Dogs and Cats Can Work

One of the easiest ways to build a market for your work is to target pet owners. Things with a dog or cat theme have a built in potential market. I have daughter who adores animals. Anything with a dog on it is something that gets her attention. But, like all good things it can be overdone, or done poorly. And not everyone is a sucker for all things dog or cat.

Sometimes, an artist takes a twist on this concept, and comes up with something new and engaging. I have to share the work of one such artist. We had seen his work at a local gallery several times over the last few years. His name is Michael dePierro. My daughter, the animal lover, fell in love with his wall sculptures of dogs and cats. She has wanted one ever since. When we first saw these sculptures, they were of specific breeds, and our dog is a one of a kind....otherwise known as a mutt! I recently saw dePierro's work again on Wholesalecrafts.com and saw that he was doing custom pet sculptures...dogs, cats, and even horses. I decided this would be the prefect thing to get my daughter as a gift for Christmas.

The first picture is one of the pictures I sent dePierro of our dog. The next picture is of the wall sculpture he created of her. You can just imagine the smile on my daughter's face when she opened the gift!

It was wonderful to support another craftsperson by purchasing his work. But even better, is to have a place like this blog to show many more people a bit of his work. He has taken the idea of making things with dogs and cats, and made something unique and special.

Couldn't you see a variety of dogs and cat wall sculptures in a vet's office, decorating the walls?....and taking orders for them through the vet's office! What better way to have your work seen by your potential customers.

The idea of dogs and cats as a theme in craft work may seem cliche and tired. But, as dePierro has shown us, it is possible to take any idea and make it engaging. People love their pets. And dePierro has captured the spirit of those animals in his sculptures. Talk about making work that has a story....!

I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas found special and unique handcrafted items under your tree. And most of all, I hope that your day was one filled with love, laughter, good food, and good memories. And, if it was a bit more stressful than all that, I hope you found at least one moment of connection with a person, a pet, or nature that reminded you of a blessing in your life. Hold onto that memory, and take it out from time to time to enjoy. Those are the gifts we can give ourselves at any time.

Topsy Turvy Holidays

I feel like I am suffering from holiday jet lag.


My holiday season began in late July or early August, when I began making work to send out to galleries, or for shows for the holiday season. It became the most intense through October and up until just before Thanksgiving, as I pushed to get as much work out the door as I possibly could.


When I shipped off the last package, I felt a sense of completion. A sigh of relief that I was largely done for this year with my holiday orders. I was able to have a bit of breathing space, even as a few other shipments went out, and one last show was done. I had room to experiment in the studio, and start thinking about where I was going in the next year, and what changes I might want to be making.


This weekend I was going through pictures on my computer looking for a specific photo, and I ran across a picture from a few years ago of my daughters decorating the Christmas tree. It hit me across the forehead with a smack! Christmas! It is coming. Not just in the stores. But here. I had to do something about our Christmas. I was done with the business of Christmas, but now I needed to start planning for and acting on a holiday that was right around the corner. Our tree had to go up. I had to seriously do some shopping, and gift making. Casual conversations with my husband about what to get for someone, or what he could bring to the office party had to come into focus and be acted upon.


Maybe this creates more short term stress for me, but I think I needed that breathing space of not jumping right into the holiday. I needed to have the closure from the business side of the season before I made the shift to the world around me. I see lights going up as I drive around town. Wreathes. Christmas cards have arrived. I feel completely out of sync with what is going on. But it is time for me to jump onto that moving sidewalk and get engaged in this season.


I must admit I have enjoyed the space it has given me...being out of sync. I have had the frenzy and stress already making and shipping my work. I am not anxious to feel that again. Maybe this topsy turvy holiday is a good thing. It helps to stay out of the fray of excess that can be overwhelming. Whether I am fully decorated or not, the holidays will come. And in the end, I will have gifts to give. But what I have enjoyed the most in the last few weeks is taking a bit more time to relax, and spend time with my family. If I jumped into the holiday craziness right away, I might have missed that.

Artists are already accused of marching to a different drummer. I guess if we have most of our sales at this time of year, we also need to march to a different rhythm. I have heard of artists who celebrate Christmas with their families in July, so they can enjoy it more. I don't think I want to be that far out of sync. But I have recognized that I need a pause.

Are you able to listen to your need for breathing space? To take care of your need to regroup after a prolonged push? Or are you able to jump right in? Perhaps energized by the holiday activity? Or do you just forego all this holiday madness?

Internal Combustion

The internal combustion engine was a major technological breakthrough. No need to constantly feed the engine with an external source of energy, such as steam from a coal burner. Last night, when I got together with a group of friends, I saw a different version, but just as powerful source of internal combustion.

What motivates you and drives you? Where is your source of energy? Do you need to be constantly fueling up from external sources, or do you have an internal source?

When we look externally for love, affirmation, or direction, it can be a bumpy and difficult ride. It is like the engine with the timing off. Fits and starts. You may be riding along smoothly for awhile, but then, apparently out of nowhere, the car is hesitating, perhaps stalling. Or it may feel like driving around town with the gas gauge on E,....ready to dip below E,.... and not finding an open gas station anywhere. Panic. Anxiety. Frustration.

