Ever looked at someone’s work and though it was terrible, and that you could do better? Ever read a book or a blog post and felt the same way? Or looked at a photograph or listened to a song, and struggled for something to like about it? Maybe you even laughed mockingly at this inferior work? Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you that was wrong. It’s natural to poke a little fun at those who try and fail. It makes us feel better about ourselves.

But what if the work you despise belongs to a friend? Whether they made it or paid for it, most of us would bite back the sarcastic comments at that point. So, do you say nothing and pretend everything is fine to spare your friend’s feelings? Or do you stop to help?

I happen to know a little about writing and photography, and I used to know more about web design (which was my business before I turned to photography). Experience gives me a decent understanding of how those three work together. Or so I should like to think.

If I were a perfect man with perfect morals, I would never mock others for their ineptitude. But sometimes it’s fun to laugh at other people – not with them. That’s why we have shows like World’s Dumbest… But again, if we’re talking about an actual friend or even client, pointing and laughing might not be the wisest way to go.

And here we come to my point. If you notice a friend is lacking in some area, reach out and help them improve. Even if it costs you time and effort for no immediate reward. It will come back to you, and not just as good karma in some future life. The friend you helped is likely to talk about it to his friends, sharing a story in which you are the hero. It makes you look good, it makes you feel good and you’ve helped a friend at the same time.

Later, when your friend’s friends come asking if you’ll help them too, make sure to charge enough to make up for the time spent helping your buddy.

Paying it forward is never a bad thing, but it can be difficult to know where to begin and what might be worth investing in. I think there is no better investment than friends. Start with them. Help your friends be better, and you recruit them to be your champions. If you’re an independent creative or struggling artist, you absolutely need champions. As many as you can get!

So the next time your friend shows you her creation and you could do better – don’t just nod and offer a false attagirl, but offer to help improve it. And try to do it in a way that doesn’t hurt her feelings too much.

Right

“I’m inspired to do my own version of your head shot. Can I take a quick phone snapshot to give you an idea what I would do?”

Wrong

“Woah, your new head shots make you ten years older! I hope you didn’t pay for those, because I could do better with my cellphone camera. See?”

Note that some friends are beyond help – I won’t encourage you extend yourself to the point where you’re being taken advantage of, or fixing the same problem repeatedly for free – but I do think success of any kind can be boiled down to the people who like you.

So who am I to tell you what to do? Unless we already know each other, I’m nobody. You are free to laugh at my words and mock my pocket-wisdom and pseudo advice without any guilt or shame. Though I hope you walk away with just a little more than cheap laughs.

Similar stories:

1. Breaking Through the Creative Wall If there is a particular idea or project that I...
2. Surviving Creative Romance Let’s say you went on a business trip with your...
3. Clone Press, Hand Printed with Love Brian is standing over a box of shirts as I...

No matter what creative field you are in, at some point you will be collaborating or outsourcing parts of your work. An author gets a designer to do her book cover, a photographer might hire a make-up artist and a composer works with a recording engineer. Creatives work together across genres and fields all the time.

Creative partnerships are inspiring and educational experiences, and the product of a good collaboration will be miles ahead of most one-man productions.

But there is a dark side to collaborating too. For every one creative professional, there is at least a dozen who aren’t. They might be talented, creative and artistic, but they do not have the work ethics of a pro. They will end up slowing you down and hurting your project. No matter what your industry is, you must learn to recognize and avoid Flakes!

By Flake, I don’t mean someone who has a tendency to show up a little late to meetings, misses the occasional deadline or takes a day to answer their email. I’m talking about the ones that commit and enthuse, only to fizzle out and forget their enthusiasm and offer whatever excuse for letting you down. Flakes are repeat offenders, and the more energy you waste on them, the quicker they will grind you down.

Luckily, there are tells you might look for when encountering new potential partners. Here are three of them.

