What is a blog? It is a web log, an online journal, shortened to blog.
What is a blogiversary? It is blog anniversary.
Yesterday was my 12th blogiversary. That is 12 years of posting 5 days a week about the business of art, life in Three Rivers/rural Tulare County, peculiar sights, a (rare) visit to another place, things I learn, and always, Mineral King. That is approximately 3,350 posts.
Today I am just giving you some photographs of beautiful things in my little world. It has nothing to do with the business of art, other than an awareness of beauty which I believe is the basis of good art (“good” as I define the word).
Thank you for hanging with me through the years, or thank you for joining up somewhere along the way.
These pieces found homes in February and March. The business of art is such an up-and-down, feast-or-famine way to earn a living; the past 2 months were quite feastish.
There has been a request for a print of this drawing. I will order 2, unless other people tell me that they would like them too. I don’t know the price, but it should be lin the neighborhood of $35-50 apiece. After I hear how many people are interested, I will ask the printer for a price. The original is 11×14″, but I could get them printed as 8×10″ instead.
Interested?
Wednesday, March 23, 1:30 p.m. I have now ordered 5 prints; 3 are spoken for.
Due to an unfortunate series of events, I cancelled drawing lessons the first two weeks in February. The third week, my first class of the day cancelled me. Well, not really. Out of 7 members (in theory/on paper) only one student could attend.
Hmmm, are drawing lessons becoming irrelevant? Am I?
I love helping people learn to draw. I used to give lessons 3 afternoons a week, with 3-4 classes, each one containing 4 members, along with a long waiting list.
It isn’t that way anymore.
Everything changes. Figuring out how to make an art business viable means continually adapting to the changes.
Eventually, it will cost me more to go down the hill ($5/gallon for gas, rent and insurance at the gallery, and my time, which is a squishy thing to place monetary value on) than I earn from my students. But how can I justify raising my prices if there is no waiting list?
Meanwhile, I will keep helping the people who show up.
Here is an irrelevant photo of a cat whose name* I have forgotten because it was only semi-civilized and disappeared before we were able to get to know it.
*Was this Butch (abbreviated tail)? Or O’Reilly (bold and fresh)?
When I first started my art business, notecards quickly became a huge part. Packaging the cards was sometimes a family project, with my parents (I had 2 parents back then) and a few friends pitching in (most moved away—can you blame them?)
The packages had 2 each of 5 designs, and they sold for $5 a package.
Times have changed. (Duh, I know.)
Now packages have 4 designs, all the same, for $10. Further, I make no profit if I sell them wholesale, so I only sell them directly or have a few stores with the cards on consignment.
Visalia Landmarks (missing one picture—I think it was End of the Trail)
Before I started my art business, notecards were a side hustle. I worked in a print shop, so it was easy to get cards printed. The printshop was in Visalia, so it was easy to distribute card packages to a variety of stores.
Tulare County Landmarks covered Lindsay, Visalia, Exeter, Porterville, and Tulare
Times change. Email came along and people gradually lost the habit of writing notes by hand. Some people still buy cards, mostly from me in person or on the internet, because almost all the shops that sold my cards have closed.
Backcountry Structures
Instead of variety packs, I began packaging the cards with all the same design. This eliminated the need for a label on the top or an insert showing the pictures inside. Instead of having to print 500 or 1000 cards of each design in order to hold costs down, it is now possible to print 100 (or even fewer) at a time.
Sequoia National Park (missing a picture – what was it??)
The printing process is now computerized instead of mechanical. I email my designs to a local printer and only go there in person to pick up the finished product. Other designs get sent via the World Wide Web to some unknown printer in some unknown location, and I can order as few as 10 of a design.
California Missions – missing San Juan Bautista and San Luis Rey
Instead of selling them resale, I now allow a handful of trusted places to sell them on consignment. Although consignment is a nuisance, it is better than not having them in the public eye. Consignment is the only method that makes cents, because my costs are too high to make a profit selling them wholesale. (“Sense”, I know—couldn’t resist.)
Kings Canyon National Park (missing a picture—what was it?)
It takes a lot of time checking the inventory, restocking and trying to keep track of what has sold, what has and hasn’t been paid for, making and remaking lists for the vendors. Sometimes a vendor puts a sticker on with the sales tax, sometimes a sticker without the tax. When they decide a certain design isn’t selling, I replace it with another design and then have to repackage the cards with irrelevant stickers. It isn’t horrible, but it certainly isn’t profitable either.
Sequoia National Park—something is missing but I don’t know what it isSpecial Mineral King set as a fundraiser for the Mineral King Preservation SocietyMineral King—what was the 5th picture?
When I see all these sold pieces, both pencil drawings and oil paintings, I am astonished. Trail Guy and I loaded up “Images of Home” into the back of his pick-’em-up truck, and it felt as if I was taking home MORE than I hung at the show.
That feeling slapped me upside the confidence, making me want to paint over everything that didn’t sell and pull the drawings from the frames and shred them. Ridiculous. Several of the sold pieces happened outside of the show (all those repaints), and each time something sold, I replaced it with a new piece.
So, having put to rest the foolishness of wanting to destroy my remaining work, let’s resume yesterday’s triumphant post of art that sold in December, shall we?
Upon further reflection, I am realizing that several of these sold earlier in the fall but I didn’t show you. That brings December down to a more believable number of sales.
The year started in a somewhat ignominious manner with tech troubles. That stuff is quite alarming, upsetting, and interruptive. I combat this by reviewing all the sales in the previous month (necessary to pay for all the tech repairs, and I am sorry to report that no fat lady has sung yet).
I had sales through Kaweah Arts, the Mural Gallery, Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery, along with commissions. All is not lost – let’s rejoice together!
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Tune in tomorrow, same Bat time, same Bat channel.
My website/blog is being peculiar, and now I am being annoying by bothering you twice in the same day.
Several of my blog subscribers have let me know that the photos aren’t showing up. In addition, many spammers are slamming my email with unwanted solicitations through the contact button. Then, the “platform” that the site is built upon “migrated” everything to a new location in the stratosphere. (I have no idea what all this means). The cherry on top of this mess is that my web designer closed his business to take a regular job; an employee is taking over some of his clients (ME! PICK ME!!) but she is overwhelmed and thus somewhat nonresponsive at this time.
(I’m fine, just fine, thanks, why do you ask??)
If you are a subscriber, how about following the link in this email to the website. If it doesn’t show the photos on the blog post, go to this link and resubscribe: Jana’s Blog
If you have trouble, please email me. I have disabled the contact form so IF my link above takes you to the correct version of my website, you will not have a form to fill out. (and neither will the Spanner Slammers). But since your Central California artist is trying to navigate this all by her lonesome, it may or may not solve the problem. As with everything, more will be revealed.
Thank you for reading through this annoying information about my peculiar website. You may resume your nap now.
P.S. Sometimes the titles of the blog posts don’t show; other times there are weird spots in the titles because the word “cabinart” is going over the top of the titles in white, which matches the background and further confuses the viewer. (I just work here. Sort of.)
Not all the changes are bad. Now it costs the same whether I print a pencil drawing or one with a bit of color.
