ART update

Just a little Samm Wehman Art update of the growth and latest and greatest from me and my art business. What started off as a frustrating year has turned into one of the BEST I've had so far with me finding true success and self-worth and value as an artist. If you've been supporting me and my business' growth over the years, I appreciate your good energy more than you know! For those that are fellow artists, you absolutely know and can relate to the daily struggles and battles we all face as artists. Internal battles - such as wondering if our stuff is good enough to share with the world and physical struggles such as marketing, keeping a steady following that includes reoccurring and a constant flow of customers, and new opportunities for exposure are all constant priorities among the hustle and bustle of admin tasks to run a business and of course plenty of time to actually CREATE the material an art business is all about! I planted a seed a while ago - I dug it deep and nurtured it. A lot of its watering came from tears of frustration but it's finally grown and is starting to blossom.  Although I'm nowhere near famous, I'm finally basking in and enjoying the growth of all my hard work and efforts and the biggest goal of all - HAPPINESS - has been achieved and is here to stay. If you need some encouragement or inspiration, just know that you WILL get there with the right attitude, lots of initiative, creating creating creating!, and plenty of persistence. There's much more that goes into success than actually making the art, but the longer you're in it and the more dedicated you are to being a professional artist, you will get there. If YOU are confident about your work it will shine to the world.

As I continue the growth of my art business, I'm experimenting with brand new marketing ventures such as purchasing my own website domain (now you can visit my art site at Www.SammWehmanArt.com instead of a long-ass URL that is impossible to remember!) and creating my first major YouTube Channel with plenty of time lapses of my creations. I've been told by many that they enjoy watching the process of me creating my art, so with every custom order I include a time lapse of the process, and on any other projects I try to record the process if I have the time and am able. If you have a YouTube account, please check out my videos and subscribe to my channel to help support me and my art!

My work is currently on display in The Flour Pot Bakery as the sole featured artist (see image above of my art beautifully complimenting the mural-work by local artist Jenna Horner!). The Flour Pot is located in Newberry, FL and is a FABULOUS local spot for brunch, breads, bagels and baked goods. My work is all over the place, on about six different walls, plus a card rack and sticker bin with lots of goodies for sale. You can also find three of my pieces in the GFAA over at Sweetberries in Gainesville, another great lunch spot with sandwiches, wraps, custard and vegan cookies! I also have what might be my largest and most delicate and labor intensive piece in the Gainesville Fine Arts Association gallery in town on display for their RED! exhibition until the end of the month. I have a large manatee painting on display in my county's admin office and board room as the first piece in their public art's program. Lots of good stuff going on, in addition to my greeting cards now being newly available for purchase at Sisset's home and patio store right in town as well! My usual art displays also include The Collaborative Shoppe in Gainesville, The Venice Island Gallery down in Venice, FL, and 435 South Main in town here in Gainesville during events. I also have some greeting cards at my favorite pet store, EarthWise Pet Gainesville. More deets on all of this and all the places my art is for sale can be found on my website.

I'm pushing myself to pump out my custom orders and finally catch up on a never-ending back log so I can (attempt) to get a head start on inventory for my fall shows and displays. Summer has been busy as hell despite having no shows or festivals to work. It's been good filler time to get other stuff done including admin task catch up, custom orders, creating MURALS as a new custom service to clients, and have been planning and leading lots of fundraisers for animals racking up our total raised from "Painting with a Pit" to over $7,000 so far. I've been experimenting more with dimensional mixed media art and have gotten a ton of positive feedback on my new line of dimensional monarch butterfly paintings. I just shipped my first huge painting across the country to Seattle to it's new home. I am so excited for future events to come in the Gainesville area this fall, including ButterflyFest, Batfest, the Downtown Fall Festival & Art Show, Micanopy Fall Festival and the huge UF Craft Festival. I haven't formally announced it to anyone yet, but in October I'm going to be the featured sole artist on display in Satchel's Pizza which is a huge huge accomplishment and I feel my repurposed art will fit in really well with their vibe.

As the holidays begin to approach us, I do have to start planning ahead as much as I possibly can. I always get absolutely swamped during the upcoming months through December so if you plan on ordering custom art from me, please order sooner rather than later. Orders can take several weeks to get finished when I'm busy. Custom gifts starts at only $15 and you can order by emailing me at sammwehmanart@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading my update, and if you're here I assume it's because you're a friend, client, fellow artist, or possibly even a new customer. Thanks for supporting a local artist, where every dollar supports a real person's dream, their livelihood and literally prevents them from being an actual starving artist, as opposed to buying merchandise from a big corporation. <3