Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Reworking my Etsy "About"

So I have decided to change my About section on my Etsy page and after playing with it awhile I'm not so sure if  I'm on the right track for myself.
I'll walk you through my thought process.

I've had the following since I started my shop in early 2010.


I am a visual artist who is finding ways to incorporate my talents and passion into functional art. I love to paint in all mediums available to me. I also love to print, and to teach others to print. 

Right now clocks are a big thing for me. I collected clocks as a kid and my love for the ticking and tocking has never died. A while ago I was looking for a new clock for our new home, but I wanted something fun and original. I didn’t find anything I liked, so I started to make my own. Since then I have had tons of fun with it.

I have transformed the den in our house to my studio, and am constantly fighting with my green thumb husband about how much space he can have for his plants! I have had a studio in every house/apartment I’ve lived in for the past 16 years, even if it meant I didn’t have a living room. Having a studio was a prerequisite before getting married or buying a house. 

I love to create. It makes me feel accomplished. I sit at a desk for my day job and at the end of the day there is nothing I’d rather do than play in the studio.



I felt there was not enough of me in this description.  I was telling about my products but not enough about me.  I wanted to describe myself with more of my voice.  I also wanted a little bit that others could relate to.  So I came up with the following.

I love stories I can lose myself in, sun soaking kitties, kayaking the Puget Sound, skirts with pockets, playing footbag with my husband, and homemade breakfast burritos for dinner.

As a kid I would read books in my favorite trees, swim in the river, beat all the boys in bike races with no hands, collect fun clocks, and of course get my friends to craft with me.

As an adult I barley have time to read books in one sitting like I use to. I still swim the river at least twice a summer and I look longingly at my bike every morning as I leave to my day job.

I have transformed the den in our house into my studio, and am constantly fighting with my green thumb husband about how much space he can have for his plants! My studio is my sanctuary where I spend my time printmaking, sketching, painting, making clocks and inspiring others in random craft projects.

I believe everyone can harness the power of creativity and use it for greater good. My ultimate goal with my art is to motivate others, and motivate myself to live up to my childhood expectation of being an adult.

I then got to thinking that this says nothing about how I got to be on Etsy.  So I started from scratch again and came up with the following.

When I was a kid I said I wanted to be an artist and had elaborate day dreams about how life as an adult artist would be.  As a teenager I would have similar day dreams, but shortly after that I got caught up in everyone else’s expectations and forgot all about these dreams.  As I worked my way through college for literature and various other subjects, art was always and only on the side.  It was something I was good at but not a career path.  Even while working at the local art store I never considered pursuing art as my business.  In hindsight this is very surprising because I always had studio space wherever I lived, even if it meant I slept in the closet.   But I never once took my childhood artist dream seriously, I had pretty much forgotten about it.
 
Since I have opened my Etsy shop in earl 2010 I feel like I have found lost pages of my childhood diary.  All of a sudden I remember those day dreams and desires and now I am working hard at making up for lost time. I want to be the adult I once dreamed I would be.

I have transformed the den in our house into my studio, and am constantly fighting with my green thumb husband about how much space he can have for his plants!  It is the best studio space I have ever had.  It is my sanctuary where I spend my time printmaking, sketching, painting, making clocks and inspiring others in random craft projects. 

As you can tell I like the line about my transformed Den.  I think it's important for people to know where I work.  What I did leave out was that I work a day job, I'm torn about this.  I want people to know I'm struggling like everyone else, but at the same time I feel strong as an artist and don't feel defined by my day job.  
I realize that I don't talk about my process or my material in this introduction.  I feel this is better left to the individual listings.

I would love to hear some input about these post.  With each rewrite I'm becoming more and more unsure of what my "About" should say.

Help!








3 comments:

  1. Reading your post has me thinking about what my 'About' says and I will have to look at it for potential revising!

    I like the third rendition. It strikes a chord in me about following/returning to our dreams and striving to be the adult we thought we would be. A powerful reminder of the need to be 'true to ourselves.' Not an easy task.

    If your day job does not define you there seems no need to mention it, I long for the day my job is to stay home and create what ever strikes my fancy that day... My current 'day job' pays the bills for now and I am grateful I mostly enjoy it when I am there and it is satisfying.

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  2. Gosh this is a hard process, isn't it?

    My favourite part of all is this: "I love stories I can lose myself in, sun soaking kitties, kayaking the Puget Sound, skirts with pockets, playing footbag with my husband, and homemade breakfast burritos for dinner." - because it's such an eclectic mix, I really feel I can see you!

    Next best bit is finding the pages from the childhood diary.

    Thanks for your thoughts on mine - you've now made me realise I forgot to write that I'm a fulltime crafter! I think PeggySue is right, there's no need to mention the dayjob if it's not important (other than the $$$)

    Good luck!

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  3. I finally decided on not one but a combination of all three. Check out my Etsy "About" section for the final draft.

    This is a hard subject, and one we don't revisit often enough.

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