art by sarah kargol

my goodness. how awesome am i? it's nearly been a year since i blogged last. i apologize! this poor website has been so neglected... but no more! you're going to get tired of hearing from me. promise. 

well, we're coming up on the end of year two out on our own, making a life as full-time artists, living the dream... (ha ha!) i guess there's something to be said for still being here. it's been exhausting hanging on to this tiger's tail. i repeat over and over in my head "if it was easy, everyone would be doing it." it hasn't been easy. (and, are we the only one's doing it?) but i've said it before, and i mean it, what we're doing is worth doing.

my husband, matt, recently took his work to the american craft council show in baltimore, md. that was an incredible experience and i have to give him props for going after it and doing it. his work is amazing... i know, i know... i'm a wee bit biased, but it really is great. his work even made the news! 

as for me, :) this past winter i've been pretty busy being a mom and working out the kinks of my new body of work in my head. now, spring has sprung here in the south and it's time to get crackin'! i'm anxious to make these ideas a reality.

i've got my first little show of the season in greenville, sc on april 9th; a local art gathering presented by palmetto home and garden. i'll be one of 7 totally fab artists in this intimate show. i'm very excited! after that, it's back to atlanta! for the atlanta dogwood festival in piedmont park. then! in may! i have been invited to exhibit at, what i hear is, the premier event in south carolina. piccolo spoleto! a 16 day show (yes, sixteen days) in charleston, sc. 

throw baseball practices and games for 4 boys and 4 different teams every night of the week, plus the usual homework, dishes, laundry, etc. etc. and "busy" doesn't even come close to what i'll be these next couple months. would i have it any other way? probably not. :)

it's all who you know. well, not ALL... but it helps. a couple of weeks ago a fellow grad student and friend of my husband's from clemson (nancy ehlers) referred my name to the guest gallery curator at the clemson art center for a show highlighting artists who are also mothers. *click* the show, titled M/A/M/A~Mother Artist Mother Artist, was being installed last week, when a new local business owner happened by and saw and connected with my work. *click* she, wendy, then contacted me, wanting me to be her featured artist in her new store, R3MIX3D (remixed) (an eclectic mix of vintage clothing, music and art) for this weekend's passport to the arts event in clemson as well as her grand opening next weekend. :) *click* wendy just moved to the area from asheville, nc, a regional art hub that i've been wanting to break into. it just so happens she's got some gallery contacts in asheville that she is going to get in touch with and introduce me to. *click*  :) very cool. like dominos. click. click. click. click... (thank you nancy!)

MONSTER BITES! on etsy....

just for your information:

i've added a new page. you no longer need to click on each image to see if it's available for purchase! (yay) :) 

 

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i've also opened a new store on etsy! you can find monster bites here. now, i've tried etsy before and failed miserably. :) apparently i was "doing it wrong." i hear i'm supposed to post things slowly. if you're impatient... i'm sorry! i need to make it work this go 'round. :) so bear with me, and check it often... i'll be selling some things there that will only be available through etsy.

so, business is horribly slow. :) why? the cold weather? the time of year? the #&!@ economy? my guess... all of the above. slow business in turn freezes up my brain and my desire to create. my studio is (and has been for a while) chuck full of really great artwork. ;) is that a bad thing? oh yes. what to do... what to do...

being in this pickle is forcing me to look at my work in new ways. how can i push my creative boundaries? that is one really good thing that's come out of this whole 'starving artist' experience that i am not enjoying. :)

if you are familiar with the history of my art, you know that this whole monster idea started out by turning my kids creature drawings into small stuffed creatures. well, i'm returning to that thought. 

i have started a new line of plush monsters, straight from the paintings. they really do look like they just crawled off a canvas. i love them! i'm calling them 'monster bites'... currently there are five characters from my paintings that i am sewing into little 'bites'. i have opened a store on etsy *yay* and will be slowly posting these little guys for sale this week. :) also, i am starting a small line of... stationary? :) that word sounds too formal for what i've got, but will go with it... yeah, stationary. those will be showing up at my etsy store soon!