1. Vague Answers to Specific Questions

A classic tell is that the Flake doesn’t really have a firm grasp of what his role is, or what is expected. He will pay you lip service until you ask a specific question. When put on the spot, he will cover his own insecurity or lack of knowledge with a vague answer. Most flakes know what they are. Even if they aren’t conscious about the term itself.

2. No Work to Show

Many Flakes are well spoken and may dazzle you with words, ideas and promises. Ask to see examples and references. The more eloquent and sweet the promises are, the greater the need to see the work. The best you can do is ask others that have worked with that person in the past, and if there are no references to ask, it’s a sign you won’t be the first to cut this Flake off.

3. The Me-Motivation

Flakes are selfish creatures. They get involved with projects they think will better their position, whether it’s to make a quick buck, meet influential people, or just to get attention. Again, they might talk about teamwork and mutual benefits, but ask for details. What was their role in their last collaborative project? What were the results of that project? If the answers are vague, you’ve got a Flake!

Flakes are impossible to avoid, and just because someone flakes out once, doesn’t mean they are bad people to be shunned. Take circumstances into consideration before you pass judgment on others. If it’s a one-time thing, don’t judge too harshly.

It may be that the creative partner who let you down had a good reason, so talk to her before you cut her off. But don’t be afraid to do so if that’s what it takes. It’s easy to be nice and forgiving, but you end up hurting your project and personal credibility by misplacing trust in someone who will ultimately let you down.

I’ll leave you with Frank Zappa’s “Flakes”, about … well, you know…

Similar stories:

1. From the Personal Assistant’s Desk This is a post by Lillian Cohen-Moore, a freelance writer,...
2. Working From the Non-Home Office What do you do to reduce work-related stress? How do...
3. Is Work Limiting Your Creativity? It’s a common misconception that you must limit yourself to...

This is a post by Lillian Cohen-Moore, a freelance writer, editor and personal assistant. When she isn’t spending time in libraries, cemeteries and archives, she’s a stage manager and model.

I didn’t actually intend on becoming a personal assistant. Last year, it was because I applied to be an intern with an editor I greatly respected. Though I was declined for the internship, Jennifer offered me a job as her personal assistant, and I said yes. I don’t work in a cubicle, or in the waiting room of my boss’s office. I have a life outside assisting, but it’s often full of work for other clients. It’s given me a door into a world I didn’t know I’d love. And if you think you have the temperament to survive as the assistant to a creative, there are a few things to consider.

Can you handle being the Gate Keeper for your boss?

You have to decide, aside from the directives straight from your boss, who gets to talk to them. If it’s someone they don’t want to talk to, or shouldn’t have to (because they have you, dear) you have to be firm and polite enough to turn them away, without being a Class A jerk about it.

Can you handle being a lion tamer for your boss?

There will be people who your boss will upset, either directly or indirectly. It doesn’t matter who is or isn’t at fault. At some point, via email or in person, you will get to deal with angry people, often with money involved. The assistant who doubles as a lion tamer has to put fiercely before polite but firm, and aggressively in front of cheerful.

Will you be able to support your boss and their work?

If you don’t admire your boss either as a person, or for what they do, you’re signing yourself up for an incredibly miserable experience with a paycheck. It takes a lot of faith in someone to be happy about being their assistant. If you don’t think you can like them as a person or a professional, walk away.

There are some stereotypes about assisting that stay true, even when your boss is in a creative field. You will answer phone calls, write e-mail, update social media, make coffee, get coffee, spend time at the FedEx/Kinko’s store, open mail, organize and send mail, hold coats and purses, write signage, play with their pets, walk their pets, run errands, set up booths at conventions, travel, talk to the press, draft and send invoices, learn how your boss orders their latte, and a myriad of other gritty details that may bore you to contemplate. But they’re the mundane stuff that work is often made of.

