Babble + Yak

Yak: I am writing this post, sitting in the sun, in John's garden (possibly my favourite print) after a walk on the coast with not a care in the world.....well, I say not a care but that's a bit of a fib.  As a over-thinker I always have something brewing, and at the moment its Christmas.  Yes Christmas.  I think any creative has a peak selling time of year and mine is definitely the Christmas period, from October onward.  John's Garden Lino print (c) E Pinnock  Shows have already been applied for, accepted on and payments paid, what I have to do now is think of where will my work be at that time.  What new or existing products I will have, how will they suit the shows I am taking part in, is there little one off pieces I'd like to do, what can I do to prepare? Will my to do list ever be finished? (answer:no, it gets longer and multiplies) You may have read in earlier posts how this year was supposed to be about balance, part of hav...

Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” – PabloPicasso Yak: Emma  I have found it increasingly difficult to make art without the purpose being to sell it.   When deciding to start a creative business, the work I was producing was made for me.   I was creating work because I wanted to create it.   As time has gone on, with some of my work, not all of it, there has been a little voice in the back of my head questioning is this for me? Or am I making it because I know it will sell.   Now the purist out there might think I am a sell out, I am not, I am simply a creative who loves to make and wants to make a living out of what I love so must find a balance.  Or do I? even in the  writing of this short post I have wrestled with myself about this point.  Its good business sense to be commercial, but is it good for me as an artist? Is there a balance? Or is it a case of unleashing what's within and letting the a...

Yak: Emma  Rejection is one of those things that everyone experiences.  the fear of rejection probably has some roots in early caveman behaviour, but I am not a scientist or  Anthropologist (I hope that's the right "ist"?) but I am human and I have felt rejection.     Whether its a job, a partner, social or familial its guaranteed we will all feel rejection at some point.   In life you have to take risks and this fear of failure is part of that risk, you have to make yourself vulnerable and put yourself out there.  At the beginning of the year I did that. I decided to enter in to an open call, for a design to cover a Elmer the Elephant as part of the Great North parade for St Oswalds Hospice in Newcastle.  The brief was very open and part of my plan for 2019 was to take that leap, push myself and my work further.  The idea came together quickly, if I am honest probably too quickly for me to judge it good enough.  I went...