Reflections and Resolutions (2022 – 2023)

It’s been a while since I’ve posted my weekly blog. I’ve been busy with my whole family catching the plague all of December. Or rather, we’ve been hit over and over again this cold and flu season since my oldest started Kindergarten in September. December seemed to hit us particularly hard though. Between that and the holidays I just decided to put my art on the back burner for a month.

2022 brought a lot of changes in my personal life. In December 2021 I gave birth to our second daughter and in 2022 we watched her grow into an exploring little one year old. My husband quit his job of 17 years and changed careers to where he’s working 10 + hours a day. It’s a huge change for our family and has been a big adjustment, especially as we battle a harsh flu season. This hasn’t left me a lot of time to focus on my artwork. Despite that, when I reflect on 2022 I realize just how much I accomplished after having a baby (and adjusting to a crazy new schedule with my husband’s work and my oldest daughter heading to school). I’m proud of how many of my goals I reached.

I made 21 bookmarks (which is 9 more than I made the year before) including starting a large series (all of the Doctors from Doctor Who) that I do intend to finish this year. This was my 3rd year creating the Classic Horror Crew annual bookmark and I think it’s my best one yet. I’m so grateful for Paul’s trust in me to make a bookmark every year that reflects their book club. I also helped spearhead Art For Ukraine which brought many artists together to raise money for the citizens of Ukraine. I personally donated $100 worth of bookmarks sold and together we raised $2,480 CAD. All proceeds went to the Canadian-Ukraine Foundation and it went towards providing necessary items for those affected by the war.

When COVID started in 2020 I had to completely revamp the way I sold my artwork. I could no longer do local markets and fairs, could no longer do in-person gallery shows and I found myself at a loss on how to share my art. This is when I started focusing on smaller works of art that I could easily ship across the country and around the world. Now that everything has opened back up and we can do in-person events again I find myself once again trying to decide what the best way to share my art should be. I need to find a middle ground where I can both share online and in-person. 2022 was my introduction back to selling my art locally. In October I did the Artisan Fall Fair at Pope Mountain Arts (my first event at the local arts space since 2019) and then in November I did the local Craft Fair which was always annually but the last Craft Fair was in 2019 as well. I was also the featured artist at PMA for the month of November. I spent two mornings out of the month hanging out at the building working on some bookmarks while people came and viewed my art. I had one class stop by which is always enjoyable. I love the honesty of children and they have the best questions.

For 2023 I want to focus again on selling locally while simultaneously selling online. I’d love to create a dynamic shop within my webpage and drop Etsy forever. The Art For Ukraine fundraiser made me really want to do something like that again. I’d love to run an “Art For…” campaign every year specifically focusing on local groups that could benefit from it. It’s something I need to spend some more time planning and talking to other artists about.

I don’t know if I’m ready to get back into painting canvases and doing gallery shows again. Having my work featured at PMA in November was fun but also reminded me of the headaches that come with doing a gallery. My preferred method right now is using a combination of Tombow Dual Brush Pens, inks and sometimes pastels on watercolour paper. It’s very portable and easy to quickly set up and clean up which is important when you’re going by the schedule of young kids.

My in-laws got me a Square reader and a locking cash box (goodbye cardboard box with an elastic band around it) after I spent a lot of time humming and hawing about the things I need if I want to keep doing markets. I’m excited to have ticked two of the things off that list now and so grateful for this really thoughtful gift. I’ve been considering doing the Farmer’s Market this year and those two items really helps towards that goal. I also need a tent to protect my work from the weather. I’m not sure if doing the Farmer’s Market would be worth it for me to do week-to-week. There is a yearly membership fee and a weekly fee for a spot at the Spirit Square on top of that. My artwork is very niche and that niche isn’t exactly the majority of the patrons in my small town. To make it worth my time I’d have to consistently sell enough week-to-week. I have some ideas to make that more likely and if I can figure out to pull it all off I think joining the Farmer’s Market every week would be a good avenue of sales to add to my repertoire. I would likely need to bring my kids with me but that hiccup is the least of my concerns.

Another exciting thing for 2023 is the opening of an artisan shop! The lovely Nikita of So Divine Crochet is working on opening an artisan shop called So Divine Artisan Boutique. I’m really excited about this and feel it’s something our town could really use. There’s a few local businesses that have space for local makers things but it’s not a lot and they’re usually looking for a certain small northern community aesthetic. This will be a storefront with a good mixture and variety of things crafted by local makers. I applied but asked her to put my application on the bottom of the pile, for now. My family being sick for so long has turned my life into hell and I really need time to recover and get my life back on track before taking on anything like this. I will also have to reassess my prices as well as my content. I have enough experience to know which things sell well to most people in my community. Like I’ve said, my stuff is very niche and the people in my community largely aren’t within that niche. This is something I’ve been fine with in the past but if I’m going to take a gamble where I have to pay to have my items in a shop then I need to reassess how much of it is likely to actually sell. Her prices are totally reasonable, I just don’t have confidence that what I am currently creating will sell to our local demographic. Super exciting to have someone with the experience she does as well as the enthusiasm and passion in our corner. To quote Nikita herself; our success is her success! One thing I’ve really struggled with is promotion (especially on a local level) and the legwork involved in putting my stuff out there. Nikita is willing to do that legwork and to me that’s 100% worth it. As a mum of two small children I just don’t have time to do this all on my own. To have that kind of support available in my town means the world to me.

2023 is also going to bring new ventures in design for me. I don’t want to go into too many details because it is very much still in the planning phase but my sister is playing around with design transfers and is currently waiting on ink for a sublimation printer her and her partner bought. They want to create designs that reflect who they are, what they enjoy about our community and the northern playground we live in. She’s asked that I help come up with designs and this is an opportunity I would fully love to be a part of. Like I said though, still the early planing stage and we will see where this idea takes us.

Now I just have to get my family healthy again so I can get my life back.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope your holidays were wonderful and I hope the new year brings lots of happiness and opportunity for you. Let’s put the last few years in the rear-view mirror and move forward with hope, optimism and creativity.