I started a business and I didn’t even know
I am super excited to share my new website spacesbysmithav.com designed by my daughter. It was her gift to me on my birthday. I had been long wanting to create a site for my art but I had no idea how to go about it. Also, I did not want to hire anybody else to do it because that would mean answering endless questions on ‘Which color background would you like?’ , ‘What font should we have?’ ‘What options should we provide?’ so on and so forth. And I’m terrible at answering questions that require me to choose. That’s one reason I do not get my dresses tailored — I had written all about my dilemma at the tailor’s in an earlier post — A Visit to the Tailor… Not my cup of tea. If you read this, you’ll understand my predicament.
Anyway, coming back to my new website, my daughter managed to create this without asking me any questions, which was the best part of the gift. The idea to create the site was because I had been receiving requests for my paintings and I had been dilly-dallying on those requests as I had no link or pdf that had all my work in one place. All those of you, who follow my blog, know about my art journey, and know, how technically challenged I am.
When my daughter created the website that was all there was to it- to have a link that could be shared around with friends and family. It was only yesterday that I realized I was in actual business (whether or not the product sells) when I received a call from the customer service officer from the payment gateway I had provided on my site. He said I needed to have Ts &Cs, a Cancellation policy, and a refund policy on my website. When I tried telling him that it was only for friends and family and I didn’t expect any returns, he said, “Ma’am that’s policy. You need to update these, or else we will have to suspend operations until you submit the documents.” So, whether or not the site is going to be a success, I am now a business owner! I am no longer a homemaker which was the role I was relegated to (by banks and other institutions that required me to fill up forms and write my profession) after two decades of working in the banking sector and then moving out of it for personal reasons. How cool is that!
Like most things in life, I wasn’t confident about art initially. It helped that I was doing it for myself with no end goal or need to prove anything to anybody. When a few friends and acquaintances requested me for my paintings and said they wanted to buy them, I sold them my work. But it was only when I saw my painting on a neighbor’s living room wall and both, she and her husband, said, ‘Your painting is the focal point of our living room,’ I decided that I wanted my paintings to fill more ‘spaces’ and see the same smile on people’s faces that I had seen on my neighbor’s when looking at my work. At about the same time, someone I know through blogging and who’s brought my art shared a review of it. I hadn’t expected it. It is these kind gestures of these generous people that gave birth to this website.
While I have worked at Art over the passage of a year and a half ( since April 2020) and I will keep working at it, it is not to say that I no longer fear a blank canvas. I do, and that’s why I’ve decided not to do customized paintings but paint what appeals to me. If it comes out as I expect, then I’ll upload it on my website. If it does not, I’ll just let it stay with me. When people like my work, I feel extremely grateful and happy. If they don’t, I remind myself that art is very personal and I don’t use the lack of appreciation as a tool to validate my work.
Art is something that’s made me finally understand — practice makes one perfect. It’s made me believe in Malcolm Gladwell’s line — you need at least 10,000 hours of practice to be good at something. The period of10,000 hours is not a fact etched in stone. You may need more hours if you’re like me, or less if you belong to the ‘gifted’ club. Gladwell came up with the ‘10,000 hours’ to basically say that if you want to be good at something you need lots and lots of practice. I have a very long way to traverse in the field of art, and yet with this website, I have taken a giant leap to put myself out there and say, ‘I’m ready to do what it takes because I have finally found that one thing that I love doing, it doesn’t feel like work and it may actually earn me something.’ You heard it right! Above all else that I do, art is what I look forward to doing when I wake up in the morning. I can just keep working and working at it without getting bored or exhausted. It brings out the best in me -I feel relaxed, at peace with myself, and energetic. Art is my ikigai!
Ikigai is the Japanese concept Ikigai (ee-key-guy) is a Japanese concept that combines the terms iki, meaning “alive” or “life,” and gai, meaning “benefit” or “worth.” When combined, these terms mean that which gives your life worth, meaning, or purpose. Ikigai is similar to the French term “raison d’etre” or “reason for being.”
Some of my friends wondered if putting up a price on the website for each painting was a good idea. They suggested it would be better for a person interested in buying the art was to communicate with me for the price. Despite the well-meaning advice, I have put up the prices for each of the paintings because I want people to be able to decide to buy a painting based on all the details provided without having to come back to me to check on the price. I want them to take their time to think about it before deciding to make the purchase and not feel obliged or awkward. I know how much I dislike sales assistants hounding me when I shop. The site allows you to subscribe to it so you can remain updated on my new work.
Last but not the least, I just want to say, ‘Thank you,’ to all of you who read the post so far and to those who checked out my art site. I also want to thank those who picked my artwork. I don’t want to mention your names here because I’m not sure if the privacy policy applies (now that I’m in business).
Don’t forget to check out the website, subscribe, and let me know what you think of it. All feedback is welcome. Remember I’m still learning.
Thank you again.
Cheers,
Smitha V
