We recently connected with Miriam Dubinsky and have shared our conversation below.
Miriam, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
The most important thing I have learned over the last year and a half of running my business is how to express the value of my work to my clients. I wish I had understood how to price and showcase my work earlier on in my artmaking adventures. I studied printmaking in college and worked as a screen printer for other artists in the years after I graduated from college. While learning how to screen print and becoming a printmaker is key to who I am as an artist, learning how to navigate selling and sustaining my own work has been the key to my success and happiness as an entrepreneur. I wish I had understood earlier that selling and displaying my work outside of the gallery ecosystem didn’t reduce the value or the amount of joy my work can bring to my clients. Alternative exhibition locations and craft and farmers markets have been the catalyst to my small business, allowing me to directly interact with the public and find the people to whom my work sparks joy!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I am a printmaker and painter located out of Lakewood, Colorado running my own small art business. I make hand-printed screen prints using imagery from my ink paintings and drawings and I recently have been working on a new set of collage and original gouache paintings. I strive to create small batch handmade artwork that sparks joy for my clients. I am proud to call myself a one woman small business, I take on all the aspects of my business myself which has been very exciting the last year and a half! The majority of my time is spent actively making the artwork that I sell to my clients and that brings me lots of joy. I strive to showcase the hand made aspects of my work, including as much evidence of my hand in the process as possible whether in my screen prints or hand cut paper collages. I want my clients to understand the processes by which I create my pieces and how the handmade process presents a special value to this work.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
In my view, the best way to support artists is to provide space, time and a source of income or financial support without the expectation of a money-making product to be derived. It is hard to quantify the value of handing resources over to artists, it isn’t always clear what the results are in real time. There isn’t always an easily discernible “product” that can be derived or expected from a single experience or project as so much creative work is built over time on top of itself. When resources are given to independent artists, the rest of the community also benefits over time from this investment and the long term gains are meaningful and exciting for the artist’s communities as a whole. From my own personal experience of receiving support in these forms I have been able to slowly build my creative ideas and processes up to my current small business that is now my primary source of income.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me the most rewarding aspect of being an artist has been sharing my art directly with my community. I have always made art but it wasn’t until 2021 that I actively began sharing my art with my community by starting my own business. I began my business by selling my art at local craft fairs and farmers markets. These community events have been so beneficial because I get to interact with my customers in person and create deep meaningful relationships in a non formal setting. Being able to continue the relationships with the folks I meet through my business in this spontaneous and casual setting has been extremely rewarding and continues to inspire and fuel my work. I’ve also been connected to other small businesses and creative entrepreneurs and am inspired by this community on a daily basis.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/miriamdubinsky
Image Credits
For the personal photo of me in my studio: Erynn McConnell