The less mundane stuff in comparison, using my own job as an example: my first cocktail party with my boss was this year. Of the names I’d recognized, most of them were people I had read books by, but never thought I’d actually meet. Post-party, I recognize a lot more faces and names, but a multi-day cocktail circuit while traveling will cement these things. My bookshelf has slowly but surely, been taken over with books my boss has given me, or someone working with my boss gave me, or I bought while somewhere with my boss. For the first time in my life, I’ve been forced to get business cards, because it beats writing down your info on the back of a cocktail napkin. I carry a variety of pens and have become versed in which ones I should hand to my boss to sign a document, write a note, or sign a book. I answer more email for work than I have ever received on a personal basis. I am mentored, spoiled, and given an education I cannot find elsewhere. People surprise me by learning my name.

Being an assistant to someone in a creative field is rewarding, frustrating, educational, and rarely boring. I have the career I have, and clients I have, either from being an assistant or from the skills I gained on this job. People have joked that I’m following in the footsteps of my boss, and there’s a lot of truth to that. We often try to be like the people we admire.

I can’t say a lot more — mostly because I need to get back to putting out fires in my inbox – but I can tell you this. If you become an assistant, to someone in a field you love or are intrigued by, your life can change. You’ll work long hours. You’ll pay a lot of dues, metaphorically and literally. Yet along the way, if you’re open to it, it can stop being a paycheck and become a path to finding your way to your dreams.

Lillian is rumored to have many more stories up her sleeve and may well return to Another Passion to share them. In the meantime, you can follow her as @lilyorit on Twitter.

Similar stories:

1. Wile E. Coyote the Unlikely Guru It dawned on me the other day. I’m a lot...
2. Working From the Non-Home Office What do you do to reduce work-related stress? How do...
3. Is Work Limiting Your Creativity? It’s a common misconception that you must limit yourself to...

Brian is standing over a box of shirts as I enter the brand new Sodo location for Clone Press. Shortly thereafter, Brandon (above) pops his head out from the back and says hello. There’s an energy in the air, a buzz of men working. Even though there’s just the two of them.

Clone Press is a family business run by Brandon, Brian and the woman they have in common – Jennifer, who is Brandon’s sister and married to Brian. Together they print things like posters and T-shirts for other small businesses, local venues, bands and artists. It’s silk screen the old school way. Done by hand with lots of love, care and professional pride.

At first, both men keep working, Brian on a batch of shirts for a local record store, Brandon preparing the mirror he plans on hanging in the bathroom. He wants to put a print on it before it goes up, but now realizes that the corner is cracked. Before I arrived, he just finished putting the print on the windows out front. Clone Press has been in business for nearly a decade and this is their biggest expansion yet. The two guys are obviously excited about it, having built their business to this point, and continuing to grow, recession or no.

AP: What is it about the printing process that gives you a personal satisfaction? What goes into a perfect print for you? Why is it worth investing your time and future?

CP: I love the versatility of screen-printing. It’s the most versatile of printing techniques. It feels like any surface can be screen-printed and it’s used in so many ways, commercial or artistically. It’s also such a tangible process. The ink has texture, the colors are bold, and you can tell when something has been screen-printed. I think screen-printing is by nature imperfect but that’s what gives the medium its cool aesthetic. People like screen-printed things, even if they don’t know it. There always seems to be something new to learn about the nuances of printing. That in itself makes it worth my time.

AP: You started out printing things for your own band, Couch of Eureka, in the 1990s. At what point did printing become more important than the music?

CP: Really neither is more important. I still play in bands, Brian and I even play in a band together. They are both a creative process. One is definitely more a means to an end, financially, but one doesn’t exactly trump the other. I feel it’s a “have your cake and eat it too” kind of thing. Printing is about having a business but I think we feel lucky to be able to do what we do and make money doing it. Although by no means is anybody getting rich! My passion for both hasn’t really changed. It’s just doing what I’m compelled to do.

AP: Clone Press began in a garage in 2001, now almost a decade later you have just moved into a new, bigger space. To what do you credit this growth and success, especially when so many small businesses are struggling?

