I now have a Patreon Page where you can follow my art more closely and be notified of opportunities to purchase or otherwise creatively help crowd-source various projects.
The writing below is a lengthier expression of how I began my career–and its various trajectories to date–for my more interested followers.
Thank you for reading, and for your support of my art.
(December 2022)
I am a multi-media visual artist and I would love to tell you how I started my business over thirty years ago. Most self-directed art careers begin with small steps, and mine is no different.
When my oldest son was born in May of 1989, I desired to stay home with him. I was doing remote clerical work from home at that point involving a monthly employee newsletter for Allstates Engineering Company in Newark, Delaware. Having previously worked full-time for this company in parts between 1986 and 1989, I was grateful that after the birth I was supplied with some type of ancient Word Processor (we did not own a computer) on which I could continue this one aspect of my previous duties from home.
While others filled my former on-site position, I felt both valued and grateful they made accommodations for me to still handle this task. Having worked extensively on my high school yearbook and newspaper, somehow my skills in photography, writing and the layout process involved seemed well-suited. And of all the clerical tasks I had performed, this was most rewarding!
How wonderful that for as long as I wanted to work part-time at this task – mostly from home except when needing to come on-site to take employee recognition award photos or to interview an employee selected for personal spotlight – it felt as though God showed me favor and provision during those first years after my son’s birth.
But, we needed more income, and I wanted more work. I liked work such as this – paid work that utilized my God-given (and developing) artistic talents that I would find both flexible and rewarding.
_____
I obtained a BS from the College of Human Resources at the University of Delaware in 1986 that technically represents a degree in Home Economics. The story behind how I obtained this degree in a major I technically never studied remains one of my most amusing stories to tell – but I will save that for some other day!
I had two years of art credits (basic drawing/design, various studio art/art history) and also a good amount of Spanish, education and community service-oriented and liberal arts/elective courses. Basically, I was not sure what I wanted to do and had considered everything from photojournalism to art education to full-time missions (and remaining single) to social work…to…what I actually really wanted most – to get married and raise a family.
I was no different from many college-educated women at that time, though most of us wouldn’t admit that a big part of college was the potential to get our “MRS.” Like many in my age bracket, we look at all the changes in society today and in the views of young adults and shake our heads at some things! All the while also observing and acknowledging the many changes (both for good and for not-so-good) since the mid-eighties that have led us to the current situations.
_____
I did get married in June of 1985, and my first full-time job was as kindergarten aid (1985-1986) in a Church of Christ Christian school in Newark, Delaware, that I had worked at part-time since my senior year of high school. I remember that year fondly and even got to use a bit of my Spanish to introduce the children to another language. But mostly, I just enjoyed the children and getting to do creative things with them and assist wherever needed.
From 1986-1987 I worked for Allstates Engineering Company. But since both my desires/skills lay elsewhere from clerical work (which I found tediously boring, though I was capable), I found myself gravitating back to the Christian School Enviornment. Nevertheless, I valued and retained what I learned in that position, still using many skills/principles of the office clerk in my own business today.
From 1987 to 1988 I was employed as pre-school teacher of the three-year-old class in the daycare of the Christian School in Newark. But then, from 1988 to 1989 I resumed working for Allstates Engineering Company, this time doing data entry in the purchasing department at DuPont’s Barley Mill Plaza site. I believe during this time period I was continuing to do the newsletter on the side – even while working at the school – though the years have faded the details on this!
_____
Stories. I love a good story. And the following, I consider both a telling and pivotal bridge into my art career.
This happened during the year I was at the Louviers site. While on lunch break, I shut my office door, spreading art paper, calligraphy tools, rulers and such on my desk, thinking I would work on something personal for my 30-45 minutes (while eating).
My boss came in to get something from a file cabinet. Glancing over my shoulder (while trying not to be nosey!) and expressing admiration of the work, he asked what I was doing that for. I explained I was hand-lettering a wedding invitation for a church friend. I vaguely recall he wondered if I intended to do each by hand, to which I replied they would be photocopied on to colored parchment paper with matching envelopes.
He said to me, “You would make a good entrepreneur!”
To which I responded, “What is an entrepreneur?!”
This word I had, apparently, not yet heard.
Or at least, had no prior reason to pay it any attention.
_________
As spring of 1989 unfolded and I considered maternity leave, and more, I found myself asking, “How might I be able to work from home and use my natural art skills and talents, that so energized me in positive ways?” To that point, the only time anyone had ever asked me to do creative, paid work for them was when I had designed that wedding invitation during my lunch break. That request came from a church friend at the Christian School, since she knew of both my art skills and had seen my own wedding invitation designed/printed in the same manner.
