art and craft day with the roseburg kids.

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Today we had arts and crafts day here in Roseburg. I made these three sets of weights! Jimmy made a split sheet of flash, and Zack made a painting, and Annee made a pair of earrings with beads. Here’s some photos of everyone crafting and drawing.

I grew up the oldest of a bunch of kids. Until my brother was born, I was the only kid in a house full of people, uncles and aunts and grandparents and cousins. I love when there are a bunch of other people around making art, crafting, doing things. The energy of a group really makes it easier for me to work somehow. Even just someone in the other room writing, feeds my energy and my ambition to see things through.

Today was great.

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the struggle to decide; prints or not? downloads or not?

(originally published Published on: Sep 5, 2013)

I always struggle with the question of whether to make downloads of my work available, or prints. In one way, I hate doing it, because I like the idea of something I made with my own hands going to your hands, as it is, with no other stuff there. Then I realize some things.

  • If I was a musician, I’d sell records, not just perform live.
  • I can only make so many original things, in so much time.
  • I’d like to be able to earn enough from my art to make it worth the time and energy (see footnote)
  • I have to eat.
  • Many people want to be able to enjoy my work but couldn’t afford the cost of an original.
  • I can’t manage shipping and storefronts online and promotion for all of that, and STILL HAVE TIME FOR MAKING THINGS.

I will take these point-by-point.

shirtsIf I was a musician, I’d sell records. I’d want more people to enjoy my work than I could perform for in person. I’d want people to be able to take me anywhere with them. If I was a writer, I’d print books of my work. I wouldn’t expect people to only access my work through attending readings, or by buying the hand-written manuscript. I’d want my work to be accessible, something people could enjoy.  I also would maybe still sell the manuscript, or some signed first editions…but the books would be published, out there, even on a kindle.

I have two hands. If I work the equivalent of fulltime hours, I can make maybe four things, of substandard quality, in a week. I can make maybe one or two things of good quality in a week. I can make one great thing a month. Now…how much is minimum wage? Should I set all the art aside and get a job at McDonald’s? Because if I can only sell a piece of art one time, mcdonald’s will pay better, and maybe I should set this art stuff aside permanently and get a real job…I can only make so much stuff with my own two hands. But if I sell prints and let people download the works, I can post it – set it and forget it. I can sell those while I am busy making other new things, and can continue to make money from a piece for years sometimes, long after the original is sold or destroyed.

I love making art. I spend all my time making things. I do have to eat. So therefore I have to charge money and sell my work- my choice is, work a job which takes all my time, and rarely make anything, or sell my work at a reasonable price and live off that money. I love making art. The process of actually making things, well, I will do that no matter what. I’ve had my Kafka years, working fulltime then coming home and putting in another eight hours painting. But my work wasn’t as good. And I had no time to show it to anyone. I need the time to show my work- to scan it, photograph it, share it, post it. If I don’t make any money from a piece, I’ll still MAKE the piece- but I will not spend the time posting it and discussing it and sharing it with you, or with anyone. If I was lucky enough to have inherited wealth maybe I’d have that kind of luxury, but I don’t. I wish I did, really.

EPSON MFP imageAnd yeah- YOU GUYS are broke too! I mean everyone is hurting. Being poor shouldn’t mean you can’t enjoy or own art! I want to make things accessible to everyone as much as possible. So- digital downloads. Most people have a printer- or access to a library with a printer in it- and can pay me a few dollars for a file, take it there, pay a buck or two to print it, and hang it up. Prints are next in line- the quality will be better, professional grade, the print will last longer, years even. Limited run? Why? It seems like a waste of time, of energy. I put my initials and a number on them and they’re magically worth more somehow? No. I do handpainted prints though- the next higher price things- and those are fun. I can take an hour and embellish a painting I already did- make new details on it, play around. The buyer gets something unique, like an original, and I get to play…

I spend maybe an hour or two a day online writing copy for my work, explaining it, discussing it, sharing technical stuff, writing, posting, and keeping track of what has sold. I spend another hour or so every day taking photos, scanning, fixing the damn scanner. And another hour every other day packaging stuff to mail out, trying to keep track of what goes where. I am not good at any of these things. They are REAL WORK, hard work I don’t enjoy very much. I’d rather be actually making things. So this work- I need to streamline it, make it as handsfree as possible. Selling originals is difficult. I have to post it everywhere, and hope the right person sees it, and then once it’s sold, do it again, the entire process, from documenting the work to explaining it to answering questions and pricing it and packing it and shipping it. All that work has to be done completely from scratch, every time I sell an original.

A print? I scan it, touch it up, post it, and it’s done. I can leave it there, just like that, for years. People can buy it a year later, without any additional work from me. It’s what they call a secondary income stream, and as an artist working alone I NEED that to happen as much as possible. It frees up my hands for making more better things. The digital downloads are the same- even easier, in fact. There’s no parameters to set, no material-checking, no worrying about quality control. It’s set and forget.

