About 15 years ago a wonderful woman (Barbara) asked me the question, “If you could do anything you wanted to do, what would you do?” Without thinking or any hesitation I immediately answered, “I would design or make something that would be sold all over the world so that when I die there will be little pieces of me left all over the world.” As soon as I said that Barbara looked at me and I looked at her. We were both stunned at what I had just said. I had never said these words before, and I’m not sure if I had ever even thought them. Where they came from I’m not sure, but I do know that was a life-changing moment for me. After what seemed like a very long silence Barbara finally said, “that is the best answer I have ever heard”. Then her next question was the really stumper for me, she asked, “how are going to make that happen”. At that point I could only laugh and say, “I have no earthly idea!”
Ever since that day I have thought of that statement almost every day. I knew that is what I wanted to do, I knew that was my goal in life, but I just couldn’t figure out how to make it happen. I have spent years looking for the path to help me reach that goal. I have researched and worked on one avenue after another with each avenue turning out to be just another dead end. The search has been very frustrating, but for some reason I never gave up. As many times as I tried to give up, something always kept pulling me back to the search. Because I could never give it up I knew that this is why I was here on this earth and someday it would happen.
Then one day I found this website called Zazzle.com. I immediately feel in love with Zazzle. This is a place where I could create my art and put it on products that people could enjoy. This was great! Every day I work on my store, creating new art and designing new products. The ideas for new art are coming so fast that I can’t create the art fast enough. I work on my store and designs from the time I wake up in the morning until I go to bed at night 7 days a week. I have never had so much fun doing the thing that I love the most in my life.
I knew that Zazzle sold products worldwide but for some reason I never really made the connection in my mind of somebody in another country buying one of my products. That is until today. Today I made my first international sale. One of my products was purchased from a customer in the United Kingdom. To say I was excited would be a gross understatement! After I was able to curtail my excitement just a little bit, I thought about my conversation with Barbara so many years ago and I thought to myself, “I can now answer the question of ‘how am I going to make that happen’”. I realize that I am finally achieving the goal that I had set for myself some 15 years ago.
Many people have Zazzle stores and there are some that are making a very good living off of their stores. Of course that is one of my goals as well, to have my art be my sole source of income and for that sole source to be a very good income, just like everybody else. However, for me, it is so much more than that. For me it is to have my products sold all over the world so that when I die there is a little piece of my heart and soul left behind in countries all over world.
Goes to show that you just never know how things are going to turn out. So if you ever have a dream, hold on to it even though you don’t have a clue as to how you are going to make it happen, because one day, in a way that you might least expect it work out, it just might happen!
This is the first international product sold. It is from the Sassy Shoe Collection and it is called “Hip Granny Boot”. Would I have ever in a million years guessed that this would have been my first product sold internationally? Never!!! But it was!
Showing posts with label artist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label artist. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Traffic Jam
I don’t know if it is because of my architectural background or not, but I love geometric shapes. I know that they say that to be an artist you have to know and understand shapes because all drawings are nothing more than a combination of shapes to create a figure or anything else. I realize that, but that is not what I am talking about. I am talking just drawing a bunch of random shapes on a piece of paper without giving it any thought and seeing where they fall and what interesting design they make. Traffic Jam is nothing more than one of those doodling play times for me.
I first started out with the triangles overlapping each other. Then I added series of circles. At that point I wasn’t really too impressed with it so I added the checkerboard winding strip. Perhaps that is a rule of thumb for me, “if something isn’t working throw in some checkerboard and it will make it all better”. Once I had the design drawn it was okay but I still wasn’t sold on it.
Most of the time when I get to this point if I don’t really like the design it just goes into the trash, but this time I kept going with it. I decided to add some color. When I finished, (and much to my surprise) it wasn’t so bad after all. It definitely wasn’t on my top 10 list but it was worth keeping.
I actually created this design about a year ago and not knowing what I was going to do with I just added it to pile of “maybe for some other day” drawings. Then one day when I was trying to figure out a new product design I started going through some of my older drawings to see if there wasn’t something that I could pull from and maybe rework. That is when I ran across this old friend and thought it might work on a couple of products.
In this case I didn’t rework any part of the design, I just started creating products with it. Much to my surprise the products looked pretty good. The more products I made the better I liked the design.
Why the name Traffic Jam? I named the design Traffic Jam because to me the checkerboard strip looks like a freeway and the circles look like cars all moving in unison with each other. The triangles are the buildings along the freeway.
This just goes to show that as an artist, you might not like the art you create at the time you create it, but that is no reason to throw it away because there will come a day when it is just the piece you are looking for.
I first started out with the triangles overlapping each other. Then I added series of circles. At that point I wasn’t really too impressed with it so I added the checkerboard winding strip. Perhaps that is a rule of thumb for me, “if something isn’t working throw in some checkerboard and it will make it all better”. Once I had the design drawn it was okay but I still wasn’t sold on it.
Most of the time when I get to this point if I don’t really like the design it just goes into the trash, but this time I kept going with it. I decided to add some color. When I finished, (and much to my surprise) it wasn’t so bad after all. It definitely wasn’t on my top 10 list but it was worth keeping.
I actually created this design about a year ago and not knowing what I was going to do with I just added it to pile of “maybe for some other day” drawings. Then one day when I was trying to figure out a new product design I started going through some of my older drawings to see if there wasn’t something that I could pull from and maybe rework. That is when I ran across this old friend and thought it might work on a couple of products.
In this case I didn’t rework any part of the design, I just started creating products with it. Much to my surprise the products looked pretty good. The more products I made the better I liked the design.
Why the name Traffic Jam? I named the design Traffic Jam because to me the checkerboard strip looks like a freeway and the circles look like cars all moving in unison with each other. The triangles are the buildings along the freeway.
This just goes to show that as an artist, you might not like the art you create at the time you create it, but that is no reason to throw it away because there will come a day when it is just the piece you are looking for.
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