I had simply used my own, decoratively-fancy writing for these pieces.
But, after my son’s birth in May of 1989, I obtained calligraphy instructional materials and began self-teaching and perfecting a hand-script that might look professional. This initial self-teaching – deepening existing art skills/learning new ones – would soon become a repeated theme in the self-development of my art career.
With the goal of using my hands/talents while also earning money, the wedding/calligraphy market for addressing envelopes, creating photocopied note cards with scriptures or frame-able calligraphy, and craft items, seemed to be a good place for me to begin my exploration.
At first, I seemed to have support from a handful of church friends who would buy things here and there. They liked what I was doing, but more importantly, they were supportive of my personal efforts and desires.
As I think back on some of these folks, I am grateful for the encouraging confidence-building I gained through their sincere valuing and recognition of my God-given talents.
Equally significant, a wise friend eventually told me if I wanted to make this a true business, I needed to reach beyond my circle of friends.
She was absolutely right.
Anyone who has watched someone venture into the realm of working for themselves (perhaps selling their own products/services, but especially, selling products like Yankee Candles, Pampered Chef and such) understands that initially, business involves one’s friends. But sooner or later, one’s friends have enough of the products, as do the friends of friends, and so forth.
Sadly, huge promises are made by some companies that “You can work for yourself, from home” and make decent (or even impressive) salaries. When the reality of sales/marketing and more sinks in, many abandon their efforts. Some may stay with such pursuits for a number of years, but I find that most are not able (for one reason or another) to persist past six months-to-a-year.
There is a thought expressed in The Desiderata that says,
“Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.”
As a self-employed artist for over thirty years, this resonates with me. The idea that one’s skills and talents used in a self-directed career is their own possession is truly beyond true.
When one works for someone else, sometimes another possess their career. Their position is created in the realm of some other entity, and if that entity changes or ends, often one does not walk away retaining their career because the thing itself belonged not to them but to another.But for the entrepreneur, in a very real sense they set the terms for their own career. The ability to maintain and self-direct the interest, continued skill development and marketing needed in one’s own career, as well as the flexibilities, is what allows the long-term self-employed person to achieve both success and personal reward. It can be the thing that makes their career portable to other localities and the thing that permits the artist to retire on their own terms.
Never in my career have I seen this so clearly as during the pandemic in 2020.
I was recently divorced (for a second time) the end of 2019 and had returned north from Alabama to Delaware the end of January 2020. Eighty-percent of my business supplies/equipment and studio set-up was in storage. I had taken (what was intended to be) a very temporary living situation (anticipating 2-3 months maximum) while I awaited the logistics of finding/purchasing a property suited to my home-based business/career, with a target of Pennsylvania.
This state is where my oldest son now resides, and it seemed best to select a location there.
But the end of January 2020 found me in a small makeshift living area above a friend’s business. I had two rooms, a bathroom with only a shower stall, and a tiny cooking area with a counter and small fridge, but no real stove. This area was a break room, essentially, and not intended for any long-term living. I had a hot burner to cook on, and many stacked moving boxes stored there, too.
My remaining household contents, and more importantly, my extensive business property acquired slowly over thirty years, were stored partly in one friend’s barn and another friend’s large garage building, in yet another state.
I had with me four cats, and four litter boxes! Ha. Essential details.
- I had my computer, printers, matte cutter, easel, calligraphy supplies/watercolors/acrylic paints and makeshift work tables. Anything else I might need, I dug through boxes at times, to locate, if accessible at all.
- I had my bed, and, I had my phone! Ha.
- And it was on that phone one night while chatting with a friend that I heard of something called the Coronavirus. My friend updated me on what little was known around the end of February. She seemed very concerned, but I wasn’t sure what it meant.
- What it meant was that Pennsylvania would soon (essentially) shut down their real estate market until May of that year. I think of another property in York I considered and was about to make an offer on just prior to everything shutting down (including services related to the general stages of my particular situation, post-divorce). I think of the added difficulties we are all still sifting through post-pandemic, but, I also think with gratitude that I was eventually led to my current property in some round-about-way.
- What it meant was that the non-essential business below me would also close down during the quarrantine, and as one coming straight out of a divorce into some many emotional and other unknowns, I was additionally isolated.
- What it meant was that I was stuck there with four cats, some art stuff, and no real way to know when it would all end.