CP: On the business end things kind of fell in our laps. We never have taken loans or tried to grow big for the sake of being bigger. Like the
letterpress I just found while getting my paper cut at a small offset printing shop. I noticed it just gathering dust and asked if they wanted to get rid of it. I always wanted one and it was just luck I guess. I admit that a lot of the time we’ve been a business we just got by, but we are dedicated to seeing the whole thing become what we envision it to be. The shop has been a lot like the printing process, making something from a blank slate. Lately like any small business we’ve felt the need to take risks. These days are an unusual circumstance for small business and we think you just have to go for it.

AP: Until now you’ve specialized in silk screen prints. With your new space you are looking to expand into letterpress printing and add more types of textile printing. What are your hopes and fears for this expansion?

CP: We hope to grow painlessly! We’ve tried to keep the overall risk low, by making the growth gradual, without leveraging the operation as it is right now. That meant having a larger space out of necessity while making other options available. It’s a balancing act for sure.

AP: Clone Press is a family run business. What does that mean to you, and are you able to keep family and business matters separate?

CP: It means everything. We’ve always been close and I’ve felt that family support through the last nine years with the shop, or any endeavor I’ve engaged in and I hope I’ve been supportive in the same way. We’ve met a lot of great folks and had interesting things come our way because of the shop. Brian and I even got to act on stage in a play called Point Break Live! That was fun. It’s been an interesting ride so far for sure.

Check out Clone Press’ website, find them on Facebook and go check out their space in the near future. They’ll be adding a storefront and I hear they’re putting in a lounging area.

Similar stories:

1. Frida Clements: Designer, Poster Passionista I found Frida Clements’ artwork on a sticker almost by...
2. Interview: The Twilight Artist Collective Erin Staffeld, Cheryl Robinson and Mary Enslow (front to back)...
3. Interview: Doug Fahl – Acting and Mass Destruction I first met Doug Fahl a little over four years...

Paul and Storm is a comedy duo. They are also geeks. And when I heard that they were taking their show – w00tstock – to Seattle, I immediately asked if they might want to do an interview. Which is what you are reading now.

Paul and Storm have been active on the comedy scene for several years, first as part of the a cappella group “Da Vinci’s Notebook” and since 2004 as a two-man group. They have harvested the power of the Internet in several ways, from applying a Creative Commons license to their work, to organizing the w00tstock show, which apart from themselves co-stars Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage.

But it doesn’t stop there. W00tstock 2.0 (which was the official designation for the show in Seattle, followed by 2.1 in Portland, Oregon) featured a host of geek royalty including musical acts such as Molly Lewis, MC Frontalot, Hank Green and Load Ready Run, as well as segments by people such as Stepto and Lone Shark Games (watch for an upcoming interview with Mike Selinker from Lone Shark here on Another Passion).

All the guest performers were invited and/or hand picked by the w00tstock team. Both Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage are involved in that process. In general, there is a strong spirit of cooperation throughout the w00tstock project.

Adam Savage, just a few minutes before going on stage.

They told me to come by just after sound check, about an hour before show-time, and I was fully expecting to have to capture both Paul and Storm as well as the essence of the show itself in just a few minutes. However, I ended up documenting the show from start to finish from behind the scenes.

The above photo is the only one I got of the both of them posing for the camera. It was shot about half-way through the show, and instead of minutes, I only managed to make them stand still for a few seconds. But as it turned out, I worried for nothing and it wasn’t about posed portraits at all, but about telling the story. In the slideshow below the interview, you can see many more photos from w00tstock – set to Paul and Storm’s own song “Frogger! The Frogger Musical“.

AP: What is it specifically about comedy that appeals to you and makes it worth devoting your creative energy to?

S: I think humor would be part of anything we chose to do. If we weren’t lucky enough to be musicians, we would have ended up as funny plumbers or something. There’s just a certain type of joy you get when you make people laugh that can’t be replicated any other way.

