Saturday, December 15, 2012

Eight Years and Counting

I have been selling my art, online, since 2004.
I started with my own 'shop' on eBay...
and then joined forces with my husband, one of my sons,
my youngest daughter and her husband...
to become a Family Art Group...
and we listed our art as the
ZOA Group...
the Z.O.A stood
for "Zatloukal Original Art".

While on eBay...I painted everything from 'Tuscan Folk Art' to 
 
Modern 'statement' paintings to
 

Florals and Abstract Tree Art Paintings...


It was easier to manage the site as a group.  
 
The year following my husband's passing...eBay began to make changes that
directly affected the artists selling on eBay
and where we had been making a fairly comfortable living on eBay for three years...
our sales began to 'flatline' because of the changes.
 
And my art reflected how I was feeling...
 
 
 
Soooo....
we all went our separate ways.
Patrick decided to go back to school...
Jaime and Mike opened their own shop and...
I opened my Rustic Goth Shop on Etsy...



why
"Rustic Goth"?
 
 
Well...I was still dealing with the loss of my husband and kind of
'saw myself' as one of those 'tragic widows' from the
Gothic Novels I used to read in my teen-age years...
and Heaven knows I love anything 'rustic'...
and I just liked the name...
Rustic Goth.
 
To be honest...I didn't really associate the word 'goth' with the kids
who dress all in black, wear black eye makeup and lipstick...dye their hair black
and wear black fingernail polish.
So...in that sense of the word...I'm NOT 'goth'...
 
 
My 'melancholy girls' were a reflection of the stages I was
going through personally...
 
 
...though my Creepers were an even better reflection...
 

But....
life goes on...
and I am finally moving on too!

I have recently opened two shops...
one on Artfire and one on Etsy...
which I've already talked about...so I won't go into that...

and I've taken on the attitude...


...and I'm looking forward to, at least,
another 8 years of creating and selling my art online...
those are my plans, at this time, anyway!
 

2 comments:

Kelly Jeanette Swift said...

I have always wondered about the name. Good luck in the next eight years!

CMZ Art/ Rustic Goth said...

Unfortunately I cannot change the name in Etsy...and I don't want to change shops since it has taken me five years to build the following I currently have there....so I'm trying to figure out if I need to just change the banner and announcement...I may try that to see if it works.
I had to send the wrong message to prospective buyers...I honestly did not associate the word with anything other than the novels I used to read...now I fear it sends a message I would rather it not send.