Today’s art podcast is an unusual one. All we know, is that we have both been going through an art block and instead of talking about it between ourselves as we’d normally do, we thought we would save our chat and share it with you. Mainly because we try to keep things real on here. And the reality is, that not all art comes easily and not all artists always feel like painting.
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This week’s creative question
Q. What is the weirdest thing you have ever painted/drawn?
So from here on we have no notes and no idea what each other have to say!
0:00:00
Sandra
Where we would usually ask each other, what’s new? Before going on to today’s topic. But today is going to be a very different format than usual, because we have no topic. In fact, we have got no idea what we’re going to talk about. All we know is that we’ve both been going through well, I’m not sure whether yours is an art block or not, Tara. Mine, I’m not sure, is that it’s an art block. I don’t know what it is, but there’s some kind of something resistance.
0:00:34
Sandra
Yeah, a lot of resistance. A lot of resistance between me and the art studio, and I don’t know why. And instead of talking about it, Tara, like we normally would, wouldn’t we, we thought, let’s save this and share it with you guys, because mainly we try and keep things real on here, don’t we? And the reality is that not all art comes easily. Not all artists are always looping around with their brushes in their hands and painting away.
0:01:07
Sandra
So from here on, from this moment on, we have absolutely no notes and absolutely no idea what each other has to say. So it’ll be an interesting one. And I will say, Tara, that usually when either one of us are feeling like this, the first person that we would actually speak to about it would be the other person. But we’ve actually avoided it, haven’t we?
0:01:30
Tara
Because we were saving it for this.
0:01:32
Sandra
Yeah, but probably it might have been I mean, normally it would be very wise to talk to the other person, wouldn’t it? But we haven’t. So I’m going to kick off with what’s up with you?
0:01:43
Tara
Yeah, I’m slightly wondering why it’s me that has to go first.
0:01:47
Sandra
Well, it doesn’t have to be you either way.
0:01:52
Tara
So me, I can tell you why I’ve not been drawing or painting, basically. I’ve hardly made any art for about three weeks now, I would say. And I’ve also been very down on social media.
0:02:06
Sandra
So when you say down, what do you mean, down? You mean you’re pure?
0:02:10
Tara
Well, as in well, I’ve posted, but I’ve been a bit more sporadic because I was making sure I post at least five times a week on social and I’ve missed a few days. And because I’m obviously not painting, I’ve not made new content, but I have this folder full of stuff that I’ve made previous. Not that I’ve shown, but I’ve been trying to, when I make a painting, to make it into multiple videos, so I’ve got those as backup.
0:02:41
Tara
But it’s ridiculous, because you tend to look at them and think, what’s the point showing that? Because people have seen the other bit of that, they’ve seen the whole time lapse. Will they want to see me just putting the white paint on? But of course, the majority of people haven’t seen that, have they?
0:02:57
Sandra
No. And I was going to say you could always reuse old content as well.
0:03:02
Tara
Yeah, I’ve done that as well. But, yeah, I’ve just been feeling a bit down on it and I think it’s because I’m not kind of receiving results from it. I know that results is the wrong thing to say, so it’s nice being able to chat to people about art and make connections on there, but it’s not making sales, which is what I need, I need to make sales. And very much for me, I’ll tell people my situation.
Basically, I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve got some savings and also my partner has been helping support me and I’ve been trying to make a go of doing my art rather than anything else, rather than trying to get other work. And I’ve got to that point where I think, yes, I think I can do this, but I think it’s a long haul. I don’t think you’re going to do this by a month’s time, unless something miraculous happened, I’m not going to suddenly be able to sell my art full time.
So I’ve been kind of looking as you know, I’ve been looking at other avenues of selling because I was so focused on it’s all about social media.
0:04:14
Sandra
Yeah.
0:04:15
Tara
So, as you know, I then booked up an art show, so some of my time, at least one or two of the weeks was spent starting to prepare for that. So I was doing little things like making labels, very exciting stuff, do you know what I mean? But stuff that you kind of need to do to get organized, getting insurance ready for it. And also, I think one of the things is I was sorting out my art and I’m thinking, which bitch lucky take? And I’m quite prolific, as you know. So I’m looking, I’m thinking, what is the point in making more art when you’ve got all this art to sell? Now, that’s ridiculous because I like making art.
0:04:56
Sandra
Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. I suppose if it’s the joy of.
0:04:59
Tara
It, but it is the joy of making it. But you look at it and you think and then I also I’ve got this thing where lately I’m not liking some of the more recent art as much as I did art from a year ago.
0:05:14
Sandra
Yeah. You say you feel like you’re going backwards.
0:05:17
Tara
Yeah, I’m doing one of those things, you know, you do the things where you go backwards for a bit.
0:05:21
Sandra
Yeah.
0:05:21
Tara
And so it’s all these things. And then also because I’ve just told you, I know I’m not making an income at the moment. I decided, right and this may be really depressed, I decided right after this show in April, I’m going to have to start going on LinkedIn and Facebook and asking if there’s two or three days a week freelance graphic design work. Now, you know how much I hate that, don’t you?
0:05:45
Sandra
Yeah. Would you not be better off going and working in a coffee shop? Or something.
0:05:50
Tara
Yeah, but you see, if I go and work in a coffee shop, it will pay like a fraction of what I could earn. I’ll have to do three times as much of it to earn the same amount. So what I decided was that I’m going to have a go at making templates to sell.
0:06:09
Sandra
And what do you mean by that? Templates for what?
0:06:12
Tara
If you go onto places like Etsy yeah, they sell, like, design templates made in Canberra for different things. So you’ll get, like, templates for a CV, templates for an invite, templates for labels, templates for packaging. So designers and people who are arty have gone on there, made these templates in Canva, and then they sell them.
0:06:38
Sandra
All right, that’s interesting. So that doesn’t sound too boring either.
0:06:43
Tara
But they sell them multiple times.
0:06:45
Sandra
Right.
0:06:46
Tara
But obviously it’s very competitive, so I could be completely wasting my time.
0:06:50
Sandra
Yeah, isn’t it? Because the only thing with that is it’s not guaranteed income. It’s a bit like the art, really, isn’t it?
0:06:57
Tara
Yeah, it’s a bit like the art. But if I can manage to do it and make enough templates, it could give me enough income that it allows.
0:07:07
Sandra
You to carry on doing your art.
0:07:08
Tara
Yeah, exactly. Are you enjoying when you’re making the art?
0:07:14
Sandra
I know you said you feel like you’ve gone backwards. I don’t personally actually think you’re going forwards, but anyway, it’s about what you feel. So do you still enjoy it when you’re doing it? Are you still loving the process?
0:07:30
Tara
Well, no, because not because it turns out shit.
0:07:35
Sandra
Right. We always say it’s all about the process and not the result.
0:07:41
Tara
No, because of what happens with mine, you see, because I don’t know what it’s going to look like, so I might enjoy it, so I would enjoy putting the income. And I think yes. I love this. This looks good. And then I’ll put the next bit on and I think, no, I’ve messed it up. And so then it kind of takes the sprinkling of joy off of it when you think, this isn’t going to work out how I thought it was going to look. Not that I plan it, but it kind of appears and then you get to a certain point when I can kind of see if it’s going to work or not.
