The Whole Shebang
The Whole Shebang - Originally Posted August 6, 2015
“The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.” Dale Carnegie
Calendars, calendars, calendars! They have arrived! I was so excited that my box was delivered yesterday! These are 2016 calendars with nice big pictures of 12 pieces of my art, one a month accompanied by a quote. As regular readers know from the format of my posts, I love uplifting and motivational quotes, this calendar has quotes by JFK, Amelia Earhart, and Roald Dahl to name just a few. The calendar idea came from my friend Suzanne who creates a yearly calendar from her yoga studio, Ashtanga Yoga Club Durham, to support an organization where she adopts her Chihuahua children.
Successful people have a social responsibility to make the world a better place and not just take from it. – Carrie Underwood
Any Artist or Craftsperson is also an entrepreneur and a businessperson. I’ve learned a lot about the business aspect of being an artist, and while its not my favorite part its definitely just as important as any creative project I take on. I took a great class for small businesses, entrepreneurs, or people who had a dream of being self-employed/business owners. It was at the local community college (Durham Tech Orange County Campus) and taught by Carl Baumann who is still my amazing mentor in all things business. It was a great class and I highly recommend it. One of the most interesting concepts to me was an accounting practice called ‘Triple bottom line’. This type of accounting encourages businesses and corporations to think beyond the bottom line of profit to a broader and more sustainable business model; people, planet, profit. The idea is that in your business plan you are thinking about the environment and your impact on it as a business as well as being socially responsible and giving back. This idea really appealed to me. As an Artist who is just starting out I don’t have a lot of income from my business at this point, but I think if you start early, and always plan to incorporate these ideas, as your business grows its already in place, and giving a little is better than not giving at all!
“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
I’ve made plenty of donations of my art to groups I support, but I wanted to have a plan that would help me to give regularly to a non-profit that I support. If you read my blog with regularity (if you don’t you should subscribe!) you have heard about The North Carolina Therapeutic Riding Center where my daughter takes classes. It is an amazing organization that exists by donations and volunteers with very few paid positions. I wish each of you could make a trip out to the farm and observe what an amazing experience it is for children and adults with special needs. My calendar project is going to help support NCTRC with a monetary donation of 50% of profit from these calendars. I am so happy to be able to put this project together, providing an avenue to help raise money for them! Of course providing a vibrant piece of art to look at each month of the year also helps me to achieve my goal of spreading light, love, and laughter in the world one painting at a time. I’m really excited about these calendars!
“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
These calendars are full size wall calendars and are $15 each. If you’d like a calendar you can contact me at boldmovesstudio@gmail.com or head over to my website www.boldmovesstudio.com it might seem a little early for a 2016 calendar, but time flies and its never too early to start shopping for the holidays!
Light, Love, Laughter
Shannon
