I have too much art, please help
Hello everyone,
I have a lot of art that I would love to find new homes for:) My tiny studio apartment can only handle so many canvases, various textile works and papier-mâché sculptures, and I cannot seem to stop making stuff either. So I’m going to give this online store thing a try, and see if I can manage to do something about that.
I’ve set up a very basic and small free version of a Big Cartel store here to begin with: https://matriarkatet.bigcartel.com. And I will from today and until March 8th have a 20 % discount off everything, just use the code MATRIARKATET.
I am also planning to do a couple of limited edition prints of some of my canvases this year. I’m thinking of Lulu (2023) as the first one. Let me know if you would be interested in that.
I’m making a series of stickers these days, as a little trial run for my Big Cartel soft launch. This spring I’m doing a couple of projects with local schools, where I host different street art workshops with teenagers and young adults, with the aim to produce larger collective artworks at their schools, and making stickers is an obvious choice:) It’s a very accessible way to create something personal. Last week I did three sticker-workshops in one day for about 80 teenagers, and I got so inspired by them that I started to draw up my first Matriarkatet sticker pack for you guys the next day. It’s a series of 8 handmade stickers, using markers and acrylic paint on adhesive paper.
The first stuff I ever put up under the name Matriarkatet in the beginning of 2022 were in fact stickers. A tiny golden matriarch in my neighborhood the first one ever.
I had done a lot of adbusts then, and didn’t really feel nervous at all about doing that anymore, but I got so nervous when I put up my stickers, I think because it felt like I was taking up space in a whole new way with them. They were just for me, in a way. And I felt so selfish at first.
I think I still feel selfish about making art. Like I’m not really doing anything for anyone else, and I should be. I should always be doing something that benefits someone else. That drive is so deeply embedded in me. I like that about myself, that it’s so important to me to try to make things better for other people, but I also absolutely hate it, and it has gotten me in so much trouble. I have spent so much time and effort on trying to make other people happy. And I became very good at it, it can sometimes feel like I can read people’s mind. I can’t, of course, but I’m pretty good at predicting people’s behavior, and what they want. Sometimes people love that, sometimes I see things that they don’t want me to see, and that they don’t love so much. I’ve become more careful around people because of it.
For me, making art is so much about saying stuff without saying them. I need to express something, but I don’t need you to understand it. If you want to understand, that makes me very happy, and surprised, to be honest. And probably a little awkward, because I don’t necessarily handle situations like that great. It’s hard for me to take up your time and attention like that. I like to hide in plain sight.
Anyway.
If you would like to get your hands on some art, and help me out at the same time, you know what to do. And don’t forget to use the code MATRIARKATET if you do:)