- What it meant was that I did not complete my property purchase until August of that year.
- What it meant was that I couldn’t easily reconnect with northern friends that if not for the continued covid issues, might have otherwise been able to ease my transition in the practical sense. While I did have needed help with the main moving of things to the property, a huge amount of what was both needed and desired to restore a sense of my own home and working studio fell to me, alone. I still feel I am endlessly trying to rebuild/recover a number of things and increasingly realize that some things – both personal and business-wise – may never be fully recovered. Time, aging and many changes (even to our economy) force me to sort through it all. And in part, that is why you are finding me here, on Patreon.
- What it meant for me is that my second divorce and anticipated business recovery and relocation was engulfed (at least partially) in a worldwide pandemic.
Like all of us, whatever was our personal challenge at that point, that thing became engulfed in the pandemic.
However, what it also meant for me were new opportunities.
During the quarantine I re-explored art forms such as collage. My previous mild interest was taken to new levels – and this is just one thing I will be featuring here in the times to come – as I shift amounts of art focus to creating/selling more original, non-commissioned works.
But, back to “never in my career have I seen so clearly the strength/upside of my entrepreneurial path as I did during the initial phase of the pandemic.”
Even now I say this with sorrow as I think how many small businesses so quickly went under during the situation. I think with sorrow how many in-person jobs were lost, likely never to rebound. It was horrifying/stunning as we all witnessed such major shifts in a number of things where we should rightly wonder, will there ever again be “business as usual?”
Many small, family-owned businesses lost a lifetime of investment in seemingly one fell swoop. These businesses – especially those that rely on the bulk of their cash flow later in the year – could not withstand the cost of storefront overhead during complete shut-downs in the early part of the year.
I found myself fortunate that I squeaked through this time, shifting my focus primarily to printing/shipping Etsy sales and creatinglisting new designs. It was this ability for me to shift-gears at my own discretion that helped me (and other such sole-proprietors who could quickly adapt) to at least tread water. The home-based business surely involves costs above basic home-needs, yet doesn’t touch the issues/costs involved in securing/renting other facilities suited to production/storefront sales.
OK, enough preaching toward the business end of art, and, the post-pandemic-factors we are all still navigating.
Let me rewind here back to 1989 through 2012 in the development of my career.
Over the years, as my young sons grew, so also did income needs. There were Little League fees, braces on teeth, need for non-hand-me-down-clothing, homeschooling costs, and more. I kept adding art services, always hoping for the next thing that would cause me to feel fully successful – the thing that would make me feel that both artistically and as businesswoman I had somehow arrived. Even today, this thing seems somewhat inherently elusive.
- At some point I began adding decorative borders/floral illustrations to calligraphy.
- At some point I began teaching art to homeschoolers.
- At some point I began teaching calligraphy classes. (I should note with amusement that I’ve never been fond of teaching calligraphy. Quite honestly, it isn’t a difficult skill to learn and I feared I’d teach someone who would then compete with me for work!)
In no exact sequence…
- At some point I began doing murals.
- At some point I began preserving wedding bouquets.
- At some point I began painting watercolor florals.
- At some point I began painting house portraits.
- At some point I began painting portraits of children…and then, portraits of adults.
- At that point, I figured, “Oh why not paint a dog, or a cat…for that matter!”
- At some point, someone asked me to paint flowers on a matted wedding invitation. Eventually, another asked me to paint the wedding venue. Seemingly suddenly, yet another client (seeing these examples) asked me to paint a portrait of the couple, the wedding venue, and a bunch of flowers!
But one of the most pivotal milestones of add-ons to my “1989-let’s-do-calligraphy-gig” came in 1997.
While at the beach, we splurged to have caricatures drawn of our young sons.
We were in Beach Haven on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, where my first mother-in-law had a beach house that my boys were half-raised at every summer until my divorce in 2005 (the old Cape Cod shore house was sold/torn down soon after).
I watched with fascination – having been drawn to portrait art/faces even back to late high school days – how this young artist so methodically and quickly approached each drawing. It reminded me of the methodical approach that calligraphy involves, and I inquired how he had learned this skill.
It appeared to me he was earning a lot of money at this and I thought to myself,
“I bet I could do THAT, too.”
Shortly thereafter I found myself tracking down the video course he recommended, practicing on church friends after home-group meetings, and setting up easel during summer of 1997’s large family reunion at my first father-in-law’s place in Manteo, on the Outer Banks. Sometimes I find remains of my first attempts at caricature and think how encouraging people were of my far-less-than-perfect early attempts!
