Why I love ArtFire

This just seemed to be a good day for this post. How do I love thee, ArtFire? Let me count the ways. ArtFire is a wonderful site for artisans to create their own studio and be in charge of their own success. Tony and the rest of the admins give us tons of information about understanding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to make it work. Because of what I learned on ArtFire I can look at my Google Analytics page and understand exactly what I did or didn't do and how that effected my views and sales. There are tutorials and workshops that help us figure this whole crazy SEO thing out. There are posts on the Panda slap (if you don't know what that is, it's Google's new search algorithm) and how to slap back. Tony posts the current list of the top 100 keywords. This is helpful because if your items fit into one of the categories described by those keywords, then you know what words to use in your item titles to get them found.

There is another group that makes ArtFire worth it. There is a group of people on ArtFire that makes themselves available on a daily basis for mentoring, support, constructive criticism, and dancing kitties when you make your first sale. Some of these folks are known as Fire Mentors and Mavens. But not all of them belong to these 2 groups. Mostly they are just people who want us to succeed. We all win when we all win. When sellers help each other we all win by bringing more traffic to the site. We support each other by promoting each other's work. It is a happy and supportive environment. And out of all the sites I sell on, ArtFire is without a doubt my favorite. I feel like the more I support ArtFire and help it grow, the more it will do the same for me. It is truly a cooperative in the truest sense of the word.

So those are just a few of the reasons that I love ArtFire. I would suggest that you go check out some of the wonderful shops over there. You will find beautiful handmade items and a seriously supportive atmosphere. I hope you end up loving ArtFire and it's family of admins and artisans as much as I do.

ArtFire

Life is getting busy!

So a lot has happened in the last week. I got the part time job I applied for! It is in a photo lab about two blocks from my house. I think it's funny how I've gone full circle. One of my first jobs when I moved to Texas 8 years ago was in a photo lab. I was recruited from there and started my long exhausting journey into retail management. I actually loved working in the photo lab. I loved the details in processing film, digital imaging, and printing photos. I also enjoyed sharing those happy memories with my customers. It doesn't pay much. But I just need a supplemental income to fall back on until sales start growing.

And now for the super exciting news that is causing my life to be busy....I have been contacted to create custom designs for someone. It makes me really happy that someone sees value in my art. I'll be busy for the next few days creating designs. Once everything is settled and the art finished I'll post a link for you all to see the final product.

I am also working on 2 new lines of designs for Zazzle products. And I'm still considering listing a few things on Etsy. I'm interested in how my keywords and tags will work on Etsy with their new relevancy search. If nothing else it might give me some insight into changes I can make to my seo on ArtFire.

So that's it for now. I've got lots to do and less time to do it. Have a happy day everyone!  :-)

Newest strategy

So I still have a million things to do to improve and promote my ArtFire studio, but I also want to diversify a bit. I considered Etsy, but I really would rather not have to pay to list. I suppose I could list one thing every other day and it works out to $3 a month. I have several reservations regarding Etsy. They have made several changes recently. Personally, I think most of them make sense from an outsider's perspective. But the forums are full of people screaming. Although that is not unusual. I mostly just worry about the lack of communication from the administration. ArtFire is so awesome about communicating with us. I guess I got spoiled. :-)

So my latest strategy is Zazzle. For those of you unfamiliar with Zazzle, it is a website that allows the seller to design customizable products using their own designs. I have already designed a few products. The coolest, in my mind anyway, are 2 really cool pairs of Keds. That's right, I designed sneakers! I would post a link to them, but they have to be approved before they are released for public view. I spent most of yesterday creating new designs based on my style of art that would work better on more products. I am just getting started, but I can see that with intense promoting, Zazzle could easily produce a decent income stream. The best part is that all the shipping and production are done by Zazzle. All I do is create art, design products, and promote. So check it out:

My Zazzle store

I'll be adding new products on a fairly regular basis. It is pretty time consuming. I think a realistic goal is 2 new products each day. That leaves me with time for creating art and promotion for Zazzle and Artfire. Plus I am still selling on ebay which takes up a good chunk of my day on Sunday.

