Artsfarm's Page

The title here is a take-off on a late-19th century song title, and kind of illustrates how I've been feeling about a dilemma concerning my shop name/identity up until a few minutes ago when I finally settled it (I think LOL) I'm just about ready to add a 2nd shop on Etsy. I was waiting to see what the 'new and improved' site changes involved before spending more money on re-listing everything that's moving over to the new shop. The 'artsfarm' shop will keep the jewelry that's already there plus whatever art I produce from time to time, in any form. I will be making more paintings, assemblage, ACEOs etc and while I really like the shop to have a variety (and customers love it too), I don't want it to become unweildy. The new one will be my vintage merchandise and sewn items I make from vintage materials. It works because it makes more sense to the customer, plus I'm a member of the Vintage Street Team and one of the requirements is that at least 75% of your shop is true vintage and/or products made with vintage components. So this will work out well in that respect. But, coming up with a name for the new vintage shop has been making me nuts. I must have gone through 50 different names, versions and rewrites; wrote some down and looked at them a few days later only to toss them out anyway. The thing is, I've been using the name 'artsfarm' for 10 years now, and it's kind of got a life of its own at this point. It's on everything, everywhere; I use it for shows, e-mails, my website, etc and most people just call me that instead of my 'real' name. I don't want to lose that identity advantage; it fits anything art-related and that's cool. But--I'm already concerned that the vintage shop is going to lose business for several reasons: 1-As it stands now, I have a LOT of vintage items with many hearts and views and will lose them once I deactivate the listings to move them. This will cause me to basically start over like a new seller. 2-Whatever followers and repeat customers I do have won't find me. I know we're supposed to mention any sister shop in our shop announcements, but I know from experience that barely anyone reads the announcement, profiles or even entire item listings. 3-The new search function on Etsy will have vintage and supplies in a drop-down list underneath handmade, so a new customer will have to know to do this to find me. Again, I'm betting on less than half of new visitors to know instinctively to do this. Each extra click to do anything online is one less chance to be seen. So what to do? Like I said, I went through lists of name ideas and chucked them for being too cute, pretentious, boring, weird and more. Then I got an idea that was almost too simple: Adding something to 'artsfarm' that indicates the two shops are connected. I remembered places like "The Limited" adding "Too" as they expanded, and others like it. It seems to work for huge mega-chains, so I suppose it's proved its merit. So 'artsfarmtoo' it will be, it seems. I tried out 'artsfarm2'--boring and looks like an e-mail address; 'artsfarmII'-hard to explain to others and it looks like two lower-case "L"s. Using "too" indicates it's also me, or in addition to me. BONUS: I did a username search on Etsy on just 'arts' and got 10 pages with me about 1/2way down the first page, which is great. They're alphabetical so this new name will most likely end up right under the original one making the connection for buyers easy to make. While there, I was totally amused to see how many different versions of the phrase 'artsy-fartsy' people came up with LOL! As a side note, I had an antiques shop a while back called "Aesthetics and Old Lace" which I thought was extremely clever, being a play on the film title and I've always loved the word 'aesthetics'. The problem with that one was the surprising number of people who had no idea either what the word meant, nor knew about the movie. Oh well, you learn to adapt. Thoughts? -artsfarmtoo :-)