0:08:16
Sandra
And I’m fine.
0:08:17
Tara
I don’t mind if I create one or two and they don’t work, but you know, when you create a run of them.
0:08:24
Sandra
Yeah.
0:08:26
Tara
And actually, Kevin said something to me the other day, and I actually did this a few weeks ago, and I thought, this is what I should be doing, and actually said what you used to do was you used to make multiple images at the same time. So I used to create, say, three backgrounds.
0:08:43
Sandra
Yeah.
0:08:44
Tara
And then I could choose the background, so I got more of a chance if I’m doing three. That one’s going to work, you know what I mean? Yeah, so that is one of the things. But I do still like it. But you can imagine, can’t you, if you did some paintings, you might still.
0:09:02
Sandra
Enjoy the process, but then if everyone.
0:09:04
Tara
You weren’t happy, if you felt like you’d gone backwards, you start thinking, oh.
0:09:09
Sandra
Yeah, and we’ve got this bundle of.
0:09:12
Tara
Art to sell as well. Honestly, we went through it and I’m like, oh, God, so much art.
0:09:18
Sandra
Well, the good thing is because yours is on flat sheets of paper, generally. Or boards.
0:09:24
Tara
No, mine are on boards.
0:09:25
Sandra
Yeah, but they’re flat, aren’t they? So at least you’ve got somewhere to store them.
0:09:29
Tara
Do you know what I mean?
0:09:30
Sandra
If you had a ton of canvases I’m only glad that a lot of mine have gone to that gallery, because it’s just like, where the hell do you store them all when things aren’t selling? What do you do with them? Do you know what I mean?
0:09:42
Tara
You don’t want to put them in.
0:09:42
Sandra
The loft because you don’t want the damp to get them. And it’s like, well, how many do you keep going with? How many do you do only for them to you have nowhere to put them, do you? What know I mean yeah, it is totally that.
0:09:59
Tara
It was just that thing of I think when I was going through them as well, it was like looking and think, oh, I love that one, and this is good because I go, I love that one. The majority of the ones I did love, some of the ones from Rita I liked, the one I sold, actually, so I haven’t got that one, but a big one that I sold with the words on, you know, it in the world. Yeah, but then the majority of the ones I really liked were from, say, a year, six months ago.
0:10:26
Tara
There were a few that I liked more recently, but maybe that was like Kevin said, because I was doing more at a time.
0:10:36
Sandra
Yeah. So you haven’t got an art block. I think, as well, what you were saying earlier about social media, it can be quite disheartening, can’t it? When you put some effort into making a real or whatever, and then you end up getting, I don’t know, 50 likes or something, do you know what I mean? As much as it’s wonderful and you’re grateful for those people for clicking, like and you sort of think, wow, that took me ages to do that. And it’s not really sort of got out there. And how do you get it out there?
0:11:09
Sandra
I think it can feel very disheartening. Yeah.
0:11:13
Tara
And also, I had someone said about social media, likes, don’t pay the bills.
0:11:19
Sandra
That’s right, they don’t.
0:11:21
Tara
And I actually saw something that Carmel we talk about Carmel a lot. Carmel Jenkin, who we interviewed a while back.
0:11:26
Sandra
Hello, Carmel. And we spoke about on every episode.
0:11:30
Tara
Since she put a post out about.
0:11:34
Sandra
Getting a viral post and she said.
0:11:38
Tara
It’S not what you think it’s going to be. You imagine getting this viral post means you’re going to sell loads of art. And she said she had a viral post and she didn’t sell a single bit of art, but what she did.
0:11:49
Sandra
Get was a lot of trolls. Right.
0:11:53
Tara
Trolling her work, saying that’s rubbish, because you get more of course, it’s then shown to more people who probably aren’t your audience. Yeah, they see it and then people like it, but they’re not necessarily going to buy it. And also she said, then you get a lot of followers, but then they rapidly unfollow.
0:12:14
Sandra
Yes, probably because it’s not the type.
0:12:18
Tara
You probably know about this from TikTok.
0:12:20
Sandra
Yeah, I guess I do. Really? Yeah. I mean, I had, I think, three viral videos on TikTok. Not well, I was saying not art related, sort of, but in a very rude, rude way. And, yeah, they went viral. And I have to say, touch wood, I haven’t yet had any bad comments that I’m aware of. There came a point where these posts were getting so many comments, I couldn’t keep up. I just couldn’t keep up anymore, so I just stopped reading them because they had hundreds and hundreds. It was just like, I can’t because normally, if somebody comments on a post, I’ll always respond because I want to. I think, oh, well, you took the time to comment and I’d like to take the time to answer, but I didn’t, so I might have had some of that, I don’t know. But the thing about that, I put.
0:13:21
Tara
A few in there. Did you trolling comments?
0:13:29
Sandra
What happened was I suddenly got a lot of followers overnight and that’s fine and it’s brilliant, it’s great. And I have kept the majority of them, which I’m amazed at, but because with TikTok, for me, I’m going to go into this a bit later, because I want to talk about social media and how I feel about it at the moment, where it comes when it comes to my art. But TikTok has become a different thing for me.
0:13:59
Sandra
It’s a way where I can just post all sorts of things. It doesn’t have to be art related. And I like that because there’s no pressure for me to think, oh, I haven’t posted any painting, it’s just TikTok is completely different. But with that, what happened. So I got loads and loads of followers from these posts, but of course, that is not the only type of post I do. I do lots of tongue in cheek stuff and I’ve done two or three really rude ones and some art stuff and some just general lifestyle and some product reviews and all sorts of things I do on it, mostly with my tongue in my cheek, but these particular ones got a lot of traction.
0:14:44
Sandra
But, yes, what happens then is you do a video like that and then the next day you’re putting on some lip gloss and telling people where they can buy it. And whether you like it or not, the person who liked the previous video, if they see that, they’re going to go, oh, that’s not what I followed for. And unfollow, of course. And just like Carmel, I think TikTok is the one place I’ve noticed the followers, really. You gain them and lose them equally as fast, do you know what I mean?
0:15:17
Tara
Static.
0:15:18
Sandra
Well, I don’t put any effort into it, no. With Instagram, I’ve had a very slow and sort of steady incline, I guess, over the last sort of few. Well, not since I’ve stopped painting for a while, but the numbers have always gone up, they’ve never really gone down. I don’t think I’ve ever lost followers on Instagram. With TikTok, I’ll gain 100 followers, but I’ll lose 102. Do you see what I mean? And that’ll be overnight.
0:15:50
Sandra
So I think, all in all, and I’m pretty lucky, actually, because, to be honest, because the ones that went viral were so different than what I normally do, I’m amazed I didn’t lose a few thousand, but I haven’t. I’ve lost about 100 or maybe 200. But it’s hard to know what to.
0:16:08
Tara
Do with that audience, though, isn’t it?
