Something that has lived on my to do list forever is publishing my kids book, Uncommon Animals of the Alphabet. As you can see, I’ve created an entire universe of merchandise, t shirts, mugs, pillows and stickers, but you know what I don’t have? The book. The one thing that actually holds all of this together.
Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.
I’ve got plenty of reasons for this, many of which I’ve talked about before, but the most recent one is realising that I need to operate according to my values. Values that support artists, support animals and their environments, and generally give back. Not an extraction and exploitation system, but a values and giving system. I’ve also come to understand that we vote for things with our silent choices, through how we live and how we spend our money.
Sure, I’m using a decent print on demand company like Redbubble to produce my t shirts, but the profits shared back to the artist are microscopic. Apart from getting my book out into the world, printed locally by an ethical printer, I’ll be moving my art and merchandise toward handcrafted, screen printed, lino prints, and hand felted uncommon animals made from the wool from our own sheep. More handcraft, less instantaneous convenience, in a world built entirely on the opposite. Because sometimes when the world zigs, you need to zag.
Kids Book Illustrator Andy C Marshall 