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I'm not dead, but been dealing with a lot
9 years ago
FOLLOW ME ON BLUESKY!SUPPORT MY WORK ON PATREON!Commissions:Que Slots Open!Click Here For Commission Info, Prices and Policies! Hey everyone,
Finally am home and thought I'd update you all on my life a little. I have been traveling for our business almost all year. Had some major breakthroughs as well as some huge setbacks.
Just when I thought I was finally hitting my stride as a lot of you know I had a major health issue. Sometimes I push myself too hard. I tend to work through my pain no matter what, but it got too bad. I thought I was just having back spasms, but upon going to the ER I found out I had pancreatitis, and a gall bladder that was half full of stones and was kicking them out into my other organs. They admitted me for a week, and had to remove my gall bladder. I pushed through and recovered as fast as I could, and went to dragoncon. Dragoncon was AMAZING for our business lots of great feedback but we pretty much broke even. I need and want to afford my booth again for next year, as well as other upcoming booths to keep our business growing but you always have to pay in advance and for vendors it can be upwards of a thousand plus for the booth alone not including the electric or travel costs.
We have grown enough to be in shows like that, but Malvir and I are only two people and the labor and travel has taken a tole on both of us financially and mentally. I got slammed with a ton of unexpected bills from living costs, to both of our cars dying and not being able to afford the parts for Malvir to fix them, to also getting slammed with more medical bills I wasn't expecting. My awesome dad is covering my medical bills, for now, but I already owe him so much... I am in a lot of debt, and feel like I am drowing. I also owe some backlog commissions which makes me feel completely awful. On top of that I need to produce new designs and new products to keep our business fresh and keep revenue coming in.
On top of that as you all know my really good friend and one of my childhood idols C. Martin Croker passed away which also left me feeling depressed for a few weeks. I'm trying to get back on track with everything...
Here are the things I have ACCOMPLISHED this year:
1.I published the first version of my fantasy novel "The Color of Fire" We still have at least 40 copies printed and for sale as well as bookmarks. If you'd like one they are 15.00 you can note or email me at sales[at]shottsyarts.com with your shipping info and email and I can invoice you to get one.
2. We got our new plush Unicones produced which are also for sale now at 35.00 each. (We have a limited test run, but need to be able to afford to basically get the other versions out of jail and get them they are all sitting in a warehouse until we can afford them)
3. I made a bunch of new wire sculptures including ones that can ride on your shoulders.
4. We have redone our entire display which now has amazing themes, and looks super professional.
5. We have almost sold out of our laptop bags with our pawsplay designs and have gotten loads of amazing feedback from customers about how much they love all of our original and creative items.
6. This is one of the biggest. I have heard from many of our customers how much our work inspires them, and we have given advice and encouragement to both young and old creatives to keep working and never give up, and connected on an artistic spiritual level.
Now for some things that are a bit hard to share. Yesterday I had one of the worst breakdowns and anxiety attacks I've ever had. We had just had this amazing weekend in NYC where everyone oohed and aahhed our products and talked to us and it was so amazing. Then I came back and was slammed with reality that we are drowning in debt and I was scared Id have to give it all up. The thought of no longer being able to create made me literally want to die. Then I thought of all of those amazing people I have spoken to and realized how much I'd be letting all of them down if I quit on my art.
If you are interested in any of our products you can find them at My website The unicones you can see here and I can just invoice you for them as they are not up on the site yet.
TLDL
I have been struggling a lot with time and finances and I am trying to get caught up and not give up on our business. I could use all of your help to keep it going.
I am going to be spending the next couple of weeks between working on editing my novel for the re-release and catching up on backlog commissions.
Then if you are wanting to know how you can help further to keep me creating and making things I will be doing a bit of livestreaming during the month of December, and I will also be working on finally starting a patreon. I will do some tutorials for Patreon, as well as sneak peaks of artwork for my novel and graphic novel as well as writing excerpts from the story and many other things. I miss you all.