Practice does make perfect, as they say.
And…
At some point, I showed up for my first paid caricature gig.
If my memory serves me correctly, somehow (likely from paid advertising in the now-antiquated Wilmington, Delaware yellow pages) I was hired to draw at a corporate Christmas party. It was quite nerve-racking and terrifying! Let’s just say, there was alcohol involved and I lacked both confidence and every other skill in “said situation!”
Again, I love the good story.
Half-or-fully-intoxicated employees at a huge event such as that (I still recall the impressions of the facility, possibly at the then new Riverfront in Wilmington, Delaware, and the loud music/lines of people waiting for “just me” to draw them) tend to be truthful!
I was not doing the front-view caricature, and barely competent in the profile-view. I using a pencil to first sketch their profile, then adding marker, then erasing the pencil!
I would finish and show each drawing, hoping to please and receive even meekly-weak affirmation! At one point, someone was laughing, but not in a good way! He and co-workers were finding amusement in comparing drawings. Over-hearing their joking how little they felt it resembled them made me uncomfortable! I felt so embarrassed, and hoped I’d make it through the gig without crying. With each drawing I felt less confident, and in turn, that affected my expected interactions in that party atmosphere.
This experience did its work, however. I didn’t abandon my pursuit of caricature drawing, but double-downed on my practice. Then, about two years later after doing handfuls of proms/events drawing only profile-caricatures, I found myself hired (for the first time) to work alongside another caricature artist at a gig in Bellevue State Park, Wilmington, Delaware.
As I watched her set up her easel, I asked (in fear!)…the dreaded question:
“Are you going to be doing front-views?”
What a silly question! I know of no professional caricature artists who specialize in the profile. I only started with it because the front view involves so much more. It’s always nice to make someone’s two eyes in proportion, for example. Or, to indicate the length and shape of their nose straight-on!
Of course, this other well-respected caricature artist was about to do front views!
And I knew what that would mean.
- It would mean people went to her line instead of mine.
- It meant I would feel out-of-my-element, or less-than, as an artist.
- It meant…it meant…
It meant that I told her straight-up!
“I can’t do the front view, live…but I’ve been trying to learn and practice it.”
It meant that she was so very encouraging and understanding!
As fellow artists we chatted a few minutes and she told me, “Just go for it.”
She said if I felt reasonably comfortable I could get a likeness – even though I’d need to lightly pencil sketch first – that there was no better time than that day to just take the plunge…
I dove in that day and was surprised to find it wasn’t as fearful as I anticipated, and people were pleased. This happened around 2003. I pause a moment to honor this special memory with my old-caricature-friend, artist Emily Byrne. After that first meeting, for a number of years she and I would find ourselves working together at various gigs. She opened doors for me in various ways, and I remember with fondness a few late night after-prom events in Wilmington, Delaware that were typically until one or two a.m.
This past May I did my first after-prom gig since being back north (and since pandemic restrictions have eased up) at a high school in Radnor, Pennsylvania. As I walked in, I remembered with bittersweetness other regular prom gigs in Birmingham, Alabama between 2012 and 2019, or from those years in Delaware when I was a single mom, trying my best to provide for my sons. I was working that night with another caricature artist from near Allentown, and she and I had a wonderful time together.
Though I am still a late night owl, somehow, I wasn’t as confident in how I would hold up drawing these excited teenagers in sprawling hallways of activities party atmosphere until 2 a.m…. I did it, but acknowledged that my days of seeking out this kind of thing may be (somewhat) behind me! And that is another reason, you find yourself reading this here, on Patreon.
But, let me rewind just a bit here back to my “next-step-up” caricature plunge which would occur in the deep south, at the Nashville Zoo to be specific, somewhere around 2013.
It was ten years later I had perfected the front-view caricature but still relied on an ever-lessening-in-detail preliminary pencil sketch. I was working alongside a much younger artist (oh they all get younger and younger!) named Matthew Cox. During my eight years in the south I found myself booked a number of times through agents, or directly, for gigs with Matthew. I lived in Alabama and he was based in Nashville, and I respected his work, style and talents!
That day at the zoo, the lines were heavy. After a bit of consultation with him, I said, “I’m going to abandon my pencil sketch and use the direct, non-erasable black marker!” I likely joked, “I’m not sure what will happen, but I can probably do four more people per hour that way!”
