The Creative Waiting Season - The Business of Art
I have written before about creating just for the sake of it — art that doesn't need to go anywhere, prove anything, or sell anything, and creating with a product in mind.
I want to be honest about the second kind. The making that has a job to do.
Right now my studio table, and my iPad, have both going on at once. There's the piece I'm working on because I can't not work on it — no audience in mind, no platform, no product listing waiting at the end. And then there's a stack of new surface pattern designs headed for Zazzle and TeePublic, drawn with a very specific customer in mind, in July, for a holiday that's still five months away.
That gap — between the two kinds of making — is where I live most days. And if I'm being fully honest with you, it's not always a peaceful place to live.
The frustration is real, and I'm not going to pretend it isn't.
You pour hours into a design. You research trends, you think about palette, you imagine someone's living room or someone's gift table. You publish it. And then… nothing. No sale. Maybe not for weeks. It's a strange kind of quiet — not the good, spacious quiet of the studio, but the quiet of wondering if anyone's out there at all.
I won't tell you I've made peace with that quiet. I don't think you ever fully do. But I have learned to recognize it for what it is: not a verdict on the work, and definitely not a verdict on me. It's just the space between planting and harvest. Nobody plants a garden and expects vegetables by Tuesday. But it's so much harder to extend that same patience to something you made with your own hands and your own hours.
This is the part where planning ahead becomes an act of faith.
I'm designing Christmas products in the middle of summer. It's a little absurd, if you think about it — humming along with red and gold and pine while the actual season is nowhere close. But this is the rhythm the business runs on: you create now, in hope, for a moment that hasn't arrived yet. You can't wait until December to think about December. By then it's already too late.
So there's a kind of trust required in this work that I think doesn't get talked about enough. Trust that the hours you're spending on something invisible to everyone else right now will eventually meet the right person at the right moment. Trust that showing up — season after season, platform after platform — matters even when the metrics don't show it yet.
And maybe that's the real balancing act.
Not just between making-for-me and making-for-the-shop. But between the part of me that wants proof today, and the part that knows this work has always paid off on its own timeline. The unseen art and the unsold product actually have something in common: they both ask me to keep making without the reassurance of an immediate answer.
So this week, that's what I'm doing. A little bit of art for no one but me. A little bit of Christmas for a customer I haven't met yet. And a lot of practicing the patience that both of them ask for.
If you're in your own waiting season right now — with a business, a craft, a creative project, anything — I see you. Keep planting.
Speaking of Christmas…
I have been diligently adding products to my print on demand Zazzle store. It’s been fun designing home decor, invitations and all types of products and accessories that people can personalize!
I have added tons of customizable Christmas and Holiday products to my store…
Trendy Holiday Christmas cards
Red Floral Pointsettia pattern Christmas Home Decor
Christmas Red Floral Pointsettia Gift Wrap
Please visit my zazzle store to check out my other products: