Sunny says:

I’ve never hid the fact that my work is Suzi-inspired, she was my teacher! Again, if you look at my earlier paintings, you can see that I’d been trying to make girls like these for a long time, but it wasn’t until Suzi taught me these skills that I was finally able to. As I said at the time, Suzi taught me to do what I was already doing, better. Anyone who’s been following me or my site or my art for the past 9 years knows this. It’s nothing I’m ashamed of, it’s nothing I hide and it’s not a fact I don’t like, it’s just a fact. I do however, believe my work and Suzi’s is very different and that’s something Suzi herself believes also because she’s said it with her own two lips. (During the whole Willowing fiasco.)

“Novice: a person who is new to the circumstances, work, etc., in which he or she is placed; beginner; tyro: a novice in politics.” – Dictionary.com I’ve been working in mixed media for 9 YEARS, how am I a novice? Yes, I’ve only been doing these girls for about a year & a half but they’re consistent and in my opinion, as well as others’, consistently good. If you were to tell me I was a novice when I made my first paintings for Les Petite Dolls (which I sold the day I posted them online, btw, for $220 a piece), I would have agreed with you, but at this point I’ve made enough of them that I’m pretty sure I’ve perfected my technique.

And how are they naive or primitive? I’m not understanding your words here. Suzi’s are naive and primitive (intentionally) and mine don’t look like hers, so I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about. I’d say, especially compared to Suzi’s and compared to those who emulate her, mine are actually pretty damn polished.

And no, my slow painting has nothing to do with my sales, I don’t even know how that could be a factor. My slow painting is due to my process, my limited space and the fact that I’m surrounded by children for a good part of my time. It takes me approx. 2 weeks to complete a painting, if not 3, although usually I work on 2 at a time. Why it takes so long is because each painting has a minimum of 11 layers and a lot of time is spent waiting around for those layers to dry so I can go on to the next one. If there’s a third week, it’s usually because I hate doing arms with a burning passion and tend to procrastinate on getting them done. None of that has anything to do with sales or money and whether things are selling or not, I’m always working on something so I don’t see your point on this topic as being very valid.

OF COURSE the paintings would sell better if they were priced lower, that’s simple economics, but my time is worth money too and to suddenly sell them for lower than I’ve been charging all along is a slap in the face to the customers who have already bought paintings at these prices and who will probably buy again. I’m not in this to “churn out my art quicker”. I’m an artist, not a factory. I get an idea, I get inspired, I make it happen, it’s as simple as that.

I have no idea how you figure that if I hold onto these paintings much longer my skills will supposedly go “NO where”. You’re gonna have to explain that one to me.

And I’m sorry if I offended you with my mini-rant on what mixed media is. I think you know the crowd I’m talking about who think what I said they think mixed media is and I made the (perhaps wrong) assumption that you were lumping me in with those people. Just so we’re clear though, their target markets and my target markets are not the same markets. I dunno if you saw my post a while back where I talk about Somerset Studio’s Artful Blogging (which is probably the worst magazine I’ve ever read) and it is not my intention to have anything to do with that crowd in any way whatsoever for precisely the same sentiment as you yourself stated. I realize we’re on the same page here with that one, I just wanted it to be out there on record.

As I said in my previous reply, I would rather not sell a painting at all than sell it at a discount. It’s as simple as that. In April, when I find out whether or not I got this grant I applied for, depending on that outcome I plan on approaching some of the galleries local to me and THERE I’m gonna have to “suck it up”, as you say, because as you probably know, galleries take a huge cut, sometimes up to 50%. (That’s why I figured I’d try Etsy in the meantime.) I know I can’t get $500 for a painting, so I’m going to have to work with the galleries with pricing so that I get a reasonable amount for my work, but no matter what, I’m probably going to be walking away with $150 maximum for each painting going the gallery route. But that’s when you “suck it up” – to gain more exposure. Online, I’ve got exposure, I’ve got crazy exposure, what I don’t apparently have right now, is customers and people (fans, previous customers and wannabe customers) have flat out told me that times are tight right now and they simply don’t have the money to spend. So yes, the economy has everything to do with why I’m not selling right now. Art is a luxury that a lot of people simply can’t afford right now. That’s why I’m doing the ACEOs. (Well, that and I’ve never done them before and I think they’re cool.) Spending $100 on the supplies to make $30 ACEOs made a lot more sense with the current economic climate than spending that same amount on canvases to make $250 paintings that people simply can’t afford right now.

And I’m not pissed off at your advice, as I said, I just think it’s misguided. You’ve only been around my world for what, a year, tops? You don’t know my audience (I do, though), you don’t have a dialogue with them (I do, though), you don’t know my history with selling art on the internet or what I’ve done to come up with my prices. You don’t know my creative process, you don’t know what kind of research I’ve done as far as how to sell art online (rule #1, from my research, is to never ever mark down your work after you’ve set a price), you don’t know who I do commissions for or how many I do (I say I don’t do any because I don’t like doing them, but I get sweet talked into it more than I’d like), you have no idea what you’re talking about.

I don’t mean to be so inflammatory but it’s frustrating when someone comes out of the proverbial woodwork and, without understanding who they’re talking to or what that person does, starts basically saying “YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG”. A good example of that is “You are slow because they aren’t selling.” That’s talking out of one’s ass, plain & simple.

I like you. You’ve left very kind comments on some of my posts over the past year or so and I’ve really appreciated them, I just think this vein of comments is completely off the mark.

(Oh and I don’t mean this in a pissy way at all, but my comments are messed up, so if you’re wondering how I’m getting spaces between paragraphs, I’m using the [br] tag – although with pointy brackets – in between paragraphs. In my e-mail I can see your breaks, but when they post on my site, they don’t stay. I’ve asked Blake to figure out why this is 100 times, but he’s been too busy.)