Okay I lied to get your attention, there wasn't really a river in my studio but there was a 'York River Art Market' so it was only a little white lie, not one of those fully-blown really bad lies! This was something that I had considered for some time and the idea of having a little market stall did appeal because it is an opportunity to bring together all of my greatest works of art today which was a really nice way for me to reflect on how far I have come over the passed few years. What I didn't anticipate was how much work actually goes into organising the virtual market itself.
The idea is to upload all of your products onto your Instagram page and then create a link from each item to the 'shop' where you are selling it. As I have greeting cards for each birth-month as well as many other pen and ink designs and coloured pencil artwork, adding all of the listings before the big event (Sunday 13th of December) took me a week to complete. Then of course, I needed to promote it, which I must admit was a little bit 'last-minute' and rushed but I created a few 'stories' and 'posts' beforehand and, with the help of my 13 year old son, we cobbled together my first 'reel' which was fun!
When it was time for the 'big day' I made a little film to introduce myself and to explain how the YRAM online shopping worked, this took me around 30 attempts as I've never done anything like this before...for a 10 second clip! You wouldn't think that I used to be an actress many years ago at the Bradford Playhouse and would comfortably perform in front of over two hundred people each evening! Where has all of my confidence gone?!
Anyway, did it pay off? What was it like? Would I do it again? Well, the answer to all of these questions would depend on what you regard as 'success'? I did get some orders, but all of these were from people that I know...that's my honest answer! Nor did I get any extra followers...that's my second honest answer! So, to many people, I guess that this could be regarded as a fail but I when looking for the positive aspects, I learned that I can create a pretty good art display in my studio if ever I needed to do that again for something such as an 'open studio' event in the future. And, as I previously mentioned, it was nice to reflect on the work that I have done to date. But the most rewarding part of it all was the realisation that I have so much genuine love and support from my family and friends who really want me to succeed...and what could possibly be better than that! Oh and would I do it again...probs not...that's my third honest answer! But never say never!
