"Cowboy's Sweetheart" Vintage Cowgirl Journal - Weblog of Deb Trotter

Horses! (And Why I Love Cody, Wyoming)

I know I say over and over again how much I live in Cody, Wyoming.

I'm just not sure I spend enough time showing you why.

Dedicated to all Cowgirls, Cowboys, and Horse Lovers everywhere!

Happy Trails!

Cafepress, Artists, And Why This Cowgirl Got The Hell Out Of Dodge

I formally sold this art on Cafepress. (Minus the obvious deviations)

Cards, mugs, and mousepads were my best sellers.

Christmas sales were especially good - so much so that those rockin' Old Gringo Boots I was coveting are now in my collection.

Having a storefront on CP enabled me to purchase and sell gifts. To brighten someone's day with a lot of art and a little humor. To share my giddy up, Cowgirl side with others. To meet new artist friends.

If you want raw honesty, Cafepress was a great promotional tool.

But guess what? Like many of my fellow artists, I was also Cafepress's promotional tool.

I linked to them on my blog. Featured them in blog posts (a LOT), as well as in my right sidebar. Promoted them more times than I'd like to admit.

Well, here we are. Cafepress and me. At the crossroads between Greed and Integrity.

And I'm takin' the fastest train outta Dodge as far away from Greed as I can.

I learned late last week that Cafepress has decided that all of my hard work was for naught. If a potential customer googles "Cowgirl Art," "Cowgirl Cards," "Christmas Cowgirls" - even "Deb Trotter" - finds my work on Cafepress and decides to buy it - then CP is going to (magnanimously) give me only 10% of the profit.

10% ???

So I tell people about Cafepress, recommend them to fellow artists, drive them up a bit in the search engines, and purchase oodles of my own products to sell and give away (thereby making them some dough), and they give me 10%? Just because someone arrives at my store through a search engine other than directly through my blog and website?

Get read, CP.

Let's say I normally make $2.50 on a card if someone comes to my CP shop through my blog.

If they arrive at my shop through google, I would make 50 cents instead.

Or how about I normally make $4.50 on a mousepad, and now I stand to earn a whopping 90 cents.

Oh, I wasn't exactly getting rich before this new policy of theirs. But I liked the pocket cash. I liked the visibility. And if someone asked if I sold my work on cards, it was easy to send them straight to Cafepress.

I readily admit Cafepress makes it easy. Artists don't have to package and mail the items, so CP saves us time. And it's nice to have all sorts of neat little products featuring our artwork so readily available.

But ... there are plenty other online stores like CP that are just as good - and who, so far, are not treating the artist community like second rate citizens.

So. Like I mentioned last Friday, I have closed my Cafepress shop, and I've deleted many of my posts that mention CP.

I'm also closing down over at Imagekind, simply because it is owned by CP. (It's just my little way of sayin', It's not right. It's not fair. And it's no longer productive.)

One little Cowgirl artist may not change the world or be able to bring greed to its knees. But she can certainly join a large community who is proclaimin' ...

"I'm not goin' to take it anymore."

"Cowboy's Sweetheart Says, "Cafepress Ain't My Huckleberry!"

Cafepress?

NOT!

No more sidebar features. No more recommendations. No more nothing.

Cafepress ain't this Cowgirl's Huckleberry, that's for sure.

And I just betcha if Doc Holliday wuz here (straight out of the movie, Tombstone), he'd say the same darned thing.

I'll fill you in next week, pardner.

Until then ... Happy Trails!

P.S. As for you, Cafepress? This cowgirl ain't a botherin' to tip her hat.

Sutex In NYC - Part 2 Art Galore (And Did I Mention "Green?")

This is the Jacob Javits Center in NYC - and the 'home' of Surtex 2009.

I was told I should not take any pictures inside Surtex (although I see others doing so - ??? ... I'm a newbie & don't know a ball of butter why), so all I have to share is this public domain image, along with this one, of Jeanna. (Thank you, Miss Jeanna, for being such a cooperative subject!)

 

The banner pretty much sums up the first "trend" we notice - as well as what we feel like.

~ Green ~

And I don't just mean the left over feeling from Wicked our first night in NYC. I mean lots of green everywhere at Surtex in the artists' & designers' booths. Especially green in backgrounds, patterns, and borders. Soft muted greens, rich warm greens, and "environmental" greens - mixed with pinks, blues, browns, and the occasional blue-grays.

I also mean we 'feel' green, as in "unknowledgable." Like, "You don't have enough brain juice to fill a spittoon," to quote my Grandpappy, in my days of youth.

We are also taken with all the bright golds and deep yellows. I love gold. It almost seems like a neutral to me. Tell me - what color doesn't look great next to gold (except maybe pink)? Especially red. Red and yellow? Talk about bold! I do see the occasional red and gold combination, but not nearly as much as gold and green, or gold and brown.