EPSON MFP imageSo, in order to be able to make more and better art, and in order to live, I sell originals, downloads, AND prints of most things. I charge people a tiny bit extra if they buy an original and only want me to do a limited run of prints. I charge A LOT extra if someone buys something and wants me to make no prints at all…for example, A painting I make- the original is a hundred bucks. I will probably (if it’s a good painting) make another two hundred off of prints and downloads of it over the course of a year. For me to sell ONLY THE ORIGINAL and still pay my rent, I have to charge three hundred for that original, now.

Should I do that? Sometimes I want to. Because I love the idea of something I made with my own hands, being in YOUR hands, with nothing in between us. Also because I like originals myself. But I can’t manage to, or figure out how to, promote myself well enough to always sell my originals, let alone for three times what I have them priced at now. So unless a magical fairy of promotion comes and makes me famous or rich, without charging me anything or requiring more of my time to work it…I will keep selling prints and downloads, of nearly everything I make.

I love you guys. Those of you with two bucks, and those of you with a million. You’re all people I like, and I want you all to be able to touch and enjoy my work.

migration complete.

coelocanth, a future project

edit: etsy is now done, thanks for following me there over the past two years! on to better things now.

 

as of now, and for the foreseeable future:
squareup has my originals: https://squareup.com/market/anji-marth
and zibbet has my painted prints and rocks and bones: http://www.zibbet.com/anjimarth
standard prints are still at rb: http://www.redbubble.com/people/resonanteye/portfolio

migrating to square!

il_570xN.437343921_g7bjso squareup finally has internet shopping available.

FINALLY.

This weekend is going to be a lot of work, but you guys are going to like the end result.

you can watch the progress here, if you like. 

So far, the logic dictates that prints and shirts come from redbubble, originals go through square, and my digital downloads and a few weird things will stay at etsy.

I will be rebuilding some things here, too, I’ll make a post letting you know how to use and find the new stuff probably on monday or tuesday.

Update at noon PST: I am getting there. The current progress is at this page, http://resonanteye.net/buyit/everything-in-one-place/ and I’ll be separating things out into categories and organizing once I get everything up and listed properly.

 

Update this morning: I’ve been building some categories; and doing some writing. tattoo stuff, ladies, totem animals, and the serial killers and portraits…so far. got about that many more to go, plus a ton of scanning to do too. I also have some new pictures of commissions to post later, stuff that’s already finished and shipped- as well as a post about vaping. Busy weekend~!

is your art good enough to sell online?

Short answer? Yes.

Long, realistic answer?

pretty on the inside

I show you my heart.

Putting your art up online is kind of like showing it in a gallery. You may not be the best at your particular art style, but if you want to improve, showing the internet what you are doing is a good way to get better. There are so many skill levels, so many ways of expressing yourself; the internet is home to them all.

If you’re really timid, start slow. Use deviantart, and request critiques. Once you feel like you can handle more harsh views, try some art forums, and ask for opinions.

Or, alternately, you can dive right in. We all start where we are. Try to get very good pictures of your work. never upload giant files; upload files that are just big enough to look good on a monitor, no larger. Image theft is common, and sometimes unintentional. If you watermark unobtrusively, and only upload smaller files, you’ll find more people credit you when reposting or sharing your work. You want people to do that, because that is how you will sell your art online.

Etsy is a good starter for artists. It’s not the best venue for fine art, but it can be a good way to get your feet wet. Be cautious, though, as most of the advice on using etsy is not written with art in mind, but easily-reproducible craft. Your painting can’t be tagged and posted the same way a t-shirt can. This is why etsy is only a starter site.

The Craftstar has a decent art section, but you will have to have a paypal and pay for listing in advance.

You could also opt for one of the other sites geared for art sales- originals are harder to sell most places than prints, but it IS possible to sell just originals online.

If you are just starting out, keep your prices as low as possible. Once you are selling your work on a regular basis, then you can raise your prices. At first, it’s unknown if you will succeed or not. Most people not only buy art for its look, for how it grabs the eye, but also for the artist’s longevity, their name, their history. Build your history a little!

It’s the internet. You should maintain privacy for your own comfort and safety of course-but letting people get to know you, talking about deep or personal things, lets the viewer understand the origin of your works, and become more invested in them. Give them a chance to find out where the art came from. You can be a cantankerous bitch hermit like me and STILL be capable of showing your inner self online. You don’t have to be outgoing to do it; you can talk as if the site was your own art journal, your own notes about each piece.

So- yeah. Your art is good enough to sell online- at etsy or anywhere else. Keep your expectations of sales low at first, and your prices the same, and then as time passes you will see how your work can fit into the greater whole of online art.

And if you need encouragement, ask for it. And if you need a slap on the wrist, or a sound drubbing, you should ask for that too. All the help you could ever want from other artists lives inside your computer, but it can only do you good if you put your own work in there too.

more: feathers, rocks, sticks, shaman things.

Just photos today.

legal domestic feather

online selling, etsy, ethics.

Update: people are beginning to migrate from the (myspace )I mean – etsy. Here is a page attempting to list their new shops and venues. And other are protesting it all.

