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Oh my god I’m so behind on these. Hi hello! This one is a lot of text up front, a bit of an announcement I guess, and then some pretty pictures afterward as a little reward. Alex’s art blog readers can have little an art, as a treat!
Anyway! I’ve gotten to do so many fun projects lately, but also have been undergoing a lot of changes, and I’ve been too scatterbrained to do anything here. In all honesty, a huge part of that is due to just having too many lines in the water, and not being able to give any of them the attention they deserve–especially because if you know anything about the Freelance Life TM, you know it’s feast or famine, so the more you take on to supplement the lean times, the more you’re going to suffer when all of a sudden you have 11 lines cast and there’s a bite on each one.
It’s been a really tricky few years. Lockdowns, immediately followed by pregnancy, having a baby and having to put my life on pause for a couple years, the advent of genAI, and coming back to full-time work to a VASTLY different landscape than the one I left has required a lot of rewiring my brain. When you add in having to stop shipping to the US/pivot once again to alternate avenues, sudden massive growth on social media, taking big steps to get into the publishing world, increasing my presence at markets and events tenfold, and client work, “I’ve been kind of burnt out” would be an understatement. My personal and professional lives have both been undergoing major shifts that have been basically requiring me to become a new, more powerful person, and I’m just as surprised as you are when I say that it’s taken a lot out of me.
That’s why last week, I came to the conclusion that despite my deep and enduring beliefs in myself, I simply cannot do it all anymore. So, after a ROUSING game of eenie-meenie-minie-moe, it was decided that after I finish what I have on my plate already, I have to cut new client work loose for the foreseeable future. Which is okay! It’s a bit of a scary risk in some ways, but my reasons are thus:
- Most projects that find their way to me pay a few hundred dollars. It used to be more, and it’s been declining as a general rule. I’m not complaining about a few hundo, by the way! A few hundred dollars is a lot in a lot of cases! But mathematically, I’m not sure it checks out for me anymore.
- All my “drawing time” lately has been spent on client work, which means I haven’t been able to draw anything for myself, which means I haven’t been able to introduce anything new to my table when I’m at markets!
- The average commissioned illustration usually takes me about 4-6 hours to complete. If we’re assuming a rate of $100/h, let’s say the average labour cost is about $500. If it’s a client project, I’m only getting paid for labour. In most cases, it’s a one-off payment unless there is a license involved, but because that mostly only applies when it’s for advertising/branding purposes, that’s usually not what happens.
- If, however, I spend 5 hours on an illustration for myself that I can then turn into a print and sell at events or online, then I only have to sell 25 prints at $20 each to pay myself for an illustration I drew for fun. And I can keep selling it for years, so the earning potential is significantly higher.
- This hinges on the hope that I can sell prints, but I’ve reached a point where even if it takes a little while for them to “earn out”, it usually balances in the long run.
- I really like tabling! It’s exhausting and a lot of work, but it’s really nice to just make stuff and have people come by and compliment you and give you money hahahaha. I want to put more effort into this side of my business, not just because of that, but because I think it’s really important to focus on real, tangible things and the people around you. I want to be a presence in the world, not just a username in your phone. Also, online sales have declined significantly due to having to stop all international shipping and the decline of social media. I just can’t reach people the way I used to. So, we pivot.
- I miss drawing for myself! I haven’t really been able to make any of the things I’ve had rattling around in my brain for a really long time, and they’ve begun to rot in there. I didn’t understand how deeply depressed that was making me until just recently.
- I’m halfway into drawing a graphic novel, and once client work picked up, I had to completely stop because I just didn’t have time. This sucks hahaha. I want to finish drawing the last 30+ pages of my book and not be forced to work 14 hour days at the expense of everything else in my life to do so!
- Making the decision to do this took a HUGE weight off my shoulders and I realized that while commissions and client work got me here, it’s no longer helping me get to where I want to go. I figure if I’m going to be overworked and underpaid, I might as well be doing stuff that fills my cup. My ultimate goal as an artist is not to earn a living by being someone else’s pencil (which, by the way, is a totally fine and admirable profession!!! I really respect those who can do it and most of them are technically better artists than I am IMO!!!) but by making stuff that connects ME to the rest of the world. If I don’t have time to do that anymore, then what are we doing here?
- If this is a mistake, I can always go back hahahaha
I am still open to things like murals and larger projects that pay well, but I’m really excited to shift most of my focus to my own projects.
Also! I know I don’t owe an explanation for making a business move, but in this case I’d like to be transparent, even if it’s just for the off-chance that this comes up as a search result for another artist struggling to make a decision.
OKAY THAT’S ENOUGH. If you made it through all that, thank you so much and here is your promised art!!!
There is a fair bit of work that I still can’t share due to contracts or whatever, but here’s some stuff that I CAN share!
If you’re in Winnipeg you’ve likely heard about the Graham Ave. bus corridor being turned into a pedestrian corridor, and that the city brought in Cool Streets Winnipeg to jazz it up! I was lucky enough to be one of 9 artists/groups on board designing and painting 8 murals that go from the Canada Life Centre all the way down to the Millennium Library. Everyone’s work turned out so beautifully and I’m so stoked I got to be part of this project! It’s a 2 year contract, too, so it’ll be repainted hot ‘n fresh next summer if for whatever reason you miss out on it this year!
Last year I was approached by the good folks at Pacific Puzzle Co. to create some illustrations for a new line of mini puzzles for them based on a few locations in BC, and I had such a great time doing it! I MAY OR MAY NOT have another project in the works with them coming out soon but who can say for sure?
Uh, here are some more powerline sunsets. I may or may not be obsessed.
Last winter, my grandparents sold and moved out of the home that they built and where I spent countless hours reading sunday newspaper comics, swimming/skating/fishing/kayaking etc. with my brother every summer and christmas. I was SO SAD that I didn’t get to say goodbye to the house, but was so thankful I had been able to wrangle my small daughter out there that summer (had a FEELING, you see). Anyway, I drew this and made them cry at Christmas when I presented it to them. Bittersweet!
I’ll be honest, I’m pretty sure there’s more, but I simply cannot remember.
OKAY HAVE A NICE LIFE EVERYONE LOVE YOU BYE
PS shoutout to the guy who came to my table at the Wolseley market last night and said, “I signed up for your newsletter and I like reading it because you’re so funny, I always have a little giggle when I see the email pop up” and then laughed when I replied “oh my god thank you I love hearing people say I’m funny I don’t know if there is anything I care about more” that was a double win so thank you.
PPS All my friends backed me up on that (the part where I care too much about being funny)
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