The time has come for me to promote a store I’ve begun. It’s on Redbubble , which is free to me. When people buy items emblazoned with my images, I get a cut. Right now my store is called, quite inventively, Sarah Torribio.
Why do I have the audacity to think that I could own a store? First–and I’m not being paid to talk up Redbubbble–the site makes it really easy. Idiot proof. ADHD-proof. And all that good stuff.
We’ll see how it works out and I’ll keep you posted.
You see, I’m looking to put in place something I read in a book back in the go-go early 2000s. I’ll paraphrase: “Every creative, every entrepreneur and everyone needs to cultivate multiple streams of internet income.”
I liked the sound of it, “Multiple streams of internet incomes” I didn’t know what it meant, but I intended, and still intend, to find out.
The second-reason I’m making a foray into art and stuff-making is that I took art all through high school and pondered studying fashion design before I chose journalism. (Or did journalism choose me?)
Finally, and it’s almost embarrassing to admit, I wanted a clothing store when I was a goth teenager. It would be a mixture of vintage and new clothes and would be called “The Fashion Cure.” The Cure was going to be written using the Cure’s own font, which might have led to a lawsuit.
Wouldn’t that suck, being sued by one of your favorite bands, by someone as awesome as Robert Smith. I think that requires you wear some kind of scarlet letter.
Art, design and shop ownership are intriguing paths I’ve chose not to tread, or to relegate to the realm of hobby. No longer. I accept that I am an insane, mad polymath who wants to pursue several creative mediums all at once.
Anyhow, the images I’ve uploaded to Redbubble, enable products with my art’s likeness to be made into items like into items like T-shirts, A-line dresses, backkpacks, hats, wall art, pillows, magnets, aprons, coasters and stickers.
I expect to have items in several different categories. I’ve upload today’s item, “Mid-Century Modern Housecat,” as part of a series called “Cat’s Meow.”
Don’t worry. You won’t find that every post I make from now on is an advertisement for my own swag. God forbid I become Ned Ryerson from “Groundhog Day,” a man everyone–including protagonist Bill Murray–avoids because the guy’s always trying to sell them health insurance.
However, it’s time for me to commit. This means completing projects and not being afraid to promote them. This means embracing a poly-hyphenate kind of career because that’s what creatives do. We do anything to avoid a regular day job, although most of us have one.
In the image below, I find it pleasing that I have featured a legendary mid-century painting subject, that of the blue woman, as a small piece of wall-art. It’s a bit of exotica that enlivened the ’50s/’60s home, as did the feline lounging on the sofa.
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