From the SEA Director - November 2010

I do not claim to be an artist.  While I have been surrounded by a variety of artists in my life – my husband was a music minor, grandmother designed greeting cards, and my sister is a high school art teacher– my artistic talents go no farther than playing the trumpet and French horn through college.

My major was marketing and I have always been intrigued by why and how things sell.  Now, I do not actually like to sell things.  But, the idea of creating a great product followed by an excellent promotional plan gets me excited.

When my first son was born, my sister the artist gave me a lamp with teddy bears climbing up it.  It was adorable.  Of course being the 3-D artist that she is, she hand-sculpted the teddy bears.  Later that year she sent me a photo frame for the frig with hand-sculpted brightly colored bugs and other intriguing shapes all around it.  Again, something she had made herself. 

The marketing major in me kicked in and I said, “Do you know how much money you could get if you sold these in some little boutique?”  She had no interest.  I just didn’t get it.  I was sure she was sitting on a gold mine.  What “yuppie” family wouldn’t want an adorable hand crafted lamp for their precious child’s nursery?  I started working pricing structure and looking into all the different boutique stores in the Chicago metropolitan area.  But, she clearly had no interest.

It is this story that makes me so passionate about SEA but also realistic that not every artist wants to be self-employed.  My sister loves being a high school art teacher.  She has two gifts – one as an artist and one as a teacher.  Her students are fortunate to have someone as talented as she is as their teacher. 

However, there are those artists that do want to find a way to turn their artistic passions into a living.  SEA is for that artist, for the artist who is intrigued but perhaps not sure how.  SEA is for the artist who doesn’t know all of the different opportunities that are out there waiting for them.

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