We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emily Marella a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Emily thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?
To date, I have been lucky to make five sales- 2 original artworks and 3 prints of original works. And the very first sale? It was relatively anti-climactic.
I am grateful that my first art show was held at no cost to me, by Common Ground Collective Cafe! It was a great opportunity to share my work with my community and put together a collection.
The only drawback was that viewers were able to purchase my pieces through a no-contact method, throughout the month of the show. And while I was excited at the prospect of making a sale, when the first one happened, I realized I didn’t get to say goodbye to the original work. I didn’t get to chat with the buyer or shake their hand. And I didn’t get to experience that joy in the moment.
However, it also helped me realize that these are important experiences to me! And with this experience, I have been creating my ideal transaction process for my art to be purchased and to connect with the buyers!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Hiya! My name is Emily, but with a fondness for children’s stories and a deep obsession with geese- you can also call me Mother Goose!
I created Mother Gooses Craft Room as a digital showcase to share my art with the world. Over the past couple of years, it has grown into a body of work I am proud of, and a steadily growing mission that I plan to grow!
To me, Mother Goose belongs to children. Stories, games, rhyming, and songs are all things captured by the classic tales of Mother Goose. By bringing these factors to life through my art, my goal is to encourage people of all ages that everyone is a child at heart! Creating this art is what connects me to my inner child and I hope that upon exploring my pieces, you can also connect to the voice of your inner child and enjoy!
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The mission that drives my life is to care for and protect my mom.
To me, this means honoring the sacrifices she made for me and seizing the opportunities that she freed me to realize.
My mom is an incredible and unstoppable woman who taught me that no one can create a good life for you, except for yourself. You cannot wait for life’s ‘neon sign’ to switch to OPEN. You work hard for yourself and others in honest and caring ways, and this builds the foundation for an authentic relationship with the world around you.
If it were not for my mom, I would lack the bravery, courage, resilience, and determination that my life has required to survive.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
As much as this is a bummer to me, you do not always need a website for your business.
Although it was a difficult process to put together, I was hopeful and excited about the business my website would bring me. I enjoyed taking photos, designing the page, and making something for my business that was interactive.
However; I never made a single sale from the site. I had visitors and growing traction and engagement, but nothing resulted in sales. As I type this, I know I must cancel this tool that has cost more than my earned business to date. While it’s difficult, because it took so much time and effort, it is a necessary truth to accept and now I may free myself to focus on other methods to engagement with my community and sell my artwork.
