Yearly Goal Update - Things Might Have Shifted
I’ve been meaning to write this for a while just finally feel like I’m able to figure out the words in the right order to share. First things first I am absolutely still making stickers and stationary and all that. My mindset is just changing a little.
Once upon a time I graduated with a BFA in Digital Art. This degree I got was kind of a mish mash of everything you can do on the computer with an artistic mind. It was quite the ride and honestly a ride I was not expecting to be fun and freeing. Some of the classes were a bit catered to Contemporary art, so a lot of what you might see in a modern light. What are artists making and doing now that is shaping the art industry. I got a lot of inspiration in video projection art, electronic art, 3D, Graphic Design (which became my full time gig), and illustration. Something I learned from myself when producing my work was the ability to meditate throughout the WHOLE process. The ideation phase, the planning phase, and the production phase.
When I graduated back in 2019, my brain was pretty excited to stop making “fine art” for a grade and to just do graphic designer for a full-time job. I am 8 years later into this, several graphic design jobs later, and I still love it don’t get me wrong, but I am starting to feel the want to make art for me again. And it wouldn’t be for a grade this time. Not saying the work I have made for this sticker business isn’t art. It absolutely is. The mindset I have behind the stickers currently is “What might people want to see from me?” Which is why a lot of the stickers have a theme to them. Easy ideas that I think the public may want that also happen to make me happy. This is definitely a strategy I have seen a lot of other artists do on the internet and they really enjoy doing that. I don’t blame them I enjoy it too! I think I will continue to do this strategy just so I can get those quick designs out into the world, otherwise I will actually implode.
I want to be able to do the original sticker business strategy I’ve been doing, but also share my more personal artwork. Maybe I’ll even sell the original artwork. I’ve picked back up more traditional tools. I am trying out gouache for the first time and I’m enjoying the hell out of it. And this is the first time in a while where I’ve made something that wasn’t a debrief from a client, or the mindset of a debrief from a client. It is an idea I have had for a long time, just found the right motive and emotion and tools to bring this concept to life.
Not only do I want to do this, but I also want to jump back into applying and exhibiting my work again. So far, I have found a great gallery downtown Orlando I can exhibit my work with an exhibition I’ll enter this particular piece in late May. Will I get accepted? Who fuckin’ knows maybe I won’t, but I’ll still be sharing my work with the world. I sometimes wonder what I am making is too weird to be in a gallery, but we can see. With this also being said, I have kicked back up my portfolio: www.bethanieblack.com
It’s a little darker than the branding I have for my sticker business, but that is kind of what I wanted for my portfolio and really my branding as a whole anyway. So I might be changing my sticker business to match so it’s not totally disorganized. Just know I’m not dead and not more content. I’m actually working on a lot of stuff, just more behind the scenes.
