"DIMPLES" has moved to ETSY and a LIFE LESSON!

"DIMPLES"...remember her?

  4"x4" oil on 3/4" deep cradle

$40

NOW IN MY ETSY SHOP!

"Dimples" has quite a sunny personality; although you may not see it at first.  Her dimples imply the happy girl underneath all that bravado!  But, regardless, look at those beautiful eyes she has!  Dimples is painted on a textured cradled panel that has black painted sides.  She is perfect to hang as is in that spot where you can see her and smile, or sit on a shelf or an easel.  She can even be framed!  "Dimples" is traveling to my gallery in Conifer, but if you don't live near enough to visit Luna's Mandala in person, just let me know and I'll gather her up and ship her to you!

NOW, as artists I'm sure you have some life lessons you have learned in the process of finding locations for your work; the in's and outs of life in galleries and other types of venues.  HERE IS MY LATEST STORY.  I'm only bringing it up so we call all learn better lessons TOGETHER...perhaps it can save someone out there some frustration and loss of time and energy.  I DO NOT hold bad thoughts for the owner of this business; the latest venue where I had my work, HOWEVER, I've learned some lessons. 

The first thing I did wrong was to NOT insist on a copy of my signed contract up front!  My personality is so trusting at first, so I believed her that she did not have a copy machine and that she would e-mail it to me A.S.A.P.  The second thing I did wrong was to NOT be more clear in my insistence that I get an inventory of sales in a timely manner.

At first, it seemed to be going well.  This was a venue where I rented a space and was able to change things out as I saw fit.  I LOVED THAT part.  I signed a 3 month contract to see how things would go in a mixed venue as it was.  I sold a painting within a couple of weeks...YAY.  I also put jewelry and up-cycled furniture in my space to try to fit a variety of needs in the area.  My first niggle of doubt came when the owner asked for rent for the next month...hmmm...I had been told they would take rent out of sales...hmmm...SO, I asked, and she said "Oh yes, no worries".  My second seed of confusion was when she asked me why I had not signed off on inventory sheets.  WHAT INVENTORY SHEETS I asked...I've been waiting for them...Thus my first strong request...5 weeks after signing the contract I'm now asking for the copy of the contract AND the inventory of sales in December...I got many excuses...but no results despite more than half a dozen requests for the documents.

MORE concern came when she told me she'd lost her backer and did I know anyone with $100,000 to invest?  Um...a, NO...I didn't.  NEXT was two different stories of her bad financial past...conflicting stories...made me a bit concerned.  NEXT came the request that we could all "roll our profits" to cover rent two months in advance...and that would be better for "us". and, the final straw was the day before we were to receive our checks she said her business account had been hacked so checks would be late. That could have been true, but the timing on top of the other was suspect...and my trust was broken at that point, so it is NEVER wise to stay when there is no trust!

I'm still not getting invoices, and now I'm getting statements that infer that I am ignoring them...hmmm...SO, many red flags caused me to pull out a few weeks early.  When I went to take my things out, she gave me a lecture and told me how disappointed she was in me...I felt it best to be nice and just pack up and go.  I gave her a check to honor my part of the rest of my contract as that felt right to me regardless of the broken parts on their part of the contract, and left... EXHAUSTING!  Mentally...it felt like they were priming us to get December monies and then leave in the night...I drove by more often than I would have; checking for a truck out front! HA.  PHYSICALLY because I had to take out a LOT of stuff and get home to finish work.  EMOTIONALLY as it felt like I had been treated badly and I didn't feel it was anything I had done.  

LESSON:  a good idea to get the financials of a business before you invest your hard work in it.  BE CAREFUL of new businesses...she is new to the mountain area as well as a new business person...GET REFERENCES...IF they haven't been established you would be wise...SO...hopefully this will help anyone out there from having the stressful experience I did.  ONWARD AND UPWARD!!

HAPPY CREATING!