Milestone Achieved
Reflections on my first Art stall.
Kia ora e te whānau.
For years I have attended markets and conventions and thought “I’d like to do that”
Inanahi, i mahi au tērā. The Farmers Market here in Brewtown i packed up my art and created my very first stall.
Pre-event Nerves
During the week I was frantically preparing, totally clueless to how much inventory I needed. Then the Friday I had to travel to Hamilton for work, fly back Saturday and work late that night. When I woke on Sunday the anxiety was high. I was nervous as.
But I also carried the experience that normally when I feel that, once I get started, I’m fine and end up feeling good after I complete the task freaking me out.
And it didn’t take long before I started to experience the benefit of getting out into the public. I hadn’t finished setting up and I had a person come up and talk about my art. We hit it off immediately as he knew a lot about NZ history, which is a topic I love and rarely get to talk to anyone about.
One of the things I was a little nervous about was what I was going to do when I had no one to talk to. It turned out that was almost never a problem. The day was filled with great kōrero one after another. I had a lot of people interested in either my art, my dual journey of Māoritanga and art, or were interested in knowing how to create art. This made the experience totally worth it.
But how did I do?
Well, not good. I sold one comic and 1 art print. On a positive that at least paid for the stall. And this is in my neighborhood so there were no travel costs.
So, what I learned and where to from here?
The positive voice in me kept reminding me, this is a farmers’ market, people are here for coffee and eggs. Not art buyers. I knew this wouldn’t be a high sales audience, but to tell the truth, I would be lying if I didn’t say this knocked my confidence a little.
Another positive, was when I saw people digging through my fan art bin, I was able to talk directly with them about what they would like to see in there. That’s so valuable. It turns out X-Men was the most common request which is fantastic and will definitely be on the agenda.
And though it is great to meet many people who say they love my art and respect and tautoko my kaupapa, I am grateful for that, but if it doesn’t transfer to art sales, then I have to change something.
But not yet. I have to sit in my fear that this isn’t going to work, and keep in mind that this trial period is going to take some time. Therefore, I will target the art markets, geek conventions and some kaupapa Māori events and will scratch farmers’ markets off my list. I’ll keep building my Fanart catalogue and hope to introduce some low-ticket items like stickers.
Final reflections.
Attending my first market, my main takeaway is that I absolutely love it. Meeting people and having great kōrero is a perfect antithesis to sitting at home in ghost mode by myself creating art.
Communicating with people gives me instant feedback to read that will help my decision process when deciding on what series maybe popular or what styles people are resonating with.
My people skills are good, I managed to get a lot of people into kōrero by greeting them as they walk by, and most stayed to hear me chat for quite some time. But my sales skills need work. I had many people browsing, saying they might get one and they love the art, and I didn’t know how to nudge them into sales.
Gratitude
It is thanks to you, my supporters who have previously bought art on my website, that have helped make this milestone happen. I’ll continue this journey, gaining more and more experience along the way, and keep my hopes high.
Tino mihi mō tō tautoko.
Nā Dan