0:16:10
Sandra
Yeah. And I think I think lessons for fun. Yeah, that’s exactly it. And that is what TikTok has become for me. It’s nothing really about art. There are arty things on it, but it’s more about what’s the word I’m looking for? About every part of me. Every side of me. I like to make a cake, so I might put that on there. I love wearing nice makeup and doing hair, and I like painting and I like gardening.
0:16:48
Tara
I like all these drawing things, drawing.
0:16:50
Sandra
Willies and drawing willies and all this sort of stuff. And I love comedy. I absolutely love silly one liners. So, because I like all of those things, I think, well, actually, TikTok for me is that I’ll do what I want. If I fancy doing one thing one day, that’s what I’ll do. And if I fancy doing another thing, that’s what I’ll do. What I don’t feel like I have to do is I’ve got to post today. If I was an influencer, I’d have to be posting three times a day. I’d have to be. But I’m not an influencer.
0:17:24
Sandra
I review a few products here and there and I’ve got a few freebies given to me recently, which has been nice. Yeah, that’s nice. Yeah. I got some boob tape, just what you want. What do you do with that, where you put it on instead of a bra, so you could wear, like, a strapless top or god, and it’s quite funny, actually, because I was thinking, right, how am I going to review this, then? I don’t want to show any more of my boobs than what I would be willing to in my general life. Do you know what I mean? How am I going to do this? So instead of doing the big plunging cleavage thing, I thought, no, I’m not going to do that, I’m going to do an off the shoulder jumper. Because sometimes you don’t want to have a bra strap showing. Do you know what I mean? So I did it like that, but I also made it a bit funny and I haven’t seen that one. Oh, you have to go and see it.
0:18:17
Sandra
One of the funniest ones I did was.
0:18:22
Tara
I’d need it like massive thickness for mine. I don’t think they’d have big enough tape.
0:18:28
Sandra
It was quite funny. I say. I did review this stuff. And also, do you know what else I did as well? Because like I say, I like to make things.
0:18:34
Tara
I know you did the beard one.
0:18:35
Sandra
I did the beard oil and I actually sold some of that. I did. Yeah.
0:18:43
Tara
Kevin, when you did that. Now everybody, can we’ll leave everybody to guess what you use instead of a beard? Yeah, but I said to Kevin, she’ll never sell beard all by doing that, because people just find it funny.
0:18:57
Sandra
Yeah, I believe that. But I’ll tell you what, I think people like a bit of fun and I think probably somebody said, oh, I’ve got by that because that was funny. It made me laugh. I don’t know. God, most of it, if I do a review most of it, I try and make a bit of fun. And this tape, what I was doing, I was using it as well to sort of strap up all of my on my face. But you know what, the reason I’m talking about this for everyone who’s listening to this thinking, how is this art related?
0:19:35
Sandra
Well, what I was going to say about it was instagram. I save purely for my art. I’ve never used it for anything else. It’s always about art related stuff and hence why I haven’t posted for quite a long time on it. Because of this blip I’m having at the moment, facebook has just become one long ream of adverts. I’ve got friends I know personally on there and it’s hard to even find anything they’ve done.
0:20:03
Sandra
So what I’ll do is on Facebook, if I have something personal to show, you can market. Yeah, I have prioritized some people, but yesterday it was a beautiful sunny day. It wasn’t overly warm, but it was beautiful and sunny. And I sat down by the pond and was watching the fish and I fed them an orange, right? And they were loving it. They were loving life. And I really enjoyed that moment. So I took a little video of it and I put it on Facebook. That’s the kind of thing I’ll do on my Facebook.
0:20:35
Sandra
Not my art page, just my Facebook. But quite honestly, I think you put that on insta.
0:20:40
Tara
Definitely in a story.
0:20:42
Sandra
Yeah, you could do it in a story, but then what’s the point? What is the point? Nobody on Instagram knows.
0:20:47
Tara
People get to know you, isn’t it?
0:20:49
Sandra
Yeah, I guess so. I guess so. But yeah. So Instagram I like to keep just for my art. Facebook is more of personal stuff. And again, my Sandra, the artist on Facebook, that is obviously just the art, and TikTok I found has been what’s the word, a kind of light relief, because I’m not expecting anything out of it. I’m not thinking, right, I haven’t got many likes or beard oil, I haven’t sold a painting or nobody’s buying everyone’s liking, but nobody’s.
0:21:32
Sandra
So I’m not expecting to gain anything out of it. If I make a few people chuckle, that’s good enough. And I enjoyed that and sometimes it makes me chuckle, and that’s the point of it for me. So I kind of feel this has become more of a bit of a light relief. And that’s why, to be honest, I’m not really posting any art stuff on there. Mind you, I haven’t gotten into post on it at the moment anyway, because I haven’t been doing it.
0:21:57
Tara
I thought you might be trying to launch yourself as a stand up stand up comedian.
0:22:02
Sandra
Oh, my God. No, definitely sketch.
0:22:04
Tara
Like a sketch artist.
0:22:06
Sandra
I love little comedy sketches, I really do. I really enjoy that sort of stuff. But going back to the social media, what you were saying, let’s go back to completely. I’m not going to talk about TikTok now, but when you post something on Instagram and you get likes and things like that, generally speaking, and I don’t want to sound bad saying this, but obviously most of the people that follow me. And I think it’s probably the same for most artists out there are other artists because they want to know how you do things. They want to know, what paint does she use, or this, that and the other.
0:22:50
Sandra
They want to see your work in progress because they want to learn from it, and that’s fine.
0:22:54
Tara
And they want to know other artists.
0:22:56
Sandra
Yes, because you don’t necessarily know artists. And I love that. I’ve got no problem with any of that. And I’m the same I follow artists for the same reason. But I’m not necessarily going to buy someone else’s art, because if I saw something I liked, I’d think I might have a go at that. Do what I mean. Yeah.
0:23:17
Tara
I think artists do buy from artists, because obviously the people who’ve bought well, a couple of my prints and my painting are artists.
0:23:26
Sandra
Yeah.
0:23:27
Tara
So I do think artists do buy from artists, but yeah, I know what you mean. You’re not reaching beyond artists, probably.
0:23:36
Sandra
No, and that’s the thing, that’s where it’s a car, you’re always going to have limited number of sales like that, aren’t you? Do you know what I mean?
0:23:44
Tara
And also in laws of numbers to be able to get the sales, you need to have, like, 200,000 followers, don’t you, in order to be able to because only a small fraction of those people see it.
0:23:58
Sandra
Yeah.
0:23:59
Tara
So unless you’ve got massive numbers, only people see it, and then only if you pick fraction of those would buy it. So our numbers yeah, we’re not I.
0:24:08
Sandra
Think back when social media was such a massive thing, you needed to be on to sell, you needed to be blogging constantly, you’ve got to have a website, you need to be on social media and you need to be posting three times a day. I think it has become because of all of what I’ve just said, I think it’s now become so dilute, it’s very hard to be seen. And with all the algorithms and everything I think we spoke about this last time we recorded that, isn’t it? Instagram are going to start charging or something, or am I wrong there?
0:24:43
Tara
Yeah, no, that’s right.
