What's Up With Em's Artwork?

Some of our close friends have asked lately why I'm not posting about art as much as I used to and sharing Emily's newest works. Well, the good news is Em' is still available to take commissions as an artist and Primal Aspects lives on as a business that can provide custom artwork for your home or business but after a series of abysmal shows this past fall Em decided it might be best to refocus the business. The model we were going for was just consuming too much time and money and not paying back enough to be sustainable. Oh don't get me wrong, people love Em's artwork and she has sold a few pieces here and there but by and large people just aren't buying much these days. It's not just us either, a lot of our friends have been experiencing the same things. We visited some friends at one of the handmade crafts shows over the holidays and they too have been seeing disappointing results except for a few who were actually doing exceptionally well with more practical items.

Over the past year or two we have seen several friends with small businesses close up shop and call it quits because the market just isn't there. Ironically, we also saw huge crowds at the big box stores and malls shopping this past holiday season. We even saw some news reports of fights breaking out and one lady spraying another with pepper spray over some goods shipped in from somewhere else. Yes, there is a movement underway to buy local, handmade goods but it is, at this point at least, too small a percentage of the population at large to sustain the business model we were going after. So, we've decided to take a step back and refocus, retool and rework things. In the meantime we are focusing on building our self sufficiency skillsets and spending more time with our kids, our family and our friends. We are thinking of how we would like to restructure the website and the business in general in the coming months. I'm thinking of trying my hand at building things like solar ovens, solar food dehydrators and growing some organic food. We are learning some of the skills my grandparents had that our generation kind of abandoned and somewhere in there I think we are finding ourselves. Somewhere in there I think we will find the new direction we want to head in and we'll take you along for the ride if you want to come with us.

- Better Living Through Art!: http://PrimalAspects.com