Once upon a time there was a girl with a paintbrush...
A long, long time ago, I worked in a law firm. I was not a lawyer, though I recently realized that for most of her life, my niece, who was born just after I quit working there, thought I was.
I was, however, very stressed and I started painting to relieve some of that stress.
Soon I had an Etsy shop, The Dreamy Giraffe, where I sold my paintings of big eyed girls, and the occasional big eyed boy or critter.
So though this shop is new, I turned 40 this year and I've been selling on Etsy for a quarter of my life, y'all!
2010 was one of the worst years of my life. It ended with me losing my dad the same week as I found out my only sister needed major surgery ASAP. It began with my sales drying up. Though not nearly as devastating as all my family had gone through that year, my shop's sudden failing was an added heartbreak, both since I'd put so much of my blood, sweat, and tears into building it and because I was single and it was my sole income.
Here are two things you should know about me: I have a complete inability to give up and I'm very long-winded (so, yeah, this story is far from over...grab a cup of something yummy to drink and settle in!).
I was at a loss. I'd said so many times that big eyed art was just my thing and I couldn't imagine painting anything else. But if I wanted to keep making a living as an artist, I had to do something. And though I said I couldn't imagine doing anything else...I had this list. This list I kept of things I wanted to try someday.
On that list was: "Get some fonts and make some quote prints."
You see, long before I picked up a paintbrush, I was a writer. I'd always toyed with the idea of creating typographic prints featuring my own quotes and poems.
Just cutting my losses and closing my shop wasn't an option, so I indeed got some fonts and starting making some quote prints. And pretty soon, The Dreamy Giraffe was starting to show some signs of life once again. I fell in love with typographic design. I fell in love with fonts. I also started doing some illustration digitally, and I fell in love with using textures and patterns created by others.
This absolutely beautiful thing is happening right now in the art and design world. The business of designers and artists creating resources for other artists to use in their own work is BOOMING. There's so much beautiful stuff out there...not just fonts and textures and patterns, but so much clip art. SO much beautiful clip art! I'd never incorporated it into any the work I sold at The Dreamy Giraffe, preferring to keep everything there drawn by me.
But the clip art lured me in.
For years, I have loved using fonts others had painstakingly created in my typographic designs. There's something super special about it to me. It's not just me and paints and a canvas. By purchasing the resources other artists and designers have created (and commercial licenses to use them in my own work), I'm able to help support them in doing what they love for a living. And I'm able to create so much more than I could have ever created if I was doing everything myself. (I draw SO slow!) I love picking and choosing the different elements and arranging and rearranging them until I have the design just right.
Here at The Printable Rabbit, it's not just my work. So many hands have gone into each piece, allowing me to take my own ideas and maybe some clip art drawn by two other artists and three or four fonts created by another and a texture made by another and mix and match and remix it all into something original and beautiful and, well, kind of magical. My process is kind of like taking the very best ingredients and knowing kind of what I want to make and experimenting until I have just the right recipe for yummy eye candy! (You'll still find plenty of my own writing here, as well!)
I am forever grateful to the artists and designers who generously offer their work for others to use commercially. This shop wouldn't exist without each and every one of them. I am a grateful for YOUR support, because in supporting me, you help me continue to be able to support not only myself, but other creatives. Here's to the dreamers and their dreams coming true!
