Crispy!

[merimask]

I'm back.  Back from the edge.  It's goofy, out there on the edge.

...

Seriously it was nice to hook up with friends again.  I know some really neat, wonderful people and they totally satisfied my craving for entertaining adult companionship.  Also, many of them are artists so I had the conversations about creativity and "the muse" and inspiration and the problems with being an artist and also a business person...it was very stimulating!  

Also enlightening, since I've come to a realization about myself and my goals and my work.

I've had it with the niche I'm in.  I'm a leather artist, true, but that doesn't mean I like making utilitarian things.  I have so many BIG ideas and I know I can create them, but I'm so busy paying the bills that I keep doing the utilitarian crap and it's really starting to bug me.

There's only so much I can charge for a belt (even a really cool carved one) or a barette or something of that nature, because people will only pay so much for a utilitarian item.  Even if it's pretty and artistic and unique, there's a price point limit.

Art objects, on the other hand...those have no limit.  The pricing limit is "what will the market bear and how badly do people want it?  How unique is it?"  That can be pretty high.  

I made a piece once that I slapped a 500.00 price tag on.  At the Virginia Beach Boardwalk Art Festival I sold it one half-hour after I put it up.  On a rainy day.  In a sparse crowd.  First day of the show.  I did it 'cause the year before I came close to winning a BIG award (with one of my dragon plaques) and the judges all told me "work BIG, do a large piece and you're a shoe-in next year".  So I did and I sold it before the judges even had a chance to see it.  With NO effort.

Here's the thing:  That big piece?  It took the same amount of time to make that 6 belts would have taken...or a dozen barrettes...or (you get the idea).  Yet I got SO much more money for the wall sculpture than I could have gotten for those items.  Why?  Because art has a higher percieved value than utilitarian objects. 

So, I'm asking myself WHY I'm knocking myself out doing little crap.  All it does is drag down the percieved value of my really cool work.  Sure it's a sale and it'll pay the bills...but just barely.  People will always have money (even in hard times sailboat manufacturers don't go out of business) and all I need to do is find the market.

I mean, I'm not a plumber.  I'm not a factory worker or an accountant or ANYONE who gets paid by the hour.  I'm an artist, and I have mastered (really I have.  NO ONE does what I do with leather) my medium.  So why do I treat myself like someone who should get paid an hourly wage?  It physically beats up my hands to make this stuff.  If I have a finite amount of work I can make with these hands in my lifetime, I ought to really make my mark and make it count.

Which brings me to my point, which is I need an art agent.  I met one this week.  She sounds like she knows what she's doing.  I think I'm going to get myself a rep (hopefully this woman) and step things up a notch.  Get some exclusive showings.  Command gallery prices.  Break into the art-object market.  I'm really REALLY ready.

AND!  The Cherry Blossom Dragon kicked ass.  :-)  Everyone loved her.  She's a she, by the way.  Those floopy loopy bits on her face and legs and tail?  Those represent feathers!  Feathers for girl dragons, lightening bolts for boys.  So she was a girl.  Which seems just right to me.  I got an order for another dragon because of her, and I have an idea for a new design as well.  Cherry blossoms = Spring, but waves = Summer!  Who knew?  So I drew an idea for a Summer dragon in Japanese-looking waves.  Natsu-no-nami.  I'll scan it soon and show you what I mean.  It's going to be stunning.

Oh man...I have SO many orders to fill and I'm going to be just as busy as I was before I went away.  Still it's good to be home.

Comments

[soliloquy-fair.livejournal.com]

I thought that said a SOCCER related epiphany, at first. :) Quite a career shift, leather to soccer ;)

You could do some super-intricate masks too, couldn't you? Like...wall piece types that aren't to be worn but are the whole head, like a drama mask but much better. Those would probably sell really well, too. I'm sure there's a million large things you can do with leather. Interactive leather 'paintings'...puzzles...I'm sure there's lots and lots. :)

You probably won't have much trouble catching up on LJ as long as you take *mine* in steps, lol, since I posted the other chaps of TLS BUT LJ has otherwise been utterly dead for two weeks. It's like everyone fell off the planet, kinda. People who used to post daily are down to weekly.