All in all, I feel good about the direction my business is taking. I'm trying to carefully weigh my options and make choices based on activities I can actually fully commit to. It doesn't do me any good to sign up for 50 stores or sites and not be able to put in the time at any of them. I think it's much more productive to commit to a couple sites and really work my you know what off to promote them.

So that's what new in the life of The Artist Michelle. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week! :-)

Michelle

ArtFire Studio Heating Up!

I am happy to report I have had 5 more sales on ArtFire since my last post! And I finally managed to get my ArtFire studio banner working ------------->  Yay! And I have curated my first collection on ArtFire. http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=26108 This collection is a small token of my heartfelt thanks to some of the lovely artisans on ArtFire that have helped me with words of wisdom and encouragement. I have belonged to many online communities in the past decade or so. And I can honestly say that the ArtFire community is without a doubt the most helpful and supportive community out there.

The best part of this community is that having none of the censorship and heavy handed policies that other forums have in place has in fact created the type of community the other sites wish they had. Sure, once in a while someone feels the need to vent. We all have those days sometimes. But instead of the "feeding the troll" attitudes I've seen elsewhere, this community tries to empathize with the poster and remain supportive. They offer sympathy and words of advice. The "kill them with kindness" theory of community management seems to work amazingly well.

So my unsolicited advice for the day is this; if you are looking to sell your handmade wares online, and have no idea how to start, check out ArtFire. There you will find a truly supportive community of artisans and admins that really want you to succeed. If you decide to join I would check out the 45 day guide, the help guide index, and the business talk sections on the forum first. Just these 3 sections will probably answer any questions you may have about listing, SEO, taking great photos, pricing your items, and anything else you might need help with.

Referral link for 3rd month free on ArtFire.

Thank you all and I look forward to seeing you over on ArtFire and checking out your art!

WOOT! I sold my first painting on Artfire!

I can't tell you how happy this makes me. It really isn't about the money. For me, it's about another person finding value in my art. I am blissfully happy right now. :-)

What I need everyone who wishes they could do this....quit their job....sell their art....to know is...you can! Trust me when I say that I know how hard it is to have confidence in your art. You think to yourself, "What if I'm just a hack? Maybe I have no actual talent. What if people just point and laugh?" I have had all these self defeating thoughts and more. But you seriously need to let it go and think about how much creating art makes you happy. If making it makes you that happy, there are bound to be people out there that are happy looking at your art. And there are people who want to take that happy feeling and have it in their home.

There is no "right time"! There is only today! You matter! Your art matters! I'm not saying you should all go out and quit your jobs. But somehow you need to make the time to work on your art. Only you can make it happen. I believe in you. Now you only have to believe in yourself.

Be The Artist!

Up Before the Early Birds

Good morning! It is currently 6:20 am and I have been up for 3 hours already. I tried to go back to sleep but my Ninja kitten decided it was time for me to get up and play. So I admitted defeat and made a pot of coffee. Ninja played for about 5 minutes and was ready for a nap. So she's sound asleep and here I sit. But I put the time to good use. I got my new Zibbet store set up.  http://www.zibbet.com/TheArtistMichelle I got the banner for my Zibbet store working in the side bar over there --------> But for some reason I still can't get my ArtFire banner to work. I'll keep working on it.

Seriously though, if I don't spend several hours today taking pictures of my other finished pieces, the world is going to think I only have 7 drawings done. I have several paintings ready to go, plus crochet bags, and paper stars. I'll post some pictures here hopefully this afternoon.

