summer update.

yes i know, it’s been a lot of months since i’ve updated here. i will skip over the boring parts but, hey, it’s summer! it’s pride weekend! i’ve made a bunch of stickers since i posted last! (i did a bunch of other stuff too but you probably already know about all that if you follow me on facebook, twitter or instagram or ever look at my etsy shop or teespring store.)

but here’s what’s coming in the mail soon. i tried to get them made in time for pride weekend here in new orleans, which is this weekend, but apparently i was one day off, as i got the shipping notification today that it’s coming monday. oh well. our pride is early in the month, though, and lots of other cities have pride at the end of the month so i’m hoping there are still folks who will want these in the next few weeks.

the rectangular one on top is 4″ x 3″ and the square one is 3″ x 3″. they will go up in my etsy shop as soon as i have them and be $2 each with free postage. or feel free to message me and we can figure it out with paypal or venmo directly.

i’ll let you catch yourself up on everything else by visiting the above social media links. and i’ll try to get better about posting updates here. happy pride everyone!

happy thanksgiving!

how did it get to be almost thanksgiving already?

i have no idea, but here we are. which also means, it’s almost black friday, small business saturday, cyber monday, and giving tuesday. i have not traditionally participated in any of the thanksgiving weekend consumer bonanzas, as either a buyer or a seller, and have only become aware of giving tuesday recently. i certainly advocate the latter – seriously, check out the link and please do give to local nonprofits and organizations that serve your community – but you won’t be seeing any crazy sales from me this weekend or throughout the holiday shopping rush.

why? a) because it takes a lot of time to administer these types of things online, and between my pet biz being busier than ever and going on a weeklong vacation the week AFTER thanksgiving, i simply don’t have time to deal with it. also, b) because i don’t have a ton of inventory and i desperately need to actually make money on what i do have, to make up for all the money i’ve spent making the things. i basically can’t afford to run a sale. and c) because i keep my prices low already, year-round. i don’t do that retail trick of bumping my prices up high and then lowering them only for sales. maybe that’s bad business and why i don’t really end up making much if any money off my art/design “hobby,” but i just can’t feel good about charging higher prices for things. i try to have a fair price that makes me some money but doesn’t gouge you, my supporters. so my shirts are still $20, while most retailers now charge between $22-$28. i prefer that my stuff is accessible to more folks at a reasonable price. so sorry, no black friday or cyber monday sales at artbymags.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

all that being said, i have been in the throes of restocking my etsy shop so i actually have something to sell this holiday season. at the moment, i have a good amount of resist shirts (mens/unisex as well as women’s, most in black but a few in white) and keep loving keep fighting shirts (mens/unisex only right now). and i just finished printing a short run of sister resister shirts in both mens/unisex and women’s. there’s a few other odds and ends (still have some not gay as in happy shirts in red and grey) and ) and i’m fantasizing about reprinting some of my older designs at some point (like the rocket ship, old school turntable, and fleur de lis skull) but i’ll have to sell some of what i’ve got to afford to do that.

there’s still lots of stickers available for purchase for next to nothing (they make great stocking stuffers) and there’s a couple of paintings and hopefully some prints coming soon. maybe some yard signs if i have the time to make ’em.

and i’m still tossing around the possibility of doing a little backyard holiday sale, maybe december 9th or 10th? we’ll see how things are going and if i still have a fair amount of inventory by then. might have to be later, closer to christmas. but i do have lots of one-offs, new old stock, and oops shirts for the bargain bin, and i have a bunch of paintings and prints that are stacking up around here that could use a new home. so stay tuned. i’ll try my best to announce it on all social media ahead of time.

and lastly, i’ve been spending a lot of time pondering what to do with my patreon account. i’ve had it going now for 2 years and i’ve had a loyal group of about 15-20 folks who’ve been giving me $5 or $10 a month to help support my artistic pursuits, which has allowed me to have start-up funds for things like sticker runs and runs of tshirts, and has helped me buy equipment like my 4 color screen printing press and just last week a new wide format inkjet printer so i can print film transparencies. but i feel constantly guilty cuz i haven’t been so great at sending out rewards to my patrons, as my output has been low these past 6 months or so as i try to build up my screen printing capability by slowly outfitting my home studio with equipment and supplies, and as my pet biz has gotten busier. some days i feel so guilty i just want to delete it, be done with it, while apologizing profusely to my patrons and refunding some of their money. but instead, because so many of them have told me they don’t expect anything in return and are happy to be supporting me, and because it is really truly helpful financially and also motivational, i’m thinking maybe what i need to do is instead double down on my patreon – refresh it, retool it, rethink the rewards portion of it, and publicize the hell out of it to get more supporters. i’m not really sure which way i’ll end up deciding to go, but i can’t really do anything with it til after the holidays. but it’s on my mind and i’m trying to figure out how to keep using it to help further my creative endeavors while also offering some kind of value to those who support me.

i guess that’s it for now, from me. just wanted to make a little pre-holiday-madness update to let y’all know what’s going on with art by mags. happy thanksgiving everyone!

army of lovers shirt is back…

so the brass band shirt campaign is over – thanks to the 4 of you who bought one. lol. i didn’t do so well on that campaign – actually lost money because i tried a facebook ad for $7 which ended up being totally useless – but i’m glad a few folks got the shirt and i’ll be donating all that i made to the roots of music. (about $20 – hopefully next time it will be more.)

the hustle continues. this is my new reality since i’ve cut back on my dog walking hours to make more time to make art and focus on new work… but in the mean time while i try to get new stuff going, i’m hustling a little with the old designs. people are always asking me to rerun these teespring campaigns, even though you can put in your order for any shirt in my storefront at any time and all it takes is like 3 shirts to be ordered and the campaigns will automatically restart and the shirts will get printed.

Screen Shot 2014-11-17 at 5.00.57 PM

mens/unisex american apparel crew neck – slate color

but i have relaunched the army of lovers campaign, the light colored shirts, since it’s starting to be spring and summer is in front of us. i’ve added a ton of new styles and most are available in either white or some variety of grey (the design really doesn’t look good on anything else). so definitely scroll through your options when shopping.

and for this campaign, i’m going to make a donation to the astraea lesbian foundation for justice which is an amazing organization funding important work for the LGBTQI community around the globe. i have enormous respect for the folks at astraea and hope to be able to make a nice donation from the proceeds, while also helping to pay my own rent!

it’s up for 7 days so get those orders in! and please share with anyone you think might be interested! here’s the link: https://teespring.com/an-army-of-lovers-2016.