[merimask.livejournal.com]

I'm always full of big ideas, so that part is easy. :-) I'm more worried about the business aspect of things, and how to behave at a showing...stuff like that. It's a little daunting.

Yeah I noticed LJ has been kind of quiet! Maybe we're all outside enjoying the nice weather. It's been so nice! More likely, all the college-age people are busy moving back into the dorms and getting ready for the fall semester. Damn, I miss college sometimes.

[aoi-tsuki1.livejournal.com]

Yay, I was just wondering about you this morning. :D How's Charlotte?

*shall start saving up for draggie*

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Aww. You're so sweet! :-)

Char really missed me. She's been going everywhere with me (even out to buy groceries, which is funny 'cause usually she won't) and we're going to go for a bike ride in a few minutes too. School starts for her in a couple of weeks and it's always a big adjustment for us both.

Oh. And some time while I was gone she decided to become a vegetarian. "0_0" So I'm learning to make lentil soup and black beans with rice. Wish I could say I'm doing it too, but I LOVE my meat. Carnivore through and through.

[pzb.livejournal.com]

Huzzah! I'm glad to hear you have this epiphany, actually. It's something I need to hit myself, but I've also got to get out of fanart....I've got to have *time* to get out of fanart (and this bombing weekend is reaffirming proof that it's really time to move onto something new....)

Thankfully, my hubby (occasionally) acts as my art agent. (and funny enough, he's taking my bombing this weekend better than I am XD Unless there's some huge change today in the last day, I won't break even on this trip........)

It's really too bad we're on opposite coasts... :D

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Aww. I'd really miss your fan art though. You should scale it back maybe...do it more for you and less for the public, but still do it.

I can see your point though. You have to be commercially viable and while that doesn't mean "selling out" (whatever the hell that is...I personally think that it's BS when people accuse a popular artist of selling out. What's wrong with doing work that a majority of the public really likes?) it does mean you have to have a sense of what you can do to make a living.

*smooch* You're so talented, I'm sure you'll find your way no matter what.

I wish we lived closer too! We'd have so much fun, and it'd be great to bounce our ideas off each other in person.

[pzb.livejournal.com]

Oh, I most certainly still plan on doing fanart...no worries there. XD It's just that fanart has such a small market that if I'm going to survive solely on my art, I've got to find something that appeals more to the masses. And while fanart is great for cons for the most part, that's such a small small realm.

Yes....bouncing ideas is good. And in not such open areas where you have to worry about someone else "getting the same idea".... XD

As promised

[(Anonymous)]

I said that I'd come check this out, depite my trailing-edge technology tendencies. I'm sure it will be very cool once I figure everything out!

The cherry-blossom dragon rocked, and Natsu-no-nami is going to be even cooler!

Eloise

Re: As promised

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Hey! Hi! *waving* I had SO much fun hanging out with you last week (of course! It's always a hoot to spend time with you). Kimmie really liked you too, she said Wednesday night was the most fun she's ever had at Midnight Madness. :-)

Yeah, I'm waiting for my leather shipment to arrive. *foot tapping* Slow, slow. I ordered it while I was still at Pennsic...but my supplier is all backed up. Poo. I'm in a hurry to start filling orders and get to work on my big project ideas. Drawing sketches just isn't cutting it...I need to get my hands on some cow parts!

Re: As promised

[(Anonymous)]

Woo Hoo! It worked! It never ceases to amaze me when I do something like this correctly!

So here I sit trapped in corporate cube world. Yesterday I spent clearing email and voicemail, today I'm working on the stacked up departmental billing (my favorite), and tomorrow if I'm lucky I'll actually get some work done. The down side of vacation.

Kimmie was great, and so was Lisa - you have the greatest friends. I had a ton of fun hanging out with you and meeting them.

I'm torn right now - I have two brand new sheets of vellum and a ton of projects in mind, but I really need to start packing. I think about the idea of moving all of my crap and get a little weak in the knees - and there's a lot more books than there were nine years ago (I actually categorically forbade the movers to leave until the five boxes of manuscript reference books had been accounted for. I think they thought I was nuts.) In a responsible grown-up world, I need to flatten out the vellum, put it away in the flat files, and start packing up the sewing room. I should get a start on that this week hopefully.

I just signed up for another etching and aquatint class - I think I want an etching press for my new basement!