I've been reading a lot about SEO and it is confusing as all heck! I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent person. Even a bit of a nerd. But when I start reading about links and keywords my brain starts to turn to ooze. I mean, I get the concept easily enough. But all the info seems to contradict itself and seems a bit impossible. For instance, I read that duplicate titles are bad. But how many different ways are there to describe my drawings? Then one person says I should be using the highest searched keywords. But someone else said not to use the highest because everyone else is using those same words, so my item could get buried.   I guess the best way to figure it out is to keep changing things up and testing different things. But even then I'm not sure I'll be able to figure out why one listing has many views and another has no views.

My job hunt is progressing slowly. But to be honest, I'm not really trying very hard. My silly ex-job paid me my vacation time and sick time, so I have a couple more weeks before I need to be worried. I did find a possible job that doesn't sound too horrible. lol I should be getting a call back on Monday so I'll keep you updated. The original job I applied for didn't work out. Which is probably good since it was a full time position. The fewer hours, the better as far as I'm concerned. :-)

It's starting to get light outside so I need to go start setting up to take pics of my stuff. Have a great day everyone!

ArtFire Up and Running!

So I got the scanner working on Eric's computer and figured out the max resolution I can use for images. I have 7 pieces listed so far. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it gave me the opportunity to practice with the listing tools and figuring out images. I still need to read through all the help guides so I can understand how SEO works. I think I have good titles, but I also remember something about duplicate listings. I don't know how different they have to be in order to be found by search engines. And how different can I really make them while still getting all the keywords in the titles? It's a tad confusing, lol. And I can't figure out how to get the banner link to work on here. I guess I need to read some more. Have a happy day!  :-)

I can't figure out the banners but I think I can get a link to my studio page to work. Cross your fingers and click:

http://www.artfire.com/users/TheArtistMichelle

What day is it?

I find that being unemployed creates a type of temporal displacement when it comes to remembering what day of the week it is. I have absolutely no need to know what day it is. Well, I need to know when it's Sunday because that's the day my ebay auctions end. But other than that...I really don't have an overwhelming desire to know what day it is. And you know what? It feels great! I haven't worn my watch for a week. I have no place to be. No conference calls, schedules to write, feedback to deliver....this is the best!

Of course, there's the bit of irony that greeted me when I went to check my auctions this morning. I started a few new accounts in order to keep things like art and random items separate. Even though I followed all the rules and connected them to my primary account, they have limited my selling because I have multiple accounts. Ebay even has a page on their site talking about how having multiple accounts can be beneficial. Yet they seem to punish you for having them. Weird. So I thought ok, no big deal, I'll just cancel the new accounts and be done with it. It's not like I sell that much on my primary account anyway. Except it takes 180 days to cancel an account. LOL. I know they do that in order to prevent fraud. But it seems like there should be an easier way to deal with these things.

I had also decided to start selling my art seriously on Artfire. Full blown listing and promoting. I chose ArtFire because you don't pay anything to list with a basic account. Well this morning I read on the site that they are doing away with the basic accounts for selling. August 16th all basic accounts will be buying only accounts. So I'm going to spend the next month listing everything and setting up as much as possible. Then on the 15th I can upgrade to pro and receive a 30 day free trial. This will give me almost 2 free months to get started. At that point if my business can't afford 10 dollars a month, I think I'm in big trouble. At the very least my ebay sales should cover the 10 dollars until my ArtFire sales pick up.

Ok folks, I'm off to the races. I'm filling out lots of online applications today. I'm applying for all kinds of jobs and letting the Universe decide which one is the right one. I really wanted my last job and that didn't turn out so well. As my friend Laura always says, you can't be dependent on the outcome. In other words, let go and trust the Universe to show you the way.

Happy whatever day it is!

Life after the silly job.

Ok, so I had a first phone interview with the place I applied to the other day. It went well so I am hopeful they will call me back. It's a full time position, but even working 40 hours a week frees up about 20 to 25 hours over the silly job I had. I am still applying to other places just in case.