Forgive me for those of you who are Surtex savvy. I may be totally off base about my color observations due to sensory overload. Trying to encapsulate everything I need to learn and observe. Bear with me, here - and feel free to email me if I am totally clueless.

That's one of the reasons Miss Jeanna is here with me - to help me look at things objectively and through the eyes of a business woman extraordinaire. She centers and grounds me like nobody I know. She can also can talk her way into, or out of, anything. (I have much to learn. I bow to the Queen!)

Back to the Surtex floor.

What else? Egads! Talk about art?

I thought I had seen a lot of art through the blogging world, not to mention websites and galleries. NOT!

I've always thought I was one small drop in a giant vat of paint. I'm not. I'm one small speck of dust in the universe.

This realization truly hits home when I look at the manufacturers in the stationery and gift shows in comparison to all the artists and designers. No wonder the competition is so fierce. All those choices - and the manufacturers have to be the ones to choose which art will sell their products. When I look at it from their standpoint, I understand a little bit better how critical the art is to their bottom line.

I know I have a lot of work to do when I get home. A lot of research. A lot of studying. A lot of decisions to make. And a whole, whole lot of preparation should I decide to exhibit next year.

By the end of the day our brains are totally fried. And there are no taxis in sight. We head for the bright lights in the big city and end up near Times Square at a cool little neighborhood deli, renowned for its family cheesecake recipe and real food for real people - meaning it's not expensive, it's good, and the portions are huge. Way too huge. We see a woman in a nearby booth with a piece of cheesecake the size of the empire state building and decide that after our sandwiches, we'll split a piece. (Why don't we also get that the size of the cheesecake is directly proportionate to the size of the deli sandwiches?)

(Didn't I say something earlier about green?)

Never mind.

One great thing about New York - you walk off the calories.

And we do.

Before we know it we're back at the Affinia, and right across the street is a cozy Irish pub, Harrington's. (What else would you call an Irish pub?)

So, the two Wyoming cowgirls mosey across the street for a nightcap.

Yee Ha! Surtex again tomorrow!

A cosmo each from the friendly bartender, who is, you guessed it, Irish. (I promise I won't even mention the color that comes to mind when I think of Ireland.)

I am a sucker for an Irish accents and cosmopolitans. They don't have much of either in our little cowboy town. So, sue me. I'm happy.

Surtex In New York City: Part 1 - Famous, Fabulous, And Wicked!

I am, have always been, a sucker for the Big Apple.

It's Saturday, May 16th, and I'm sitting near the back of a double decker bus, taking a photo of Times Square. (Later, I will change this picture to black and white. It's so Fay Wray, "King Kong-ish." Even with all the modern steel and loony taxi drivers, it still feels like the 20's and 30's movies to me, Empire State Building and all.) LOVE it!

I am not alone - my partner in crime, Miss Jeanna, is back here with me. So is the actress, Joan Allen. We are pretending we have no clue who she is ... after all, everyone deserves a bit of privacy. Jeanna, the wicked one, somehow manages to sneak Joan into the corner of one photo - just to prove to our husbands that we really did see a FAMOUS actress.

We are somewhat bedraggled after the bus tour, and it's drizzly and cool. My hair is not cooperating, but I really don't mind. The plane ride earlier was hell (but who needs sleep when visiting NYC?). These two cowgirls from Wyoming are not wasting any time. We head to Little Italy for dinner.

 

Jeanna indulges in a glass of wine, while I take some photos directly behind me.

I am drawn to, actually distracted by, this ...

 

I'm not sure exactly what this once was. At first I thought it was a phone, or perhaps a doorbell. It doesn't really matter. To my eye it could be a piece of abstract art. A face with two silver eyes, a la Picasso. I love the movement. The wires, all curled, twisted, and worn. The outline of the mortar against the brick.

Distraction can be a really good thing. Especially when you have something like THIS waiting for you ...

Seafood! Lots and LOTS of seafood. Enough seafood to swim in. Be still, my beating heart. This is something you will never see in Cody, Wyoming!

Yee Ha!

FABULOUS!

Stuffed to the gills, we hail a taxi to the Gershwin Theatre where we have perfect orchestra seats for Wicked!

 

I don't know an artist who doesn't love the theatre. The colors and imagery. The music. The spectacle. And the realization that nothing you create - or perform - can ever be exactly the same again. The power to move your audience, your viewer, is a wonderful gift.

I literally cried when Elphaba (the "wicked" witch) sang, "Defying Gravity." The song is much, much more than about the power to fly. It's about the power we all possess to overcome life's obstacles. It's about the freedom to follow your dreams. Realizing your greatest potential. Making a difference. It's about "Becoming."

The only thing to bring us down after "Wicked" is the taxis - or should I say, the lack thereof.

So we walk back to the Affinia Manhattan, right across from Madison Square Garden, head for the bar, and dive into an Apple Martini.

Don't we look WICKED?