Let’s face it – much to the chagrin of every artist I know (WHY can’t I *just. make. art*?!!!!), after the creation comes the display.

And the display is as  important as the creation.

Because if you can’t get people to stop long enough to look, touch and fall in love, then you can create all you want and your house will be full of your creations (or your basement, closets, shed, etc).

As I mention in my on-line course, Sell Your Art, Keep Your Soul (this particular excerpt from Module 4):

Well-presented art tells a story.  It suggests to viewers how that art would look in their life.  It encourages imagination and visualization.  It allows you to charge more because it stops more people and makes them into your peeps .

• If you package your sale in a plastic grocery bag, then you are saying that you don’t value your own work enough to honor it or the person who buys it. 
• If you don’t package yourself in an outfit that makes you feel great and shouts out to the world that you are an artist, then you are saying that you don’t believe in yourself enough to meet the world on your own terms.
• If you don’t present your work, make your peeps’ hearts go pitty-PAT and then pull them in to look some more, then you will never get the opportunity to share your amazingly priced artwork with anyone.

Note for locals:  I will be teaching Sell Your Art Keep Your Soul for the College of Southern Maryland as a single course (3 Saturdays Feb26, March 5 & 12) and at AnnMarie Garden in the module format Wednesday Jan 19 through Feb 23 where you can sign up for just one module)

Part of being an artist is solving problems – it isn’t just skills, it’s the imaginative application of the skills plus a dash of let-me-see-if-this-will-work that brings forth original work.

These Sea Nettles are very simple, and lots of fun to make.  I was fretting over how to display them so they can catch the sun and move when I realized I had already solved this problem.

For Artsfest this year, I used a picture frame with cup holders to display my less expensive, corded necklaces.  The breeze made them move, the movement caught the sun, and the sparkle caught the attention of passersby.  The sea nettle display is just an enlargement of the same idea (because these are bigger pieces).  Love when that happens!

I hung that particular batch of necklaces on that particular frame in Leonardtown Galleria after Artsfest, but now have another batch of necklaces (with  3rd, 4th and 5th new lines of ceramic focals:  Taliswomen, wrapped bead and hearts) for my upcoming shows (today in DC – this is a prepost – thank you technology for letting me meet my goal of posting every day for Art Every Day Month!), Dec 4 at Makers’ Mart, AnnMarie Garden, and Dec 10 Prince Frederick Art Walk day (I’ll be partnered with Bead Boutique).    Here’s that new display.  You can see it works for the Taliswomen I introduced yesterday too (bonus!)

And here’s a close up of some of the new focals.  The beads on the angel at the end, and the assembly of the angel were done by local bead artist Sue Page.

 Wylde Women’s Wisdom 

So here’s my weird bit of advice: If you’ve lost your life’s true passion (or if you’re struggling desperately to find passion in the first place), don’t sweat it. Back off for a while. But don’t go idle, either. Just try something different, something you don’t care about so much. Why not try following mere curiosity, with its humble, roundabout magic? At the very least, it will keep you pleasantly distracted while life sorts itself out. At the very most, your curiosity may surprise you. Before you even realize what’s happening, it may have led you safely all the way home. Elizabeth Gilbert