hey groovy campers, it's another terrific tuesday!!! ...and i now have a business guru!!!!...kinda like a yogi but without the bear......my business guru is this little spitfire of a girl, well she's all grown up and married now and a mom...man she's gotten old quick........, but i've known her and her whole family for a billion years it seems.....fabulous people.................well katelyn ...yes, you're right, it's katelyn of capitalcakesnc.com (lot's of applause sound effects and cheering, hooting, etc...much hub bub!!!) by the way did yall notice i made a link???!!!....i'm so proud of myself just took 5 post-its and 3 hours....let's hope it works.........anyway.... she is an absolute culinary arts pastry queen along with being a non stop business dynamo too......so while she has been sending business advice my way, i don't think i was ready to so something with it.......as seen by the fact that i would promptly forget her advice....sorry katelyn.......but now...ta da....i'm ready to move this along.......
so saturday, i was in an overwhelmed state...similar to new york during the marathon....or delaware during tourist season ...or any season...very small state...had dinner in delaware at a crab place once....not sure of the name of the restaurant, but it was right on the water, beautiful.... they put brown paper on the table for a table cloth, i should have brought my paints...... and then they would dump the crabs on your table.....pretty groovy, very casual....just they way i like it, cept i'm a veggie, so i don't eat seafood....and as i found out, ordering live crabs is a no no...they kind of frowned when i threw them back in the water....or was that in maryland?.....small state.....anyway.....i had a "me and God" moment in which i was basically saying "hey God, need alot of help here"......which is kind of funny, cause, well He's always there........but i forget, or try to do it on my own cause that's how i am....ya know a wee bit controlling......who me????.......yeah right......but anyway....so later that day is when katelyn calls me...perfect person to help me with my struggle to figure this business stuff out.......God moment??!!....could be!!!.... so my business homework is looking into google business, facebook business, instagram, and i added nextdoor, cause i signed up but haven't gotten any farther....supposedly it's a local thing, and my "bg"...(business technical term for business guru....or more likely something i made up)....wants me to be more widespread.....i said i already was....my jeans just don't fit like they used too.....could be all those pastries.....be groovy yall
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good evening campers!!! did you ever wonder at the beauty that can appear in the most unlikely things.... i guess that's called smelling the roses....which can be intoxicating and painful...depending on whether or not there was a bee in the rose and you just inhaled a not very happy bee who is now trying to exit your nose with the most amount of damage it can muster inside your nose.........muster...a very unused word now a days.....well if you were that bee would you want to be sucked up into someones nose....not even sure i want a visual on that perspective, even though a young child will gladly share that info with you by digging around and proudly showing you their finger now encased in .....well.....you can use your imagination on that one............but anyway, i was coming through richmond in the early morning hours with a cloudless sky and the sun was just rising and just seeing the way the sun hits the buildings and the reflections that were made and the negative space......well anyway it was really beautiful........now i'm not an architectural artist....not really into hard lines...i'm more of a nature artist...fluid lines, blended colours, etc.....but sometimes you can take the architectural and blend it with nature......buildings can become a little warped, the way the sun hits the glass can be very colourful and flow down the building...or up....you might be standing on your head.............lets say i was inspired..."i was inspired!!" (major sound effects).....problem was i was driving and i needed to take pictures and well taking pictures while you are driving is probably worse than texting and driving.....so it's in my head right now...
and before there was texting.......i know alot of you right now have either passed out at the thought or are saying..."what?, no texting?...was this like in the dinosaur age???...has the world gone mad????" yeah...no it was probably about 10 years ago....or something like that......but there was that time when you talked back and forth to people....instant message....i was trying to remember what it was called...ha ha.....well my kids would write something to me, and by the time i read it and answered they had already asked me 2 more questions....then i was trying to back up on what i just wrote to answer the last question and then by that time 4 more questions had been asked and i'm trying to answer the 5th question cause it kind of pertained to the 3rd question if i remember right, then they would ask me 5 more questions and at this point i can't even remember who i was talking to in the first place........but i think they did it on purpose cause shortly after i was trying to respond to the 7th question, they would stroll through the house and ask if they could do this or that or buy this or that, or go here or there and i was so confused i would mumble, "sure whatever", while trying to answer these questions which didn't matter, cause they weren't even on the phone anymore............... so as you can imagine i do not text and drive...so definitely no photographing and driving...... i can't even text when i'm not driving.....yeah, my kids showed me how to use the voice thing on the text message thing....i wonder if this is another one of their little games....hmmm....those are technical terms for phone stuff by the way....but just in case you try it, make sure you read what you just said, cause what is texted is not what you say .....just saying.....found that out when my kids texted me back saying "mom that's not appropriate" anyway.... i have been researching artwork that has sold nearby.....i have been doing alot of math.......which has taken me a long time.......trying to figure out if my prices are around the middle of the road........and i believe i have come to a decision....yeah!!!....well at least at the moment ..............of course that doesn't even begin to put prices on prints.....that's a whole nother ball game of fun filled math......plus keep painting, cause i gotta have more artwork to finally put up for sale...and oh yeah, work the 30 hour a week part time job i have too...............i'm really not a huge slacker, in case you were wondering..."why is it taking her so long to figure this out?"