so, here's my tip for anyone else trying to make it by surviving on a passion. i have two tips really.  #1-find lots of recipes for and get really good at cooking rice. :) #2- broaden your presence.

get a bigger bite of that pie! push your ideas to the next level... that could be the sun that thaws out your frozen creative spirit. it has thawed mine.

i'm alive! here in south carolina... i haven't blogged in a while because i wasn't sure what i should say to you all. my last post was so... optimistic... poetic almost. my husband and i were on the other side of taking the leap to follow and make our dreams realities. well... here i am on the other side of that leap.

time to be candid. while i knew it wasn't going to be easy by any means, i wasn't prepared for the amount of failure (for lack of a better word) we'd encounter, even after chasing almost every possible opportunity we could find. one's mind starts to doubt oneself... and oneself's potential.

while driving down the road the other day, yael naim's song 'new soul' came up on my playlist.

"i'm a new soul
i came to this strange world
hoping i could learn a bit bout how to give and take.
but since i came here,
felt the joy and the fear
finding myself making every possible mistake."

i'ts not the artist's life i'm new to. it's the life of making a living off the artist's life that is so strange. it's bittersweet. i love what i'm doing... and i love that i'm doing it. but at he same time, after experiencing such disappointment, i feel like i am making every possible mistake. i wish i had some sort of manual (that i know doesn't exist), a 'how-to' on making on your own, doing what you love, all while raising a sizable family...

the truth is, i've wanted to give up so many times in the last couple months. i know the thought has occurred to my husband too. do we jump back in the machine and be cogs in the wheel? gosh! that isn't who we are... we just can't. but how long to we scrape bottom?

i believe in my work (and so do a lot of other people). i believe in matt's work (and so do a lot of other people). i believe our potential is limitless. so, we keep trying. we'll get there.

with my blog from now on, i'll still be promoting my shows and previewing new work. i will also be promoting my husband's work as well (he does such fun stuff! you'll love it!) my entries will be honest, not sugar coated. i want our experiences as artists attempting to make a living on our work (and then actually doing it somewhere on down the road) to become a road map, a 'how-to' :) for anyone else wanting to strike out on their own. and not strike out-strike out like we have :) but the other kind of strike out. whether it be as an artist (though this will be geared to them) our any other passion one wishes to follow.

so~ here we go! wind it up!

my husband, matt, and i have been married for eleven and a half years. we have always dreamed of being full time artists. whether that would happen by opening our own gallery or art center or even being able to make a living from selling our own work, we didn't mind. it's always seemed to be a lofty aspiration. with a growing family, we stayed on the practical road. matt tried teaching high school for a while and found it to be very time consuming. besides teaching he coached wresting and was a janitor in the summer in an attempt to make ends meet on a teacher's salary so i could stay home with the kids (which was priority for the both of us). then one fateful day he came home from work and announced he was going back to grad school to get his mfa so he could teach at the university level. that sort of employment would (we hoped) bring a bigger paycheck and more family time. we chose to move to clemson, south carolina so matt could attend clemson university. we loved it there! it felt like home to us... like we belonged there. we knew that after matt graduated we'd have to go wherever a job would take us. right after graduation we were blessed with a tenure track job at northern state university in aberdeen, south dakota... and off we went, still on the practical road. since being here, matt has rebuilt the sculpture program at the university here, had the opportunity to study and learn how to blow glass (and so did i!) and he has also progressed in his personal public art career. south dakota, for me, is the birth place of my art career. things i never thought would happen started here... our experience here has proven to us that we have what it takes to make it. 'if we can make it here (in the middle of nowhere), we can make it anywhere' :) so~ the news?

my husband has resigned from the university. we are moving back to south carolina this august to have a go at the dream of being full time artists. in the south, where it's warmer, art festivals go all year round. the plan is to do shows down there in the winter and travel back to the midwest in the summers to do a few shows and see family. the potential is great! and if we don't try, we'll never know... and i don't want to live my life wondering "what if." i want to set an example for my children, that it's okay to follow your heart... no, it's more than okay... that it's essential to follow you heart... 