Yesterday we downgraded a bunch of accounts for a total savings of about $135 a month. Plus I should be saving about $200 a month in gas since I'm no longer commuting up to 2 hours a day. Yay! No more traffic jams! I'm also listing a bunch of stuff on ebay and Artfire this weekend. Hopefully I'll have a few sales. I'm selling some DVDs and video games, plus some coins I got at a garage sale a few weeks ago, and of course my art. Although the summer is usually very slow sales wise for art.

I have a list of things to do today so I guess I better wrap this up and get to work. Have a great day everyone!

Umm...so I quit my silly job today....

I know...I should have had another job lined up or else had a significant savings account before quitting my job. But seriously, it just got to be too much. My district manager showed up today and something just told me today was the day. She told me she knew I had not been engaged for a while now. So this came as no surprise to her. And here I thought I'd been hiding it so well. But I leave with a good recommendation. So I guess I can't ask for more than that.

So now what? I am looking for an hourly position, preferably part time. I need to find one soon, but I almost hope I don't. I need time to work on my business plan and get things going. But I also need to pay the rent in 2 weeks, lol.

I applied for a job and have gotten a call back from them so I might be ok. I should probably apply at a couple of different places tomorrow just in case. I'll report back tomorrow and let you know how it goes. Wish me luck! :-)

Imminent Hard Disk Failure!

So...the next hurdle in the ongoing set of challenges that is my life. Last week my computer was nice enough to give me a message stating that my hard drive was about to fail. *sigh* So I backed up my hard drive and tried to  revert back to a preset system restore point. Got another message about imminent hard disk failure. So I start searching my apartment for the recovery disk that came with my laptop. Of course I can't find it anywhere. So I use Eric's computer to search online for diagnostic info. I find the directions for resetting back to factory settings. A pain, but well worth it to fix the problem. So I spend 4 hours of my last day off attempting to wipe my hard drive. By 4:30pm I am finally restored, reconfigured, and updated. I restart the computer....and immediately receive the message that my hard drive is about to fail. *ARGH*

The rest of the day is spent moping and being frustrated.

I'm working every day until Sunday. Although I'll be home by about 5pm on Saturday. So I guess I'll spend Saturday evening trying to figure out how the warranty on my laptop works. Hopefully, I can take it somewhere local and not have to send it somewhere.

As I'm trying to be more optimistic and positive, I've been trying to look on the bright side of things. The laptop issue has forced me to be still and just think about things. I've come up with some new ideas for income streams and new project ideas. I also came up with some ideas for articles and blog posts. So all in all, my lack of computer time has not been wasted.

The next step will be to get Eric's computer set up so I can list actions on Sunday. I need to connect my camera and printer to Eric's computer so I can load pictures and scan items. I also need to list some items on Artfire and Etsy. Plus I still need to figure out how to get high resolution images for Redbubble and Zazzle. I'm going to check with Kinkos about high res scans. I've heard they can save high res scans to a disk which might work.

So that's what's happening this week in the land of worker bee turned entrepreneur. Have a happy week everyone.

Day 5 of 6...

So my silly job just keeps getting sillier. I really don't think I'm suited for this job. I'm working 6 days this week. 4 out of the 6 are 13 hour days if you add my commute time. Roughly 67 hours this week devoted to someone else's business. :-( Think what I could accomplish spending 67 hours devoted to my own business.

I took an online quiz this morning. The results showed that I need to quit my job soon. LOL! No kidding. Then I stumbled upon a website where a woman told the story about how she quit her management job to follow her dreams. Hmmm. Think the universe is trying to tell me something?

So tomorrow I actually get to leave work at a reasonable hour. I'm off Sunday and Tuesday this next week. So Sunday I will have auctions ending and new auctions listed. Tuesday will be about making and finding new items to sell and working on other business ideas. At this point I'm making more money with my random non art items than I am my art. But I'm not going to stop trying. At some point I'll figure it all out and be able to use my creativity to support myself. Until then I'll just keep trying new things. Have a happy 4th of July weekend everyone! :-)

Today...

