Reaching out to Abby (26)

July 10th
Sweet. Maggie the Painting is another portrait ready to go and just needs my signature after I check it over for any last minute triple zero brush touches. Nobody else will notice the difference of a stroke here or there, but fiddling around in my final self-approval stage makes me happy. Andrea was surprised and teary-eyed to see her sweet dog on my easel in a text message. I look forward to her reaction in person. Will this be another Instagram worthy moment?

Yesterday, I purchased an e-book as an investment in my future. Abby Glassenberg was one of the first podcast voices I listened to in the car. A sewist and blogger, Abby taught Middle School math before the birth of her first daughter. Her blog, "While She Naps" was developed as a hobby and she eventually turned it into a business, giving up her teaching career for the joys of crafting and motherhood. Back then, I had no idea what a blog was or how it was different from a website. This was still early days on the internet with social media communities. Of course, as I get excited about all things tech, blogging took over the creative world and became my thing as well. The visual gratification of a beautiful post filled with my students' artwork was a great way to communicate with parents at Ranney. On a more personal level, my home blog became a place to air my writing. I wrote about my creative whims, recipes, quilting, and art. The writing and the art was just a hobby for me, as I had another more financially worthy title of Art Teacher to fill my days. Abby's blog and podcast slowly evolved into a business platform where she made herself a living selling PDF patterns and membership to her Craft Business Alliance group. I slowly stopped listening to her business conversations in favor of vegan podcasts and other creative podcasts featuring artists talking about art, not about business.

Along the way in our internet friendship, I reached out to Abby a few times. Each time, as a true internet friend, she replied. That was always thoughtful of her to take the time, and it made good business sense, as she got me to buy things. For example, through Pinterest, I was inspired to turn my Beginner self-portraits from school into a doll for each 3-year-old child. The dolls brought their innocent scribbles to life and made a splash in my art show for a couple of years in a row. It was a huge undertaking to do this, but I was very proud of this project and I shared it with Abby. I even bought one of her patterns for a real doll and made it for Emma as a present. Abby thanked me for my note and appreciated the pictures I sent of my Beginner dolls and her pattern made into an Emma doll. After our correspondence and me sending her pictures of my dolls made out of drawings, I found a photo of a doll she made from her daughter's drawing on Instagram. I quietly accepted personal credit for her brilliant social media photo, even if she did not offer it to me.

The next time I reached out to Abby was with a question. I was not using my personal blog to its potential, but like the rest of the world, I got caught up in the Instagram storm. I was excited to upload quick photos of vegan food and art to Instagram. All it took was one well-written sentence and hashtags to reach out to the greater community, and I received instant gratification for my efforts. Artists need to share, they need the applause for their art. The personal blog was a journal of creative moments for me, whereas Instagram made me feel like an artist of worth. I wrote to Abby and asked her if blogging was dead. She got back to me with strong words, insisting that blogging, which is the basis of her business, is more vital than ever. Okay, perhaps for her. Pleased that she replied to me once again, I felt like she really is my internet friend and I tried to see her point of view. I still preferred listening to other podcasts in the car and happily continued to use Instagram instead.

Now I have all the time in the world to try out blogging again. Could that be a way to sell my portraits? I can go back to my blog, update it to reflect my new stage in life, and link it to Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and even to Twitter, (another thing I have an account in but do not use. Honestly, how many hours are there in a day, even for someone with time on their hands?) So yesterday, Abby was selling an e-book through her e-newsletter. For only $13 I can read why blogging has not died. I not only take personal credit for this topic (which she did not offer me after I posted that very question), I was intrigued enough to spend the money and get a better answer to my query. Halfway through her book and I am still not convinced. She must be a born saleslady and I am happy she is making a living doing what she loves. She got me to hand over cash for a good PDF pattern and a good pep talk on blogging. Today, I will sign and frame Maggie, upload the portrait to Instagram, finish reading my new e-book, and possibly write a blog post.