Musings and Machinations

Thoughts on my pivots and other things...

I’ve been pretty sick for the past month with some gastro-related issues and its been about a 1000 degrees here in North Carolina. So I’ve spent a lot of this time indoors reading, drawing, and thinking about my business while also spending a lot of time with my kids who are home from school.

In April I decided to temporarily shut down the wall art and gallery side of things and focus solely on my books, marketing them, improving them, and working on the next one. The thing about owning your own small business is you can change your mind, pivot, try new things and in the process it helps you narrow down what you really want to do. And you know what I realized? I realized that writing stories and illustrating books is a personal project for me. I don’t really want to publish traditionally and don’t want to make a career out of illustrating picture books! I enjoy my own books, but I don’t want to illustrate other peoples stories! I actually find this part of the process overwhelming and tedious. Now I am really excited when it all comes together. I am very proud of my work and with each book, I learn how to improve and make them better. The joy for me comes in sharing my stories and using my voice. I also really enjoy one-off spot illustrations like these:

But you know what I really miss? I miss drawing botanicals and painting beautiful things! I don’t want to sell things, I don’t want to have a shop or go to markets(except for my books), or do wholesale. I REALLY want to license my work for wall art, greeting cards, and other products. I want to use the the thousands of art pieces I’ve created over the last few years by licensing that work. I want to find an art agent and community. I want to create work that gets into the world because my biggest issues are visibility and direction. I have developed the skills and built a library of art but I get distracted by projects. I would love to have an agent who could help guide me and connect me to clients who could use the skills I have on their products.

I will continue to write and illustrate books because it is a passion project but its very personal and I don’t want to be anything beyond an indie author in that area. If that were to change in the future I could look for a literary agent but for now I know a licensing agent is what I need.

I had to stop doing something to realize how much I actually love and miss it. I don’t miss the selling part and that is something I don’t want pick back up. BUT I do miss creating the large scale art pieces. I’ve been participating in Mel Amann Talent Tap #2 and also Jehanes Golden Thread and I really thrive creating from briefs and color palettes. I would enjoy creating work that clients actually want or need which is why I’ve participated in so many online art challenges. Its really fun for me and I would really like more direction in this area of my art business.

So wish me luck as I once again pivot and really try to focus in and find a licensing agent. I think my website is primed and ready to find one. I finally have clarity on what I’m looking for, now I just need to connect the dots…