Happy Sunday everybody!

At home today working on my art and getting ready to list some new pieces on ebay. I have 5 pieces ending today and will be listing a few more tonight for next week.

Art auctions ending today

As part of my "escape my silly job" campaign, I have started a few new ebay IDs to sell some of the more mundane items I have around the house. One for just random items and one for the holiday items I make. At first I'll probably have to buy a few things in order to get some feedback. People don't like to buy things from newbies. So that's my latest strategy to replace my silly job income. I'm working on a few other ideas, but they'll take more time to set up.

My intent is to try and highlight the different things you can do to escape your own silly job and follow your dreams. I'll keep you updated on what's working for me and what's not worth the time involved.

Friday I made a list of all our expenses and what we could do to cut back. One goal I have is to pay off my car in the next few months. That will free up about $300 a month between car payment and downgrading to liability only insurance. Our car is at the point where if something happens they'll just total it out. So there's not much point in full coverage anymore.

We also looked at a couple of our bills, like cable, and talked about what we "need" versus what we want. Currently, our cable/internet bill is about $220 a month. I know...everybody gasps and shakes their heads when they hear that number. But we really don't have any other entertainment expense. We don't go out so we bring the entertainment to us. But we also don't really need the movie channels. Another part of our entertainment expenses is Netflix. We have the $35 dollar plan which gives us 3 dvds at a time. But we almost exclusively use the streaming feature. So we're going to downgrade to the $9 a month plan. This still allows us 1 dvd if we want and all the streaming rights. The trick here is to cut back on spending without having to give up the things that are important to you.

After all of our budget cuts we will be saving $617 a month, or $7404 a year. That takes our income requirement down to $305 a week from $460 a week. Think about that...$305 a week. Between Eric and I, if we can't figure out how to generate $300 a week, we're in big trouble. My plan is to work no more than 2 days a week at a "job". All other income will be generated by working for ourselves. That's the plan anyway. :-)

Ok, I've rambled on long enough. It's time for me to get back to work. Have a great day everybody. Maybe take a bit of time today to make a list of how you could trim some fat from the family budget. You'll be surprised by how much you can do without, without really changing how you live.

TGIF...Seriously!

This week my silly job has been especially challenging. I won't go into all the mundane details, but let's just say it involved me going in at 5am three days in a row...and then working for 10 or more hours. And there is still more to do. I really could have gone in today and worked some more, but I think I might collapse if I don't take a day off. I really don't mind hard work. It makes the time go faster. But this week I'm dealing with a sinus infection, a strained back muscle, sore knees, and general exhaustion. So I'm taking the day off and working on art all day.

I have new art listed on ebay. It ends this Sunday evening around 6pm. I have a few watchers, so hopefully I get some bids. Between the economy and it being the summer, there isn't a lot of art selling right now. I feel good that I at least have people looking at my art. I'm also selling some comic books I bought in a large lot and 2 snow globes for Eric's mom. I decided if I'm going to eventually quit my silly job, I should probably diversify my auctions. Not putting all my eggs in one basket sort of thing.

Besides working on art I'm going to spend some time today really looking at my finances and the minimum amount of income I need to survive. I also need to spend some time researching some other income ideas I have. I need a clear picture of what I need and how I'm going to get it. I need a strict but sensible plan. Next time I'll hopefully be able to share some of the specifics of my plan.

So I'm off to work...the good kind, not my silly job  :-)  I'll post again Sunday. Have a great day!

http://shop.ebay.com/photolabspaz/m.html?_adv=1&_dmd=1&_in_kw=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1

Why can't things be easy?

