on different projects. Facebook is still my go-to spot for updates, but it's not a good thing to be so long-winded on it. Here, however? I can explore all sorts of ideas! My posts will probably get a lot more specific and seem less like an update overall. I also know I'm going to start writing about the business side of things, because I think if you're an artist trying to figure out this business stuff, any information can help. And if you're in the business, writing it out can help too!

Off to the easel...