Holy Crap, a Sale!

I haven't had a sale on Etsy in 3 months. That is, until yesterday. I have sold some strange stuff on Etsy. Art that I have made, that I like, but I know that most people would think is weird at best. I think this just-sold collage is a good example of that. Why, out of all the things on Etsy, did someone come across this and buy it?

This collage comes from a set I made back in 2006. My boss is an adjunct professor at the local community college (of which I am an alumni) and he set up an art show for all of us who work here. Understand, I work in the creative department of this big ol' corporation. Pretty much everyone here went to art school. Amazingly, almost no one here makes art on their own. Most don't go to art museums either. Last year I went to a Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philly Art Museum. I was trying to tell people about it and NO ONE KNEW WHO SHE WAS.

So anyway, we were having an art show. We ended up having to ask people outside our department to participate, but, whatever. I had been known for making art. After I graduated from college I started making large collages and had some small gallery openings and a lot of shows in coffee shops and restaurants. I was selling work. Then I went back to college briefly. That stalled my personal art making. I dropped out of school, because I could not handle that, and the new job I had just been promoted to, and the house I just bought. Oh, and I was a single mom with 2 teenagers. My creative outlet became the house, and the garden.

So there I was trying to figure out how to start making art again. I could not just pick up making the same collages that I had been. I felt I was past that, anyway. So, I began with little exercises. I would take an 8.5x11 piece of paper, and dig through my huge stash of clippings and just start doing it. I was not even too worried about how I was gluing everything, because I would take the collages to work and laminate them. It was very free and easy and I was really enjoying myself. I was using images that I had been hanging onto for years. After I finished around 20 of these collages, I realized that this was, in fact, the art. I just kept going until it was time to hang the show. I had over 60 collages, and I just tacked them up en mass on the wall. I noticed that people spent a lot of time looking at them, there was a lot going on in that body of work.

So that is where these collages came from. I have kept some of my favorites, and gave some to friends that specifically asked for them. I have managed to sell quite a few on Etsy. In fact, my first sale was one of these collages.