So last night Eric found a site where I could upload my art and people could buy prints and t-shirts, greeting cards, etc. So I opened an account and decided I would get up early so I could start uploading pics before going off to my silly job. So here I sit, coffee by my side, all ready to get serious about this and guess what....it would appear that the image size required by ebay is smaller than the image size required to create prints and other products from my art. So what does this mean? I have to re-scan every single piece. *sigh* Why couldn't it just be easy? lol

Oh well, I guess I know what I'm doing when I get home from my silly job tonight. And I'm off tomorrow, so I should have time to get them all scanned. Of course it would be nice to actually have time to work on some art. :-) But enough whining for today. Once I get everything scanned and uploaded it should be pretty cool. And artists get discounts on their own art so I think I'm going to order some greeting cards of my art to send to friends and family. Should be cool and a good way to promote my art.

I guess it's time to go get ready for work. As soon as I get everything scanned and uploaded I'll post a link and let you know how it went. Have a happy day!  :-)

PS:
I'm adding this on Sunday 6/12/11. I didn't want to start another whiny post, lol, but I'm still having problems with images. I put the finishing touches on 2 paintings this morning, got all my stuff organized, and got ready to start scanning my images. Guess what...scanner isn't working. Apparently when color ink is low, scanner doesn't work. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but you know they have to program the printer to do that, right? There is no legitimate reason to not scan if the printer is out of ink. Even if I was trying to scan so I could immediately print, why wouldn't it show the error message at the printing stage? Argh! Eric has the car today so it's not like I can run out and grab some ink. And my next day off is Friday. These are the types of situations that occur when trying to work from home. I guess the lesson here is to stock up on office supplies the next time I get a coupon or there's a good sale. Instead of scanning I'll go try to take some decent pictures of my paintings. Happy Sunday, everyone! And GO MAVS!!!! :-)

Good afternoon! Process part two.

Good afternoon everyone. This post is a bit later than I had anticipated. I had to take my car in for new brakes this morning. I got home a couple hours ago and finished up the last few details and pictures of my latest painting. So without further ado:

Once I have the base color of the design in place I find a coordinating, darker color to add shadows. I mix this color with the Golden glass bead medium and apply to the larger shadow areas. This adds shadow and texture all at the same time. In this painting, because the base color was orange I mixed red with a touch of the orange to create the deeper orange shadow color.

I let that dry for a few minutes so I'm able to go back over it without moving the glass beads around. Once it is stable I drybrush over the beaded area with the base coat. By just brushing the tips of the raised area with the orange, it gives another layer of dimension and depth. Because of the flash it might be hard to see the difference. But trust me, it makes a big difference. By brushing the orange over the reddish orange areas it blends the two together.

The next step is to go in with a lighter yellow in the highlight areas. This gives the piece a more dimensional, rounder feel to the branches. 

And finally I go back in with a 3/0 round brush (very tiny) and lay in some white high highlights. This adds that extra pop to the piece.

After that I go back over the piece with a fine tooth comb looking for any areas that need a bit more highlight or shadow and finally sign the piece. 

One thing to keep in mind, is that any frame will cover the outside edge of the piece by 1/4 of an inch. So don't sign your piece in the very corner. You want people to see the artist's name after it's framed. Don't be afraid to bring your sig up and in a bit to accommodate for that 1/4 of an inch. 

So there you have it. My complete process for creating a painting. My drawings are very similar but with different materials. Maybe I'll document that process when I start working on drawings again. This is kind of fun.  :-)Thanks for your interest. Have a happy day.

Good Morning....*yawn*

So I was woken up this morning to the soothing sounds of the EAS emergency broadcast signal. At least now I know if the apocalypse happens while I'm asleep, EAS will wake me up. :-) Since I'm up I thought I would write a new post.

My friend Joe told me I should write a post detailing my process. I have been taking photos at various stages of my newest painting. This should give you an idea of how one of my paintings comes to life.

Way back when I started painting I built my own stretcher bars and stretched my own canvas. Then when I got this job I was able to buy good quality pre-stretched canvases. But now I've moved on to what I think is the best thing for my art; canvas panels. The nice thing about canvas panels is that they are less expensive to ship and they are much easier to frame. They come in the same standard sizes ready-made frames do, so the owner can pop out the glass, pop in the art, and pop the backing back in. Pop, pop, pop, and you've got a framed piece of art ready to hang on your wall.