The place has always had resellers; people breaking the rules to pass off mass-produced stuff as handmade.
There’s a lot of money to be had from people who want to NOT support corporations, who want to buy local, handmade stuff. A lot of people don’t like buying things that were made for pennies by slave labor. Lots of companies know that, and will lie about how their stuff was made, to get that dollar.

The people who produce things with slave labor want that dollar, too.

“Former eBay and PayPal executive Stephanie Tilenius has joined the Board of Directors of Etsy, joining Etsy founder Rob Kalin, FlickR’s Caterina Fake, Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson, and Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer (also on Walmart.com.’s board) on the board. Tilenius left eBay last year and now heads Google’s commerce division.”

So they invaded etsy (and a few other places) and have been trying for a while now to find ways to successfully sell to people who don’t want to buy from them. Recently, an attempt to pass off furniture built in Bali as “handmade in CA” was busted. The thing is- etsy isn’t supposed to be a place to buy factory-made goods being resold. Its own mission statement says that buying direct from people who are making things by hand, not in factories, is the point.

I signed up there because of that but now…well, the fact that when confronted with a (GIANT SHITPILE OF) evidence, including an email from the man who actually makes the furniture, that the stuff is not produced in CA, and that the original seller is a fraud, etsy chose not to apologize, not to admit fault and remove the seller—but to close discussions about it and deny. (note- the fraudulent seller? is not only still open, but still in their list of “featured sellers”)
So, I’m in the process of migrating. (check out my home page– new links to my stuff for now! All my rocks, sticks, logs, and moss will stay on etsy- but anything I made, art, paintings and stuff- originals- has been moved. still debating whether to keep my prints there or not, my “production work”)

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snow, fire, log, paint

image

power out, snow outside. my log was on the front page of etsy. my laptop died. and I’m painting.

Some of my favorite things.

I usually post all my own work here, and occasionally a review of an artist or a few artists.

Today is one of the days when I feel like showing what some of my friends make. I belong to a team on etsy which runs on chaos and confusion. It’s enchanting in a way. There’s none of the usual melodrama or arguing found on that site- it’s a strange and silly group of people. The only real rule is to help each other out- and to enjoy doing it.

Here’s a link to that team– if you use etsy, you’re welcome to join us (you don’t have to have a shop to join in the mayhem.)

First of all, there’s Debbi. Now, she does digital stuff, photographs. She works in NOLA, which means all her stuff has that creepy, southern vibe. But she has also given me tons of ideas for my own work, including the notion to do curated shadowboxes. She is a promotional wizard and she is also the queen of amokery, even.

Also, I love her work.

You

can check out more of her things here.

.

I should also say that she is soooooooo fabulous.

Anyone who likes the dirty south should enjoy taking a peek at her stuff.

Then, there’s Francesca. I know two Frannies, this one is the dark one- her work is gothic, and sometimes strange. She does a lot of things with tiny bones, with feathers. She’s totally obsessed with day of the dead motifs.

Her stuff makes me smile. I know she also, like me, LOVES skulls.

You can see more from her here.

I’ve talked to her quite a bit, and her tastes are really similar to mine. She likes dead things, tattoos, and good music.

What I would call good, anyway.

People who like my stuff will probably like her stuff A LOT.

.

And Brittany. She makes cute kid stuff- usually.

Which means that I don’t need it, given that I have no kids.

BUT! I got her book on bullying for my nieces and nephews.

AND! she also makes this scary guy!

Well, not scary. just goth. I think she’s going to make some more of these,

I really hope she does. This one sold right away.

She is like Mary Poppins, ever so polite, kind, and decent. It’s kind of funny that someone like that would be my friend. but she is! You can see more of her work here- and you should definitely check it out if you have/like/know any kids.

.

daniblu makes cool things too.

AND

she is very sweet, and kind.

Of everything she does though-

I am in LOVE with these.

They’re just big enough for plugs. and just soft enough to keep things from breaking.

Holy crap.

You can find the rest of her work here. 

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I also like Shayne’s work a lot. He does chicks, hot chicks. More day of the dead stuff. Zombies. Vampires.

And

he’s goofy as hell.

I think he would like to be serious at times but he is just…not.

He lives near some friends of mine out in the desert, so I’m hoping on my next road trip I get to meet him and kick it a little.

You can find more of his stuff here.

He reminds everyone all the time that he’ll make prints in just about any size…so I’ll say that for him too. The man has drive.

I’ve got about ten more people I WANT to include, but I will wait until next time to write about them all. I’ll just leave you with a few pictures to click on, that go to more things made by each person.

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.

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I’ll be posting some paintings later on today- I’m almost done with the sasquatch, so even if it fails I will put him up!

All these folks are awesome people. I mean it.


photography

bell flowersI’ve been taking pictures for a very long time. I finally am putting together a shop to sell prints- after all this time.

I guess photography has always been something I do for myself, and I’ve always been amazed when someone wants a print of something I’ve taken. So I figure it’s probably time to list them somewhere.

I’ll be posting new things for the next few days here at the photography shop, if you’ve been after one of my photographs, that’s where they’ll be.

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