Empowered Me

Getting up this morning I had a plan: 

Let the dogs out, eat breakfast, boot up my computer and write about something that has been on my mind for a very long time. 

Before I got on Blogger I decided to check out Etsy and I noticed an article discussing "crafting". Before long I was clicking on every link they had which led me to an eye-opening article here. The article under the link I just gave is titled "Etsy.com Peddles a False Feminist Fantasy" written by Sara Mosle. It's a little dated but I think that it still holds rather true even in current times. 

What I like about this article is that the author takes a look at the data, percentages and numbers of existing members to form an opinion. Based off of her research, she maintains that married mother's (or soon to be mother's) who are at home with children are the likely candidates to be seller's on the site because they are holding "out the hope of successfully combining meaningful work with motherhood in a way that more high-powered careers in the law, business, or sciences seldom allow". What that means is that, in a way, Etsy is catering to that to increase flow onto the website and all-the-while falsely encouraging the idea that you CAN be a stay-at-home-mom and make lots of money. The author also states that it's a fantasy because only an extremely small percentage of people have claimed to do well enough on the site to sustain an actual lifestyle. Upon further inspection of the income of those seldom lucky ones you come to find out that they are not really making a living at all solely on the site and aren't the breadwinners for their family.

I'm not going to go into any further detail about it because I really want to encourage you to read the article. It's well articulated and I'm afraid of not doing the author justice by hacking up her words, but I did find that I was refreshed after reading it.

I've only ever made one sale on my shop, just one. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled that at least one person was able to enjoy my product. To know that someone loved something that I made had me giddy.

Quick story: 

I was at work when it happened. I was sitting at my desk at school after a long day of teaching over 120 small children feeling.just.exasperated. I had a few minutes before my afternoon duty at the car-rider pick-up area so I decided to go through some emails to waste time. As I was perusing my inbox I noticed a letter from Etsy....could it be? I always recognized the emails that were asking me to pay my online bill for that month (come on, everyone knows what impending bills look like) but this one was totally different. I opened it and the next few moments when like this--

Audible squeal with hands slightly raised and fists clenched, dashing out the door, stampeding across campus to the gym, bursting through Coach Cooper's office door, jumping in the air and pronouncing loudly "I sold a painting!" to a very confused Coach Cooper who promptly gave me a high-five and congratulated me.

I love the satisfaction of knowing that someone appreciates my work enough to display it.

The reason I mention this is because I like my shop and I will continue to run it but today, after having read that article, I feel free-r. I had been reading Etsy's "Quit Your Day Job" series. I had been using Etsy as a platform to get me to a place where I didn't have to do any other job but to make art. Hell, I'm not even married and I don't even have kids but that was the long term goal and I wanted Etsy to help me get there.

I felt so frustrated that things didn't seem to be working out. It seemed like everyone else was doing well, so what was wrong with mine? I'm also a part of a group The Art Colony and they have forum's to discuss all facets of making art and in one discussion they agreed that hardly anyone makes serious money on Etsy. Me being me, I didn't want to listen.

I woke up this morning in a bit of a funk (I'll explain in subsequent blog posts I'm sure) and now I feel like I have more clarity. Isn't that so strange???? I feel like I want to create MORE! Maybe it was just me getting overzealous about everything, maybe it was me having unrealistic expectations, maybe it was just me fixating on how things "should be" rather than just appreciating "what is" but I just feel so.much.better.

It's really not just me. I'm not chained to some unsuccessful venture that everyone else obtained with ease. I didn't fail at this!

I had a rough night but I feel so great today (admittedly a bit tired, but great). I think I'm going to spend today continuing to knit my mom a scarf and maybe I'll break out some oil paint today. Who knows?? Things seem limitless today :)