The first thing I do is to spread light modeling compound on the canvas. It gives the piece a nice texture that adds an additional layer of dimension. Later in the piece I use glass seed bead medium to add even more dimension. I use either Liquitex or Golden mediums. I prefer Golden, but the Liquitex work just as well. 

Next I work on the background. I use acrylic paints in three different colors. I add a bit of water to the brush to thin the paints a bit.

I'm not sure if you can tell the difference here, but once the background is almost dry I go over it very lightly with white. I use a drybrush technique. This is to soften the color just a little and it also highlights some of the texture created with the modeling compound. Then I spray the whole piece with final fixative so I can draw and erase on the surface.

The next step is to lightly sketch my design with pencil. I go back over it with a black Prisma marker. I like the way the outline looks in the finished piece plus it gives me nice sharp lines for the ends of the swirls.

Next I fill in the design with acrylic paint. I like to pick bright colors that are in a sort of medium range. This allows me to go back in and add highlights and shadows that really pop. 

So that ends part one of my process post. I have to get ready to go to my silly job now. :-(  I'll leave the house at 8am and won't get home until about 9pm. How the heck am I supposed to get any art finished this way? Well, I'm off tomorrow so hopefully I'll be able to finish this piece and post the second half of my process. Until then, happy arting!

TAM

A few pictures of my art

Hello again!  :-)

I thought you might like to see a bit of my art. Plus I wanted to figure out how easy (or not) it is to add pics. These are a few of the drawings I sell on ebay. I started with the drawings and have received a lot of positive feedback. My friend Joe encouraged me to do larger paintings in the same style. So in the next few days and weeks I'll show you how I'm progressing with that. But for now, enjoy a few of my happy trees:

I create these drawings in 3 different sizes; 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 (aceo), 5 x 7, and 8 x 10. Each one is an original. I really love making them. Thanks for looking!

My ebay name is photolabspaz. I know, it's weird. lol. But I started it back when I was working in a photo lab and if I change it they put sunglasses next to your name so people think you're hiding something. So photolabspaz it is.  :-)

TAM '11

First Day Jitters

Hello!  As you may have guessed by the name of this blog, my name is Michelle and I'm an artist. I attempted to start a blog a year or so ago, but wasn't disciplined enough to make it stick. But the fact is I need to do this. My best friend Joe and his wife Kimsha have started living the dream. They are supporting themselves solely through their art. And if I ever want to live my dream, I have to do what it takes to make it happen. So here I am.  :-)


This blog will hopefully document my journey to leave my job and become the artist and entrepreneur I have always dreamed of being. I am willing to have less money, buy fewer things, make a dollar stretch until it snaps, and work every minute of every day. But first,maybe I should tell you a little more about myself.


As I said before, my name is Michelle, and I'm 42. I'm currently in the second major relationship of my life. My ex husband and I were together for 14 years. At some point it occurred to me that not only did we have nothing in common, we didn't really even like each other. So I packed my computer, clothes, and art supplies in my van and moved half way across the country. Then began my second and current major relationship. Eric and I have been together for 8 years now and I'm happy to report that we still like each other. So far, so good.


When I moved here I quickly realized that I would have to get a job. Not knowing what else to do, I ended up in retail. Over the years I've been promoted and gone into specialty retail management. While I won't say where I work, I will say it provides me with a lot of discounts on art supplies.  :-) I actually took this job so that I could work in an environment of art and artists. Unfortunately, I work so many hours and my job is so silly, I hardly have any free time to work on my art. So, that is the journey you and I will be taking through this blog. How does a 42 year old woman reinvent herself as an artist and entrepreneur? The first step has been taken; starting this blog. I hope you keep walking with me. Thanks for reading!  :-)


PS: Had to edit to change font. Georgia is awful on this layout, lol.