If the external sources of affirmation of our worth is what we are relying upon, we will be forever looking for others to refill us, make us feel good again, so that we can go out again feeling comfortable and confident. I used to live this way. I was forever looking externally for my cues. The external was always more important than the internal. It is exhausting. And completely unsatisfying. It makes for crappy relationships. And a constant need to be refilled.

Slowly, over time, almost without being aware of how it has changed my way of living, I have learned to look inside first. To figure out what I need, and to take care of my needs. Sounds pretty simple. And it is when we are taking care of the external needs. But, when you get used to looking outside all the time for your cues of what you should do, it is not easy to make that shift to understanding what you really need to make yourself happy. To look inside and see what your heart really wants and needs. And it is not easy to start to say "no" to those things that will only deplete you. If we are not filling our own needs first, we have nothing left to give to others when they need us.

This is what I found amazing about making that difficult transition. The more that I look inside for guidance and to satisfy my needs, far more comes from the outside than I could have dreamed possible. That old saying about how you have to love yourself before others can love you is true. It also applies to our work as artists. If we have to win competitions, get rave reviews for all we do, sell out at shows, etc, etc, etc.....there will never be enough to feed the demand. When we are feeding ourselves inside, and doing the work that comes from our heart, those external sources of admiration are easier to receive, but we won't need to own them. If we try to hold on too tightly to the praise, the notoriety, it will probably slip away, or become tarnished in our tight grip. We will become frozen in time. Afraid to move from that moment in the sun.

None of this is easy. But it is essential to living a rich and full life, as an artist, or otherwise. Our culture of externals is a big challenge to all of this. Face it, few of us will get rich as working artists. But we will have a full and rich life in so many other ways if we give ourselves the gift of doing the work we are meant to do. It is easier to find joy and satisfaction in doing work that gratifies your soul, than in being able to buy a bigger house, a bigger TV, a smaller cell phone, a newer car....whatever. Consuming to fill that void inside never works for long. We will always want more. But we can fill that void by creating beautiful work, and sharing it with the world. And we will do the planet a favor by consuming less of some of those other things anyway!

This season of joy has become a season of externals. The newspaper is full of sales fliers for the latest and greatest electronics, which will all be obsolete in a year. Perhaps by taking the pledge to Buy Handmade that is going around the Internet right now, we will be able to reconnect with our more essential needs. Better yet, make as many gifts as you can. Give a gift of your handwork. Connect with your gifts, and share them with others. Give a few gifts to those who never expect to receive one. It may mean a few less trips to the mall, a few less dollars spent, but a few more hours connecting with your soul and spirit. And it is a chance to play outside your usual sandbox! Play in a different media, experiment with a idea. Have fun, and spread it around a bit! The joy will find you in the process.

Grinchy Christmas

"He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME! Somehow or other, it came just the same! "

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is one of my all time favorite Christmas stories. Every Christmas when I was little, we would read the book, and when my kids were little I would read it to them. Today I found the book in the bottom of a box of Christmas decorations.

Here it is, just a few days before Christmas, and I am still just getting decorations up. My family had dragged out the tree, and all the myriad boxes of decorations, to my great consternation over a week ago. They were more than ready to deck the halls....and I was not.

One of the down sides I have learned about being in this business is that Christmas is not so magical when you are one of the people working madly to make it happen. Since July, I have worked 7 days a week, often for days much longer than I would like to admit, trying to keep up with wholesale orders, and get ready for shows. I am thrilled to be busy, and getting orders. It is nice to see my work appreciated. This is the time of year that most work is sold.

But....by the time I finished my last show two weeks ago I was pooped. I was ready to do nothing at all for awhile. Not shift gears into a new sort of frenzy. So for a week I enjoyed the relative calm in my life. The relatively balmy temperatures we have had here in the northeast fed my denial.

But then the tree and assorted decorations came down from the attic, and I could be in denial no longer. Christmas cards were arriving in the mail. Not a single gift had been purchased. Emails were being sent among family members trying to nail down a date and time for our get together.
Christmas was coming! There was nothing I could do! I could not put it off for another day, another hour, or another minute. I was not ready. I am not ready.

But as the Grinch so wisely learned, Christmas would come in spite of the trappings and gifts. A little time on the internet, and I had several gifts. Several conversations with my husband, and we narrowed down what to do for the girls. The tree has been up for over a week. Half the lights went on the blink for a few days. But I managed to repair that without a visit from the Grinch. Christmas will come. I will spend time with my family. Some of it will be fun. Some if it tedious. But mostly it will be very, very good.

This year has been abundant with gifts for me. I have had such growth as an artist, and as a business person in the last year. I feel I have so much more to learn and do, but I am thrilled to have had so many wonderful people come into my life this year as a result of my work. That has been the most wonderful gift of all. One that can't be wrapped up. But one that will always fit, and will always be treasured.

And best of all, I am blessed with a wonderful family, who support and encourage me, and tolerates me! They are the most valuable treasures in my life. No gift could exceed that in value.