Creative Director: Try
I Create: Creative Director of my Life
Along my journey, I’ve come to trust that creating Children’s books is part of the journey. I love this work. As an illustrator, I have just had my first Children’s book published and I want to create more.
As we are wandering along our map, towards any goals or destination, a part of the experience is to simply try things. There are things we won’t know with certainty until we try. It must be experienced. So you try a thing and realize that might not feel good or the outcome isn’t quite what you want, so you try a different thing.
This past month, along my artistic journey and endeavors, I tried a couple of completely new things. As you know, I entered a craft fair. I got a table and had the confidence to just give it a go. No expectations, since I couldn’t even imagine or have any reference to compare it to, of what the outcome might be. It was a small craft fair, and a new one this year, so there wasn’t a lot of traffic. It was fun in an interesting, new experience kind of way, so I was very glad to have tried it. And I did cover the cost of the table, so it was a win.
The next really new thing I tried, was taking part in a curated shopping day at a gift shop that sells my cards. The gift shop is at a tourist destination, the Malahat Skywalk, and they wanted their artisans to be there for a few hours and demonstrate or have samples or something. I came up with a demo which also would provide a sample. I painted holiday gift tags with watercolour. I completely enjoyed my time there! I had never done a demo, or painted while people wandered around me. I did learn that I should have had a few more completed samples ready to be handed out. People felt awkward it seems, to stand there and watch or wait. So I didn’t want to completely run out which means I didn’t want to take a break! I sat and painted for a solid 4 hours and people were happy to take a gift tag. Some were expressively thrilled about it, others were pleased and surprised that it was something they could take and no payment was expected. I’m pretty sure I made a little boy’s day when I handed him a snowflake stocking painted one that he hadn’t known he would be able to keep. It was a fun day and although I wasn’t getting anything in return for my time directly, I was so glad I did it. It was rewarding in a different way. And it gives people a face to ‘the artist’s’ name of art work in the form of cards in the shop.
The weekend after, I again tried another craft fair that I got in after starting out on a waiting list. It was less busy even than the first one I did, so it wasn’t a success in terms of selling cards, but it did provide more of that life experience. More lived experience from having tried something. Knowledge and confirmation of what I would do differently next year. I hadn’t considered a craft fair early enough in the season, for one. So planning can be approached differently next year should I do another. I already know I would do another painting event, but have more prepped and ready to give.
So along any route, no matter what the journey, there will be opportunities to try. And until we do, we would just be wondering how things could have gone.
Until next week,
Devon
Info on my book and access to holiday cards 🎄