Seem to be over the double vaccine reaction from Friday; feel fine today. Still going to take it relatively easy — there’s a new Penric novella, hooray, so I’ve been alternating reading it with making art — it lets me make it last longer. 🙂
Gorgeous day at the Berwyn Shops, so hopefully we get some customers coming by. Foot traffic is not great here — that’s my main complaint about this location. The bulk of my sales are, I think, from people who see my social media and seek me out.
I’ve been really waffling wildly between two locations for a shop in Oak Park next year:
a) arts district, no foot traffic, plenty of street parking, significantly lower rent (less stressful trying to make rent), beautifully designed space, easier and more chill option all around
b) downtown oak park, a five minute walk instead of a five minute drive away, some foot traffic, difficult parking right in front (but people do park in the lots and then wander around for a while), almost a $1000 / month more in rent — not sure I can actually make that reliably, bigger space, possibility of kitchen down the line
I’m talking to a friend today about whether she might want part of the space — if she does, that’ll ease the rent pressure. And she may have opinions on one space over the other. I’m hoping to make a decision one way or another by the end of the week, if not sooner — we’ll see how it goes.
Part of what I’m trying to figure out is how much of a full-on business I want this to be. I’m still teaching full-time at UIC for several more years, and while I mostly still have enough energy to work 14-16 hr days, who knows if that’ll be true next year, or in three years? It might make more sense to plan on this being at more hobby level? Hobby that at least breaks even, maybe makes a little profit someday?
Things I’d like to get out of this project:
- the ability to buy as many art supplies as I want (which I can pretty much do now, with the money from the business)
- the opportunity to experiment constantly with art projects, rather than choosing the most commercially-viable options (lots more variation, good for my ADHD brain, makes me consistently happy when I’m working)
- a little structure to keep me practicing and producing — I think I’ve gotten better much faster than I would’ve if I hadn’t had the pressure to keep the shop shelves filled. It’s a little like being in arts classes, but instead of a teacher giving me assignments, I’m giving them to myself and learning from books and YouTube — I’d love to take some more classes at some point
- a place to hang out with people — I’ve been feeling a real need for community-building in this difficult political time, and it’d be great to set up regular crafting / knitting / gaming evenings at the shop (if this interests you, let me know whether it’d make a difference if it’s in the arts district vs. downtown oak park)
Those are the big things, I think. I don’t need this to be wildly profitable — I have a day job, as does Kevin. I don’t want to quit that. So the writing professor gig still has to take priority, and this art thing has to fit around that in my life.