0:24:45
Sandra
So the minute they start doing that, I’m not going to do that. I won’t give Instagram much time at all, if that’s what they’re going to do, because why would I bother? Do you know what I mean? That annoys me. I just don’t like that. Yeah.
0:24:57
Tara
What I’m curious about, actually, when Instagram does that, just going off on a tangent a little bit, is will you still be able to look at other people’s work? Because it could be good as well. If it means that you can look at people’s work without actually having an account, then you might get people who are non artists as well. Look on there.
0:25:19
Sandra
Right, I see. Yeah. Okay.
0:25:21
Tara
But I don’t know. Yes, I don’t really like the idea as well, but then you’ll hear people say, can you imagine if someone, like, years ago, before the Internet, can you imagine if someone said, oh, for £10 a month, we’ll let you show your art to a lot of people in the world? Can you imagine how many people go yes.
0:25:45
Sandra
Yeah, that’s true. That is true.
0:25:48
Tara
Yeah. It depends how you look at it. But yes, I mean, the problem is that they’ve gone from this sort of free model, where they were basically.
0:25:58
Sandra
They.
0:25:59
Tara
Were using you to make money from their advertising, basically, and now they’re going for the double whammy, where they’ll use you to get advertising and they’re charging it, and that’s where the pushback comes, isn’t it? Whereas if they started off being a tenor, nobody would question it, but back.
0:26:16
Sandra
When they used to say, oh, you need to do this, you need to post every day, you need to do that, and the other there wasn’t such a huge amount of people on there, and now there is. And I think because of that, most people just flick through and they don’t even bother clicking, like, or whatever, because they just are flicking through and it doesn’t mean they don’t like it. It just means that everyone’s in such a hurry now, they just flick, flick, flick with their thumbs, and they’re not really sort of engaging, they’re just like, oh, like that. Yeah, like that.
0:26:45
Sandra
And that’s the thing, is getting engagement, and I think the problem with this is it can become very disheartening when you sort of are putting a lot of effort into something and you’re getting very little engagement from it. It’s a bit sort of well, and we were saying earlier, neither of us actually have made sales for quite a while, have we? And the problem with that is now, when I sent those things off to the gallery, he said, and this was how long ago was it? It was just when the war had broken out in Russia and everything had gone pear shaped, basically, and all the bills had suddenly gone sky high.
0:27:26
Sandra
And he said to me, as he took them away, he said, if these don’t sell, he said, you must not think it’s anything to do with the standard of your art. He said, because I can tell you now it is not because I’m here and I’m standing next to it. He said, but what I will say is that very little is selling at the moment because people are panicking. And the first thing they’re going to say is, I’m not buying anything I don’t need, apart from the kind of art, which is thousands of pounds.
0:27:55
Tara
Yeah. Because very low level, I should think.
0:27:57
Sandra
A very high level, very cheap art and very expensive art, because the people that can afford very expensive art, they’re not affected by all of this anyway. No. The people like, perhaps you and me, who might think, oh, yeah, I’ll buy sort of art for, I don’t know, 400, 500 quid or something like that. You just wouldn’t do that at the moment, would you? Because it’s something you can do without.
0:28:25
Tara
Yeah.
0:28:26
Sandra
And because of that, you kind of start thinking, well, actually, like you said, Tara, you’ve got a box of art, none of it’s selling. I’ve got paintings coming out my ears now, and it’s like, well, what’s the point in doing another one? I’ve got nowhere to put it. I could get it off to the gallery, I suppose, but what’s the point if no one’s buying them at the moment? And that’s kind of become a bit of a what is the point?
0:28:51
Sandra
And it’s taken the joy away, even though we love it. Yeah, it’s taken that kind of like.
0:28:58
Tara
Is it for you? Do you think that’s what it is?
0:29:01
Sandra
No, I think that’s a small part in a big snowball of various things.
0:29:07
Tara
Well, let’s pick through yours, then. Why?
0:29:10
Sandra
Well, I feel like I’m talking a lot here. I want to go back to you as well, though.
0:29:18
Tara
I don’t think I’ve got much more.
0:29:19
Sandra
Yeah, well, that’s a good thing. That’s a good thing. Oh. Gosh. Where to start? Okay. You’re going to be shocked at this, Tara, and I probably won’t, so you probably will when I say this. So about three or four weeks ago, when I was starting to feel like this and I was in a big dark hole, actually thinking, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? And I sat at my computer and I had my finger on the mouse and well, first of all, I unsubscribed from virtually every single art related email newsletter I’d ever signed up for. Because we’re not interested. Yeah. Don’t want to.
0:30:10
Sandra
The only people I didn’t unsubscribe to yours, but every single art related thing, even ones that tell me about upcoming competitions, what’s the point in that? I unsubscribed from the lock because opening an art related email was making me feel really low. Because what’s the point? I don’t feel like an artist, so what is the point? I then went on to my social media and thought, I think I’m going to delete my account from Instagram, from Facebook, and also I might delete my website.
0:30:50
Sandra
That’s where I was at.
0:30:54
Tara
Shocked?
0:30:55
Sandra
Yeah, I thought you might be.
0:30:56
Tara
You should have rung me then.
0:30:58
Sandra
Yeah. And I said to Paul, I feel like I’m not in a good place here. And I feel like I just want to if I just delete everything and say, well, I’m no longer an artist, then I feel like there’s nothing to expect because I’m not that anymore. Do you know what I mean? Funny enough, Paul and I, he’s been really good. Bit like Kevin when he speaks to you. And he said to me and the other thing, this might shock you as well.
0:31:34
Sandra
The other thing I said to Paul, actually, I said, how can I record a podcast? Because we were talking about what subject you fancy doing next. And I said, Paul, how can I record a podcast that’s supposed to be encouraging other people to create art when I’m feeling this way? Because I feel like such a fraud. I feel like I’m a fraud doing this. And he said, do you know what? He said? If you do what you say you’re going to do, which is delete everything and just throw the towel in and say, I’m not doing this. He said, It might make you feel relieved for a short period.
0:32:22
Sandra
He said, when you’re feeling better, which you will, you’re going to regret it. He said, you’ll regret you’ll just regret it. Because I said to him, why don’t we just turn my art studio into the office? I promise you this is serious. This is how bad it is. Or was. I said, can we not just might as well just knock the wall through. I’ll just have the whole lot as an office. I’m not going to paint anymore.
0:32:49
Sandra
I don’t want to. And again, he said, look. He said, I want to do your office out anyway, because my office, honestly, it’s such a dark little place and it backs onto my art studio, which is a bright and airy space. And he said, we’d do your office out. He said, but your art room, he said, it doesn’t matter if you don’t go in there for three months. He said, Just don’t go in it. He said, but you will regret it if you throw everything away because you are feeling low about everything. He said, Because you’ve been here before.
0:33:26
Sandra
And I have to say I haven’t been here, not here. I’ve had bits like it, but nothing like to this extent anyway. So I wonder as well, I said about my office being quite dark. So obviously I do work as well. I have to to pay, you know, to earn money as well, because it’s guaranteed income. So I work only for nine till three, Monday to Friday. I do five days in the summer and four days in the winter. But what the problem with that is that my office is very dark to the point where even in the middle of summer, I have to stand under a spotlight to get my solar calculator to work sometimes.