............and then add in life in general..............eventually i will get this all figured out.................but hold up a minute.... it's not the finish line we are after, well it partially is....but it's the journey that's so amazing......the journey that lets you notice things on the way to the finish line........the journey that lets you inhale bees up your nose and see fantastic paintings from sunrises on buildings....which means, i still need some photographs of what i was seeing, which means, i guess i'll have to get up early and have someone drive me around so i can get the pictures i need.......which means, maybe my kids can do that.....wait, did they go somewhere? hello campers.......gary and i went camping....love camping!!!....and met some really fabulous people........in case you wondered...no i don't have any problem talking with anyone.....i can regurgitate my whole life story in a matter of minutes....sometimes people like to walk away while i'm talking, so i figure they just must be cold and need to get in the sun...well cause who doesn't?!.......so i follow them, sometimes we end having a good run instead of a walk.....by the way i can still talk when i run....pretty good skill to have........ so i met keith, linda and simba....very groovy boxer, simba...not keith or linda........and keith shared a great idea for marketing......seems he started his own business doing power washing (which would be helpful if i had his info to pass on to others...but i do not, unless they read this post) and is having a pretty good go at it ...he suggested i try "next door"....i said the tent next door...he said no the group...i said "what group of tents?"...you understand why people run when i show up........so along with my pricing research i'm checking next door out....has anyone else had any success (ha ha ...i always spell that like it's a cheer..ha ha...makes me laugh)...ok..... with next door? sounds like it could be a very helpful tool......like duct tape......by the way duct tape is one of those things that if you have it you should be able to get yourself out of a mess of fixes and fix alot of messes.... we went to japan once...one of our daughters lived over there for a bit, we brought a large majority of family with us too...because if you go to japan everyone must go too!......it's a family affair....wasn't that a great show??!!!...who doesn't want a mr. french in their house...and did that buffy become the vampire slayer? and if so was mrs. beasly her sidekick?...... anyway...back to japan.......if you ever get a chance to go, i would ...really call me i'll go again.... but i remember watching this Japanese tv show during some down time.....when i go places there is not alot of downtime....gotta see everything!!!..our daughter actually went back to work she was so tired of all the going......but anyway, i believe it was a qvc like program....everything over there is interesting ..."why" you ask....cause it's in japanese!!!!.....but they were showing (cause i don't speak japanese i couldn't understand them) how if you have these 10 things you can do pretty much anything......i don't remember all the things, but duct tape, wire clothes hangers, and newspaper were 3 of the 10.......good info for future use! did you know that most people pronounce duct tape as duck tape not duct tape....i believe if you actually pronounced it the way it's spelled people would think you have a speaking problem, maybe a lisp, you'd probably spit all over people...that's not very pleasant and they might use their "duck" tape to tape your mouth shut....interesting......well duck tape is whats holding up all my post-its that keep falling down......pick a direction ha ha.....i guess post-its are not made to stay attached to a vertical wall permanently.......and the one sticking to my foot says to research how to price my artwork.....which i have been doing!!! yeah me!!!........so like in the previous post, square inch is popular, along with linear inch (more confusing math terms), and hourly rate......there were some others but that seemed to be the big ones that i saw...........so square inch it is! tadah!...funny...considering that's how i charge for my murals...well square foot......but it took me that long to come to this big decision....nothing like a little procrastination to start your day, or end it, or start it tomorrow...........well, at least i have a start....now i have to figure out, how to figure out what my materials cost so i can add that in to the square inch price, or add that on as an add on...............this is altogether too much math......i need some duck tape...i wonder if anyone has some next door.....be groovy yall! good afternoon campers....well iv'e been researching how to price my artwork....seems by the square inch is popular....plus include all your expenses to create that piece of artwork....................what is a definite no no is "do not price by emotion" (yes that's right...sound effects with that one, probably an echo too).........so when you price something, it has to be a standard price all across the board (like by square inch) , cause if you are all over the place (pricing with emotion) potential buyers will just walk on by.......walk on by...da dat da dah....singing that song by....supremes?....oh well moving on up...to the east side...to a deluxe apartment...in the sky i i.......aaahhhhh...all my thoughts are going into songs.....squirrel............
so back to "the wonderful world of pricing!!!!" (sound effects like the wonderful world of disney.....very groovy).......................so if you price by emotion, your prices won't make sense...."why" you ask? ...... let me tell you....well for me, my artwork is a piece of me, my baby, very personal stuff, my emotional attachment to something i created might be worth to me a million dollars......by the way, if anyone wants to buy my artwork for a million dollars i will bring it to you right now!!!....i'm not that attached... so you have that side of it, then there is the compassionate side of it (i think that's the right word)....i would say to myself "self, how can anyone afford to pay a million dollars, they have to pay their bills, buy food, put gas in their car, feed their llama?" ....and then my serious self (ha ha ha ha...serious self....i think that's an oxymoron in my case) would say "previous self, don't people pay to have their car fixed, put in that new kitchen, buy those new llamas?"...and then my previously previous self would say "previously previous self, i know that but isn't this price too extreme, too high, who can afford this, maybe i should lower it by say, a million dollars?" and then my previously previously previous self would say......"oh my gosh".........................well you get the picture....and the reason for this blog......pricing is my nemesis.....but if i really want to do my art full time and making a living at it........kinda gotta figure this out and let it go.....yeah i'm singing again and yeah i've seen frozen numerous times....grandkids.... can i just say that that song "let it go" pertains to everything in life.......like "should i keep the 40 tops that are all the same , or should i donate 2 to the thrift store?" "let it go, let it go"... how bout "this pan is much hotter than i thought it was, and i'm still holding it ".... "let it go, let it go"....... or how bout a cute little jam faced child learning to be potty trained..."let it go, let it go"............ so back to pricing......buyers want to understand why you priced it the way you did....they want the pricing to make sense.............which makes sense......i just have to figure out how to make sense of how to price my artwork, and then, what?....that's right..sing it with me......"let it go, let it go!" |
bobbi plentovichim bobbi from bobbis murals...muralist, artist, creative mess. writing a blog about the journey of a muralist/ artist and her quest for a place in the confetti coloured art world Archives
April 2021
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