So, it seems that something totally fantastic has happened ... One of my designs has gone viral on Pinterest and I have been getting tons of requests for it, from all around the world, every day since! It's a designer's dream!! Certain media entities (rather large ones at that!) are also showing interest in publishing information about the papers ...
This is giving me a rapid heartbeat, just writing about it!!
There is only one piece to the puzzle that's still missing, and that is a manufacturer. Right now the wallpaper isn't yet available for purchase, although hopefully that will change soon. I'm looking for a partner to produce and distribute it. There are some developments on that front too, but so far nothing to report officially.
Over the past few years I've definitely doubted myself multiple times, and struggled to have faith that this passion of mine, to create art for everyday objects, to be part of an art/design dialogue that is interwoven in daily experience, would ever be appreciated or lead to anything concrete. I've struggled, at times, to believe that this was more than just something I loved to do, that it had greater meaning out there in the world, to anyone other than myself.
That's why it's so gratifying to hear from so many who have found me via Pinterest, and who see something in the work. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to contact me and share your enthusiasm and encouragement for something that I truly feel amounts to a personal expression of me.
This experience has reaffirmed for me the reasons why I believe in this path that I've chosen, and I'm now inspired to pursue it with redoubled passion and vigor.
It's important to me that art is something we have access to on a daily basis. I was frustrated in art school that all our talk seemed so detached from what was really going on in the world, that paintings in a gallery or museum setting remained so inaccessible to so many. Commercial art has its drawbacks too (no doubt), but I like to feel my work answers a need that exists in the tangible, everyday world, while also adding beauty to it. And does that in a way that is a unique, authentic expression of me, while still being accessible and affordable to others.
I see my wallpaper designs as artworks. I put my whole heart and soul into them, from the concept/planning stage to the execution.
In the end, instead of hanging an artwork on your wall, your wall itself becomes a work of art.
But I am only half the equation of course, and the realization that an end user, that a market for this kind of wallpaper is not just an imagined fantasy of mine but actually exists, is electrifying. The last couple of weeks have taught me once and for all that this market is real, and that I can (and will!) have a place in it.
Yesterday I got a lovely message from Shanan Kurtz at the Symmetric blog. She had just posted Oh, The Drama: Dark Wallpaper and included this design of mine. It's lovely to be part of a post like this, so thank you Shanan for helping to get my work out there, at last ...
P.S. If you're a Pinterest person (or addict, like myself) and would like to follow developments and see the latest additions to my porftolio, please become a follower of my Pinterest board { ellie cashman wallpaper }.
Stay wonder-ful,