P: Not to get all “amateur psychologist,” but it seems to me that all performers, to some degree or another, are seeking direct approval and validation. (Otherwise, they could just record things and release them without any live performance) And for me, laughter is the best, most rewarding type of approval, because it’s involuntary, and can’t be faked – it can be, but you know what I mean. It’s a certain type of power rush, almost — “I’ve made you laugh, I control your actions!” That’s overstating it a bit, I guess, but I think, beyond the joy I get evoking laughs, I really do personally get a “power rush” out of it. Sure makes me sound diabolical and manipulative, eh?

AP: Could you take us through your creative process? How are your songs written and how do you know which ones are keepers?

S: We don’t have a set creative process. Generally, you get a germ of an idea that comes from who-knows-where, and you run with it. Once we have the idea, sometimes one of us will build it out and then pass it to the other, and other times we’ll be on the phone shooting ideas back and forth. As for which ones are keepers, if it still makes us laugh after working on it for 12 hours, that’s a pretty good sign.

P: Given the comedic nature of what we do, it’s usually, though not always, a lyrical idea that comes first — a central joke for the song, a storyline or what have you. But there really is no formula. But generally, the good ones we both get excited about pretty quickly, and as Storm says, stay excited about later.

AP: You’ve chosen to put your original material out under a Creative Commons license, even though your songs are also available for sale. What is your experience with this approach to self-marketing and do you still sell enough to make it worth your while, financially?

S: Using Creative Commons is a terrific way to help spread your music organically. By making your material more easily available, it turns everyone who hears your music a potential member of your marketing team. And it’s great that people are at liberty to create something of their own from what we’ve done, and that you can choose which rights you wish to retain. No doubt it’s been profitable for us. Although a smaller percentage of people who hear our music are paying, the number of folks who are aware of us is much larger than if we used the traditional model. And we figure most of those people will help support us financially anyway — either by coming to a show, buying merch, or putting us in their wills.

Jason Finn (of Presidents of the United States of America fame) acted as house drummer for the evening.

S: w00tstock started because Paul and I were looking to fill a couple of dates in LA and San Francisco, and we thought it would be fun to do a show with Wil and Adam, both of whom we were just becoming friends with. And since we knew a lot of other fun, cool, and geeky acts in both cities, we thought it would be fun to have some of them as guests to ramp up the fun and excitement. It turns out we were very, very right, and the shows were a tremendous success. For the 2.x shows, we made a big list of potential guests for and from each city, and then just started knocking on doors. Again, many of the acts are people we know, but a big part of the fun is discovering new acts or getting to know others that we’d only heard about, and then sharing it all win the audience.

P: Show-wise, we liken it to nerd vaudeville – in our original discussions, we wanted it to be “all the good parts of a Convention” – and we try to vary the acts and keep the pace up. So you’ll have stuff that’s musical, thought-provoking, funny, and even heart warming all in one show. In addition to the live acts, we also break things up with short films and animation, again to keep the pace varied and interesting for folks.

AP: It seems that with the first shows you were kind of testing the waters, and that the success of these paved the way for a West Coast tour with W00tstock. What’s next? Will there be a full US tour or perhaps a DVD, or do you have something altogether different in the works?

S: We have a lot of plans for w00tstock. The reaction to the shows has been so strong, and it’s really a joy for the audience and performers alike to be at a special event where every kind of nerdiness and geekiness can be celebrated. We’re certainly going to add more cities, though it’s hard to coordinate all three of our schedules, and we have dreams of doing an all-day or weekend-long event at some point.

P: We do intend, at some point, to film a show (or several shows). But that adds another whole layer of complexity to an already-growing pile of responsibilities we’re dealing with.

We are consciously working very hard to maintain the shows’ original “hey, let’s sweep out the old barn and put on a show!” spirit, even as the audience and performance space sizes grow rapidly. There is a very strong connection at these shows between the performers and the attendees, a sense of intimacy, borne out of sharing the same interests and joys. Indeed, the performances themselves are very interactive, with a lot of give and take between audience and performers. We’re wary of letting these events grow so large that that sense of intimacy is lost, because we believe it’s a very important key to the success of w00tstock so far.

