When I was a 17 year old senior in high school (back in
1991) I worked nights at a dance club (yes, with parental consent). The club/bar
was called Scruples. There, a fellow waitress introduced me to her artist
boyfriend, Aaron Fitzherbert. Aaron, a recent graduate from art college was looking to start an art business and asked if I would be interested. We
became partners in a t-shirt business, focusing on the Zodiac for our
image concept. Aaron designed one half of the Zodiac images and I the other. He
taught me the skills needed to create a hand crafted t-shirt design. We didn't
have print on demand back then, so I learned the process of silk screening and
how to use an air brush. The final Zodiac drawings were silk screened onto the
t-shirts in black ink and we custom painted each one with their own unique color
combinations and details. We sold a crazy amount of t-shirts, between our
friends and family, the people at the club, word of mouth traveled, everyone
had to have one! It was super exciting! We even participated in a number of local
craft fairs and had quite a bit of success with that as well. It was an amazing
educational experience for a budding art entrepreneur. It was also a major
boost to my self confidence and set the tone for receiving monetary
compensation for my artwork from that day forward. Our t-shirt business
concluded when I went to New York City for school but I took my newly developed
business acumen with me and continued to make a profit from art sales while
in college. That however is another night club setting, and story for another
post. This is me (age 17-18) selling our Zodiac t-shirts at one
of the craft fairs:
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| Photo of Amy E. Fraser 1991 Craft Fair Selling Zodiac T-Shirts |
So that ladies and gentleman was my Art Marketing and Sales
origin story. Hope your taking notes! I’m kidding! Found this picture while
giving my son a photographic tour down memory lane today. I’m pretty sure he
was horrified by most of it, but who can explain the complete and total
awesomeness of the late 80’s early 90’s. Not me. Hope you all are enjoying your
family this holiday! Happy Thanksgiving!
For more Amy E. Fraser art and information go to Aefraser.com
For more Amy E. Fraser art and information go to Aefraser.com
PS. Aaron if you ever come across this post, my older,
much nicer self would like to say Sorry and Thank You for putting up
with me and my obnoxious girlfriends. We were total brats! You were a brave and
kind young man :)
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