Christy DeKoning on vision, sales and advice

What is your vision for your art?

To cre­ate some­thing uniquely beau­ti­ful that cap­tures a moment in a person’s life.

What do you see your work­ing doing for those who buy it?

It makes the buy­ers very happy to see their loved ones pre­sented in a way that is entirely dif­fer­ent than what they might expect from an oil artist or a pho­tog­ra­pher. To keep it sim­ple, it makes peo­ple smile.

What has been the reac­tion to  mak­ing your work avail­able in non-traditional ways, like mugs, jew­elry etc?

I haven’t com­mit­ted a lot of time to nov­elty items, but the feed­back I’ve received about my glass tile pen­dants has been very positive.

Where do most of your sales come from?

Etsy, fol­lowed by Art­Fire and Bound­less Gallery, then local (I’m a mem­ber of an Artist coop­er­a­tive gallery called ART­space in Chatham)

What are the most impor­tant lessons you have learned about being an artist and sell­ing your work?

Be con­fi­dent in your­self and your work, and don’t under­es­ti­mate the value of your time, effort, spe­cific skillset and knowledge.

What advice would you give to other artists?

Never stop learn­ing, and never miss an oppor­tu­nity. If an oppor­tu­nity is pre­sented to you, take it, learn from it, and use it to grow. Then try to “give back” when­ever pos­si­ble — join user groups, forums, share your work through demon­stra­tions, cri­tique other’s work if you have the knowl­edge to be help­ful, and above all, try to remain open to rejec­tion. It hap­pens to all of us, and we learn from it. That’s the hard­est part — don’t give up if some­one says no.