My First Print Sale (and I’m exicted)

29 Apr My First Print Sale (and I’m exicted)

Edited to add : The Print Shop is now open! CLICK HERE.

Oh my goodness, I can hardly believe I am FINALLY able to say that I’m opening my Print Shop. I’m seriously beside myself, I’m so excited! I’ll be sharing the link to the shop when it opens on Saturday morning, 5/1 at 9am PST. Sign up for my mailing list to get a reminder email then! Because I thought it might be of interest to anyone who wants to hear a little about the process, what brought me here, and what I’m offering in my inaugural sale, here’s my blog post version what I wrote for the About page in the shop:

Having a little home to sell my photographic prints has been a long-time dream of mine so just writing about it gives me butterflies. Over the years of my career, I’ve done a lot of things with my photography from shooting for clients, writing photography books, blogs, and articles to teaching photography at workshops and in online classes but selling my work like has somehow been put on the back burner. Until now!

My first offering is called Time to Heal and it’s a collection of imagery I’ve captured over the past year or so during a very challenging (emotional, transitional, pivotal) time in my life. Separation after 25 years of marriage during a pandemic, and the tending to a near fatally ill kitten as my youngest daughter finishes out her senior year of high school and gears up to leave for college has been a lot to handle. Especially all at the same time. Throughout it all, I’ve used photography as my therapy; a way to focus on beauty, look for the light, and hold onto hope during the hardest days. When I printed a handful of my favorites from this phase of my life and held them in my hands I felt compelled to make each one unique, not only in adding another layer but to use my hands, a paintbrush, and a texture that brought extra depth and visual interest to the photographs. Little did I know that with every brushstroke added, I was processing, evolving, and most of all healing. The time I’ve spent on this project has helped bring me back to myself. If I learned anything, it’s that creativity can do that.

The size of the prints in this collection is intentionally small—4×6 prints matted in simple, clean 8×6 block frames—because there is an intimacy about small; a softness, a tenderness, a gentle invitation to get closer and really look into the image. Even back in art school when more value was placed on bigger and bolder, my desire was to work on a more intimate scale. I was criticized for creating things that were “too small and too beautiful” and it almost drove me to change my major and walk away from art. Spoiler alert: I stuck with it and only got more confident in the work I wanted to create because of the criticism. I share that history as a way to share my reasoning behind sharing and selling this inaugural collection particularly. It’s a very full circle, highly curative moment for me as an artist.

As for this first run, I have only made 1 print available per image. It felt like a good way to dip my toe into the new world of selling my art, which truthfully feels quite vulnerable. Please know that if the image you want is sold before you can purchase it, please reach out as I am happy to create one for you! There will be plenty of images similar to these and also in different sizes and forms in the future!  I have already been working on different images and exploring new ideas and it’s making me so happy.

If you want a sneak peek of what prints I’ll be offering for my first sale, pop over to the Print Shop Sneak Peek page! See you on Saturday, over at my shop! Squeeeee!