Business Notes

     I've been taking a business for Artist class at MICA and it's making me seriously see my jennyjen future! I've been working so hard on growing and finding its path. I have been waiting a bit for the end of my teaching career to come close and this is year 29! So this is the time to focus, plan, refine.... Ready, set, go!!!!

So it's time !  Growth  I have seen so far: doubling my profits and marketing strategies , more wholesale accounts,as well as some pertinent accolades : finalist status in Martha Stewart's American Made Contest two years in a row ! (More on that  in a later post.)

  On my walk yesterday I worked out, what I thought was a problem, two sides/ aesthetics of my products: felt appliqué that illustrates my sense of color and shape, and freehand machine stitch drawings that highlight my sense of line, detail and rendered form. 

    My walks are my thinking time, my time to visit my inner thoughts and memories. As a kid I loved my time playing in the woods and walking my favorite paths and trails. They knew my stories and secrets then, and now. My childhood self and my adult self. And both are major influences on my art. I had a "that's it" moment yesterday. And made these visual notes. 

So, felt appliqué for my inner kid, and freehand drawn for my skilled adult self. 

  Both make sense and connect to how I operate everyday. The felt appliqué shapes started as a memory of cutting out shapes from construction paper to make art. The drawn lines became more sophiscated and refined as I grew up as an artist. Combining the two are the happy marriage in most of my work. Therefore my problem really isn't a problem but a solution. I am my art. As it should be!