Goodbye old chapter!
Me where I lived in Kenya for a brief time and had a lot of thoughts, feat. pink boots and egg socks
Today, I’m archiving a large chunk of my portfolio, taking down my shop, and becoming much more selective about taking new clients. I had an enlightening moment first in Kenya and then while applying for a full-time art job. I’m not going to get into what that big realization was, but it led to some smaller realizations and decisions in my tiny life that I’m ready to talk about. The bigger, less selfish ones are going to take more thought and tact than I have right now.
I’m taking a year to focus on expanding my art and my portfolio. Armed with new knowledge from my Kenyan friend and fellow muralist, Jesse, I’ve decided I don’t have enough pieces/enough variety to proudly put forth my collection anymore. Especially if I’m going to be writing curriculum for budding artists, I need to be genuinely, critically good at what I do. SO! I’ll be spending a year prioritizing expanding my technique/art knowledge again and doing work that makes me a better artist/broadens my portfolio. When I was teaching in Kenya, I had a lot of “Am I even wise enough to be the teacher here?” moments. I haven’t taken art classes or done thorough studies in years, which really is unacceptable in the art world. Since I’ve been living off commissions + doing nonprofit work, it just wasn’t feasible.
Still, I can’t help others with my skillset until I’ve chiseled a place for myself, so I’m trying to strike a better balance. (Or at least, I will be able to do much more, once I AM much more.)
Anyway, I was lucky enough to get a copywriting/editing position at Beyond the Pines Productions which has given me an awesome team to work with and a fulfilling day-to-day routine which is so hard to find for freelancers like me. With routine comes the ability to find time for myself and my art once in a while, rather than always hunting for the next job. And like some incarnation of Uncle Ben’s advice “With personal stability, comes responsibility to do more for others” or something like that.
I still plan to keep my current clients/seasonal jobs, and, any project I’ve agreed to/shown interest in up until now. And I still plan to complete them all with passion (and now I’ll have more focus!)
For new clients interested in working with me:
I have a password-protected larger scope of what I do/my old public portfolio. (Just message me for the link!) I just don’t want it available to the general public anymore. Even though I like a lot of the work located behind this wall, it’s not focused on what I’m currently pursuing/up to my current work. Still, I like interested, vetted people to know everything in case some tiny, unfinished sketch or graphic I did years ago gives you the vibe you’re looking for! :)
Another thing:
Once a month, I’m thinking of offering one free personal commission. Just for fun. I’d select from those that have approached me with ideas; people who need designs for their small business or are strapped for cash but have always wanted to hang something specific in their home…But not sure yet. I’ll see if this sounds feasible or like something people are actually interested in once I have a better idea of my new work load.
Thank you for sticking with me on this journey!
P.S. I’m really sorry I haven’t posted my Kenya blog yet. I had so many feelings about that experience that it took me some time to step back and condense it all into a measly series of blog posts.