S: First things first: we’ll be launching w00tstock.net soon, which we hope to grow into a hub for people to share all things w00tstock, and to tie together everything that’s happening on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and wherever people are hanging out.

The photos in the slide show are presented in chronological order.

Paul and Storm, their co-stars and many of the featured performers are also active on Twitter . Also, check out the many w00tstock videos on YouTube and photos on Flickr (yes, pictures and videos were not only allowed but encouraged during the show) and sign up for the w00tstock mailing list if you want to know if and when the show might be coming to your part of the world.

Similar stories:

1. Interview: Shannon & Matt – Seattle Geekly I met with Shannon and Matt at Arcane Comics in...
2. Interview: The Twilight Artist Collective Erin Staffeld, Cheryl Robinson and Mary Enslow (front to back)...
3. Kevin Urie – Taking Social Media Offline Kevin Urie is a go-getter. I got that feeling even...

I met with Shannon and Matt at Arcane Comics in Ballard, Seattle. They are regulars here, I found out as they entered the tiny boutique and the clerk lit up in a smile and a “I have your stack of comics ready!” But I wouldn’t be surprised if the store owners are proud to count this couple among their costumers. They are after all the producers of “Seattle Geekly”, a weekly podcast about all things geek. That includes comics but also things like movies, games and news from the community.

They regularly interview guests on their show, and it was a little surprising to see them turn a little shy at first, once they were the ones in the hotseat. Within a few minutes though, they were picking out their favorite super heroes and goofing off in front of the camera. I got the sense that this was a brilliant example, of a couple who had made it their shared activity to dive into and talk about the things they enjoy the most.

AP: What does it mean to be a geek to you, and why is it important enough to share with the world?

SG: The best definition for geekdom that we’ve come up with is really an analogy – Geeks are to culture what nerds are to technology.  In broader terms we tend to view geekiness as the quality of having a particular fondness for certain kinds of media, books (especially genre fiction), movies (once again of the genre category), video games, boardgames, etc.

There are a couple reasons we decided to share our geekiness with the world.  First on a personal level it was a really good excuse to get us out of the house and to some of the cool events that happen in the area.  Also, being a geek can be kind of lonely sometimes.  A lot of the activities geeks enjoy are, or can be, pretty solitary.  We wanted to get the word out that there are great opportunities to go and socialize with other geeks.  There really is a community and we want people to know about it.

AP: You ask listeners to dare you to watch bad movies, you have contests, do interviews and feature fellow geeks of all kinds. What do you take back from interacting with the community like this?

SG: For the bad movies, those are things that Shannon would probably end up watching anyway and it made a good bit for the podcast.  For the rest we really wanted to be as interactive as possible.  It gets back to promoting the geek community, we like meeting new and interesting people and we like sharing the things we enjoy with our little corner of the world.

A great example of the community that is out there was our first trivia night at Neptune Coffee.  We host one trivia night a month on various geeky topics and the first one we did covered the works of Joss Whedon.  The turnout was much higher than we expected, 25 or 30 people, and everyone had a great time.  There are communities like that made up of fans of just about any tv show, game or movie and we’re just trying to let people know about them.

AP: As a couple, how has the making and success of your podcast affected your relationship?

SG:  Minus time spent at our day jobs we’re pretty much together 24/7.  As we said before, the podcast gives us a great excuse to go out and do things together which is geat! We have really come to realize that neither of us could do the podcast alone, there just aren’t enough hours in the week for one person to do it.  It’s given us a shared project that we both enjoy and can be proud of.

AP: How do you share the work?

SG: We brainstorm ideas for shows together and we usually have things planned out 1-2 months in advance.  Shannon takes care of coordinating interviews and writes the show notes, Matt manages the website, gathers news and keeps the event and convention calendars we have on our site.

AP: With all the time and effort put into the site and podcast, are you able to make it pay for itself or better yet, your mortgage?

