When I first began talking about making a living from my art my dear friend Kristen started referring to my creative endeavors as "Building The Empire." Her idea was that I would create my own little empire of art, become really successful and famous, and eventually rule the world. Or something like that.
While I am not yet the ruler of the world, I have recently been making leaps and bounds (although sometimes it feels like shuffles and stumbles) towards making my creative dreams come true, and this morning I felt like telling you about it. So, here are the most recent updates from The Empire.
Yesterday I had my 70th sale in my Etsy shop!! It was to my amazing friend Addie which just speaks to how much the support and encouragement of friends and family has allowed me to make it as far as I have on this adventure. I am excited to continue to grow and evolve in my Etsy endeavors, and so happy to be a part of that community.
I am also, to name a few things, in the process of potentially getting my jewelry into a few more locations (more on that soon!), working on a new line I am really excited about, dabbling with the idea of selling my photography, and trying to find the time to paint and draw with the intention of eventually selling prints as well. Needless to say, things are happening and I am just trying to keep up (while also trying to lead a balanced, healthy, sane life-why is that so hard sometimes?!)
There are days where I doubt that I can do it. That mean little voice in my head starts in, telling me that I'm not working hard enough, that what I am creating is total crap, that I should be doing something different, doing better, doing more.
I have begun to come to terms with the fact that that little gremlin of a voice may never go away entirely. Instead, I am slowly learning how to make friends with it. How to harness that drive to do better, to do more, and use it to positively push my creativity. How to talk back and tell it that I am doing the best that I can, and that is more than good enough.
Today though I am feeling good about where I am at. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll be ruling the world.
Today I had the great pleasure of spending the afternoon shooting photos of my dear friend Maya. Maya has been my gorgeous, talented and willing model since the early days of Roots & Wings, and I covet any time I can get with her to create images.
Maya and I have known each other since we were wee little ones and our families are so close I consider her a sister. She is, as you can see here, stunningly gorgeous and quite talented as a model (as well as a kind, funny, amazing human being). Creating images is always a fun, collaborative, creative act for us in which we contribute equally to the final product, which I love!
I couldn't resist sharing a sneak peek of todays images with you right away! More photos (and the jewelry pictured) will be available in My Etsy Shop soon! I can't wait to get behind the camera again soon with Maya. Until then, enjoy!
