Phew, July…what????

It’s actually been a bit chilly in LA…I know, I know. Not actually chilly. But like, not hot. So, naturally I put on a sweater because that’s what you do when you have a chance to wear something cozy. And then I was sweating and I took the sweater off remembering it was 70 degrees and that is actually a really perfect temperature. 

Had some really good conversations in the last month about being an artist with other artists. Found many times a common sense of confusion. Asking the question, “am I pursuing the right things?” Or “am I investing time creating the right things and putting enough time into the right business moves.”

My friend Toby opened a gallery with a group of other artists in CDA called Modus…it’s stunning and I think they did such a good job. A big leap of faith for her and others. It takes time and patience and often financial strain to build something that big! 

My friend Erin is doing a weekly farmer’s market, shifting focus from painting large scale to trying to figure out what is sellable in a 5x5 tent space that she has to be able to put on her bike trailer. Quite an operation. It is a time consuming and physically taxing effort to maneuver doing markets as an artist! Especially for the first time. 

My friend Brett started a new music project and is releasing new music and trying to build a new thing that no one knows about yet. It takes guts to ask people to pay attention to something for the first time. It’s scary. 

I am living in LA with a huge amount of market inventory hopping around between rentals trying to figure out where to actively store all my stuff in a strange, expensive, unfamiliar area. As my mural gigs have mostly dried up and freelance biz is less consistent I have found myself mostly all in on doing markets this year. Didn’t quite expect that! It is taking a level of focus and faith to drill down and continue imagining how I can be myself in this space while also maximizing appropriately to be able to pay my bills. 

Just a few little stories of creative problems and the soul searching that comes with them. I think artists inherently are question askers. From big questions of why are things this way, all the way down to the little questions. While we aren’t drawn to predictability, we are still human. What begins as the exciting/curious terrain of being an artist can often lead to lonely paths.

This is not at all meant to garner sympathy or anything. I actually love having these conversations with my friends because it makes me realize why we all ended up here. In the face of big questions we do exactly what we are meant to do…create. We don’t walk away from the questions, we walk straight into them and make meaningful work. 

Capitalism will make us feel as if we aren’t doing it quite right…ALWAYS. No matter how successful you are. Capitalism will make you feel like you haven’t done it right or haven’t done it enough. 

I still refuse to shrink under the weight of whatever questions come up for me today. It’s not about deserving to be an artist, or being good enough, or people wanting to buy my work…it is just a sense that I’m choosing this right now. My answer is to continue showing up to my creative practice. And to continue to deepen that practice with each new question that arises.

There’s your halfway through the year hype session. LOL Not sure if you needed that, but I guess I did!

Love ya’ll, have a great day!
Karli

A seconds sale is something ceramic artists do to clear out pieces that didn’t come out quite as planned. I had a pile of pieces like this and some leftover from the last series of markets I was hoping to find homes for. So those are all in my shop for very discounted prices, 50-90% off what I would normally charge. But of course, some of them have some small issues or maybe just didn’t come out like I was hoping. 

SHOP ceramics!

I’m going to be doing a big shuffle before moving into the end of the year and will be discontinuing quite of few of my greeting card and print designs. Just looking to refresh and make room for new ideas. If you’d like to restock on greeting cards or anything like that, this Bogo sale is the perfect time. Marrow cards and my new book are included in the sale.

No markets this month! Taking July off to rebuild my ceramic inventory. But I will be back at SF renegade the first weekend of August and Jackalope in San Diego at the end of August. :)