Marketing Can Be Challenging

I decided to try and "bribe" some people into placing an order with me for a portrait. I have about 5 people from past art shows who said they would be interested in getting a portrait done of a family member or pet and so far, no one has actually followed through by giving me a photo. I find this very, very frustrating. So I am offering a free print of my art if they place an order by June of this year. I hope this helps bring in some business.

I have two new art students. One took her first lesson Monday and one will start Saturday. But where are all the other folks who want to take art lessons? I need to hear from you!

I am looking into ways to expand my art business and get more sales. I went to a meeting Monday (yesterday) for any vendors & artisans who were interested in selling their wares at the Capital City Public Market that takes place every Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in downtown Boise. It starts in April and ends in October. It seemed like a good idea until they mentioned that as of last year, all vendors have to have a special kind of insurance. They didn't say what kind of insurance either. I heard that this insurance would cost at least $250 to $300 for 1 year. I could probably do this if I wasn't already struggling with financial obstacles and if my husband wasn't in the mortgage broker business which isn't doing so well right now. I can see that insurance might be necessary for a food vendor, but I don't see why it is so necessary for an art vendor. I have existed ten years without it and never needed it. It seems that as Boise gets bigger, more g0vernment red tape like special insurance seems to get in the way of small business owners trying to keep overhead down. As if special insurance wasn't enough of a costly overhead, you also have to pay a $75 to $100 membership fee to participate in this public market. (Sigh) I have to reconsider this route of marketing. It may be more money than I can invest right now.

Filling Orders, Preparing for Art Shows

It's been awhile since my last entry. A few people have started to come back to take art lessons now that the weather has gotten better. But I still don't have nearly as many students as I would like to have. I would like to have ten and I only have three, maybe four. Maybe I just have to advertise more. It could also be a reflection of the economy right now too.

I am still preparing for the big art show I am having next month by painting rock animals and getting some more art prints made. I have decided that I am going to do more art shows during the months of April through June than I did last year. Those months seem to be the best times for outdoor art shows here in Boise.

I received payment for the otter rock animal order that I got from Brooklyn, New York. I decided to wait until the check cleared before shipping it. I also finished all the final touches of Pika, the chocolate labrador portrait. It turned out really great and I have posted the final version in today's blog. I am just waiting for the client to call me, make the final payment, and pick it up.

Multiple Musings & Coping With An Emergency

I have been mostly doing lots of rock animals lately. My supply is low because they sell well and I have to gear up for the March Cat Show and other shows coming up. I have not been doing any colored pencil & turpenoid art and I want to get back to that. A few weeks ago I started a project that has to do with creating art that documents my trip to Leavenworth, Washington. I am excited and very motivated to do this. However, a family emergency came up recently and I have had to devote my time and concentration to that instead. I also had to postpone the start of art lessons for another week because of this emergency. Thank God that art is such a wonderful therapy for me when life becomes a bit stressful. It calms me down and centers me.

I finished the two otter rocks that a lady from New York ordered from me (through my website). I am waiting for a check to arrive in the mail and then I will mail that order to her. The interesting thing is this is the second order in two months that I have had that came from my website and I am not even doing anything to actively promote or market my website. I am beginning to think that it may be a good idea to do some promoting and marketing of my website. I will have to check into that and decide if this would be a good direction to go in.

I have become increasingly interested in getting into graphic arts and computer graphics. I occasionally do some graphic artwork for my church, the Vineyard, and the more I do it, the more fascinated I am with it. An artist friend of mine recently told me that she thought I would be really good at this because I seem to have a nack for it. That is encouraging to hear. I would love to go to college and get a certificate in graphic arts, but right now, there is NO money for this at all and I don't want to charge it and get into more debt. There are some online graphic art courses at BSU that I look interesting. I believe that there is a time and a season for all things and the timing for me to be doing this is really bad right now, so I am just going to put this on hold. Maybe this is something I can do next year.

One Project Done, Another One Started

Well, I finally finished my guest room interior decorating/rennovation project. I can't believe how nice it looks! It looks like a professional did it. All those hours of watching the Home & Garden Channel (HGTV) has paid off. Now I just need some guests.

Time is ticking and I need to start preparing for my first art show of the season--the Idaho Cat Fanciers show in March--so yesterday I started painting more rock animals. I also got an unexpected online order for a couple of otter rock animals so I need to start on those. I may have to go out to the river and find more rocks. I hope it won't be too much of a problem finding rocks with all the snow that has fallen lately.

A New Art Exhibit & Snow Jobs

A new art exhibit just opened today at the Vine Arts Gallery at the Vineyard church in Garden City near 50th and Chinden. I have two pieces entered--a framed collage of photos, art and a poem called "Forever Knight" and a colored pencil piece, "A Gathering of Goslings." The theme of this show is community and it will hang until April.

Another snow blizzard came my way today. Oh joy (sarcasm). I think that makes the tenth one so far this winter. I forgot what grass looks like. However, my guest room interior decorating project is helping me to keep my sanity. It is 90% done and it looks so fantastic! I really didn't do much art work this weekend because I spent almost the entire weekend working on the guest room. All I have left to do is reupholster a rocking chair seat and an ottoman and paint a nic-nac shelf that is going to hang on the wall and I'm done. What I love about this guest room project is it was fairly easy and inexpensive to do. Maybe I should put a sign out in front of my house that says "Beverly's Bed & Breakfast."

Last week I had some good news that I forgot to mention. A local book store here in Boise, Rediscovered Book store, sold some of my Stone Critters rock animal art and had a check for me. Apparently, they were suppose to have mailed this check to me the beginning of last month, but there was some sort of computer tracking problem and things got a little mixed up. Anyway, they want more of my Stone Critters to sell, so that will be another project I will start on this next week.