I've just started doing something that's very fulfilling, yet a bit intimdating in a good way. I had a bit of a revelation recently concerning job/income/what-am-I-doing-with-my-life. I've been mulling over the fact that I need to make a decent amount of money to live, but at the same time, would die inside if I had to work one more unfulfilling, soul-eating job. Much grinding of teeth, whining and ravelled nerves later, I realized I don't 'want' to make a living as an artist, I 'need' to. I'm focusing on art with the intention of it solely supporting me financially. I normally am able to keep things running by selling whatever I can to whoever will buy it, and this seems to work well because I've always had a feel for what people want. At every 'regular' retail job I had, I was able to predict what would sell and to whom, and this made my bosses very happy, but didn't get me anywhere. They got a buyer's brain at associate prices. After more than 30 years of this, I swore I'd never fall back into the trap. But, given the skyrocketing cost of living here in NY, it's nothing short of a miracle to get by on your own worth. But miracles do happen, and so here we go :-) The one thing I must figure out is that while I'm great at selling someone else's work/product, I stink at selling my own. This is something I really have to work on. After much purging of baggage, old thoughts and habits, plus many long productive talks and more than a little encouragement from a dear friend, I'm happy to say I decided to for it. Since then, the ideas and images have been flooding my head and are fighting for preference to be created. This is great beyond words, but where to start? And more importantly, do I know who will buy it? I can make the world's most profound statements with my work, but how do I get it in front of those who want it enough to take it home with them? This is something I'll be figuring out and watching from this point on, and I'll be sure to update as often as possible. I'm sure there will be some falling down and dusting off, and maybe even (shudder) getting a prt-time job to supplement, but I'm very tenacious and will do whatever it takes. One thing that's new to me is making art in 'production'. This is totally out of character for me, having always done everything as a one-off. It's a weird feeling, but not bad, really, because I'm going to compromise. The first item in this vein is ATCs/ACEOs (Art Cards). These are normally either one-offs or printed as an edition. The compromise I'm doing is making editions but doing them by hand. This will allow for tracking what is popular in the long term, but still satisfy my need to make art individual, and exclusive to a degree. It's a LOT more work than running something off on a printer but right now, it's do-able. I may have to change this at some point, but I'm sure I'll be drinking a LOT of coffee to get it done. I'm also getting back into painting, collage and assemblage, my first love. So that will allow me to offer original, full-scale art and also have the cards as a low-priced item. Before this, I'd not touched a brush in years and until yesterday when I made the first set of cards, had no idea if my paints were even good any more. But they were; it proves that it's worth it to buy the good stuff :-) So off I go, and will report back soon with what is hopefully some good news.

I'm very excited about something I just found. There is a great thread going on at Etsy, a serious, in-depth discussion on what is 'acceptable' in the world of art/craft and how the established, more mainstream side views the 'indie revolution', and vice-versa. It started yesterday as basically a simple question but is evolving into a thought-provoking exchange (my favorite kind!) and I think it definitely worth following. But there's more. Within the thread someone posted a link to a blog written by metalworker/Etsy seller imogeneAndannie. She attended a SNAG conference (Society of North American Goldsmiths) with intentions of reporting on it for the Storque, Etsy's online magazine. Her report focused on a presentation by Bruce Metcalf and Andrew Wagner of SNAG titled "DIY, Websites and Energy: The New Alternative Craft". Her post/report, and especially the comments following it, including Bruce Metcalf and Andrew Wagner, are a must-read. Especially entertaining are Metcalf's comments and his weak attempt at backpedalling :-) It illustrates as a whole, what we're all up against in the 'mainstream' and I think, what makes it all the more necessary to try to find a happy medium between the two. We're not so much working under the scrutiny of the public itself, but the institutions that feed the 'definition' of art/craft to that same public. "Grassroots" at its best :-) Check it out: HERE:

There's a thread asking a similar question going on over at Etsy right now, and I thought I'd toss it out here as well. By nature, artistic types tend to downplay their abilities and the value in them. I find too many people feel uncomfortable even using the word 'artist' to describe themselves, and this is something that, if one is to become 'successful' in any sense of the word, needs to be corrected. No amount of praise from peers, strangers or anyone else is going to do any good if we don't accept ourselves and believe in what we were meant to do. There has been a long-standing debate over what is 'really' art and whether anything other than 2D art is deserving of that title. The result is that any and everyone doing something other than painting, drawing, sculpture or printmaking is considered an artisan or (yikes!) a 'crafter'. Over the years, this opinion has evolved somewhat, but there are still plenty of purists who run shop, shows and galleries who stick to the idea that 'art' is 2D, and only in the traditional media. This denies a lot of people with a lot to offer the respect and attention they deserve. In reality, art is not a medium or techinique; it is a way of seeing; of seeing differently all things in one's own personal way, coupled with the need to express that view through their medium of choice. It's not something to hang on a wall to look pretty; it's communication, and the intense, insatiable need to express oneself. For years, my business card had my name on the top, with the word 'artiste' below it. This was my way of saying that's what I thought of myself because (for reasons I won't get into, but we all have our reasons) I didn't feel I was 'up to that level' yet. Once I got to where I was actually supporting myself through my work, at least in large part, I changed it to 'artist'. This seems a bit silly now, but at the time, it made sense. This was about 25 years ago and since then I don't use what I'm paid (or even IF I'm paid; I've done a ton of work gratis, just to get myself out there and make someone happy) as a gauge of my 'success'. Even though I haven't touched my brushes or drawing gear in ages (sad yes, but not tragic), I am comfortable with the label because I know what I am and even though I'm not actively working in the traditional methods, I'm still doing something that stretches my mind and hands. That's my take on it, what say you?