0:34:16
Tara
Oh my God.
0:34:17
Sandra
So that’s quite a long time to be sad.
0:34:20
Tara
You got sad syndrome.
0:34:22
Sandra
Well, I don’t know. But what I would say is that we’ve had a long winter, haven’t we? And I don’t know whether that’s just plunged me into a bit of a sort of like so Paul, what he’s done? I love the guy so much, I really do. He literally ripped out my entire office floor, stripped the paper, got rid of my glass desks, which are like putting my arms on an ice cube in the winter. And it’s horrible. He took all the lights out.
0:34:59
Sandra
He took one of the small windows out and swapped it with a massive French door size window. It doesn’t face south, but it faces sort of more towards the east. No, west. Sorry. So when he put this window in, I walked in and I was like, oh my God, so different. And he put new flooring in, he’s repaped it all in this kind of like really pale, sort of creamy wallpaper, which is lovely. He’s put all new daylight spotlights in, you can dim and new desks and a plant.
0:35:39
Sandra
Then we all put it together, we put it all back together and it is like a completely different room. Like completely different. But of course, in the meantime, this has all taken a couple of weeks. In the meantime, my art room became the dumping ground for the office. So now the art room is full of crap from stuff I don’t need, stuff at least going to a skip. There is nothing in there that makes me want to go in it at the moment either.
0:36:06
Sandra
Because I was having this conversation with Paul yesterday, because I said I was hoping by now I’d feel better before I record the podcast, but I don’t feel better, really, and I’m worried about bringing people down because that’s not what I’m supposed to be doing. And he said, that’s my job. He said, look, he said, you know what we’re going to do at the weekend? Because it’s a nice long weekend, isn’t it?
0:36:32
Sandra
We’ve got Good Friday and we’ve got Easter Monday, so we’ve got four day weekend. He said, So on Friday, he said, we’ll do a bit of gardening because we need to do a bit of and he was like, Right. And he said, and on Saturday, we’re both going to go in your art room, we’re going to gut it, and we’re going to put it all back together, as in, like, get rid of all the crap in there and make it all lovely. Clean it up so that when you want to go back in there, you’re like, yeah, I really want to be in here, rather than, oh, I’ve got to clear it all up first. So he’s really trying to give me a boot up the bum, which is good.
0:37:03
Sandra
And he’s right. We’ve talked about art blocks before, haven’t we? Yeah, definitely. And I said, Tim, but I’m still worried about this podcast. And he said, do you know what, Sandra? He said, I know in the past when you felt like this before, he said, I know this because I remember you saying it. He said, You’ve listened to an art podcast before, and somebody else has said they’re going through this thing where then they feel crappy and they’re not painting and they don’t want to paint. They’ve got no desire, because I have no desire out at the moment.
0:37:37
Sandra
And he said, and you’ve come away and said, oh, my God, this normal. Other people feel like this. Even this artist who does this feels like this, so maybe it’s not awful. And he said, and that’s what your job is now. He said, Your job is now to.
0:37:55
Tara
Say how you feel it’s normal and.
0:37:58
Sandra
Allow other people to think, actually, yeah, I’m there. And even if you’re there, then why wouldn’t I be there sometimes as well?
0:38:08
Tara
So what happened with because you were before, you were doing these little sketches, and not long ago, this was you were doing those ones where it was like a blind contour, and you said you were enjoying those.
0:38:21
Sandra
The only thing I have enjoyed doing recently are those little blind contour things that take me about 1 minute. I love them. I still think I would love them, but obviously, because my art rooms all over, I haven’t even been in there.
0:38:34
Tara
But you could do those just in the kitchen, couldn’t you?
0:38:36
Sandra
Yeah, easily. Yeah. I think the problem is I hit such a wall, I didn’t want anything. I’m not even going to sketch. I don’t want to because I’m not an artist anymore. I’ve decided I’m not an artist anymore. I feel better even talking about it, I actually feel a bit better about.
0:38:55
Tara
It, yeah, it is weird because I imagine even the most famous artists will go through this, won’t they? It’s normal, it’s like athletes, isn’t it, who have this really good run and then they just can’t do anything, they lose everything and it’s just like that, isn’t it? But I don’t know why we do it and I guess it’s a whole raft of things, like they’re not selling it makes you feel not worthy, doesn’t it?
0:39:27
Tara
Big not worthy of it. And then for me, it’s like looking at my older work and you think, well, you’re getting worse, it’s like, why would I paint when I’m getting worse?
0:39:38
Sandra
Yeah. I feel like I’m not getting better. I feel like and in fact and Paul did say something to me, which is absolutely right. He said, I can always tell how you feel by how your painting goes. And he said, Your last painting you did, it wasn’t as good as your normal stuff. And I thought, yeah, he is right.
0:39:59
Tara
Yeah.
0:40:00
Sandra
So I’m going to take it off the website and I’m going to either work more on it or I don’t know, but I’m not sure.
0:40:08
Tara
But he’s going to go and put your foot through it, aren’t you?
0:40:11
Sandra
I may well do that if that’s what I should do, that’s what I’ll do, but probably just needs a bit more work, really. But I think that saying art is never finished, it’s only abandoned. I think this one genuinely was abandoned and I think it was abandoned because I just started going into the hole at that point and that’ll do, which is wrong, I should never think about that. There’s nothing on my website I’m not happy with apart from that one.
0:40:39
Sandra
So today that will come off until I’m happy with it, or it may never see the light of day again. I’m not sure.
0:40:49
Tara
I don’t see why you take everything down, though. Because I mean, definitely leave it up. Because even if you just leave it dormant, it doesn’t matter, does it?
0:40:56
Sandra
No, but except there comes a point where you’re paying for all this, you’re paying for this stuff, aren’t you? Like, do I really want to be paying for things done? Nothing for me, actors, apart from act as a business card, I guess, online, it’s really strange.
0:41:14
Tara
No, I know what you mean. I’ve done that with blogs and stuff I’ve had in the past. But I’ve had this thing where I’ve.
0:41:22
Sandra
Kept them going and kept them going.
0:41:24
Tara
Because you don’t want to let go. But I don’t think yours is like that. That wasn’t things I loved, which I think this is something you love, it’s just you’ve not got the love for it at the moment.
0:41:36
Sandra
Yeah, I’ve lost my way, I think yeah, and I want to feel nothing.
0:41:42
Tara
Else bothering you, is it? There’s nothing else bothering you?
0:41:46
Sandra
Well, no, I think, well, we have had a lot of stressful things going on personally as well as in with family members and people you love when you watch people having stressful situations and as being their relatives, you’re sort of like you worry and stuff like that. So yeah, there’s things like that. So I don’t think any of that has helped. I think it’s a lot of things all rolled into one but I feel like I’m usually a very positive person, really am, so when I don’t feel positive, I feel like it kind of hits me hard, I’m like I don’t know how to deal with it, I’m like how to feel why am I feeling like this?