SG: The short answer is no.  The long answer is noooooo.  Even though we have it structured like a business we really view it as a hobby.  If we had gone into this project with the idea of making money we would have been horribly disappointed.  We’re certainly open to the idea of turning Seattle Geekly into a major media empire that could support the two of us full time but realistically we’re happy with a few people buying t-shirts or hitting our paypal donate button.

We have a business license and we have seperate e-mail and physical mailing addresses for “geekly” business.  We try and keep things as professional as we can when we’re “on the clock” at events and conventions, but of course we’re geeks too so the fanboy/girl in us frequently shows through.

AP: Any chance you might go beyond podcasting to feature articles, regular video or even expand the number of contributors to go beyond just the two of you? What are your plans for the future of Seattle Geekly?

SG: We’re actually working on doing some things with video.  Of course we’ll be using borrowed equipment and technical expertise but we’re going to try it!  We’d love to have regular articles, but we’re about at the limit of what the two of us can do in terms of generating content.  We’re certainly open to the idea of contributing bloggers.  If anyone wants to contribute articles we’d be happy to turn into editors and post content from other people.  Of course we can’t pay anyone for anything they do, but we’d be happy to have additions to the Seattle Geekly circle.

Our plans for the future are kind of undefined.  We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing of course and we’re trying to be mindful of potential opportunities to increase our audience and add new features.

Be sure to check out Seattle-Geekly.com, get the podcast straight from iTunes and follow @seattlegeekly on twitter.

Similar stories:

1. Interview: Tracy Record – Seattle’s Queen of Hyperlocal News Tracy Record is almost half an hour late to our...
2. Interview: The Twilight Artist Collective Erin Staffeld, Cheryl Robinson and Mary Enslow (front to back)...

Erin Staffeld, Cheryl Robinson and Mary Enslow (front to back) are the three owners and operators of the Twilight Artist Collective (TwAC). They have a boutique in the heart of West Seattle, where they show and sell the works of local artists. I meet up with them after a business meeting, and I’m immediately infected by their positive attitudes and, dare I say it, bubbliness. The store itself is full of bright colors and beautiful pieces of art. Were I not on a mission, I would probably spend half an hour just looking through the many pieces available. At the time of this interview, Twilight has about 70 associated artists, all of whom have an opportunity to have their work displayed and exposed for the local community. Each work of art typically has a shelf life of 60-90 days, and with that many talented artists, those shelves are never short of interesting work.

AP: You have an art boutique featuring the works of many artists. How did you get started and grow into the collective you are today?

TwAC (Mary): We got started, when after several hours of passionate discussion about making it as an artist. We spoke of artists like ourselves falling out of the scene after college and getting trapped in the work world, never to produce art again. We felt the need to create a space for us and people like us. Cheryl and I had been working as a part of the Special Projects crew for One Reel Productions at the time. Erin and I had just returned the year before from a study abroad program in Rome, when this whole thing started to grow. Erin and Cheryl had not yet met.

I had been designing purses and selling them in various locations, one of my outlets was a shop in the Pike Place Market that would soon become the home of Twilight Artist Collective. We got word that this store was going out of business. After a few energized meetings Erin, Cheryl and myself were signing over checks and starting a venture that had all the passion and good intention in the world, but not much actual structure.

During the first year we found ourselves in a sort of business 101 reality show. We learned by doing, reaching out for guidance and following our senses. Looking back it was ridiculous, but when your young and passionate, anything is possible. In January of 2007, Twilight was in a good spot, we had started paying ourselves a small monthly stipend and felt that we had the potential and know-how to get bigger and better. We stumbled upon a great location in the West Seattle Junction, where we had all been living for a few years, and decided to go for it.

We realized after keeping two stores afloat for 1.5 years, that we had too much on our plates and that to survive and provide the quality of service we hold ourselves to, we needed to pull out of the Pike Place Market location and re-focus on our ever growing, beautiful West Seattle location. As a trio, we’ve faced everything together and subsequently make a powerhouse partnership.

AP: When new artists want to join, how do you decide if that person’s work is good enough?