Actually, I recall jumping from eight per hour to sixteen, that day! Not only did I lose the pencil pre-sketch from there on out, I also lost (at least that day) any fear of handing someone a very quick, likely imperfect drawing, when situations dictated such need! I recall it was a wild situation, in terms of caricature lines…no pun intended.
Again, encouragement came from a fellow artist along the lines of… “Go for it!”
In many ways, I stand today at yet other crossroads.
I didn’t get to where I am today, career-wise, by backing down from the need/desire to just “Go for it.”
Increasing age, developing arthritis (still thankfully in somewhat mild but significant stage), a developing cataract, recovering from a second divorce both personally/professionally, relocation, pandemic/globalization-related economy changes, and much more, is prompting me to re-think aspects of my business and especially, the focus and nature of my art, going forward.
And that is why, if you have read this far, I hope that you may find yourself inclined to follow me on Patreon.
New directions require new approaches.
Given the many years of both material investment into my career, and skill-development, I believe I should be at the stage where I can aim toward de-emphasizing some types of art/services and emphasizing others.
Yet, how to do this. If you’ve read this far, the theme of expansion should leap out. Yet, even while I seem to keep expanding in new (or at least different) ways, I wonder to myself how the days yet ahead will look for me, both artistically, personally and financially. Yes, as much as I wish and do “art for art’s sake,” like every other person, I have bills to pay in order to be able to keep creating the same things (and more) that I always have been doing.
It seems to be the end goal (to keep creating, and keep adding the beauty that I personally can add to the world) in some ways; I’m not so sure that is such a bad thing.
Historically, the idea of the starving artist is an indelible truth. And in our current, globalized world, not only is this increasingly true but there are startling forms of technology capable of creating synthetic art that we can look at while eating synthetic food, while listening to synthetic music – all while watching synthetic reality shows and simultaneously managing synthetic relationships on our devices.
If I didn’t view the creation of art and all human expression as both sacred and of God-given meaning and importance by Our Creator, I would be discouraged into believing that art itself will someday become extinct.
I find that most of my clients are like myself. In that, if I were to seek my own services elsewhere, it would be a sacrifice to pay for their true value. Yet, somehow I keep connecting with those who love what I do as much as I love what I do, and, they want it. And for that, I remain grateful to both God’s faithfulness and to those who are patrons of my fine art, products and/or services.
I intend to keep creating, and keep seeking ways that will permit what I have to offer in the realms of both art and writing, to expand, rather than to diminish. I intend to venture even deeper, especially into out-of-the-box ideas to sell original works, thus permitting me to keep the flow of them coming. I intend to do more self-publishing of illustrated children’s books, and other writings.
I have always maintained that I will never retire. Why would I retire from something I love so much? While I don’t have the energy I had twenty years ago, I still have a lot! Therefore I will think about the coming years as I soon move into my sixties in new ways – many which proceed from my now well-seasoned faith, values, and human experiences.
As I think of various projects I would like to tackle, or items for sale or raffle, I will feature them here. As always, I am grateful for commissions, any form of personal encouragement, and other financial patronage. The idea of crowd-sourcing particular projects (offsetting costs of advertising/web design, an amount of sub-contracted clerical/studio/Etsy help) has been one I was introduced to by younger people.
There seem to be a number of ways to get involved here to partner with me in my ongoing work, ranging from pledging a small amount that might technically be named to “buy me a cup of coffee” each month (though ultimately it helps me keep moving forward in art and is likely not spent at Starbucks!) that simply says, “I really like what you are doing and want to see it continue,” to ideas of various incentives, raffling of original art, or pre-funding a particular project.
For example, I have an amount of long-term clients I can count on to order a few of my personalized wedding products per year. One idea might be for them to pledge a monthly amount that would come as regular, even income and earn them a credit of 1.5 the amount of the pledge, to be available quarterly to redeem a wedding gift or other similar personalized gift product (for baby showers, and more).
All this will take work on my end to present as options, but the for step in just “Go for it” is creating this page, and letting others know of the opportunities for following/reading/partnering. While it will not substitute for my occasional emailed newsletter, it is definitely the best place for my clients, friends and family to connect with my art.
Patreon seems to be to the contemporary arts what the Roman Catholic Church was to the arts during the Renaissance, in particular. Or, what Theo was to his brother, Vincent. The idea is not new, it is just re-named/re-formed in our current age of online globalization.
And with this, I say…
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for subscribing to My Patreon.
Thank you for following.
Thank you for partnering with me.
Thank you for sharing with others that may have interest.
Thank you, and, stay tuned for more…