0:42:32
Tara
Maybe it’s just our age, we could.
0:42:34
Sandra
Be hormonal, you know? It could yeah, but you just don’t know. But you can’t help that, I guess that’s just something that but the thing is, even if it was, those things go up and down all the time, so what I’ll feel like now, if that was the case, in a week’s time I might feel completely different, you.
0:42:52
Tara
Know, me skipping to the skip into the studio. What about sketching? Have you felt like you used to occasionally if you’re with Paul, you’d sketch?
0:43:02
Sandra
Yeah, no, I haven’t done any of that. No, I’ve had zero desire to do anything like that.
0:43:10
Tara
But that you should just carry on with your what’s it yeah, I think.
0:43:14
Sandra
That’S probably what I do want to do. And I think if Paul does help me sort out the art room, I think I might just do that and think, actually, no, I don’t need to paint at the moment. If I want to paint at some point in the next couple of months, then I will. But at the moment, I’m loath to spend a lot of money on a canvas. When I feel like this, what’s the point? And again, not selling it anyway, so it feels a little bit like that, sort of feel like actually I’d almost rather just if I was going to do something, think I could do with one of these things on my wall, actually, but doesn’t have to be about my normal style, just trying something a bit different.
0:43:57
Tara
I don’t know, try an abstract since I’m going to do a podcast about it. Yeah, but the funny thing is I find with art as well is because you’ve just said like, I don’t think I should get a canvas, I don’t think I should do that, but sometimes I’ve actually not felt like doing anything and I’ve actually done something anyway and it works.
0:44:17
Sandra
Yeah, sometimes it’s just getting started, isn’t it?
0:44:21
Tara
It’s that resistance of starting and the worry of what it’s almost like we said before, isn’t it? The worry of what it’s going to look like. It’s not just being about the process, like we said before, it’s being about the result because however much we say you can’t help wanting to be by the result. Can you as well?
0:44:38
Sandra
Oh, of course. Nice.
0:44:42
Tara
Maybe you should just get a little canvas. You know when you did those bums.
0:44:46
Sandra
Before with the apples and the peaches.
0:44:49
Tara
Did you enjoy those?
0:44:50
Sandra
Yeah, I did enjoy them, but that’s an expensive way of doing something like that on canvases. I think if I was going to do something like that again, have a go at that, I think I need to get myself some a three stiff paper or something, I don’t know. But not I wouldn’t want to go back to using canvas to do those because it’s too expensive, Tara. I mean, doing painting hobby or whatever pastime you want to call it when it’s paper, that’s expensive enough. Because obviously you can’t use cheap crappy paper, can you, doing what you do otherwise, how can you sell it? But it’s cheaper than like a stretch canvas. A, it takes up a lot of room and B, yeah, it’s brimming expensive.
0:45:36
Tara
Well, sometimes though, I think that is the best thing is to get some not expensive materials because I’ve told you before because I could have sold a piece that I made but it’s not on good paper and I’ve got marks on it because it was purely that was trying to get me out of a block when I wasn’t feeling like painting. So I thought, right, just going to use this mixed media paper. It’s a bit thin. I’m going to take the edges.
0:46:04
Tara
I’ve got a few marks around the edge and I love that piece. And it’s because the pressure was gone.
0:46:11
Sandra
Yeah. I think I need to refine some of the fun. And I feel like at the moment, probably what I need to do is not paint. Because when it comes to painting, I’m going to be thinking I’ve got an image in my head. This is what I want it to end up like. And it’s going to feel yeah, I’m going to feel the pressure. So I think probably I need to rediscover just the fun, like you say. Most likely what I’ll do is I’ll start carrying on with the blind contours because I really enjoy those. I absolutely love that I could fill a book full of those. And I did think I might do a sketchbook full of people I know as blind contour drawings.
0:46:57
Sandra
I’d really like to do that.
0:46:59
Tara
Have you thought about trying one of those but bigger?
0:47:03
Sandra
Yes, I have, and I have thought of that and I quite like that idea. And this is something that has just got that tiny little bit of in me, you know that? Oh yeah. But if you said to me, have you thought of trying to paint a I don’t know, not a bottle of wine, but maybe a snow globe or something. Actually somebody did say so. I can’t remember who it was. I’m really sorry if you’re listening, but somebody said to me, why don’t you paint a snow globe with buildings inside?
0:47:40
Sandra
Because I said I don’t like doing buildings. And I thought, oh, God, that’s brilliant, and I love the idea, but no, I wouldn’t want to do that because at the moment, I don’t want to do anything. So what’s the word?
0:47:54
Tara
Complex or that’s quite yeah, intricate. Yeah.
0:47:57
Sandra
Nashira, I just don’t want to paint at the moment. And what you’ve just said about doing a big blind contour yeah, that’s the sort of thing at the moment that’s.
0:48:07
Tara
Just yeah, either color or oil paint. You’ll be interested to see what you did with oil paint. Not done in your layers style, just done like aliprima.
0:48:23
Sandra
Yeah, I’d more like to use acrylics if I was going to do that. Right, yeah. I feel like the only little glimmer of my like, you know, you get a flutter of excitement. That is the only thing that’s doing it for me at the moment is these blind, contour faces, which is really weird, isn’t it? And I thought, what I might do. Yes, just do this little thing and like a book of people I know, Paul had a really good suggestion yesterday.
0:48:50
Sandra
He said, you need to find the fun in it again. He said, because it’s become more almost like you’re trying hard to make money out of it, obviously, because you want to do it full time, you don’t want to be doing anything else. He said, but what you’ve done because of that is it’s become something now you’re no longer enjoying, because it’s almost like an underpaid job. And he said, you need to find the fun of it again.
0:49:15
Sandra
And he made a great suggestion. He said, I listened to a podcast. You wouldn’t know the guy. But he did.
0:49:23
Tara
Yeah, he did.
0:49:24
Sandra
No, he listened paul listens to a podcast and it’s by a guy called Steve Rousey, or something like this. He’s a football mad bloke, absolutely loves Manchester United, and Paul does as well. So he listens to his podcast and he does this thing, and he said, it’s called A. They call it I don’t know if it’s a Friday run. Rum down, not run as in R-U-N rum. R-U-N. And he said, basically, what they do is they record their podcast and while they’re recording, they have a drink. They have a few drinks and it’s completely uncut.
0:50:00
Sandra
And he said, Just having a laugh. And they say, look, if something happens I mean, for instance, if the dog walks through my kitchen now and you’ll hear him and he starts slopping his water up and it’s drinking, I’ll edit that bit out. If your printer goes off, I’ll edit that out.
0:50:19
Tara
Turn it off.
0:50:20
Sandra
Blimey, that’s a first. But it’s kind of like he said, it’s called Thursday Rundown uncut. In a way, you and Tara could do more things like that to have some fun together like that. And I have said we have said this before, haven’t we, Tara, where we’ve said, why don’t we do this thing where we have a little skype and we do some silly drawings while we’re chatting? And I thought, actually, we haven’t done that for so long, and that would be really cool, wouldn’t it?
