To share my wealth, I'd drop a ten in Homeless Bob's "Ninjas kidnapped my wife and I need money for her ransom" donation box. I could tell Homeless Bob about the money-giving genie only a block away from his cardboard home, but I question Bob's sanity. I mean, what would happen to the world if a crazy alcoholic, with outrageous opinions based on his insanity, came into a huge sum of money? Well, ahem, politics....
Why just two thousand dollars, you may wonder? Why not two million dollars? Or two billion trillion guhzillion?... Well, come on now! I'm not greedy! ;)
Seriously though, if I had at least two thousand dollars I could buy everything on my wishlist for the year 2012. My wishlist consists of everything I feel would help me progress in my pursuit to be a self-sufficient self-employed visual artist. But with the luck I've had during the holiday season art shows, I may never make enough profit to actually progress... sigh...
Why not get a small business loan?
Well, for one, I have no credit. Most businesses wont trust a young artist like me (with absolutely no credit history or co-signers) to pay back a small business loan. I have no credit for the same exact reason I'll never want to receive a small business loan; I'm... wait for it... debt phobic!
What?! An American debt phobic?!
Yes, yes I am. Debt phobia is the reason I didn't go to college for art. I've met too many art graduates working at coffee shops forever paying for their education. Btw, I see nothing wrong with that. An education is very important, I just choose to give myself an unstructured, unconventional, cheap, more-lazy-than-not art education...
Slammin' Wishlist for 2012
Canon - EOS Rebel T3i 18mpx DSLRThis would definitely take a huge chunk out of the 2k budget! Ok, to be absolutely honest, I'm completely camera dumb. But I have a feeling this is a badass camera and I'd be willing to take a college class on how to use this baby. But, in reality I'm good with any great digital camera capable of capturing perfectly detailed images of my products for my etsy shop and portraits of people I'll use as references for my art, and the ability to record Full HD so I can market myself on youtube by up loading tutorials and such. If you have a cheaper suggestion, please let me know. :)
EZ Screen Printing Kit & ShirtsA major plan I have for next year is to put my art on tshirts! I live in a small 1bdrm apartment with an 8x8 dining room turned art "studio" area. I dont have a lot of room or resources to make my own screen printing frames and chemical clean up that goes into diy screen printing. So I came across this nifty way to screen print without all the prep mess. I've never used it before but I've read pretty great reviews and watched neat youtube videos. I don't plan to go all corporate with my shirts, probably only making a few shirts of a certain design at a time, so this seems like it'll work perfectly. :) The refill sheets may seem expensive but when I take into account how much I could potentially sell tshirts for with a design from just one sheet, I dont mind paying extra for the convenience of using these sheets over making my own stencils from picture frames, mesh, and emulsion. Plus, I'm a screen-printing virgin so I need to be led gently into the world of soft cotton, dimmed lights, gentle touches, heavy scraping, careful exposure, hot heat, and messy clean up.
Art Show Booth Setup Materials & Supplies
I searched and found a reasonably priced canopy at Walmart.com that I really love. It fits the style I imagine my booth to look like. :) The rest of the remaining 2k would be spent on marketing and DIY projects I'd do to save money on the booth setup, like using white painted tree branches as clothing racks and thrift store shopping for table cloths and other misc decor.
I'm sure when it's all said and done, I'll have enough left for a sandwich. I'll ask for a small smoked turkey combo, no mayo, at Schlotzky's. Then I'll open my wallet to retrieve a ten dollar bill to pay for the expensive $9 small combo and realize I have no money left. I'll turn to leave the building and see Homeless Bob eating a turkey combo with the sassy blue genie, flipping me off...
