On Crafts and Art

It's strange but I just realized something, I can tell how focused I am on myself and my feelings by how much painting and drawing I do, when I don't draw or draw very little it usually means that I'm disconnected from myself to a certain extent. It also means that I'll be using my hands to craft more then to make paintings and art. Also, it means that I'm probably a little less obsessed, anxious and feeling more or less normal.

In the past week or so, I was drawing constantly, which I was very happy about, but I was also feeling pretty crappy, which I wasn't so happy about. I'm not sure why, but I felt very lost and also like everything I was doing was wrong and I was messing up constantly, or slacking or whatever. It all sort of lead to one of those horrible nights last night - I couldn't sleep at all, I cried, tried to take care of things, failed and tried again. I did some drawings and cried and got really scared and anxious.



Today, trying to get over the lack of sleep and getting myself a little more balanced again, I kept my hands busy and my mind blank by doing some embroidery and sewing and made a few art kits. It was a nice way to pass a day in which touching anything inside myself was too raw and sensitive.

I guess that's why I value art more then I value crafts, cause making drawings and painting forces me to look inside myself and be honest about my own feelings, while in crafting it's just about making something cute or nice looking.

Also, I'm a little frightened about having to feel stressed and anxious in order to make the drawings I want to make.

Worry

Worry was the word of the week on Illustration Friday. Sometime it's really hard to find what I want to do for it, and some time it's super easy. This was one of the super easy ones, cause earlier this week I took a picture that I titled "Worry".

The photo was a self portrait I took after Ned got an e-mail that he got in to Grafuck book this year, we both send 3 images, he got one in and I didn't get any request for high resolution files which means I got rejected. I was so happy and proud for Ned but so sad and feeling like a failure for myself. Also him getting in meant that I couldn't write this off as one of those "those editors don't even know anything about art or anything" because they did show very good judgment by picking Ned's piece. So basically, however I could twisted it in my mind, the only conclusion was that I'm just not good enough.



The other day, while being in the train, I thought about a painting i made that day. I listed it on Etsy for 45$, and another one from the same day for 20$. I thought about a friend of mine that
had an art show in a gallery a few months back and now have one of her pieces in some auction site for 1,200$. And how it sort of suck and I feel about 30 times less of an artist then her. Then I thought that if I have to choose between selling 30 paintings to make 1,200$ or only one, I rather sell 30, cause it gives me the chance to make 30 paintings and though this is a pretty small comfort, it's still a comfort.

I'm really worried, not so much about the value of my art but about my own courage and abillity to step out of my comfort zone and becoming the artist I want to be.

Some thought about promotion

I posted a thread in the etsy forum today, it has to do with the good feeling of actually making money on Etsy and feeling like I'm doing well (it's a whole different story and might be told in a different time). I got a lot of really kind responses congratulating me about the making money thing. Also, it was really nice to see people referring to my success as something to aspire to. Also, I got a really nice e-mail from a fellow selling asking me about where do I promote my etsy store.

This made me think, I mean we are all looking for places to promote our stores, however, that very allusive "promotion" thing that we all want to know, it "where" and not "how".

So I'm going to write a couple of thought about promotion and the how rather then the who that I was trying to put into words while writing that e-mail.

The How of promotion

2 restaurants opened up in my neighborhood this past summer. One's called Blackbird parlor and the other is called paper moon cafe. Now they both sell very nice food and both are owned and managed by very nice people, however, the first is doing really really well, while the second is totally empty.

Why is that? honestly, there is not one reason, it's location and it's the fact that the one who's doing well is owned by someone with experience in the restaurant industry and the other isn't. But the main thing, at least for me is this:

While the owner and manager of Blackbird parlor became a part of the Williamsburg community, the owner and manager of Paper moon has not.

Taking to the first means I'm hearing news about people who lives here, how other restaurants are doing, different things that happened on Bedford st. and their plans for the future. When he's not busy inside, he stand in the street corner and talk to people, make friends.

Looking at Black bird it's obvious that there was a lot of research about what people in Williamsburg, like, both the design (sort of a log cabin with French inspiration) and the menu were made to accommodate what people here already wanted and like.

Papermoon is empty almost all the time, both the design and menu are very foreign to the area (county cottage and meat loaf?!). When talking to the owner, I always got to hear about what's wrong with all the other restaurants in the area. He lives out of town and doesn't know most of the restaurants in Williamsburg.

There is so much to be learned form this. However what I really want to stress, with relations to my etsy store, is the importance of being a part of a community.

In a book about marketing called get back in the box by Douglas Roshkoff, the author describe a conversation he had with a client, the client wanted an advertising campaign that would be "less Saatchi and more craigslist".

What is the difference? the difference is that in a typical advertising campaign, the voice of one - the advertiser speak to many. One person or organization produce content and the viewers give that person their attention, later on, they might also give him their money in exchange of goods.

Craigslist, however, is a community based website, much like etsy, people who sell on it also buy on it, you can find yourself looking for a roommate one day, selling your old stereo the next. which means, that you are both the viewer and the advertiser.

This means there is a huge difference between advertising and online promoting. In advertising, all you do is create content for people to look at, in promoting, you become, much like the owner of blackbird - a part of your community. The difference is, that you don't just expect attention, you also give it. You become a persona in your own online world, not in order to sell a specific scarf you made, but in order to produce an online imprint who will generate attention and traffic to your store.

I know it sound strange, almost imperceivable, but a comment on someone else's blog may generate more traffic then a blog entry. Featuring another artist's work in your blog will also probably generate more traffic to both your blog and your store (first of all that person will want to read it and then probably will direct other people to read it, and feel more incline ot wrote about you in forums and blogs and so on).

A picture of your cute cat on flickr will probably generate more traffic into your flickr page and as a result, probably your etsy store then a photo of a scarf you made and a "check my profile for details" link. Reason being that a cute cat is more interesting and cute for people to look at then a scarf. A tutorial would probably get more then both, because it's also useful and interesting.

The goal of promotion, strangely enough is not to generate sales or traffic, but to generate attention and a large as possible web imprint that leads to you and to your store. not to attract "buyers" but to attract people, make friends and be known. And just like being active in conversation will make you more friends then just standing around - being active as both a viewer and an advertiser will be more effective then being just an advertiser.

Places to promote (again, make yourself a part of those communities, just throwing some pictures around once, doesn't help at all):

Flickr
We Love Etsy
IndiPublic
Cut out+ Keep
Trunkt (if you can get in, I haven't...)