0:50:49
Tara
Yeah, it’s trying to pin you down to times.
0:50:51
Sandra
Yeah, I know. It’s me. It’s not you. It is me, for sure. I know it is, but I think I want to rediscover just a fun side of it. But do you find, Tara I know that you entered Portrait Artists of the Year, didn’t you? And so did my friend Kerry, actually, and she wasn’t picked either. And I know, right, you were both rejects. You were both rejects, both brilliant artists, but both I mean, I don’t know what they want, I really don’t. But clearly two very talented artists.
0:51:30
Sandra
I don’t understand why and funny enough, and Kerry said to me, she said, well, if they don’t think Tara is different, then you proved that you can do a likeness because you did your own face and it looked I knew exactly who it was. So I think, well, what do they want, then? What do they want? But anyway, you didn’t get in, and neither did Kerry. And I do wonder, because when you’re already feeling a little bit low because you’re not selling or this isn’t happening because I didn’t apply for it, it’s not thing I would do simply because I don’t really do faces anyway.
0:52:06
Sandra
But what I was going to say to you is, do you think that kicked you a bit more than usual because of where you were at at the time? Do you think that’s another thing that people get?
0:52:18
Tara
No, not for me, because I’m a little bit of I don’t know if you call it a realist or a pessimist. So I would assume I wouldn’t get in with it anyway. Yeah, because I didn’t even feel like it was that good. I didn’t think it was that good a lightness, anyway. I actually thought the one I did last year was a much better lightness of me, and I probably preferred last year’s. Well, I don’t you remember it was quite a gray black and whitey gray color.
0:52:49
Sandra
I can’t remember it now, but add.
0:52:51
Tara
A hat on in that one. Yeah, but I thought that was more a better picture, I guess. And I think I did the thing which is not good, where you know how you’re generally very positive nutbeat.
0:53:07
Sandra
Yeah.
0:53:07
Tara
I reign myself in to stop the disappointment.
0:53:13
Sandra
All right. Okay. So we are pretty often yeah.
0:53:16
Tara
So I’ll just assume I wouldn’t get into that because well, then I’d wet myself if I got in anyway. Jesus, can you imagine?
0:53:28
Sandra
Oh, I’d love it. I was like, One of you’ve got to get in. I want to go and watch it. Probably go and watch it anyway.
0:53:40
Tara
Maybe it did affect me well, you never know, do you? Don’t know what does the subconscious. But for me, if I’d have got in, I guess that would have been a lift and would have been you shouldn’t need it. You shouldn’t need someone else to tell you that your work is worthy. Which is essentially what they’re doing, isn’t it? The judges won’t have even seen the majority of those works because they don’t see them. They get done by somebody else.
0:54:08
Sandra
Yeah.
0:54:08
Tara
You know that, don’t you? It’s not even like the main piece.
0:54:16
Sandra
Oh, I know what you mean. So it’s a bit like a girl I used to know years and years ago. She went into what was that singing competition with Simon Cowell and a bunch of people. Yeah. So she went in for that. She had a brilliant voice and she was even in one of the clips where I think she was washing her hand in the toilet or something. I don’t know. But anyway in the toilet? Well, they did a scene where it was in the dressing room and she.
0:54:44
Tara
Wasn’T actually washing her hands in the toilet.
0:54:48
Sandra
In the sink? Yeah, she was in the dressing room. She didn’t get through to the actual shows, but she got through to the auditions. Although that wasn’t aired on the TV. But the interesting thing, what she said was that before you get on the actual show, you don’t see any of the actual judges. None of them pick you. She said it’s other people that you audition in front of a whole load of other people that aren’t on the TV or anything like that. And they just decide who’s going through. And of course, you get the ones that go through purely for the entertainment factor and others that get through because they are clearly talented. But I thought that was really interesting. I thought, oh, okay, so they don’t and even with these cooking shows, the same, isn’t it?
0:55:38
Sandra
You don’t really get to see the real people until you have to go through a whole load of hurdles first.
0:55:44
Tara
Yeah, exactly. I knew someone actually went on for X Factor as well. It was kind of a similar thing. But she’s gay, this woman, and she’s one of my old college friends. And she went on for the audition. She’s got a really good voice and she went one of her ex girlfriends I can’t read her just for moral support at the audition. And she said all they were interested in, they wanted a story.
0:56:12
Sandra
Yeah.
0:56:12
Tara
So if she’d have made up a good story about her and her ex girlfriend and why she was there and everything, she’d have been more likely to get through. Because they want the soft stories.
0:56:24
Sandra
They want the violin doubt, don’t they? Yeah. Oh, God. That’s not why you want to get through to something, is it? You want to get through for your talent, not because you had some horrible thing has happened to you in the past, and why would you want to share that anyway, with the world?
0:56:41
Tara
So she didn’t want to share anything? There wasn’t really anything, I don’t think, much to share, but do you know what I mean? She wanted just to go to sing, but yeah. So the portrayal artists, I don’t think they actually see them. They probably see a selection of them once they’re narrowed down a bit. Yeah, I say I definitely do. I protect myself from disappointment.
0:57:04
Sandra
See, ages ago, you said to me, oh, the Jacksons are doing a competition, and, you know, I applied for that. I’ve got absolutely no idea. I presume it’s all over now. I don’t know. And I presume I would have gotten an email, but it’s like, normally I’d have gone on a checked, but I haven’t even done that. I don’t carry the way. But sometimes I say that I don’t care either way. If I’d have got in, I’d have probably thought, oh, my God, something great, and then it just might trigger something that makes oh, maybe you got that.
0:57:38
Tara
Other one, didn’t you? So you got into that women’s exhibition.
0:57:42
Sandra
The one yeah, I did.
0:57:46
Tara
Amazing.
0:57:47
Sandra
Yeah. I mean, it was that was nice. Didn’t get me any sales, but it’s still nice. It’s still nice. It is normal, we’ve been here before, but I do feel that just maybe it’s rediscovering the fun of it, rediscovering the joy. So where are you at now with things?
0:58:15
Tara
Me? Well, I’ve at the moment, I think do you know what the important thing for me at the moment, for this month anyway, is I need to sort out this art showy, craft showy thing is at the end of the month.
0:58:29
Sandra
Yeah.
0:58:30
Tara
So my priorities at the moment are getting sorted for that, I tell you that. Actually, that is one thing I forgot to tell you, which also made me get slightly demoralized. Was it’s costing a fortune to do this show? Well, when I say a fortune, it’s not really a fortune, but because I’ve never done one before, I’m having to buy things that anybody would have to buy if they’re doing something like this.
0:58:54
Tara
So I haven’t got a wall, so I need things to prop up my paintings. So I’m having to buy these little these easel things, like a tenor each. And then it’s like, how many of.
0:59:04
Sandra
Those did you have to get?
0:59:05
Tara
Well, I bought about seven of those.
0:59:07
Sandra
That’s 70 quid. Right, already.
0:59:10
Tara
Then you need tablecloths to cover that. I know, it’s silly. Then you need to get some prints done.
