Behind the Curtain
In which we take a BTS look at AMT Studio
To hear me read this post, scroll to the bottom where you will find an audio version.
Running a small business is challenging. It’s also rewarding. I know this because I run a small business. Being an artist and a writer is to run a small business. When I press publish on my online store, or I go to fairs to take portraits, or I hold an in-person book event those are the glamorous parts of being a small business. Those are the forward-facing parts of being a small business. They make everything look easy, and carefree, and fun. But what artists and writers and small business owners know is that the more celebratory parts of our jobs make up only a very small percent of what we do.
Here's a little peak behind the scenes of running AMT Studio, employee of one, me…
-Recently I decided to make postcard packs. I couldn’t find a service online that printed (high quality) and packed, so I decided to assemble everything myself. I had 2500 postcards printed to make 500 packs. Luckily my boyfriend helped, so this took about 9 hours instead of a week.
There are three themed packs: Grief, Insanity, and Power. Each theme has 5 different photographs from the Rooms In The First House series that speaks to its theme. Each set of five cards went into a little sleeve with a backing card and an AMT sticker. My bf drew the beautiful Grief, Insanity, and Power illustrations and designed those backing cards.
First, we separated all the cards into their themes. Then we laid everything out assembly line style so we could create the packs in an orderly fashion. I packed all of Insanity, my bf packed all of Grief, and we split Power. We did this over two days at my kitchen table, sunshine pouring in through the windows.
These postcard packs will be available for sale at The Other Art Fair in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn. I’ll be selling them at my booth during my portrait sessions. All the info and links and discount codes for the fairs are at the bottom of this post.
-When I open my online store, I only do it a couple times a year and I limit the number of items available. Mostly I do this because I pack and ship every single item myself. I like to use my fine art printer (also a small business) instead of an online service to print my photographs, and I like to ship with my local shipper (also a small business). Sometimes I am able to trick my friends into helping me. For example, the second time I released t-shirts it just happened to coincide with a trip four of my friends made to visit me. All of the sudden I had them folding, packing, and organizing 250 t-shirts while we watched episodes of The Kardashians.
Here’s what my dining room looks like after I close down my store but before I ship everything out.
-I love taking portraits at the art fairs. It’s so fun to see what people bring to that moment – their clothes, a prop, an attitude, a pose.
But it’s before and after the fair where the biggest portion of the work lies. Planning, renting props, shipping artwork, booking travel, promoting, setting up the portrait booth, all this happens first. Then after, I go through every single photograph, choose the best one, organize, crop, and edit. I don’t outsource photographic work to an assistant because I don’t have an assistant lol, but also because if my name is on something, I want to do my own work. Maybe this isn’t good for optimizing quantity of business, but it’s how I do things, at least for now.
-Of course, when it comes to books, I don’t do all the work myself. I do all the writing myself, obvi, but the publisher takes care of the designing and the making, thank jesus christ. That said, the behind-the-scenes work is the bulk of what it means to write a book. There’s a lot of thinking, and planning, and outlining, and writing, and revising, and deleting, and rewriting, and crying, and staring at a wall that goes into it. I don’t have an assistant for writing because I want to cry and stare at a wall all by myself, dammit.
A lot of small business do the manual work, and the administrative work, and the promotional work themselves. And unless we have health insurance from a spouse’s 9-5 job (one that happens to offer health insurance) we cover that on our own as well. (shot out to the American health care system, lol). Being an artist, being a writer, running a small business is a shitload of work, but it’s also the best job in the world, imho. I feel very lucky that I get to work for myself (except during tax season when I’m always like “why have done I this?”) and to have friends/family whose help I can, at times, enlist.
Try to support small businesses – indie bookstores, artists, designers, makers, local shops! If an author you love has a book coming out, pre-order that book. I know it seems counterintuitive to pay for something months before you’re going to receive it, but pre-ordering really helps the author. If what an artist or maker is selling seems expensive, remember the prices reflect the behind the scenes, unglamorous work, not just the item you’re purchasing.
Now! If you’d like to get your hands on one of those 500 postcard packs I assembled at my kitchen table, or if you’d like to have your portrait taken by me at the LA, Chicago, or Brooklyn art fair, here’s the info and links you need:
Portraits are available to book for Los Angeles NOW. Fair dates are Feb 20-23.
Portraits are available to book for Chicago NOW. Fair dates are March 27-30.
All COVEN subscribers get 20% off fair entry. Follow these links to get fair tickets:
Brooklyn links to come.
Beginning next month I’ll be doing Artist Spotlights on some of my favorite makers and writers. That’s all for now.
xx AMT