"excellence can be obtained if you care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical, expect more than others think is possible."  ~unknown

 and just a few reminders!  the stone arch festival of the arts is this weekend (june 20-21)!

                                          i am doing a free giveaway on my good friend tiffany's blog!

 ...and you can find me on facebook! i have a fan page! 

my really good friend tiffany ivanovsky is an award winning blogger, talented woman and mother of six! she has agreed to do a fun promotion with me by giving away an original piece of art of mine on her site, www.theivanovskys.blogspot.com. to enter to win, all you have to do is leave a comment on her 'sarah kargol giveaway' post, here... she would like to know which monster painting of mine is your favorite, so, tell her! and your name will be thrown into the hat. her children will draw a name on june 24!

this is the painting up for grabs...

see you in oskaloosa, iowa this weekend!!

hello! the summer is in full swing! last month, i had the opportunity to show my work in kansas city, mo., st. louis, mo., marion, ia. and des moines, ia! it was a whirlwind of a month!

june is promising to be just the same! this weekend i'll be at the edina art fair. last year's edina show was... surreal. the show was hit by a hail storm,  i lost two tents. (i have video of it in a previous post.) it was crazy! this year i wanted to make a shirt that said 'i survived edina '08'... but, no surprise, i had no time to make it! :) oh well! the weather *fingers crossed* is supposed to be okay this weekend... 

the following weekend is a special show! i'll be at oskaloosa, iowa's art on the square. it's a little one day show in my husband's hometown. the really cool thing is this will be our first show where we will be exhibiting together! yes, matt, my husband, is jumping in the art fair circuit with me with his own marvelous work! it is the first step on a new road that we're jumping on... and we are so excited! 

after oskaloosa, i'll be traveling back to minneapolis for the stone arch festival of the arts. the weekend immediately after that i'll be at artfest midwest; 'the other art show' in des moines, ia. *phew* back and forth, back and forth! 'tis the season! "buckle up, kids!"

hello! well, spring has sort of sprung here in the north! it won't be long until the flowers poke their little heads up through the dirt and the buds start popping up on the trees. or~ at least that's what i'm telling myself! you never know what south dakota weather will do. last year, we had a blizzard on mother's day. anything can happen. 

i'm busy getting ready for this year's show season that begin's on may 1st in kansas city at the brookside art annual! the art fair at laumeier in st. louis is the weekend after that! and the marion arts festival and the valley junction spring art market are both the weekend immediately after that! whew! it's going to be a whirlwind of a month.

but first! :) before all that madness begins...

i am returning to the place where it all began! this weekend is the mobridge area art show in mobridge, south dakota. [april 18-19 at scherr-howe arena; 610 12th st. w, mobridge, sd]... it's sort of an appetizer before the main course. :)

in 2006 i took a few of my brand new monster paintings to this little juried art show (my first art show!) for amateur artists and photographers. i purchased a little booth space for $10 and set up a display. my work received a tremendous response from the community, fellow exhibitors and patrons attending the show. i sold quite a few little paintings and walked away with about $300! i was beside myself! i could now afford a new dryer! the seed was planted... "could my work do well at other shows?" "have i found my niche?!" oh! that unattainable niche that i had been searching for all the years since i had graduated from college! there it was! a niche appeared in the palm of my hand! i started applying to other small local art fairs... and started to see success. not just monetary or financial success, but success in my work and in my confidence and growth as an artist... and a person. so~ the rest is history... and my future!

see you soon!

ps. i have created a 'sarah kargol facebook fan page' for those of you who are interested. i'll be sending regular show and exhibit updates to my 'fans' via facebook. so~ you are invited to become a fan! tell your friends!