-Shottsy
Finally am home and thought I'd update you all on my life a little. I have been traveling for our business almost all year. Had some major breakthroughs as well as some huge setbacks.
Just when I thought I was finally hitting my stride as a lot of you know I had a major health issue. Sometimes I push myself too hard. I tend to work through my pain no matter what, but it got too bad. I thought I was just having back spasms, but upon going to the ER I found out I had pancreatitis, and a gall bladder that was half full of stones and was kicking them out into my other organs. They admitted me for a week, and had to remove my gall bladder. I pushed through and recovered as fast as I could, and went to dragoncon. Dragoncon was AMAZING for our business lots of great feedback but we pretty much broke even. I need and want to afford my booth again for next year, as well as other upcoming booths to keep our business growing but you always have to pay in advance and for vendors it can be upwards of a thousand plus for the booth alone not including the electric or travel costs.
We have grown enough to be in shows like that, but Malvir and I are only two people and the labor and travel has taken a tole on both of us financially and mentally. I got slammed with a ton of unexpected bills from living costs, to both of our cars dying and not being able to afford the parts for Malvir to fix them, to also getting slammed with more medical bills I wasn't expecting. My awesome dad is covering my medical bills, for now, but I already owe him so much... I am in a lot of debt, and feel like I am drowing. I also owe some backlog commissions which makes me feel completely awful. On top of that I need to produce new designs and new products to keep our business fresh and keep revenue coming in.
On top of that as you all know my really good friend and one of my childhood idols C. Martin Croker passed away which also left me feeling depressed for a few weeks. I'm trying to get back on track with everything...
Here are the things I have ACCOMPLISHED this year:
1.I published the first version of my fantasy novel "The Color of Fire" We still have at least 40 copies printed and for sale as well as bookmarks. If you'd like one they are 15.00 you can note or email me at sales[at]shottsyarts.com with your shipping info and email and I can invoice you to get one.
2. We got our new plush Unicones produced which are also for sale now at 35.00 each. (We have a limited test run, but need to be able to afford to basically get the other versions out of jail and get them they are all sitting in a warehouse until we can afford them)
3. I made a bunch of new wire sculptures including ones that can ride on your shoulders.
4. We have redone our entire display which now has amazing themes, and looks super professional.
5. We have almost sold out of our laptop bags with our pawsplay designs and have gotten loads of amazing feedback from customers about how much they love all of our original and creative items.
6. This is one of the biggest. I have heard from many of our customers how much our work inspires them, and we have given advice and encouragement to both young and old creatives to keep working and never give up, and connected on an artistic spiritual level.
Now for some things that are a bit hard to share. Yesterday I had one of the worst breakdowns and anxiety attacks I've ever had. We had just had this amazing weekend in NYC where everyone oohed and aahhed our products and talked to us and it was so amazing. Then I came back and was slammed with reality that we are drowning in debt and I was scared Id have to give it all up. The thought of no longer being able to create made me literally want to die. Then I thought of all of those amazing people I have spoken to and realized how much I'd be letting all of them down if I quit on my art.
If you are interested in any of our products you can find them at My website The unicones you can see here and I can just invoice you for them as they are not up on the site yet.
TLDL
I have been struggling a lot with time and finances and I am trying to get caught up and not give up on our business. I could use all of your help to keep it going.
I am going to be spending the next couple of weeks between working on editing my novel for the re-release and catching up on backlog commissions.
Then if you are wanting to know how you can help further to keep me creating and making things I will be doing a bit of livestreaming during the month of December, and I will also be working on finally starting a patreon. I will do some tutorials for Patreon, as well as sneak peaks of artwork for my novel and graphic novel as well as writing excerpts from the story and many other things. I miss you all.
-Shottsy
you shouldn't need to feel so bad that you kind of get caught up in art with all the actual things you do and i doubt anyone would be upset that they would have to wait.
sorry to hear so much trouble has gotten to you lately as well. unfortunately i couldn't think of anythign to say but i hope things will go well an get better when they need to!