0:59:17
Sandra
Yeah. And obviously you need a fair few print.
0:59:19
Tara
And then I need frames.
0:59:21
Sandra
They’re the expensive things, aren’t they?
0:59:23
Tara
I bought them from a shop that’s not too expensive, but it’s expensive because.
0:59:29
Sandra
I’ve bought quite a few of them.
0:59:31
Tara
And so in my head, I’m like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. You might not sell anything.
0:59:39
Sandra
And I.
0:59:40
Tara
Just spent out all this money. And that’s, I think, when I started thinking, well, you need to concentrate on maybe another sideline that might make you some income. And I think that also stopped me painting. So my focus this month is going to be sorting out, ready for this exhibition, because I need to frame everything up and I need to put things in bags, you know what I mean?
1:00:04
Sandra
I guess the good thing is, once you’ve got the tablecloth, once you’ve got those easels exactly. And even once you’ve got the frames, as long as you’re going to be selling them unframed, and you generally work the same size each time, those frames, you can just use again and again for different paintings, can’t you? So if one sells yeah, something else in it. So it’s almost like an investment. But it does mean you’ve got to then think about, right, I need to do another show, then.
1:00:29
Sandra
And you need to sort of keep doing it rather than do it the once.
1:00:33
Tara
Yeah, it’s totally like that. It’s that upfront cost, because you haven’t done it before. Once you’ve done it, it’s going to be much a lesser cost if you were doing it again.
1:00:43
Sandra
See, when the art gallery came and looked at my paintings, I’ve got one because I’ve got a few that are framed simply because I did that exhibition ages ago. In fact, say that there are a few. I think those ones all sold now. So there is one, which is a pile of bottle tops, which for some reason is just always hung around. I don’t know that one. Yeah, they really like it. And yet it’s never sold, which is strange. But anyway, it is framed and it’s been professionally framed.
1:01:11
Sandra
But the frame, it was expensive because frames are I can’t remember how much it was, about 70 quid or something like that.
1:01:18
Tara
And it was spoke frames.
1:01:21
Sandra
It was. But I wanted it to be really in a much thicker frame, perhaps like a scoop frame. So it draws your eye into it, because it’s quite a bold, masculine sort of painting, if you like. And it can hold, I think it could hold a very bold, heavy frame to draw your eyes into this burst of color in the middle. And that’s what I was sort of picturing in my mind. And when I went to get it framed, I was looking at this, oh, God, that looks so good.
1:02:01
Sandra
You can only test with the corners, can’t you? But, God, the price of it was insane. I was like, oh, I’m not doing that, I’m not going to do that. It’s an exhibition. I’ll just go with this. It still looks not really nice. It’s just that it would have been even nicer if not double the price to get in fact, more than double price.
1:02:21
Tara
Triple, isn’t it?
1:02:23
Sandra
And when the gallery guy came round, the first thing he said to me was, he said, oh, I love this one. He said to me, that would suit a much thicker frame. And I was like, yeah, I know. He said, it can really handle it. I was like, yeah, I know, but it’s so expensive. Just too expensive to and the reason it’s too expensive and it’s fine if you go, oh, well, yeah, but I just put that on the price of the painting because the person would have to pay for a frame.
1:02:52
Sandra
But of course, you’ve then got to hope that that painting actually sells. So you’re throwing money at something that may not sell for possibly years. Yes.
1:03:02
Tara
An investment again, isn’t it? Yeah, I know, but yeah, that got me a bit down. And I was like, oh, my God. Oh, I still need to buy this. I still need to buy this. And then I heard a podcast saying, oh, you really want to have some little things other than just prints? I’ve got some really basic stuff, like some little badges. I thought kids will buy them, whatever.
1:03:24
Sandra
Yeah.
1:03:24
Tara
And just some really silly little things that if someone like you work but they hadn’t got any money, they could just because he was saying, don’t be precious about it. He says, I get a lot of artists and they’re like, oh, but I don’t want my art to be on merchandise. I don’t want notebooks. And he says, A lot of people aren’t ready for wall art. Just do it.
1:03:50
Sandra
Yeah.
1:03:51
Tara
So yeah, that’s what I did. So that’s my thing, is doing that and then also carrying on with these templates. I want by the end of the month to have at least 15 templates up on Etsy just to give it a go at selling those, I think to try and make some income on the side.
1:04:11
Sandra
Yeah. And then the pressure won’t be so on, will it? It won’t be, exactly. You know, and you can get back to enjoying the process and not worrying so much about whether it’s going to sell or not.
1:04:23
Tara
How about you?
1:04:24
Sandra
Where am I at right now?
1:04:26
Tara
Yeah, are you going to do that? Are you going to do the blind contour?
1:04:29
Sandra
Yeah, I think I’m feeling since speaking to Paul yesterday, and he’s saying, right, we’re going to go into your office sorry, art, and we’re going to really make it all nice again. Obviously, since speaking to you today, I feel like I know what I need to do, and that is I need to rediscover the fun of it. And I do find those a lot of fun to look at and to do and yeah, I think that’s what I need to do. And I’m going to continue without painting for a while because that can come as and when and if it does, I don’t know, it might not.
1:05:08
Tara
I’m sure it will.
1:05:09
Sandra
It probably will, but in the meantime, I think I just need to have some fun. We need to have some fun again, don’t we need to do we need to do some more fun things like we were saying, just doing silly skypes and stuff like that, which we used to have time to do, didn’t we? And I remember during Lockdown, we did a couple of those, they were such fun. But of course, kicking the creatives takes up a lot of time, doesn’t it?
1:05:34
Sandra
And sometimes you sort of lose track on, actually, we need to do stuff outside of that as well and have some of the fun. But, God, I hope we haven’t dragged everybody down. What I’m hoping this has done, this podcast, is to tell anyone out there who hasn’t been through it yet but probably will at some point, or someone out there that’s listening just at that point before. They never want to listen to another art podcast again because they feel that bad that it is generally a very temporary thing. Once a creative, always a creative, I think, at heart.
1:06:16
Sandra
And I’ll tell you what I did get a craving to do, I got a craving to start writing when I wasn’t painting. And it’s not because I particularly want to write, I think it’s because if I’m not doing something creative, I go a bit stir crazy. I feel like I want to do something, even if it’s write a story or whatever.
1:06:31
Tara
So what are you writing?
1:06:32
Sandra
I’m not no, it was just what I was trying to say was, I know that what I’m saying about once a creative, if you’re not doing one thing, you’ll find yourself wanting to do something else. So that says, I haven’t lost my creativity, I’ve just lost my way. And I need to remember what gets my what’s the word I’m looking for?
1:07:01
Tara
Juices flowing.
This weeks creative question
Have you ever been through a serious art block? And if so, how did you pull yourself out of it?
The best answers will be read out on a future podcast.
You can Tweet us your answers @KickCreatives or let us know in the Facebook Group, which by the way if you haven’t already joined, I highly recommend that you do! We will put the question up there and also on the Facebook page… and of course, on our Instagram page @kickinthecreatives.
If you have any suggestions for the podcast or our challenges please feel free to get in touch.
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