and a one and a two and a three

Several weeks ago I sent 6 or so inquiries for representation to licensing agents. So far I have 3 for 6 'no'. And surprisingly I don't feel sad. No, no I don't. After this many years, and this many no's, I sort of just feel like 'oh yeah, saw that coming'. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think that I deserve the no's. In actuality I think I deserve at least one yes. And I know that given the right product my art would sell nicely. I know that this is about business, not art. This is about making money plain and simple. And people want sure things. They want easy money. One of my rejections even told me to read a book about licensing, that he wrote. So, I bought it, (yes I gave money to one of those that say 'No'), started reading through it. This is what I thought when I started reading it: 'Man they should've used a good designer to lay this thing out'. The fonts were terrible and outdated and it looks blah. What struck me as very funny, is for a book about licensing, they used crappy art examples. Heck they couldn't even pony up to buy the rights for something decent. It was the quality of clip art from someplace like 'FreeClipArtNow.com'. Essentially the few nuggets of good information that I have gleaned, are weighted against the lack of credibility for a poorly designed book.

Long story short. To all you fellow aspiring artists, don't let the people who say No get you down. They don't define you, they don't define your art, they are just doing a job, and well, their job is to say No to most of us. And even if they said Yes, that doesn't mean they will license one piece of art that makes anyone a penny. And with that realization, I am going to scan my oh so cute 12 cupcake sketches and start working on my next group of art to be rejected. Why? Because this is for me, and I refuse to let 'the business of art'  make me stop enjoying the gift of creating pretty things. 

Inspiration

I love farmers market. I love spring with its bright colors, the fresh green and the flowers that preview summer. And now we are about to leap into summer. Thank God. I live in the Pacific Northwest and we have had a very long, very wet fall, winter and spring. I mean really wet. And did I mention cool? Snow in June up in the mountains. T-ball games snowed out in May. This week has been sunny every day and seems to be the front end of summer, and hopefully the full on grey days of the last 8 months will be behind us for at least 60 days. We can hope. With this sun I am finding my inspiration again. I seem to have misplaced it in the last 4 months. Couldn't find it anywhere. I looked in the closet, I looked under the stairs, looked in the shade garden, I even looked under the bed in that old box of stuff I save for special occasions. But alas, no inspiration. Then, while walking through farmers market with the glorious sun beaming onto our necks, I found it. sitting under one of the tarps with a fancy little sign saying 'Cupcakes'. Yes, there with the pink tulle and rainbow colored sugar sprinkles sat my inspiration. Arranged on a plain white plate, topped in mountains of icing, dotted with sugar dust. I can feel the inspiration nagging at me as I finish projects that have to be done first, and I can feel it swirling around in my stomach as I type this posting. To hell with sending that follow up email, I think I need to go sit in the sun, sketch book in my lap, and reconnect with the muse of all muses.