TwAC: We look at the quality of the work first and foremost. We expect work to look finished. The artist must show a certain amount of respect for his own work. We look for work that has an edge; if it’s got a great or compelling concept, shows amazing skill or attention to detail, or if it’s just plain great fun. The work must be new for the viewer. We do consider price point, if the work is out of our range we encourage the artist to pursue the big time galleries. As I said, we are here to be a stepping stone into the art world for artists that want to continue along this challenging path.

Once we are working with the artist we are in a business together and we expect our artists to be active business partners. We don’t continue relationships with people who’s only interest is in dropping off their art and leaving it for us to sell. We want to have an ongoing dialogue that teaches both us and them how to serve eachother better.

Our most successful artists are the ones who take an active role in their position here. We appreciate artists who attend events, promote events, network and are otherwise engaged in the community. These artists are the ones who reap the most benefit as a member, their work sells with greater frequency, because we are equipped with a greater knowlegde of them and their work. This story adds a great amount of value to the work itself. People want to know what inspires art.

AP: You participate in local art walks, you have a twitter account, a blog and more. What does community building mean to you as opposed to traditional advertising?

TwAC: Because we are an art gallery, we do not generate a huge amount of profit. We’ve found these free options to be essential tools for us to communicate with Seattle and our greater community.

Twilight has grown organically from the get-go. Each artist that becomes engaged has a personal experience with Twilight, this goes for our customers as well. Because all the work has a story that is in some form tangible to us all, as humans, coming into twilight is not a standard shopping experience, a platform for interesting dialogue is set and more often than not they begin. Kids express insights and their parents learn something new about their childs mind. Art evokes powerful emotions. The converstations and ideas that are generated inspire us and when we are inpired we are compelled to share. Word of mouth is the greatest marketing tool we have and is a natural product of the environment we offer people.

AP: You’ve been around for more than 5 years, and with art being such a luxury item, how do you deal with tough times like the current recession?

TwAC: Hard work and dedication with a large amount of ingenuity and faith. We realized during the recession that people tend to go one of two ways, they either fold in and spiral down, or they reassess and replan for a sustainable approach. Many people become responsible in a new way, they buy less of what they don’t need and wait to buy the perfect something that will fullfil their consumer itch and give them a the greater gift, that art provides.

Learning how valuable art is, can be difficult. If you grew up in an environment where the only value came from getting more for less, it may be challenging to understand how buying one piece of art that makes you smile every time you see it, is actually more valuable than buying a huge artificial something or other, that only costs $10, but ultimately brings you nothing but more stuff. We had some customers who would save and save for the perfect piece of art. Our loyal customers know that if they want us here, they have to support us being here. We did see that support even in the toughest of times. We are very grateful!

AP: Surely, there are easier ways to make a living. What do you get out of running the Twilight Artist Collective, as opposed to having “regular” jobs?

TwAC: Well, we do both. We all support ourselves independently of Twilight. This is a question we’ve asked ourselves several times and we keep coming to the same conclusion: we can’t not do it. We care too much about what we’ve started and what we believe in to stop. We’ll be here until something tells us, its time to stop.

This experience has absolutely changed us for the better, both collectively and individually. We’ve been able to build something from the ground up. It’s something that we believe in and this is a very empowering accomplishment. Once you have a taste of this sort of gratification, you really can’t go back. Living with purpose and meaning is invaluable. The day we can back off our other jobs and work here more, will be a great day, both for us and for the community. We have so many more things we want to pursue as Twilight Artist Collective and we’ve got the foundation to provide these things. Our other jobs have value because they enable us to run Twilight, but ultimately we want to put all of our time and energy into TwAC.

Check out the Twilight Artist Collective’s website for more about upcoming shows and events. There is also a Facebook page and a Twitter feed, you can subscribe to.

Similar stories:

1. 10 Inspiring Blogs for Creatives Another Passion is a young site, and I realize that...
2. Interview: Tracy Record – Seattle’s Queen of Hyperlocal News Tracy Record is almost half an hour late to our...