It has been a busy couple of months, with pieces once complete being shipped all over North America. I have orders that have been shipped to multiple places around Ontario, the farthest being Thunder Bay. Other items have been shipped to Vancouver B.C., Leduc Alberta and as close to home as Lindsay Ontario. There are wall hangings that have found homes in Arizona, Minneapolis, Boston Area, Missouri, New Jersey and Florida.
The most popular item this year has been my wall hanging “Fruit of the Spirit”, I even had a request for one for Australia but the shipping was going to cost far more that the item was worth. I have done a number of Dragon Boat paddles this Christmas, plus a number of other style of wall hangings.
Why am I mentioning this? I got those orders through promoting my studio. I have my own website, a shop on Etsy, a page on Facebook, twitter and Instagram. I photograph items and share them on social media. Most of my orders have come through Etsy and social media. We need to promote ourselves and our work.
We need to let people know what we do. I paint pictures and I paint wall décor. The wall décor sells faster than the paintings, which is understandable as history has shown that artists don’t sell paintings every day. Hence all of those “Starving Artists” sales. I have sold a number of my paintings over the years, but I have sold far more décor style items. They are all art, just different styles of art!
I enjoy doing both paintings and the décor art. The money made on the one allows me to do the other.
This year was very busy, and although at times I wondered if I would get everything done I thrive on having a lot of work to do than just sitting around with nothing on my agenda. It is relaxing for me to spend time in my studio creating. To take a blank canvas, what ever form that canvas comes as – actual canvas, wood, mail box, paddle, and turn it into a piece of artwork is a great way to relax from the stresses of the world around us.
Yes, I love to paint a piece that depicts Canadian Wildlife or the Canadian Landscape. I also love creating other styles of work and seeing them go to a different kind of collector. Creating any style of art is still taking your God given talent and putting it to good use, adding to your own life as well as helping others add to their own. Don’t allow anyone to put you down because you don’t just do what is traditionally accepted as art. Tradition is just a “rule” of sorts and “rules” were meant to be broken.
Think out of the box, look beyond the white canvas make it “An Adventure In Creativity.” Art work by any other name is still art work!
